Schurz was more distressed by the "Gratz Brown trick," as it was commonly called, than by anything else. This had the appearance of a brazen political swap executed in the light of day, by which the presidency and the vice-presidency were disposed of as so much merchandise. He did not, however, in his thoughts connect Greeley with the trade. It was physically impossible that the latter could have been a party to it, if there was a trade. Nevertheless he considered the German vote lost beyond recall by the bad look of it.127 My own belief is that Blair and Brown were jealous of Schurz's power in Missouri; that they feared he would become omnipotent there, dominating both parties, if Adams should be elected President; and that the only way to head him off was to beat Adams. They chose Greeley for this purpose, not because they had any bargain with, or fondness for, him, but because he was the next strongest man in the convention.
The engineers of the Liberal Republican movement went their several ways. Those who held tariff reform of more importance than all other issues abjured Greeley at once. E. L. Godkin and William Cullen Bryant declared war against him because they considered him dangerous and unfit. The following correspondence which took place between Bryant and Trumbull was illustrative of the feelings of many others:
The Evening Post,
41 Nassau Street, Cor. Liberty,
New York, May 8th, 1872.
My dear Sir,
It has been said that you will support the nomination of Mr. Greeley for President. I have no right to speak of any course which you may take in politics in any but respectful terms, but I may perhaps take the liberty of saying that if you give that man your countenance, some of your best friends here will deeply regret it. We who know Mr. Greeley know that his administration, should he be elected, cannot be otherwise than shamefully corrupt. His associates are of the worst sort and the worst abuses of the present Administration are likely to be even caricatured under his. His election would be a severe blow to the cause of revenue reform. The cause of civil service reform would be hopeless with him for President, for Reuben E. Fenton, his guide and counselor, and the other wretches by whom Greeley is surrounded, will never give up the patronage by which they expect to hold their power. As to other public measures there is no abuse or extravagance into which that man, through the infirmity of his judgment, may not be betrayed. It is wonderful how little, in some of his vagaries, the scruples which would influence other men of no exemplary integrity, restrain him. But I need not dwell upon these matters—they are all set forth in the Evening Post which you sometimes see. What I have written, is written in the most profound respect for your public character, and because of that respect. If you conclude to support Mr. Greeley, I shall, of course, infer that you do so because you do not know him.
Yours truly,
Hon. L. Trumbull.
W. C. Bryant.
United States Senate Chamber,
Washington, May 10, 1872.
Wm. C. Bryant, Esq.,
My dear Sir,—Your kind and frank letter is before me. I wish I could see something better than to support Mr. Greeley, but I do not. Personally, I know but little of him, but in common with most people supposed he was an honest but confiding man, who was often imposed upon by those about him. This would be a great fault in a President, I admit, but with proper surroundings could be guarded against, and almost anything would be an improvement on what we have. One of the greatest evils of our time is party despotism and intolerance. Greeley's nomination is a bomb-shell which seems likely to blow up both parties. This will be an immense gain. Most of the corruptions in government are made possible through party tyranny. Members of the Senate are daily coerced into voting contrary to their convictions through party pressure. A notable instance of this was the vote on the impeachment of Johnson, and matters in this respect have not improved since. If by Greeley's election we could break up the present corrupt organizations, it would enable the people at the end of four years to elect a President with a view to his fitness instead of having one put upon them by a vote of political bummers acting in the name of party.
Having favored the Cincinnati movement and Greeley having received the nomination, I see no course left but to try to elect him, and endeavor to surround him, as far as possible, with honest men. Greeley had a good deal of strength among the people and was strong in the convention outside of bargain or arrangement. Many voted for him as their first choice, and in Illinois I feel confident he is a stronger candidate than Adams would have been.
Lyman Trumbull.
