THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 329.6 Sm\b net Varn WA © a i / Jas ? CENTRAL CIRCULATION BOOKSTACKS The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its renewal or its return to the library from which it was borrowed - on or before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a minimum fee of $75.00 for each lost book. = Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. : TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN UAN 0 4 1964 all sol aot a> weer FEB 0 2 1999 When renewing by phone, write new due date below - previous due date. L162. | . NS Aa LN SEA Z LZLLA LEE Le. FIG: \) \ I) \) \ )) NYY AN. NN SS we WS AINE. BL JAMES G npn Pee _- | NEW YORK: ag OHN B. “ALDEN, PUBLISHER. Copyright, 1884, by EuGENE V. SMALLEY. INTRODUCTION. THE purpose of tnis work is to describe very briefly the origin, rise, and growth of the Republican Party, its great achieve- | J ments in moulding public opinion, and its important work of administration and legislation. Sincethe party was formed, a new generation of voters has come upon the stage of political action, to whom its early history is little more than a tradition. A brief résumé of that history must. be interesting and instruc- _ tive to these young Republicans who have taken up the work = of the party and are to carry it on after all its founders have ; passed away, and its older members can hardly fail to find some _ pleasure and profit in reviewing the story of its organization “and victories. No party ever had such arecord. It has freed “ admission of California would place the free States in the majority of one. It was therefore vehe- mently opposed by the representatives of the slave power. Many slave States threatened secession if the new State should be admitted without some concessions to secure the equality of the South in the future. They demanded a recognition of their claim that slavery should not be prohibited in the Territories 18 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. or its existence be made an objection to the admission of a new ~ State. They also demanded a guarantee against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and a stringent fugitive- slave law. The contest in Congress lasted nearly two years, and was finally settled by what was known as the Compromise of 1850. Zachary Taylor, who though a slaveholder did not sympa- thize with the extreme Southern view, had died before the con- troversy culminated, and Millard Fillmore, his successor, openly .espoused the side of the pro-slavery leaders. The compromise was advocated by Henry Clay, and received, also, the support of the great Northern Whig leader, Daniel Webster, who aban- doned his anti-slavery position and went over, with his great intellect and influence to the side of the slaveholders. His action divided the Whig party in the North and practically gaveitadeath-blow. Wm. H. Seward became the leader of the anti-slavery Whigs. The compromise of 1850 admitted Cali- fornia with its free constitution, and left for future settlement the status of the rest of the conquered territory in respect to slavery; rejected the Wilmot Proviso, and paid Texas $10,000,- 000 for a visionary claim to the Territory of New Mexico; pro- hibited slave auctions in the District of Columbia, and enacted the fugitive-slave law. This law shocked the moral sense of the more intelligent portion of the American people and exerted a powerful influence in preparing men’s minds for the advent of the Republican Party. It provided for the return of alleged fugitives without trial by jury, allowing their captors to take them before a United States Commissioner, who was empow- ered to remand them on the ea-parte depositions of the slave- catchers. The Commissioners were paid ten doJlars in case they directed the return of the alleged fugitive, and five dollars if, for any cause, they decided against the claimant. In effect, therefore, they were offered a bribe to order the return of the person claimed asa slave. Slave-catchers were authorized to summon bystanders to their aid, and all good citizens were commanded to assist in the arrest of alleged fugitive slaves. The law, in effect, ordered the people of the North to turn slave- catchers themselves, and threatened them with heavy penal- ties in case they harbored or assisted fugitives. Several cases of extreme brutality arose from the execution of this law. Professional slave-hunters invaded the North and captured col- ored persons without much regard to whether they had run away from slavery or not. In some cases there was resistance : \ HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 19 ot the part of the people, and trials occurred which served to increase the irritation in the public mind. The law was vehe- mently denounced by thé anti-slavery Whigs, the anti-slavery Democrats, and the Free Soilers, and the Abolitionists found in it a new text for the crusade they preached with so much earn- estness and self-denial against the ‘‘sum of all villainies.” Some of the Northern State¥ passed what were knownas ‘‘ Per- sonal Liberty Bills,” practically nullifying the fugitive-slave law and punishing as kidnappers persons who sought to carry off alleged slaves without trial by jury. These personal liberty bills furnished a notable illustration of the powerlessness of theories of government, when human rights are involved. Hitherto the slave States had alone maintained extreme State rights doctrines, but now the free