Volume III Part 47 (1/2)
CHAPTER x.x.xVI
CLEVELAND'S ENORMOUS MAJORITY
1881-2
While Conkling was being deposed, John Kelly, to whom responsibility attached for Hanc.o.c.k's defeat, also suffered the penalty of selfish leaders.h.i.+p.[1772] Although his standard of official honesty had always been as low as his standard of official responsibility, it never aroused violent party opposition until his personal resentments brought Democratic defeat. This cla.s.sified him at once as a common enemy. In vain did he protest as Tweed had done against being made a ”scape-goat.” His sentence was political death, and as a first step toward its execution, Mayor Cooper refused to reappoint him comptroller, an office which he had held for four years. Republican aldermen joined in confirming his successor. Similar treatment, accorded his office-holding a.s.sociates, stripped him of patronage except in the office of register.
[Footnote 1772: ”He wantonly sacrificed the Hanc.o.c.k ticket to his unscrupulous quest of local power. The Democracy here and elsewhere perfectly understand his perfidy, and they only await an opportunity for a reckoning. They intend to punish him and make an example of him as a warning to bolting renegades and traitors.”--New York _Herald_, November 5, 1880.]
Then his Democratic opponents proposed depriving him of control in conventions, and having failed to reorganise him out of Tammany (April, 1881), they founded the County Democracy. William C. Whitney, corporation counsel, Hubert O. Thompson, the young commissioner of public works, and other leaders of similar character, heading a Committee of One Hundred, became its inspiration. Under the Tammany system twenty-four men const.i.tuted the Committee on Organisation, while a few persons at any a.s.sembly primary might represent all the votes of the district. The new organisation proposed to make its Committee on Organisation consist of six hundred and seventy-eight members and to place the control of all nominations in the hands of the people. It was a catchy scheme and quickly became popular. To carry it into effect a public enrolment was made of the Democratic voters in each election district, who had an opportunity, by registering their names, to join the Election District Committee. When thus affiliated each one could vote for a member of the Committee on Organisation and for delegates to nominating conventions. On October 7 (1881) Abram S. Hewitt, chairman of the Committee of One Hundred, issued an address, declaring that the organisation had 26,500 enrolled members, and had elected delegates to attend the State convention which met at Albany on October 11.
Kelly did not attend the convention. On his way from the depot to the hotel he found the air too chilly and the speech of people far from complimentary. It was plain, also, that the crus.h.i.+ng defeat of Hanc.o.c.k had obliterated factional division in the up-State counties and that Daniel E. Manning was in control. Nevertheless, Tammany's delegates, without the slightest resemblance to penitents, claimed regularity.
The convention answered that the County Democracy appeared upon the preliminary roll. To make its rebuff more emphatic Rufus W. Peckham, in presenting the report on contested seats, briefly stated that the committee, by a unanimous vote, found ”the gentlemen now occupying seats ent.i.tled to them by virtue of their regularity.”[1773] Kelly's conceit did not blind his penetration to the fact that for the present, at least, he had reached his end.
[Footnote 1773: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1881, p. 655.
The State ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, William Purcell, Monroe; Comptroller, George H. Lapham, Yates; Attorney-General, Roswell A. Parmenter, Rensselaer; Treasurer, Robert A. Maxwell, Genesee; Engineer, Thomas Evershed, Orleans; Judge, Court of Appeals, Augustus Schoonmaker, Ulster.]
The Republican convention (October 5) proved not less harmonious.
Arthur had become President (September 19),[1774] Conkling did not appear, and Warner Miller's surprising vote for temporary chairman (298 to 190), sustaining the verdict of the Legislature in the prolonged senatorial struggle, completely silenced the Stalwarts.
Conkling's name, presented as a contesting delegate from Oneida, provoked no support, while Depew, whom the Senator a year earlier had sneeringly referred to as a ”creature of no influence,” became permanent chairman without opposition. In the selection of State candidates few organization men found favour.[1775] Finally, in their overconfidence the Independents carelessly postponed a resolution reorganising the party in New York City to an hour when their rural support had left the convention, and the most important business before it failed by five majority. ”Thus by sheer negligence,” said George William Curtis, ”the convention has left a formidable nucleus for the reconstruction of the machine which had been overthrown.”[1776]
The platform deplored the death of Garfield, expressed confidence in President Arthur, praised Cornell's wisdom, prudence, and economy, and insisted upon equal taxation of corporations and individuals.
[Footnote 1774: ”It was a common saying of that time among those who knew him best, '”Chet” Arthur, President of the United States! Good G.o.d!'”--White, _Autobiography_, Vol. 1, p. 193.]
