Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet Part 107

"Do you find anything in the Springfield speech to moderate or modify?"

"I do not think I said a word in the Springfield speech but what is literally true, except, perhaps, the statement that 'there is not an intelligent man in this broad land, of either party, who does not know that Mr. Cleveland is now President of the United States by virtue of crimes against the elective franchise.' This may be too broad, but upon a careful a.n.a.lysis I do not see how I could modify it if fair force is given to the word 'intelligent.'"

"You stand by the speech, then?"

"Well, since the speech has been pretty severely handled by several editors whom I am bound to respect, I have requested it to be printed in convenient form, and intend to send it to these critics with a respectful request that they will point out any error of fact contained in it, or any inconsistency between it and my Nashville speech."

"You do not admit that the two speeches are in two voices?"

"I can discover no inconsistency. And now, after seeing and weighting these criticisms, I indorse and repeat every word of both speeches. It may be that the speech was impolitic, but, as I have not usually governed my speeches and conduct by the rule of policy, as distinguished from the rule of right, I do not care to commence now."

"What about the persistent charge of unfriendliness to southern people and the accusation that you are shaking the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt?"

"I do not see how the arraignment of election methods that confessedly destroy the purity or the sanct.i.ty of the ballot box, and deprive a million of people of their political rights, can be ignored or silenced in a republic by the shoo-fly cry of 'b.l.o.o.d.y shirt.'"

"Is there no hope of persuasion of the southern people at large to see the justice of the demand for equal political rights?"

"I cannot see any reason why the Confederate cause, which was 'eternally wrong,' but bravely and honestly fought out, should be loaded down with the infamy of crimes which required no courage, committed long since the war, by politicians alone, for political power and for the benefit of the Democratic party. I can find some excuse for these atrocities in the strong prejudice of caste and race in the south, growing out of centuries of slavery, but I can find no excuse for any man of any party in the north, who is willing to submit to have his political power controlled and overthrown by such means."

CHAPTER LIII.

INDORSED FOR PRESIDENT BY THE OHIO STATE CONVENTION.

I Am Talked of as a Presidential Possibility--Public Statement of My Position--Unanimous Resolution Adopted by the State Convention at Toledo on July 28, 1887--Text of the Indors.e.m.e.nt--Trip Across the Country with a Party of Friends--Visit to the Copper and Nickel Mining Regions--Stop at Winnipeg--A Day at Banff--Vast Snowsheds Along the Canadian Pacific Railroad--Meeting with Carter H. Harrison on Puget Sound--Rivalry Between Seattle and Tacoma--Trying to Locate "Mount Tacoma"--Return Home After a Month's Absence--Letter to General Sherman--Visit to the State Fair--I Attend a Soldiers'

Meeting at Bellville--Opening Campaign Speech at Wilmington--Talk to Farmers in New York State--Success of the Republican Ticket in Ohio--Blaine Declines to Be a Candidate.

During the months of June and July, 1887, the question of the selection of the Republican candidate for President in the following year was discussed in the newspapers, in the conventions, and among the people. The names of Blaine and myself were constantly canva.s.sed in connection with that office, and others were named. I was repeatedly written to and talked with about it, and uniformly said, to warm personal friends, that in view of my experience at previous national conventions I would not be a candidate without the support of a united delegation from Ohio, and the unanimous indors.e.m.e.nt of a state convention. I referred to the fact that in every period of my political career I had been supported by the people of Ohio, and would not aspire to a higher position without their hearty approval. This statement was openly and publicly made and published in the newspapers. The "Commercial Gazette," of Cincinnati was authorized to make this declaration:

"If the Republicans of Ohio want Mr. Sherman for their presidential candidate they can say so at the Toledo convention. If not, Mr.

Sherman will be entirely content with the position he now occupies, and will not be in the field as a presidential candidate."

I also wrote the following to a friend, and it was afterwards published:

"I do not want to be held up to the people of the United States as a presidential candidate if there is any doubt about Ohio. I do not, as many think, seek for the high honor, nor do I ask anyone to aid me in securing the nomination. I am as pa.s.sive about it as any man can be whose merits or demerits are discussed in that connection. I do not desire the nomination, nor shall I encourage anyone to secure it for me until Ohio Republicans, who have conferred upon me the honors I have enjoyed, shall, with substantial unanimity, express their wish for my nomination."

