Volume III Part 2 (2/2)
At Syracuse, in 1861, Laning, just then in his early forties, was in the fulness of his intellectual power. He had followed Douglas and favored the Crittenden Compromise, but the fall of Sumter crippled his sympathy for the South and stiffened his support of the Federal administration. Moreover, he understood the difficulty, during a period of war, of conducting an impartial, const.i.tutional opposition to the policy of the Administration, without its degeneration into a faction, which at any moment might be shaken by interest, prejudice, or pa.s.sion. The motion of Loomis, therefore, seemed to him too narrow, and he opposed it with eloquence, maintaining that it was the duty of all good men not to embarra.s.s the Government in such a crisis. Rather than that bold rebellion should destroy the government, he said, he preferred to allow the President to take his own course. The responsibility was upon him, and the people, irrespective of party, should strengthen his hands until danger had disappeared and the government was re-established in all its strength.
Kernan did not take kindly to these sentiments. Like Loomis he resented arbitrary arrests in States removed from actual hostilities, where the courts were open for the regular administration of justice, and with a few ringing sentences he threw the delegates into wild cheering. Though brief, this speech resulted in restoring the Loomis resolution to its place in the platform, and in increasing the clamour that Kernan lead the party as a candidate for attorney-general.
Kernan was not averse to taking office. For three years, from 1856 to 1859, he had been official reporter for the Court of Appeals, and in 1860 served in the a.s.sembly. Later, he entered Congress, finally reaching the United States Senate. But in 1861 prudence prompted him to decline the tempting offer of a nomination for attorney-general, and although entreated to reconsider his determination, he stubbornly resisted, and at last forced the nomination of Lyman Tremaine of Albany, who had previously held the office.[795]
[Footnote 795: The State ticket was made up as follows: Secretary of State, David R. Floyd Jones of Queens; Judge of the Court of Appeals, George F. Comstock of Onondaga; Comptroller, George F. Scott of Saratoga; Attorney-General, Lyman Tremaine of Albany; Treasurer of State, Francis C. Brouck of Erie; Ca.n.a.l Commissioners, Jarvis B. Lord of Monroe, William W. Wright of Ontario; State Prison Director, William C. Rhodes of New York.]
The work of the convention did not please all members of the party. To some the drift of the speeches and resolutions seemed an encouragement to armed rebellion; to others, although jealous of individual rights, it appeared to confuse the liberty of the press with license. One paper, an able representative of the party, disclaiming any desire ”to rekindle animosities by discussing its various objectionable points,”
felt ”bound to express its heartfelt repugnance of the malignant and traitorous spirit which animates the Loomis resolution.”[796] These were severe words, showing that others than Laning opposed such criticism of the President.
[Footnote 796: New York _Leader_, September 9, 1861.]
Dean Richmond's refusal to unite in a Union convention did not stifle the hope that many Democrats might partic.i.p.ate in such a meeting, and to afford them an opportunity a People's convention met at Wieting Hall in Syracuse, on September 11, contemporaneously with the Republican State convention. It became evident that the purpose was attained when the Democrats present declared that the banner of their former party no longer marked a place for them to muster. In character the members resembled determined Abolitionists in the forties. Its president, Thomas G. Alvord of Onondaga, had been speaker of the a.s.sembly, a compet.i.tor of Gordon Granger for Congress, and a p.r.o.nounced Hard Sh.e.l.l until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise drove him into the camp of the Softs. One of the delegates, James B.
McKean, was soon to lead the Sixty-seventh Regiment to the field; another, Alexander S. Diven of Chemung was to enter Congress, and subsequently to distinguish himself at Antietam and Chancellorsville at the head of the One Hundred and Seventh; other partic.i.p.ants, conspicuous in their respective localities, were to suffer bitterly and struggle bravely to maintain the Union. One delegate sung the ”Star Spangled Banner,” while the others, with radiant faces, broke into cheers. This was followed by several brief and vigorous speeches approving the war and the methods by which it was conducted. ”There is no medium, no half way now,” said one delegate, ”between patriots and traitors.”[797] This was the sentiment of the platform, which waived all political divisions and party traditions, declaring that the convention sought only, in this hour of national peril, to proclaim devotion to the Const.i.tution and Union, and to defend and sustain the chosen authorities of the government at whatever cost of blood and treasure.
[Footnote 797: New York _Tribune_, September 10, 1861.]
