Volume III Part 34 (1/2)
The ticket was as follows: Governor, Edwin D. Morgan, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, Sherman S. Rogers, Erie; Court of Appeals, George F. Danforth, Monroe; Ca.n.a.l Commissioner, Daniel C. Spencer, Livingston; Prison Inspector, Charles W. Trowbridge, Kings.]
The day's work, however, left bitter thoughts. Conkling's absence exaggerated Arthur's poor generals.h.i.+p and George H. Sharpe's failure to support Cornell. Sharpe was one of the organisation's cleverest leaders, and his indifference to Cornell's interests left a jagged wound that was not soon to heal. Moreover, it could not be concealed that Morgan's nomination was a Pyrrhic victory. In fact, the conventions at Cincinnati and Saratoga had thrown the Conkling machine out of gear, and while the repair shop kept it running several years longer, it was destined never again to make the speed it had formerly attained.
CHAPTER XXVII
TILDEN ONE VOTE SHORT
1876
After the election in 1875 the eyes of the national Democracy turned toward Tilden as its inevitable candidate for President. He had not only beaten a Ca.n.a.l ring, strengthened by remnants of the old Tweed ring, but he had carried the State against the energies of a fairly united Republican party. Moreover, he had become, in the opinion of his friends, the embodiment of administrative reform, although he suffered the embarra.s.sment of a statesman who is suspected, rightly or wrongly, of a willingness to purchase reform at any price.[1503] To prove his right to be transferred from Albany to Was.h.i.+ngton he now made his message to the Legislature a treatise upon national affairs.
[Footnote 1503: Tilden's policy of pardoning members of the Tweed ring had become intolerable. ”On an average about nine out of ten men who were confessedly guilty of stealing were accepted as witnesses against the other one man, until the time came when there was but one man against whom any testimony could be used, and it was not considered wise to try him. It was a shameful condition of affairs.”--John D.
Townsend, _New York in Bondage_, p. 141.]
Dwelling at length upon the financiering of the Federal Government, Tilden sought to account for the financial depression, and in pointing to a remedy he advocated the prompt resumption of specie payment, criticised the dread of imaginary evils, encouraged economy in legislation, and a.n.a.lysed the federal system of taxation and expenditure. Furthermore, he sought to cut loose from the discredited past of his party, and in paying high tribute to the patriotism of the South, he expressed the hope that its acceptance of the results of the war might end forever the retribution visited upon it by the standing menace of military force.[1504]
[Footnote 1504: Tilden's _Public Writings and Speeches_, Vol. 2, pp.
237-295.]
The result at Cincinnati increased the necessity for nominating Tilden at St. Louis, since Wheeler's popularity would materially a.s.sist in replacing New York among reliable Republican States. Nevertheless, the predatory cla.s.s who had felt the weight of Tilden's heavy hand fomented a most formidable opposition at the State convention.[1505]
John Kelly deeply sympathised with the movement. He resented the rivalry and independence of the Sage of Gramercy Park, and he did not disguise his hostility. But Kelly's immediate need centred in the exclusion of the Morrissey delegation, and when the Tilden lieutenants proscribed it, the way was smoothed for the Governor's unanimous endors.e.m.e.nt with the gag of unit rule.
[Footnote 1505: The Democratic State convention was held at Utica, April 26, 1876.]
The admission of Kelly's delegates, however, did not close the mouths of Tilden's opponents.[1506]. Organs of the Ca.n.a.l ring continued to urge Seymour or Church for President, maintaining that the convention's action did not bind the delegation. Church supported this interpretation of the declaration.[1507] But it remained for the _Express_, the authorised organ of Tammany, to stigmatise Tilden. With cruel particularity it referred to his many-sided conduct as counsel and director in connection with the foreclosure and reorganisation of certain railroads in Illinois, reciting details of the affair in a manner highly prejudicial to his integrity as a lawyer and his reputation as a man of wealth. ”Of the weak points in Mr. Tilden's railroad record,” the editor suggestively added, ”we know more than we care to publish.”[1508] It doubled the severity of the blow because suit had been inst.i.tuted to compel Tilden to account for the proceeds of large amounts of bonds and stock, and instead of meeting the allegations promptly he had sought and obtained delay. This seemed to give colour to the indictment.