This led my friends to determine to present this question to the approaching state convention at Toledo. It was said that, as this would be held in a year in advance of the national convention, it was too soon to open the subject, but the conclusive answer was that no other state convention would be held prior to the national convention, and that it was but fair that I should have the chance to decline if there should be a substantial difference of opinion in the convention, and should have the benefit of its approval if it should be given.

It was understood that Governor Foraker would be unanimously renominated for governor. He doubted the policy of introducing in that contest a resolution in favor of my nomination for President, but said it if should be pa.s.sed he would support it. The press of the state was somewhat divided as to the policy of the convention making a declaration of a choice for President, but indicated an almost universal opinion that there should be an undivided delegation in favor of my nomination. As the convention approached, the feeling in favor of such declaration grew stronger, and when it met at Toledo, on the 28th of July, there was practically no opposition. After the preliminary organization ex-Governor Foster reported a series of resolutions, which strongly indorsed me for President, and highly commended Foraker for renomination as governor.

The convention called for the rereading of these resolutions and they were applauded and unanimously adopted. The committee on permanent organization nominated me as chairman of the convention.

In a.s.suming these duties I made a speech commending the nomination of Governor Foraker and the action of the recent general a.s.sembly, and closed with these words:

"I have but one other duty to perform, and that I do with an overflowing heart. I thank you with all my heart for the resolution that you have this day pa.s.sed in respect to your choice for a President of the United States. I know, my fellow-citizens, that this is a matter of sentiment. I know that this resolution is of no importance unless the voters of the States of Ohio and of the several states should, in their free choice, elect delegates who will agree with you in your opinion. I recognize the district rule, and the right of every district to speak its own voice. I stood by that rule in 1880, when I knew that its adoption would cut off all hopes of my friends at that time. I also knew that there was another rule, that no man ought to be held as a candidate for that high office unless he has the substantial, unanimous voice of his party friends behind him. I believe that is a true rule, and it ought to be exercised to promote harmony and good will and friendship among Republicans. Now, my countrymen, again thanking you for this expression, I tell you with all frankness that I think more of your unanimous praise this day uttered than I do of the office of President of United States."

The resolution, as adopted, was as follows:

"Recognizing, as the Republicans of Ohio always have, the gifted and tried statesmen of the Republican party of other states, loyal and unfaltering in their devotion to the success of the organization in 1888, under whatever standard bearer the Republican national convention may select, they have just pride in the record and career of John Sherman, as a member of the Republican party, and as a statesman of fidelity, large experience and great ability. His career as a statesman began with the birth of the Republican party; he has grown and developed with the growth of that organization; his genius and patriotism are stamped upon the records of the party and the statutes and const.i.tution of the country, and, believing that his nomination for the office of President would be wise and judicious, we respectfully present his name to the people of the United States as a candidate, and announce our hearty and cordial support of him for that office."

The convention then proceeded to form a state ticket.

During the summer vacation of 1887, I made a trip across the continent from Montreal to Victoria, Vancouver Island, and from the Sound to Tacoma, going over the Canadian Pacific railroad, and returning by that line to Port Arthur, at the head of Lake Superior then, by one of the iron steamers of the Canadian Pacific road, through Lake Superior and Lake Huron to Owen Sound, and from there by rail to Toronto and home.

I had for many years desired to visit that country and to view for myself its natural resources and wonders, and to inspect the achievement of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company.