Sumner, although urged by many of his warmest friends both before and after the convention, including Frank Bird, Samuel Bowles, and Greeley himself (through Whitelaw Reid), to declare his position, did not break silence until May 31, when he made his great speech against Grant. The speech remains a true catalogue of the shortcomings of Grant as a civil administrator up to that time. All his sins of omission and of commission were there set forth in orderly array, together with the proofs. Sumner thus spared future historians a deal of trouble in searching the records, but the speech was not very effective in the way of changing votes. Sumner sometimes mistook himself for a modern Cicero impeaching Verres. He piled up the agony in the fashion customary in the pleadings of the ancient forum. He overlooked the signal services rendered by Grant before he held any civil office. He did not make allowance for the transition of a tanner's clerk, earning fifty dollars a month and having a family to support, first to the command of half a million soldiers in war time, and then to the presidency of the United States in time of peace, all within the period of eight years. The mistakes naturally arising from such crude beginnings, when meeting gigantic responsibilities in quick succession, ought to have excited pathos as well as censure. By giving due consideration to Grant's whole career, he would have secured a better hearing for the part of it which he wished to impress upon the public mind.
Even now Sumner did not advise anybody to vote for Greeley. His omission to do so was at once construed as an argument favorable to Grant. It was said that the dangers involved in Greeley's eccentricities were so much greater than anything that Grant had done, or could do, that Grant's worst enemy (Sumner) would not advise people to vote for him. Not until the 29th of July did the Massachusetts Senator publicly speak for Greeley, and then only in a letter to some colored voters who had asked his advice. It was then too late to exert much influence. It is doubtful if even the colored men who had sought his advice gave any heed to it. Probably the reason why Sumner did not speak earlier was that he hesitated to break from his abolitionist friends, Garrison, Phillips, and others, who had besought him not to join the Democrats. When he did finally join the forces supporting Greeley, his old friend Garrison turned upon him and chastised him severely in a series of open letters, which Sumner declined to read.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN
My own feelings immediately after the nomination were set forth in a telegram to the Chicago Tribune published in its issue of May 4. The chief part was in these words:
Cincinnati, May 3.—The nomination of Mr. Greeley was accomplished by the people against the judgment and strenuous efforts of politicians, using the latter word in its larger and higher sense. The Gratz Brown performance has given the whole affair the appearance of a put-up job, but it was merely a lucky guess. The Blairs and Browns do not like Schurz. To defeat a candidate who was likely to be on confidential terms with Schurz, as either Adams or Trumbull would have been, was the thing nearest to their hearts, and for this purpose Brown made his appearance here. His speech in the Convention fell like dish-water on the whole assemblage, and, being followed by the transfer of the Missouri votes to Trumbull, instead of Greeley, showed that he had no influence in his own delegation. The changes from Brown to Greeley were few and far between, and in a short time the convention only remembered that Brown had been a candidate once and was so no longer. But the personal popularity of Greeley was more than a match for the intellectual strength of Trumbull and the moral gravity of Adams. He was stealing votes from both of them all the time. When the Illinois delegation at last perceived that the heart of the convention was carrying away the head, and retired for consultation, the surprising fact was developed that fifteen of their own number preferred Greeley to any candidate not from their own state. The supporters of Adams, while entertaining the most cordial feeling for the friends of Trumbull, think that if the latter had come over to Adams's corner the result would have been different. I do not think so. If the Illinois vote could have been cast solid for Adams at an earlier stage, the result might have been different: but there was no time when Adams could have got more than the twenty-seven votes which were finally cast for him. The contingency of having to divide between Adams and Greeley had never been considered, and, therefore, no time had been allowed to compare views. The vote of the state being thus divided, its weight was lost for any purpose of influencing other votes. Then gush and hurrah swept everything down, and, almost before a vote of Illinois had been recorded by the secretary, the dispatches came rushing to the telegraph instruments that Greeley was nominated. For a moment, the wiser heads in the convention were stunned, though everybody tried to look perfectly contented. Of all the things that could possibly happen, this was the one thing which everybody supposed could not happen. Not even the Greeley men themselves thought it could happen. The only able politician who seemed to be really for Greeley was Waldo Hutchins, of New York, and even his sincerity was questioned by Greeley's backbone friends as long as the Davis movement was regarded as still alive.