States practically asserted. such doctrines in their legislation hostile to the Federal au- thority. The personal liberty bills set at naught the authority of the United States so far asit was sought to be exercised in the enforcement of the fugitive-slavelaw. They asserted the right of the State to protect the people within her borders from arrest and imprisonment without trial and from being carried off as slaves. They fell back upon the clause in the Consti- tution which says: ‘‘In any suits at common law, whereof the value of the controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.” Fugitives were claimed to be property exceeding that value, and it was asserted that they © could not be deprived of their liberty without a jury trial. Public agitation against the fugitive-slave law increased from year to year, and it finally became impracticable in most parts of the North, save in the great cities, to reclaim fugi- tives. Not only was this the case, but associations were -formed in many parts of the North for the purpose of aiding slaves to escape to Canada. The lines over which the fugi- tives were forwarded by day and by night, by the anti- slavery people, were known as the ‘“‘ Underground Railroad.” Many thousands of negroes escaped from the border States to Canada by the aid of this institution, and became industrious ‘and valuable citizens of the British dominions. — 20 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, CHAPTER VII. CAMPAIGN OF 1852—DEFEAT OF THE WHIG PARTY. THE Whig and Democratic Parties had been fully committed by the action of their representatives in Congress to the en- dorsement of the compromise measures of 1850, and it was evi- dent before their national conventions met in 1852 that they would rival each other in professions of fidelity to those meas- ures. Indeed, a public pledge had been signed by Henry Clay, Howell Cobb, and about fifty other members of Congress, of both parties, agreeing to abide by the compromise as a final adjustment of the controversy between the free and slave States. The Democratic Convention surprised the country by dropping General Cass, James Buchanan, and Stephen A. Doug- las, who were the leading candidates for the nomination, and taking up Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, a man almost unknown outside of his own State. On the 50th ballot Pierce was nominated. Wm. R. King of Alabama, was nominated for Vice-President on the second ballot. The convention declared that the compromise of 1850 was a finality and that the Demo- cratic Party would resist all attempts at renewing the agitation of the slavery question. The Whig National Convention nomi- nated General Winfield Scott for President. The other candi- dates were Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster. Scott was nominated on the 52d ballot, and Wm. O. Graham of North Carolina was put on the ticket for Vice-President. The plat- form endorsed the compromise of 1850, including the fugitive- slave law, and declared that the system it established was es- sential to the nationality of the Whig Party and the integrity of the Union. The Whigs went into the canvass with a good ~ deal of apparent vigor, but before the close it was evident that the poison of slavery had sapped the vitality of the party. The Free Soilers met at Pittsburgh, in August, and nomi- nated John P. Hale of New Hampshire, for President, and Geo. W. Julian of Indiana, for Vice-President. Their platform was opposition to the extension of slavery and their battle-cry was ‘‘ Free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.” In some States the supporters of Hale and Julian took the name of Free Democrats, in others they called themselves, Free Soil Demo- crats, and in still others, simply Free Soilers, They did not HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 21 poll as ‘arge a vote as in 1848. Numbers of New York Demo- crats who then voted for Van Buren, returned to their old allegiance. They had, however, a pretty effective organization in all of the Northern States, sustained a number of influential newspapers, and placed in the field many able stump-speakers. Most of their vote was drawn from the Whigs. The result of the election was that the Democrats carried all the States in the Union except Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, choosing 254 electors. General Scott received only 42 electoral votes. -The popular vote was, Pierce, 1,601,474; Scott, 1,386,578; Hale, 156,149. The disaster to the Whigs was so overwhelming that it killed their party. They kept up some form of an organization for four years more, but it was merely ashadow. The party had no longer an excuse for living. Its former principles of a protective tariff and a wise system of internal improvements had very little hold upon the public mind. The country was rapidly dividing on the slavery question, and as the Democratic party was generally recognized to be the principal ally of the slave power, there was no room for another organization not definitely opposed to that power. The dead party was sincerely mourned, particularly by a class of its adherents in the North, represented by Wm. H. Seward and Horace Greely, who had hoped to lead it over to anti- slavery ground. It was also regretted by a considerable ele- ment of educated and conservative people in the South, sin- cérely attached to the Union, and apprehensive of great dan- gers to the peace of the country from the extreme ground taken