I was accompanied on this journey by James S. Robinson, formerly secretary of state of Ohio, ex-Congressman Amos Townsend, for many years Member from Cleveland, and Charles H. Grosvenor, Member of Congress from Athens, Ohio. We met at Cleveland and spent the next night at Toronto. Thence we proceeded to Montreal, and there received many courtesies from gentlemen distinguished in private and public life. We left Toronto on the night of the 1st of August, in a special car attached to the great through train which then made its journey to Vancouver in about six days. We halted at Sudbury, the point on the Canadian Pacific from which the Sault Ste. Marie line of railway diverges from the main track. We spent twenty-four hours at Sudbury, visiting the copper and nickel mining operations, then in their infancy. Proceeding, we pa.s.sed the head of Lake Superior, and thence to Winnipeg. At this place the officers of the provincial government showed us many attentions, and I was especially delighted by a visit I made to Archbishop Tache of the Catholic church, a very aged man. He had been a missionary among the Indians at the very earliest period of time when missionary work was done in that section. He had been a devoted and faithful man, and now, in the evening of his life, enjoyed the greatest respect and received the highest honors from the people of his neighborhood, regardless of race or religion.

Proceeding from Winnipeg, we entered the great valley of the Saskatchewan, traversed the mighty wheat fields of that prolific province, and witnessed the indications of the grain producing capacity in that portion of Canada, alone quite sufficient, if pushed to its utmost, the furnish grain for the whole continent of America. We spent one night for rest and observation at a point near the mouth of the Bow River, and then proceeded to Calgary.

This is the westernmost point where there is arable and grazing lands before beginning the ascent of the Rocky mountains. Here we inspected a sheep ranch owned by a gentleman from England. It is located at Cochrane, a few miles west of Calgary. It was managed by a young gentleman of most pleasing manners and great intelligence, who was surrounded at the time of our visit by numerous Scotch herdsmen, each of whom had one or more collie dogs. The collie, as everybody knows, is a Scotch production, and it has been imported into the country largely for the service of the great sheep and cattle ranches of the west. One shepherd was about to depart from Canada to reoccupy his home in Scotland, and among his other effects was a collie, pa.s.sing under the name of Nellie. She was a beautiful animal, and so attracted my attention that at my suggestion General Grosvenor bought her, and undertook to receive her at the train as we should pa.s.s east a week or ten days later. The train, on our return, pa.s.sed Calgary station at about two o'clock in the morning in the midst of a pouring rain storm, but the shepherd was on hand with the dog, and her pedigree carefully written out, and the compliments of Mr. Cochrane, and his a.s.surance that the pedigree was truthful. Nellie was brought to Ohio, and her progeny is very numerous in the section of the state where she lived and flourished.

Leaving Calgary, we followed the valley of the Bow River. The current of this river is very swift in the summer, fed as it is by the melting of the snows of the Rocky mountains. We soon began to realize that we were ascending amid the mighty peaks of the great international chain. We spent one day at Banff, the National Park of the Dominion. Here we found water, boiling hot, springing out from the mountain side, and a magnificent hotel--apparently out of all proportion to the present or prospective need--being erected, with every indication of an effort, at least, to make the Canadian National Park a popular place of resort.

All about this region of country it is claimed there are deposits of gold and silver, and at one point we saw the incipient development of coal mining, coal being produced which it was claimed, and it seemed to me with good reason, to be equal in valuable qualities to the Pennsylvania anthracite.

Pa.s.sing from the National Park and skirting the foot of the Giant mountains, we entered the mighty valley of the great Fraser River.

The scenery between Calgary and Kamloops is indescribably majestic.

We were furnished by the railroad company with a time-table in the form of a pamphlet, and a description of the princ.i.p.al railway stations and surrounding country written by Lady Smith, the wife of Sir Donald Smith, of Montreal, one of the original projectors of the Canadian Pacific railroad. This lady was an artist, a poet, with high literary attainment, and her descriptions of the mountains, of the glaciers, of the rivers and scenery were exceedingly well done. We stopped at one of the company hotels, at the foot of one of the mightiest mountains, whose peak ascends thousands of feet into the air, and at whose base, within a few rods of the entrance to the hotel, was the greatest of the mighty glaciers, almost equal in beauty and grandeur, as seen by us, with the far-famed glacier of the Rhone.

The construction of this railroad through the mountains is a marvel of engineering skill and well ill.u.s.trates what the persistence and industry of man can accomplish. More than seventy miles of this line, as I remember it, are covered by snowsheds, constructed of stanch timbers along the base of the mountain in such a manner that the avalanches, which occasionally rush down from the mountain top and from the side of the mountain, strike upon the sheds and so fall harmless into the valley below, while the powerful locomotives go rushing through the snowsheds, heedless of the dangers overhead.