How the news was received by Trumbull was told by the New York Herald's Washington dispatch of May 3:
… The scene in the Senate, when the news was received, was one of complacent dignity, such as only the members of that body could arrange, even if they had studied to prepare themselves for an art tableau. Mr. Fenton was the recipient of the dispatches, and his chair was consequently surrounded by a crowd of the less dignified Senators, who could not wait to have the telegrams passed around. Trumbull was the most undisturbed of all those on the floor. His equanimity astonished his friends as well as the numerous strangers in the galleries, who watched closely for indications of excitement in his parchment-like face. In truth, he seemed to get the news rather by some occult process of induction, if he got it at all, than by the course usual to ordinary men. Other members smiled, made comments, exchanged opinions and preserved their dignity with customary success; but he alone asserted an immobility of demeanor that will last for all time, in the memory of its witnesses, as a remarkable instance of self-possession. At last, when every one else had delivered himself of some criticism he remarked to those in his immediate vicinity: "If the country can stand the first outburst of mirth the nomination will call forth, it may prove a strong ticket."
Carl Schurz was slow in reaching a decision to support the ticket. His first endeavor was to induce Greeley, in a friendly way, to decline the nomination, by showing him the sombre aspects of the campaign ahead. In a letter dated May 18, he told Greeley that the dissatisfaction of an influential part of the Liberal Republican forces was such that a meeting had been called to consider the question of putting another ticket in the field before the Democrats should hold their convention. Other discouraging features were presented and the letter concluded with these words:
I have, from the beginning, made it a point to tell you with entire candor how I feel and what I think about this business, and now if the developments of the campaign should be such as to disappoint your hopes, it shall not be my fault if you are deceived about the real state of things.
To this Greeley replied on the 20th, saying that his advices warranted him in predicting that New York would give 50,000 majority for the Cincinnati ticket, and that New England and the South would be nearly solid for it, while in Pennsylvania and the Northwest the chances were at least even. He ended by saying: "I shall accept unconditionally."
The meeting foreshadowed in Schurz's letter to Greeley took place at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the 20th of June. It was composed mainly of persons who had participated in the Cincinnati Convention and had been greatly disappointed by Mr. Greeley's nomination. William Cullen Bryant presided, but fell asleep in the chair soon after the proceedings began. The first speech was made by Trumbull, who said that his mind was made up to support the Cincinnati ticket. He thought that Greeley had gained strength during the first month of the campaign and that the chances of his election were good. He could see no reason for nominating another ticket. That would simply be playing into the hands of the supporters of Grant.
Schurz's position, as reported by the Nation, was this:
That he, more than any other man, was chagrined by the result of Cincinnati; that he does not consider Mr. Greeley a reformer, and has no expectations of any reforms at his hands, and will say so on the stump; that he believes him "to be surrounded by bad men"; that he (Mr. Schurz), however, is so satisfied of the necessity of defeating Grant and dissolving existing party organizations, that he is ready to use any instrument for the purpose, and will, therefore, support Greeley in the modified and guarded manner indicated above. He looks forward, with a hopefulness bordering on enthusiasm, to the good things which will grow out of the confusion following on Greeley's election, and is deeply touched by the Southern eagerness for Greeley.
A private letter from E. L. Godkin to Schurz, dated Lenox, Massachusetts, June 28, gives reasons for deprecating the course that the latter had decided to take in the campaign.
He has considered Schurz's words about Greeley; would be most glad could he see any way to join in supporting Greeley, Schurz being the one man in American politics who inspires Godkin with some hope concerning them. He maturely considered what he could and would do when Greeley was first nominated. In view of his own share in bringing public feeling to the point of creating the convention, he would have stood by Greeley if possible; saw no chance to do so and sees none now; is satisfied he can have nothing to do with Greeley. If Greeley gave pledges, and broke them, "as I believe he would," it would be no consolation to Godkin that an opposition would thereby be raised up. He went through all this with Grant, who gave far better guarantees than Greeley offers, "and he made fine promises and broke them, and good appointments and reversed them, and I have in consequence been three years in opposition." Cannot afford to repeat this. "Greeley would have to change his whole nature, at the age of 62, in order not to deceive and betray you," and when he has done so it will be too late to atone for having backed him by turning against him, which would then merely discredit one's judgment, and invite suspicion of some personal disappointment. Moreover, the small band of political reformers will have fallen into disrepute and become ridiculous and the country will be worse off than before. Feels that Schurz is sacrificing the future in taking Greeley on any terms....