on the slavery question by the Democrats. The disap- pearance of the Whigs as an organization from the field of pol- itics opened the way for the formation of the Republican Party; a new and formidable agency, which will be described in the next chapter, coming in to complete the work. CHAPTER VIII. RISE AND FALL OF THE KNOW-NOTHING OR AMERICAN PARTY. BETWEEN the years 1853 and 1855 there suddenly arose a party of phenomenal growth and extraordinary ideas. It took for itself thename of the American Party, but its members were generally known by the popular slang term of ‘‘ Know-Noth- ings,” which they did not themselves object to. They were —— 92 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. organized into secret lodges, with pass-words and grips, and were sworn to vote for no one for a public office who was not a native. They proposed that citizenship should not be con- ferred, so far as the right of voting was concerned, until after twenty-one years’ residence. They were peculiarly hostile to the Catholics, and claimed that the priests of that Church con- trolled the votes of their parishioners. The growth of this new organization was marvellous. It spread like wild-fire over the country and before it was two years old managed to carry many important local and State elections. It must not be sup- posed, however, that it was absolutely without roots in the past. Native Americanism, as a sentiment, had existed since about the year 1830, and had in several localities in the East assumed at different periods the form of political organizations. It rested on a not unreasonable apprehension of the growing power of the foreign element in the large cities of the country. This element, in great part ignorant of our system of govern- ment, frequently banded together to carry municipal elections, and placed objectionable persons in office. When the idea of nativism spread to the whole country and became the basis of a national party it was illogical and unpatriotic, because the growth of the United States had been largely the result of for- eign immigration and a great part of its wealth had been pro- duced by the labors of.its foreign-born citizens. Many of these citizens were men of marked intellectual and moral worth, who had studied thoroughly the American system of free gov- ernment, and had come to this country to escape the despotic limitations of life in the Old World. In seeking to exclude such men from voting and holding office in the land of their adoption the Know-Nothing movement was evidently unjust. The rapid spread of the secret Know-Nothing lodges cannot be accounted for by the principles of ordinary political action. A study of the laws of mind which govern the propagation of intellectual delusions, and produce phenomenal movements in the world of religion as well as of politics, would be necessary for a philosophical treatment of the matter. Undoubtedly, the decay of the Whig party had much to do with the rise of this new movement. Men were suddenly cut adrift from their old party associations. In this situation they easily became a prey to a movement which had the fascination of secrecy and laid claims to lofty motives of patriotism. The Know-Nothing party culminated in 1855. It nominated Millard Fillmore for President in 1856, but it was already on the wane at that time, HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. kala and shortly afterwards the slavery question so completely ab- sorbed the public mind that Know-Nothingism subsided as rapidly as it had risen, and in a single year disappeared from the field of politics. It played a part of some importance in the work of forming the Republican Party, by making a sort -of bridge upon which many old Whigs crossed over to that-or- ganization. CHAPTER IX. THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES AND THEIR WORK. BEFORE proceeding with the chronological order of our nar- rative, it is time that we should pause for a moment to consider the work of the anti-slavery societies in the North. Their members were few in numberand were usually despised by the masses of the people as impractical theorists and negro-worship- ers, who threatened the tranquility of the country and the permanence of the Union; but they were men of earnest con- victions and lofty moral purpose, who, by their tireless exer- tions, gradually wore into the Northern mind a conception of the atrocity of slavery. These societies were strongest in New Eng- land, on the Western Reserve of Ohio, and in the Quaker com- munities of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. They supported a number of eloquent public lecturers, who traversed the country and addressed meetings in school houses, churches, and in the open air. Often these orators were received with opprobrium and insult; sometimes they were brutally treated by angry mobs; but they kept on heroically with their noble task. The condi- tion of public sentiment in the North on the slavery question, prior to 1850, can scarcely be understood by the present genera- tion. Even the church organizations were, as arule, bitterly hos- tile to all forms of anti-slavery agitation. The Abolitionists, as the anti-slavery men were generally called, were looked upon as no better than criminals. A bigoted, unreasoning, and often brutal devoteeism to the slavery system had taken possession of the public mind, and whoever questioned the constitutionality or perpetuity of that system ran the risk of ostracism in his