Rumours of Daniel S. d.i.c.kinson's nomination had been in the air from the outset. He had been much in the public eye since the 20th of April. In his zeal for the Union, said the _Tribune_, ”his pointed utterances have everywhere fired the hearts of patriots.” Freedom from the blighting influence of slavery seemed to give him easier flight, and his criticism of the Democratic convention was so felicitous, so full of story and wit and ridicule and the fire of genuine patriotism, that his name was quickly upon every lip, and his happy, homely hits the common property of half the people of the State.[798] The mention of his name for attorney-general, therefore, evoked the most enthusiastic applause. Since the const.i.tutional convention of 1846 it had been the custom, in the absence of a candidate for governor, to write the name of the nominee for secretary of state at the head of the ticket; but in this instance the committee deemed it wise to nominate for attorney-general first and give it to the man of first importance. The nomination proved a popular hit. Instantly Syracuse and the State were ablaze, and Republican as well as many Democratic papers prophesied that it settled the result in November. The convention professed to discard party lines and traditions, and its sincerity, thus put early to the test, did much to magnify its work, since with marked impartiality it placed upon its ticket two Hards, two Softs, one American, and four Republicans.[799]
[Footnote 798: d.i.c.kinson's Ithaca speech, delivered the day after the Democratic convention adjourned, is printed in full in the New York _Tribune_ of September 10, 1861.]
[Footnote 799: The ticket was as follows: Attorney-general, Daniel S.
d.i.c.kinson of Broome; Secretary of State, Horatio Ballard of Cortland; Comptroller, Lucius Robinson of Chemung; Treasurer, William B. Lewis of Kings; Court of Appeals, William B. Wright, Sullivan; Ca.n.a.l Commissioners, Franklin A. Alberger of Erie and Benjamin F. Bruce of New York; State Engineer, William B. Taylor of Oneida; State Prison Inspector, Abram B. Tappan of Westchester.]
Whenever the People's convention recessed delegates to the Republican convention immediately took control. Indeed, so closely related were the two a.s.semblies that spectators at one became delegates to the other. Weed did not attend the convention, but it adopted his conciliatory policy. ”The popular fiat has gone forth in opposition, on the one hand, to secession and disunion, whether in the shape of active rebellion, or its more insidious ally, advocacy of an inglorious and dishonourable peace; and, on the other, to everything that savors of abolition, or tends towards a violation of the guarantees of slave property provided by the Const.i.tution.”[800]
[Footnote 800: New York _Herald_ (editorial), September 13, 1861.]
It cannot be said that the Democratic campaign opened under flattering conditions. Loomis' resolution, known as the ninth or ”secession”
plank, had led to serious difficulty. Men recognised that in time of war more reserve was necessary in dealing with an Administration than during a period of peace, for if the government's arm was paralysed it could not stay the arm of the public enemy. This had been the position of Laning, and it appealed strongly to Lyman Tremaine, who believed the machinations of treason had forced the Government to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_, and to organise systems of pa.s.sports and State police. He boldly declined, therefore, to accept a nomination as attorney-general on a platform that emphatically condemned such measures, when deemed essential to the government's safety.
Tremaine, tall, portly, and commanding, belonged to the more independent members of the party. He was not a stranger to public life. Although but forty-two years old he had been an active party worker for a quarter of a century and an office-holder since his majority. Greene County made him supervisor, district attorney, and county judge, and soon after his removal to Albany in 1854 he became attorney-general. But these honours did not break his independence. He inherited a genius for the forum, and although his gifts did not put him into the first cla.s.s, his name was familiar throughout the State.
Francis C. Brouck's withdrawal soon followed Tremaine's.[801] Then Tammany repudiated the Loomis resolutions,[802] and the Albany _Argus_ shouted l.u.s.tily for war.[803] But the blow that staggered Richmond came from the candidates who caught the drift of public sentiment, and in a proclamation of few words declared ”in favour of vigorously sustaining the Government in its present struggle to maintain the Const.i.tution and the Union, at all hazards, and at any cost of blood and treasure.”[804] This was the act of despair. For days they had waited, and now, alarmed by the evident change, they jumped from the plank that was sinking under them. ”It is the first instance on record,”
said the _Herald_, ”where the nominees of a convention openly and defiantly spit upon the platform, and repudiated party leaders and their secession heresies.”[805]
[Footnote 801: Marshal M. Champlain of Allegany and William Williams of Erie were subst.i.tuted for Tremaine and Brouck.]
[Footnote 802: New York _Tribune_, October 4, 1861.]
[Footnote 803: November 6, 1861.]
[Footnote 804: New York _Herald_, October 23, 1861.]
[Footnote 805: _Ibid._, October 23, 1861.]
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