Parke Godwin was even more bitter against Greeley. He wrote to Schurz under date May 28:
"… I have so strong a sense of Greeley's utter unfitness for the presidency that I cannot well express it. The man is a charlatan from top to bottom, and the smallest kind of a charlatan,—for no other motive than a weak and puerile vanity. His success in politics would be the success of whoever is most wrong in theory and most corrupt in practice." All the most corrupt spoilsmen of either side are either with him now or preparing to go to him. It is the first of duties to expose him and his factitious reputation. Grant and his crew are bad,—but hardly so bad as Greeley and his would be. Besides, Grant, though in very bad hands, has his clutches full: Greeley's set would be newcomers.
The regular Republican Convention met at Philadelphia, June 5, and nominated General Grant for President by unanimous vote. The names of Henry Wilson, Schuyler Colfax, and several others were presented for Vice-President. On the first roll-call Wilson had 361 votes and Colfax 306, and there were 66 for other candidates. Before the result was announced, 38 votes from Southern States were changed to Wilson, giving him 399, a majority of the whole number cast. This decision was brought about by the wish of Grant himself, communicated to General Grenville M. Dodge before the convention met. Grant had no liking for Colfax.128
The platform of the convention laid stress on the imperative duty of "suppression of violent and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions and for the protection of the ballot-box." This meant the stern execution of the Ku-Klux Law, under suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which was already in progress. The remainder of the platform was either "pointing with pride" at past achievements, or clap-trap of various kinds, including a promise to take good care of capital and labor, so as to secure "the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual profits of these two great servants of civilization."
The Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore, July 9, and adopted both the platform and the candidates of the Cincinnati Convention. This involved a complete reversal of the party's principles as declared in its last previous platform, but it was not inconsistent with inexorable facts. There was nothing else to be done unless the party was determined still to battle against the result of the Civil War. It was inevitable, however, that there should be a remnant of the party that would never vote for Greeley—the man who above all others had gored them most savagely in the fights of a quarter of a century. The dissentients called and held a convention at Louisville, September 3, where they nominated Charles O'Conor of New York for President and John Quincy Adams for Vice-President, both of whom declined. Other attempts to put a third ticket in the field came to nothing. The recalcitrants either voted for Grant or abstained from voting altogether.
Trumbull took an active part in the campaign, speaking to large crowds and almost incessantly in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. His first speech was made at Springfield, Illinois, June 26, a synopsis of which will serve to indicate the views which he advocated.
He said that he was glad to explain to Illinoisans the position he had felt it his duty to take on many points. It was now more than seventeen years that he had represented the state in Washington. In that time the principles on which the Republican party was formed had all been settled. Nothing remained but the machinery, which had fallen into the hands of those who sought to use it for merely selfish ends. During his service he had sometimes not acted according to the views of all his constituents, but he had not failed to follow his own sense of duty and right. Within the last ten years many abuses had crept into the Government and numerous defalcations had occurred, perhaps the most noted being that of Hodge, paymaster, in the office of the Paymaster-General, "whose defalcations, occurring right under the eye of the Government, amounted to more than $400,000." An investigating committee had reported to a previous Congress great abuses in the New York Custom-House—bribery and demoralization. At the beginning of the recent session he [Trumbull] had introduced a resolution for a joint committee of investigation, with power to send for persons and papers; introduced it in good faith to unearth frauds, if existent, and to correct them, without design of injuring the party. "I was simple-minded enough to believe that the Republican party, … with which I had been identified for so many years, would be lifted in public estimation … if it had the virtue and the honesty to expose, even among its own members, wrong, corruptions, and fraud if fraud existed, and to apply the proper corrective. And I was very much astonished when that proposition was met by gentlemen in the Senate who constitute what, for brevity's sake, I may denominate a Senatorial Ring, denouncing me as unfaithful to the Republican party and as throwing dirt upon it by offering a resolution to inquire into the conduct of public officers."