social and business relations, and if he publicly advocated his ideas, actually took his lifein his own hands. This sentiment caused the anti-slavery men to draw closely together for mutual en- - couragement and assistance. They believed in the sacred humanity of their work. Their lecturers were entertained like 24 _ HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. brethren at the homes of the members of the society wher- ever they went, and every anti-slavery man regarded every other anti-slavery man in the light of a near personal friend. In some parts of the country, they held annual conventions under tents or in groves. A number of newspapers advocated their ideas, chief among which was the Liberator, published in Boston by Wiliam Lloyd Garrison, who was generally recognized as the head of the movement. Horace Greeley, in his ‘‘Ameri- can Conflict,” divided the opponents of slavery in the period preceding the formation of the Republican Party into four classes: 1. The Garrisonians, who regarded the Federal Constitution as ‘‘a covenant with deathand an agreement with hell.” They pledged themselves to wage against slavery an unrelenting war, to regard and proclaim the equal and inalienable rights of every innocent human being as inferior or subordinate to no other, and to repudiate all creeds, rituals, constitutions, governments, and parties that rejected these fundamental truths. They gen- erally declined to vote, believing the Government and all politi- cal parties so corrupted by slavery that no one could take any part in politics without moral defilement. 2. The members of the Liberty Party who, regarding the Federal Constitution as essentially anti-slavery, swore with good conscience to uphold it and to support only candidates whowere distinctly, determinedly, and permanently champions of liberty for-all. 3. Various small sects and parties which occupied a middle ground between the above positions, agreeing with the latter in interpreting and revering the Constitution as consistently anti-slavery, while refusing with the former to vote. 4, A large and steadily increasing class who, though decid- edly anti-slavery, refused either to withhold their votes or to throw them away on candidates whose election was impossible, but persisted in voting at nearly every election so as to effect good and prevent evil to the extent of their power. The influence of all the various forms of anti-slavery agita- tion in opening the way for the advent of the Republican Party, and laying the foundation for that great organization, can scarcely be overstated. i HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 95 CHAPTER X. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. THE result of the election of 1852 was to place the Democrats in complete control of the National Government. They had the President and a large majority in both houses of Con- gress. Their party was now completely dominated by the pro- slavery element. Franklin Pierce had been nominated by Southern votes and was wholly subservient to the slave power. - In spite of the professions of the Democrats in their platform of 1852, in which they declared the compromise measures of 1850 to be a finality, settling forever the contest between the free and the slave States, Congress had scarcely met in 1853 before the South began to agitate for the repeal of the prohibi- tion of slavery north of the line of 36 degrees 30 minutes. ~The vast plains lying beyond the States of Iowa and Missouri were known to be fertile and adapted for settlement. To remove the Indian tribes occupying them and make out of the region two new slave States, thus flanking the free States on the west and securing for slavery all of the vast region beyond the Missouri River, was the ambitious scheme of the Southern leaders. It mattered not that the faith of the South had been pledged, first by the compromise of 1820 and then by that of 1850, adopted as a final settlement of the slavery agitation. The pro-slavery _ leaders felt their power and determined to exercise it. After a _ tremendous struggle in both houses of Congress, they passed a bill repealing the prohibition of 1820, and opening all of the new Northwesttoslavery. Theextremepro-slavery Democrats asserted that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the ter- ritory of the United States. They further asserted that the _ people of the new Territory had no power themselves, by their own territorial statutes, to interfere with the holding of slave property. A more moderate wing of the party, headed by Stephen A. Douglas, broached what was known as the popular sovereignty doctrine, which was that the people of the Terri- tories should themselves decide whether they would have free or slave States, and that Congress had no authority to inter- -fere with them. Abraham Lincoln once characterized this doctrine as, in effect, that one man had the right to enslave 26 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. another, but a third man had no right to interfere. Mr. Doug- las’s position prevailed, and the act organizing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, passed in 1854, permitted the intro- duction of slaves into those Territories and left the people free to regulate their domestic institutions in their own way. The passage of this act created intense public excitement in the North. It was regarded as a breach of faith on the part of the South and as the forerunner of measures designed to extend slavery