The Fraser River was full of camps of men engaged in the business of catching, drying and canning the salmon of that stream. The timber along this river is of great importance. The Canadian fir and other indigenous trees line the banks and mountain sides in a quant.i.ty sufficient to supply the demand of the people of that great country for many years to come. But it was unpleasant to witness the devastation that the fires had made by which great sections of the forests had been killed. The Canadian government has made a determined effort to suppress these fires in their forests and upon their plains, and it is one of the duties of the mounted police force, which we saw everywhere along the line of the road, to enforce the regulations in regard to the use of fire, but, naturally and necessarily, nearly all these efforts are abortive and great destruction results.

Vancouver, at the mouth of the Fraser, is the terminus of the Canadian Pacific railway. At this point steamers are loaded for the China and j.a.pan trade and a pa.s.senger steamer departs daily, and perhaps oftener, for Victoria, an important city at the point of Vancouver Island. We had a delightful trip on this steamer, running in and out among the almost numberless islands. It was an interesting and yet most intricate pa.s.sage.

At Victoria we were entertained by gentlemen of public position and were also shown many attentions by private citizens. We were invited to attend a dinner on board of a great British war vessel, then lying at Esquimault. A canva.s.s of our party disclosed the fact that our dress suits had been left at Vancouver, and being on foreign soil and under the domination of her British majesty's flag, we felt it was impossible to accept the invitation, and so, with a manifestation of great reluctance on the part of my a.s.sociates, the invitation was declined.

We went by steamer to Seattle, Washington Territory, where we remained over night and were very kindly received and entertained by the people. Among the persons who joined in the reception were Watson C. Squire and his wife, then residents of the territory.

Mr. Squire, after the admission of Washington as a state, became one of her Senators.

We were joined on this part of our journey by Carter H. Harrison, of Chicago, whose fourth term of office as mayor had just closed, and who was escorting his son and a young friend on a journey around the world. While waiting for the departure of the Canadian Pacific steamer from Vancouver, he joined in this excursion through the sound. He was a most entertaining conversationalist, and we enjoyed his country greatly.

There was much rivalry at that time between the growing cities of Seattle and Tacoma. At a reception in Seattle, one of the party, in responding to a call for a speech, spoke of having inquired of a resident of Seattle as to the whereabouts of Mount Tacoma. He said he was informed by the person to whom he applied that there was no Mount Tacoma. On stating that he had so understood from citizens of Washington Territory, he was informed that there was not then and never had been a Mount Tacoma. The gentleman was informed, however, that in the distance, enshrouded in the gloom of fog and smoke, there was a magnificent mountain, grand in proportion and beautiful in outline, and the mountain's name was Rainier. Later on he said he had inquired of a citizen of Tacoma as to the whereabouts, from that city, of Mount Rainier, and the gentleman, with considerable scorn on his countenance, declared that there was no such mountain, but in a certain direction at a certain distance was Mount Tacoma. The gentleman closed his speech by saying, whether it was Mount Tacoma or Mount Rainier, our party was unanimously in favor of the admission of Washington Territory into the Union.

We visited some sawmills at Tacoma where lumber of monstrous proportions and in great quant.i.ties was being produced by a system of gang saws. This is a wonderful industry and as long as the material holds out will be a leading one of that section. The deep waters of Puget Sound will always offer to the industrious population of Washington ample and cheap means of transportation to the outside market, and I predict a great future for the state.

We returned east more hastily and with fewer stops than in the western journey. We spend a night at Port Arthur, and the next day, embarking upon one of the great steamers of the Canadian Pacific line, found among our fellow-pa.s.sengers Goldwin Smith, the distinguished Canadian writer and statesman. We had a most pleasant trip, arriving at Owen Sound without special incident; thence to Toronto, and by steamer to Niagara, where we remained until the next day, when our party separated for their several homes. The trip occupied exactly a month and was full of enjoyment from the beginning to the end.