[Footnote 1775: The ticket was as follows: Secretary of State, Joseph B. Carr, Rensselaer; Comptroller, Ira Davenport, Steuben; Attorney-General, Leslie W. Russell, St. Lawrence; Treasurer, James W.
Husted, Westchester; Engineer and Surveyor, Silas Seymour, Saratoga; Judge of the Court of Appeals, Francis M. Finch, Tompkins.]
[Footnote 1776: _Harper's Weekly_, October 15.]
Although the deep silence that characterised the October contest in Ohio pervaded the campaign in New York, Republicans believed that President Arthur, by the moderation and dignity of his course, had favourably impressed the public.[1777] His nomination of Postmaster General James and the tender of the Treasury to Edwin D. Morgan commanded universal approval. When Morgan declined, the nomination of Charles J. Folger, suggested by Morgan, added to his prestige. In fact, the most ardent champions of Garfield had taken little exception to the acts of the new Administration, and although Arthur's supporters had suffered defeat in convention, it was inferred that the President and his friends sincerely desired the triumph of their party. Moreover, the action of Tammany and the County Democracy in nominating separate local tickets had stimulated Republican confidence. It meant that Kelly, in his inevitable desire to defeat his enemy, would trade, combine, and descend to other underhand jobbery, which usually benefited the opposite party.
[Footnote 1777: ”I dined at the President's on Wednesday. The dinner was extremely elegant, hardly a trace of the old White House taint being perceptible anywhere, the flowers, the silver, the attendants, all showing the latest style and an abandon in expense and taste.”--Mrs. James G. Blaine, _Letters_ (March 13, 1882), Vol. 2, pp.
4, 5.]
However, the harmony blandly predicted did not appear. James W. Husted was overwhelmingly defeated, while his party, for the first time in twelve years, lost both branches of the Legislature.[1778] This amazing disclosure exhibited the bitter animosity of faction. In Albany, Erie, Oneida, and Oswego counties, Stalwart and Independent resolutely opposed each other, even to the point in some instances of supporting the Democratic ticket.
[Footnote 1778: Plurality of Carr, secretary of state, 13,022. Other Republicans had about the same, except Husted, whom Maxwell, treasurer, defeated by 20,943. The Legislature stood: Senate, Democrats, 17; Republicans, 15. a.s.sembly, Democrats, 67; Republicans, 61.]
On the other hand, the County Democracy was exultant. In spite of the combined opposition of Tammany and Irving Hall, the Whitney organisation carried the county by several thousand majority, securing four of the seven senators, twelve of the twenty-four a.s.semblymen, and twelve of the twenty-two aldermen. This left Tammany absolutely without patronage. It was not unnatural that many of Kelly's co-workers should doubt the possibility of longer working harmoniously under his leaders.h.i.+p, and the great secession of prominent men from Tammany after the formation of the County Democracy created little surprise. But that the movement should include the rank and file was an astonis.h.i.+ng revelation.
Nevertheless, Kelly, gathering up his three senators and eight a.s.semblymen, carried the war to Albany. Strangely enough Republican discord had given him the balance of power in each legislative body, and until the Democrats acceded to his terms (February 2) the a.s.sembly remained without a speaker.[1779] Two weeks later, upon the announcement of the a.s.sembly committees, Tammany, declaring its agreement violated, joined the Republicans in modifying the rules of the Senate so as to permit the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint its committees and complete its organisation.
[Footnote 1779: Kelly demanded the chairmans.h.i.+p of cities in both Houses, a satisfactory composition of the committees on railroads and on commerce and navigation, a share in the subordinate offices, and the exclusion of John C. Jacobs of Kings from the presidency of the Senate.]
No one knowing Kelly expected him to act otherwise. Nor can it be seriously doubted that he fully expected the Democracy, at the very next opportunity, to make substantial concessions. At all events Kelly presented with great confidence Tammany's claims to representation in the State convention which a.s.sembled at Syracuse on September 22 (1882).[1780] He knew it was a critical moment for the Democracy. The poverty of the Republican majority in the preceding election, and the Administration's highhanded efforts to defeat Cornell for renomination, seemed to put the State within the grasp of a united party. Yet the Tilden leaders, although divided among themselves, shrank from giving him power. This feeling was intensified by the renewed activity of the old ca.n.a.l ring. The presence, too, of Stephen T. Arnot of Chemung, who served as a member of the Kelly State Committee in 1879, added to their hostility. Indeed, so p.r.o.nounced was the resentment that on the first day of the convention Tammany was refused tickets of admission.
[Footnote 1780: The Greenback-Labour party held its convention at Albany on July 19, nominating Epenetus Howe of Tompkins, for governor.