over the wholecountry. Inevery Northern State large numbers of men of influence broke loose from the old political organizations, and were styled ‘‘Anti-Nebraska Men.” Public meetings were held denouncing the measure, anda great popular movement, hostile to the encroachment of slavery, arose spon- taneously on a wave of excitement which swept over the entire North. The Territory of Nebraska was too far away from the slave States to be occupied to any great extent by emigrants from the South, but a fierce struggle took place for the possession of the Territory of Kansas. Armed men from Missouri moved over the border at once to occupy the region and keep out Northern immigrants. The Indian titles were quickly extin- guished by the Democratic administration and the public lands thrown open for settlement. The first party of immigrants from the free States were visited by an armed mob and ordered to leave the Territory. The spirit of the North was fully aroused, however, and thousands of brave, intelligent men went to Kansas, determined to make it a free State. A contest ensued which lasted for several years, and was generally called at the time ‘‘the Border Ruffian War.” Reckless and lawless men from the Missouri border harassed the Northern settlers. Many free State men were brutally murdered. The town of Lawrence was sacked and burned in part by an armed force of pro-slavery men. A regiment of wild young men from the South was re- cruited in Alabama by Colonel Buford, and invaded the Terri- tory for the avowed purpose of subjugating the Northern settlers. The North supported her emigrants with fresh re- enforcements and with consignments of rifles and ammunition. Numerous encounters occurred with more or less loss of life. At the village of Ossawatomie, a pitched battle was fought, wherein 28 Free State men led by John Brown defeated, on the open prairie, 56 Border Ruffians led by Captain Pate of Vir- ginia. _ In the struggle for Kansas, the South fought against the laws of nature. Very little of the territory was adapted for the HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. o7 raising of cotton, and slavery had been found profitable only in the cotton regions. Few emigrants from the South went with their negroes to the new Territory, while resolute Northern farmers and mechanics poured in year after year in large num- bers. The slave power then undertook to secure possession of Kansas by fraud. At the first election for a Territorial Legis- lature, thousands of Missourians crossed the Kansas border and voted. The Free State men disregarded this election, held another, and organized a legislature of their own, so that for a time there were two legislatures in session. In the same manner, two State Constitutions were formed, one at Lecomp- ton, by a convention composed of members chosen in great part by fraudulent Missouri votes, and one at Lawrence, by a ‘convention representing the anti-slavery settlers of the Terri- ‘tory. The administration at Washington endeavored to force the pro-slavery Constitution upon the people. Great efforts were made to this end through the agency of the Federal office- holders in the Territory, supported by detachments of. Federal troops, and these efforts were abandoned only when it became evident that the Free State men were in an overwhelming majority and were determined to have their rights. The Kan- sas War finally degenerated into a series of plundering raids by parties of Missourians, but these in time became too haz- ardous to be continued. Some Democrats in Congress opposed the course of the administration toward Kansas and were called Anti-Lecompton Democrats, but the bulk of the party stood steadily on the side of the South. Kansas, with its free Con- stitution, was refused admission to the Union. Every incident of the long struggle in Kansas was promptly reported in the Northern papers, and the anti-slavery element followed the conflict with intense interest, and looked ‘upon the men who took their lives in their hands and went to the new Territory to secure it for freedom as heroes of a just and patriotic cause. It was the Kansas and Nebraska Bill and the struggle between freedom and slavery beyond the Missouri which finally crystallized the anti-slavery sentiment of the North into the organization known as the Republican Party. 98 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER XI. THE OSTEND MANIFESTO, THE DRED SCOTT DECISION, aD THe ATTACK ON CHARLES SUMNER. THREE events occurring in the period we are now describing contributed powerfully towards increasing the alarm in the North at the purposes and spirit of the slave power. In August, 1854, Secretary of State William L. Marcy secretly directed James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule, our minis- ters at London, Paris, and Madrid, respectively, to meet in some European city and confer about the best method of get- ting possession of Cuba. The conference took place at Ostend, and resulted in a dispatch to our Government, known as the ‘‘Ostend Manifesto,” which recommended the immediate pur- chase of Cuba, and threatened Spain with a forcible seizure of — the island in case she should refuse to sell it. The purpose of the Cuban annexation scheme thus developed was to prevent the island from ever becoming a free republic like San Domin- go, and to make out of it one or more slave States to re-enforce the slave power in Congress. Nothing came of the manifesto, save the resulting anger of