After my return home I wrote a note to General Sherman, describing my impressions of the country. In this I said:

"My trip to the Pacific over the Canadian railroad was a great success. We traveled 7,000 miles without fatigue, accident or detention. We stopped at the chief points of interest, such as Toronto, Montreal, Sudbury, Port Arthur, Winnipeg, Calgary, Banff, Donald, Glacier House, Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and Tacoma, and yet made the round trip within the four weeks allowed. We did not go to Alaska, because of the fogs and for want of time. The trip was very instructive, giving me an inside view of many questions that may be important in the future. The country did not impress me as a desirable acquisition, though it would not be a bad one.

The people are hardy and industrious. If they had free commercial intercourse with the United States, their farms, forests, and mines would become more valuable, but at the expense of the manufactures.

If the population of Mexico and Canada were h.o.m.ogenous with ours, the union of the three countries would make the whole the most powerful nation in the world."

I then entered into the canva.s.s. I attended the state fair at Columbus on the 2nd of September, first visiting the Wool Growers'

a.s.sociation, and making a brief speech in respect to the change in the duty on wool by the tariff of 1883. I reminded the members of that a.s.sociation that they were largely responsible for the action of Congress on the wool schedule, that while all the other interests were largely represented before the committees of Congress, they were only represented by two gentlemen, Columbus Delano and William Lawrence, both from the State of Ohio, who did all they could to prevent the reduction. Later in the day I attended a meeting of the state grange, at which several speeches had been made. I disclaimed the power to instruct the gentlemen before me, who knew so much more about farming that I, but called their attention to the active compet.i.tion they would have in the future in the growth of cereals in the great plains of the west. I described the wheat fields I had seen far west of Winnipeg, ten degrees north of us in Canada. I said the wheat was sown in the spring as soon as the surface could be plowed, fed by the thawing frosts and harvested in August, yielding 25 to 40 bushels to the acre, that our farms had to compete in most of their crops with new and cheap lands in fertile regions which but a few years before were occupied by Indians and buffaloes. "We must diversify our crops," I said, "or make machines to work for us more and more. New wants are created by increased population in cities. This is one lesson of many lessons we can learn from the oldest nations in Europe. With large cities growing up around us the farmer becomes a gardener, a demand is created for dairy products, for potatoes, and numerous articles of food which yield a greater profit. In Germany, France and Italy they are now producing more sugar from beets than is produced in all the world from sugar cane. The people of the United States now pay $130,000,000 for sugar which can easily be produced from beets grown in any of the central states." I said much more to the same purport.

I visited all parts of the state fair, and tried to avoid talking politics, but wherever I went on the ground I found groups engaged in talking about the Toledo convention, and the prospects of Republican or Democratic success. I had been away so long that I supposed the embers left by the convention were extinguished, but nothing, I think, can prevent the Ohio man from expressing his opinion about parties and politics. I met William Lawrence, one of the ablest men of the state as a lawyer, a judge and a Member of Congress. An interview with him had recently been published in respect to the resolution indorsing my candidacy. This was frequently called to my attention, and though I had not then read it, my confidence in him was so great I was willing to indorse anything he had said.

On the 7th of September I attended a soldiers' meeting at Bellville, in Richland county, where it was said upwards of 4,000 people took part. I made quite a long talk to them, but was far more interested in the stories of men who had served in the war, many of whom gave graphic accounts of scenes and incidents in which they had taken part. I have attended many such meetings, but do not recall any that was more interesting. The story of the private soldier is often rich in experience. It tells of what he saw in battle, and these stories of the soldiers, told to each other, form the web and woof out of which history is written. It was useless to preach to these men that Providence directly controls the history of nations. A good Presbyterian would find in our history evidence of the truth of his theory that all things are ordained beforehand.

Certain it is that the wonderful events in our national life might be cited as an evidence of this theory. I do reverently recognize in the history of our war, the hand of a superintending Providence that has guided our great nation from the beginning to this hour.

The same power which guided our fathers' fathers through the Revolutionary War, upheld the arms of the soldiers of the Union Army in the Civil War, and I trust that the same good Providence will guide our great nation in the years to come.