The public indignation aroused by this forced the Senatorial Ring to action. "A party caucus of Republican Senators was called, and a scheme devised to change the character of the resolution, and to organize and pack the committee, which, instead of going forth to uncover and expose corruption, should go forth to conceal and cover it up. The proposition for the joint committee of the two houses, with power to send for persons and papers, was voted down, and in its place a resolution was passed creating a committee of the Senate alone. The members of the committee were selected in a party caucus, and not a single Republican Senator who had originally favored the investigation was placed upon the committee. This was contrary to parliamentary law, and contrary to the plainest principles of common sense, if the object was to discover abuses, and contrary to that ordinary rule which says that a child must not be put to a nurse who cares not for it. This investigation was placed in the hands of the parties to be investigated...." Even this committee, going to New York, could not, however, shut their eyes to the enormous abuses there. But they did give public notice that any merchants who had paid bribe money to customs officials would be prosecuted to the extent of the law, thereby securing the non-appearance of any such merchant as a witness. They acted as if sent to investigate merchants, not officials.... And the Senate Ring would allow no measure to be considered tending to rectify these abuses, wanting to keep the spoils to carry next fall's elections. A bill from the House was referred to the Judiciary committee, which had a majority of Ring members,—a bill to inaugurate reforms and to protect merchants from plunder. Although it was before the committee two months it was never reported to the Senate. "I made two motions in the Senate to have the committee discharged and to bring the bill before the Senate, that it might receive its attention, but they were voted down under party drill."
"Let me tell you of another committee of investigation, raised in the House of Representatives, and packed also by an obsequious and partisan Speaker,—a committee, a majority of which consisted of the friends of the Secretary of the Navy whose conduct was about to be investigated. I want to tell you what that committee did, and I think you will be astonished when I state the fact that a committee of members of the House of Representatives could have been found, who were so blinded by party zeal, so full of bigotry or cowardice that they could not see, or were afraid to expose, violations of the law on the part of political associates. This committee was raised on the motion of Governor Blair, of Michigan, a high-minded, independent, and able Republican.... At his [Blair's] instance, a committee was raised to inquire into certain transactions in the Navy Department, presided over by Secretary Robeson.... Among many of the things that the committee was instructed to inquire into … was a claim for building certain vessels for the Government of the United States during the war. I have the precise figures here, giving the exact amounts which the Government contracted to pay for the construction of the three vessels, Tecumseh, Mahopac, and Manhattan. The contract was made in 1862, and the Government agreed to pay a contractor of the name of Secor $1,380,000 for the construction of these three vessels. After the contract was made, the Government desired some changes in the plans of the vessels, and a board of naval officers was appointed to superintend them and to certify bills for extra work, which they did to the amount of more than $500,000. The vessels were furnished, the contract price paid—the sum due for the extra work was paid, and it was all settled and closed in the Navy Department in 1865. But these contractors, who had received more than $1,900,000 for building the vessels and the extra work, came to Congress by petition, and complained that they still had not received as much as they ought, because they said that they were delayed in their contracts by the action of the Government; that while thus delayed the price of labor and of materials advanced, and they had met with great loss, and they, therefore, asked Congress to allow them something more. Congress, in 1867, passed a law directing the Secretary of the Navy to look into this matter and report to the next session. The Secretary appointed a board of Naval officers, who made the investigation, and reported to Congress that these Secors ought to be allowed $115,000 more (I use round numbers)—$115,000 in addition to what they had already received, and put into the law these words, 'which shall be in full discharge of all claims against the United States on account of the vessels upon which the Board made the allowance as per this report.' Now, do any of you, does any lawyer, … know how to write a stronger clause than that to end this claim? If you do, I do not.... The Secors, in 1868, received the $115,000 and gave their receipt.... Would you believe it possible that the Secretary of the Navy would, after that, pay anything more?