Kuropean nations and the increased determination created in the North to oppose the schemes of the pro-slavery leaders. -The Supreme Court of the United States at this time was thoroughly in sympathy with the projects of the pro-slavery Democracy. The leaders of that party determined by a bold stroke to cut the Gordian knot of controversy as to the power of the Government over slavery in the Territories, and for this purpose they procured from the court what was: known as the Dred Scott decision. Dred Scott was a negro belonging to an army officer who had taken him into a free State. This act en- titled the slave to his liberty, and when he was afterward taken back to Missouri he suéd for his freedom. The case was carried up to the Supreme Court, anda majority of the judges decided that persons of African blood were never thought of or spoken of except as property when the Constitution was formed, and were not referred to by the Declaration of Independence, which says that all men are created free and entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Such persons, the court de- clared, had no status as citizens, could not sue in any court, and were so far inferior that they had no rights that a white HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 33 Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, on the 17th of October, with an armed force consisting of 17 white men and 5 negroes. The invad- ers tore up the railroad track, cut the telegraph wires, and took possession of the United States Armory; doing this by the authority of God Almighty, they said. Brown issued a proc- ~ lamation calling upon the slaves of the South to rise and de- mand their liberty. The frightened inhabitants of the place appealed to the State authorities to come to their aid, and the State called upon the General Government. A force of United States marines was promptly despatched to Harper’s Ferry, and a large body of Virginia militia was soon on the ground. Brown and his followers defended themselves in the armory ‘building. A sharp conflict ensued. Hemmed in on all sides, - Brown sent out a flag of truce, but the bearer, Stephens, was instantly shot down by the Virginians. One of Brown’s men was captured by the Virginia militia, dragged out upon the ~ railroad bridge, and shotin cold blood. Four of Brown’s party attempted to escape by crossing the river, but three were mortal- ly wounded. Brown made his last stand in an engine house, where he repulsed his assailants, who lost two killed and six wounded. The fight went onall day ; at night Brown’s forces were reduced to three unwounded whites besides himself. Hight of his men, including two of his sons, were already dead, another lay dying, and two were captives, mortally wounded. Next morning the marines charged the engine house, battered down the door, and captured Brown with his surviving followers. The pur- pose of the raid upon Harper’s Ferry was to stimulate an insur- rectionary movement throughout the South. Brown had drawn up a sketch for a provisional government, and had nominated several of his followers to the principal executive offices. He was held a prisoner for about six weeks, tried at Charlestown, _Virginia, and hanged on the 2d day of December, exhibiting to the last a heroic fortitude and an exalted frame of mind which won for him the admiration of even his bitter enemies, the Virginians, and excited deep sympathy throughout the North. The South was profoundly stirred by this invasion, insignifi- cant as it was in its dimensions and its results. The Southern people, in their excited frame of mind, undoubtedly believed that the John Brown raid had the endorsement of the Repub- lican Party of the North, and was the beginning of an effort to destroy slavery by inciting the slaves to a general insurrection. The horrible history of the San Domingo massacre had always been a terror to the Southern people, anda rumor of a negro 34 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN “PARTY. rising had, on several occasions in the past, sufficed to throw them in a convulsive state of anger and apprehension. It was not strange, therefore, that an effort to. organize an insurrec- tion, led by courageous white men from the North, should provoke their fiercest animosity. _ John Brown had few apologists though a great many sym- pathizers in the North. His movement was his own secret and was not abetted by any body of anti-slavery men. Just how great an influence it exercised on the subsequent history of the country it would, of course, be impossible to measure, but the feelings it produced and the memories it left in the South were a principal agency in inclining the Southern people to separate from the North and set up a Government of their own. A book published about this time on the slavery question added to the irritation in the South. It was called ‘‘ The Im- pending Crisis,” and its author was Hinton R. Helper, a North Carolinian, who had migrated to California. The book was addressed to the slaveholding whites of the South, and was a powerful argument, re-enforced by statistics drawn from United States census reports, to prove that slavery cursed the industries of the Southern States. The poverty of those States in respect to accumulated wealth and agricultural products in comparison with the States of the North, was forcibly set forth and the non-slaveholding Southern whites were urged to throw off the control of the small minority of slaveholders and take the