[Footnote 1506: ”It is natural enough that the ca.n.a.l ring and its followers, Tammany and its adherents, and that sort of Democrats who are commonly called Bourbons, should labour to defeat the nomination for high office of the man who represents everything that they oppose, and opposes everything that they represent; but it will be a most discouraging thing to every person who hopes for good at the hands of the Democratic party if such opposition is permitted to prevail in its councils. He has put his principles in practice in the most fearless and resolute manner, and has made himself especially obnoxious to his opponents as their hostility to him clearly shows.”--New York _Evening Post_ (editorial by William Cullen Bryant), May 26, 1876.]
[Footnote 1507: New York _Tribune_, June 17.]
[Footnote 1508: New York _Evening Express_, June 23, 1876.]
At St. Louis Tilden's opponents, headed by John Kelly, Augustus Sch.e.l.l, and Erastus Corning, soon wore these insinuations threadbare.[1509] To their further declaration that in order to succeed in November the Democracy must have one October State and that Tilden could not carry Indiana, Dorsheimer and Bigelow, the Governor's spokesmen, replied that New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut could elect Tilden without Indiana. The colossal a.s.surance of this answer characterised the convention's confidence in Tilden's strength. It possessed the South, the East, and the West. Hanc.o.c.k might be the favourite in Pennsylvania, Parker in New Jersey, Bayard in Delaware, Allen in Ohio, and Hendricks in Indiana, but as delegates entered the convention city the dense Tilden sentiment smothered them. Even scandal did not appreciably weaken it.
[Footnote 1509: The National Democratic convention a.s.sembled on June 27 and 28.]
There was nothing mysterious about this strength. Tilden represented success. Without him disaster threatened--with him victory seemed certain. His achievement in administrative reform exaggerated Republican failure; his grasp upon New York, the most vital State of the North, magnified Democratic strength; his leaders.h.i.+p, based upon ideas and organisation, dwarfed political rivals; his acute legal mind, leading to the largest rewards in the realm of law, captivated business men; and his wealth, ama.s.sed in the field of railroad organisation and litigation, could fill Democracy's exchequer. Thus Tilden, standing less on the Democratic platform than on his own record, held the commanding position in his party, and the talk of his unpopularity or how he obtained wealth seemed to make as little impression as his professed devotion to the Wilmot Proviso in 1847, or his departure for a season from a lifelong pro-slavery record to bear a prominent part in the Barnburners' revolt of 1848. Indeed, so certain was Tilden of success that he did not ask for advices until after the nomination. James C. Carter of the New York bar, who happened at the time to be with him respecting legal matters, wondered at his unconcern. On their return from an evening drive Carter ventured to suggest that he would find telegrams announcing his nomination. ”Not until half-past nine,” Tilden replied.[1510]
[Footnote 1510: Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 1, p. 308.]
Nevertheless, the first call of States made the Tilden managers s.h.i.+ver.[1511] Alabama divided its vote, Colorado caused a murmur of disappointment, and the slump of Georgia and Illinois, with Missouri's division, threatened them with heart-failure. The South wabbled, and promised votes in the North found their way elsewhere. At the close of the first roll-call Missouri asked if its vote could be changed, and on receiving an affirmative answer, the Tilden men, pale with worried excitement, awaited the result. A change to Hanc.o.c.k at that moment would have been a serious calamity, for nearly one hundred votes separated Tilden from the necessary two-thirds. When Missouri declared for the New Yorker, however, the opportunity to turn the tide against him was lost forever. The second ballot undoubtedly represented his real strength.[1512] For second place Thomas A. Hendricks had no opposition.
[Footnote 1511: Francis Kernan presented Tilden's name very effectively.]
[Footnote 1512: First ballot. Necessary two-thirds, 492. Samuel J.
Tilden of New York, 404-1/2; Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, 133-1/2; Winfield Scott Hanc.o.c.k of Pennsylvania, 75; William Allen of Ohio, 56; Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, 27; Joel Parker of New Jersey, 18.
Second ballot: Tilden, 535; Hendricks, 60; Hanc.o.c.k, 59; Allen, 54; Bayard, 11; Parker, 18; Thurman of Ohio, 2.]