… Mr. Robeson, in 1870, … on his own motion, without any act of Congress authorizing it, proceeds to reinvestigate this claim, and without coming to Congress at all pays over to these gentlemen $93,000 more. Well, that is not the worst of it. He might just as well have paid them $93,000,000. The Congress of the United States never appropriated any money to pay this $93,000, but the Secretary of the Navy took the money appropriated for other purposes and other years and paid it out of that. This is bad enough.... But when this packed committee came to examine this transaction, a majority of its members reported that the transactions only involved a mere difference of opinion as to the construction of the law, and, in their opinion, the Secretary had construed it rightly. And Mr. Robeson, instead of being rebuked, is commended by the committee, and is continued in office. It is due to the chairman of the committee—Governor Blair, of Michigan, and one of his associates—the committee consisted of five members—to say that they dissented from the majority report, and held that the transaction was not only without authority of law, but in direct violation of it....
"I was never a party man to the extent of being willing to serve the party against my country and if, to-day, I am acting with the Liberal Republican party, if I have denounced these transactions at the hazard of being myself denounced, it was done in good faith on my part, for the purpose of correcting abuses, and appealing from a party tyranny established by a Senatorial Ring to the honest, intelligent, upright citizens of the country, who are bound by no such shackles as will compel them to cover up fraud and iniquity in any party...."
He mentioned the encroachments of the Federal Government, as in the attempt to destroy the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the last session of Congress, as a bill virtually placing the elections of the Southern States under the direction of the President. If the people have become so far indifferent to their rights as to permit the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus at will, and to control and supervise their elections, their liberties are gone, and "they have only to wait until a man sufficiently ambitious reaches the Presidency, for him to grasp and maintain absolute powers."
The speech was two hours long, and concluded with this tribute to Greeley:
… Mr. Greeley [he said] is a man of the highest character and intelligence. No man in the land is better acquainted with the public men of the country than he. He is a man of purity of character, of strict honesty, who would not look upon corruption and official delinquency with the least degree of allowance. You may rely upon that and upon his bringing about him the ablest men of the land to form a strong and able Administration, because he knows who the able men are, and could have no other motive than to make his Administration a success, as he will not seek a reëlection. I am not in the habit of saying much about individuals, but I think I may say to you that you may trust Horace Greeley for an honest administration of the Government, and that is what the people of the country want. You may trust him above almost all other men in this land for bringing about that state of good feeling between the North and the South, so essential to the peace and prosperity of the nation.
The campaign started with considerable éclat among the ranks of Greeley's supporters and corresponding depression on the other side. Carl Schurz, who took the laboring oar, at first with reluctance bordering on gloom, gathered confidence as he progressed in his stumping tour. Enthusiasm for the old white hat seemed to be no figment of imagination, but a living reality. All eyes were fixed upon North Carolina which had an election for state officers on the 1st of August, and which the Liberals expected to win. The early returns seemed to justify their confidence, but there was a change when the western mountain districts were heard from. The supporters of Grant carried the state by about 2000 majority. This wound was not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door, but it answered one purpose. It ended the "old white hat" enthusiasm and turned attention to the more sober and solid aspects of the campaign. That Greeley was an unbalanced character, that he was lacking in steadiness, in mental equipoise and ability to look at both sides of any question where his feelings were strongly enlisted, it was easy to show by many examples in his brilliant career. His occasional controversies with Lincoln during the war, in which he was invariably worsted, were now reproduced with effect by the orators on the Grant side, and the old white hat and coat and the Flintwinch neck-tie were savagely pictured by Tom Nast in Harper's Weekly. There were satirical persons who said that Greeley took as much pains to make himself a harlequin as another might take to make himself a dandy.