affairs of their States into their own hands. The circula- tion of this book was everywhere prohibited in the South. It was regarded as an incendiary document, although it contained nothing but calm reasoning and indisputable statistics. Several Republican members of the House signed a letter endorsing the volume, and their conduct was made the subject of an acrimo- - nious discussion. At one time a resolution came near passing, affirming that no man who recommended the book was fit to be Speaker of the House. ‘‘The Impending Crisis” had an im- mense sale, and though its effect in the South was only to ag- gravate the pro-slavery feeling, it opened the eyes of many — people in the North to the blighting effect of slavery upon — industry, manufactures, and trade, HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 35 CHAPTER XIV. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860. THE Republicans were not discouraged by their defeat in 1856. They saw that if they had carried the States of Penn- sylvania and Indiana they would have succeeded, and felt thet they had formed what was destined to be the great party of the ‘future, and that their principles would prevailin time. The promulgation of the Dred Scott decision immediately after the . inauguration of Mr. Buchanan gave new vigor to the Republican cause, showing as it did that the pro-slavery party intended to fully subjugate the whole country and make of it a vast slave empire. The conduct of Buchanan in continuing the efforts oz Pierce to force slavery upon the Territory of Kansas kept alive ‘the discussion of the question of the freedom of the Territories until the next Presidential election. Buchanan was as subservi- ent to the Southas Pierce had been. His administration was controlled by ultra pro-slavery men, who directed its energies to carrying out the schemes of the slave power. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas contested the State of Illinois for the United States Senatorship, and made a memorable canvass which attracted great attention through- out the country. Douglas advocated what was known as his squatter sovereignty policy, which was that Congress should abstain from all legislation as to slavery in the Territories and allow the people to settle the question for themselves. Mr. Lin- coln advocated the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slav- _ery in the Territories. Although Lincoln had a majority of the popular vote, Douglas had a majority in the Legislature and was elected. The South was not satisfied with the Douglas squatter sovereignty plan, the theory of the pro-slavery leaders being that slavery could not be prohibited in the Territories by any power whatever. This theory was repugnant to a great ~ majority of the Democrats of the North, and the conflict between it and the Douglas theory led to a disruption of the Democratic party. The Democratic national convention met at Charleston, on the 28d of April, 1860, and immediately got into a heated controversy upon the subject of slavery. Finally, by a close vote, it was resolved that as differences had existed in the party as tothe nature and extent of the powers of the Territorial Leg- islatures and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the 36 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, Constitution, over the institution of slavery within the Terri- tories, the Democratic party would abide by the decision of the Supreme Court on the question of constitutional law. This exceedingly guarded and neutral declaration angered the~- Southern delegates, and most of them withdrew from the con- vention. An adjournment was carried until the 18th of June, when the convention reassembled in Baltimore. The seceding delegates met and adopted an extreme pro-slavery platform, and adjourned to assemble in Richmond June 11th. The regu-, lar convention reassembled in Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, for President, and Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, for Vice-President. Fitzpatrick subsequently de- clined, and Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was substituted by the National Committee. The Baltimore Convention affirmed Douglas’ squatter sovereignty theory. The Bolting Convention met in Richmond and adjourned to meet again in Baltimore, June 23d, when it adopted the Charleston platform and nomi. — nated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President. A new party, composed mainly of former members of the now dead American party in the South and a few stubborn old Whigs in the North, was formed at Baltimore May 9th. It took the name of the Constitutional Union party, and nominated for President John Bell, of Tennessee, and for Vice-President Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. This party declared that it recognized no political principles other than the Constitution of the country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws. This last phrase was intended to refer to the Fugitive- Slavelaw. The Republican National Convention met in Chicago May 16th; 1860. It was generally supposed, prior to the meet- ing of the convention, that William H. Seward would be nomi- nated for President. He was recognized as the chief leader of the new party, and its greatest teacher on the political bear- ings of slavery. His principal competitor was Abraham Lin- — coln, of Illinois. The other candidates were Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Edward Bates, of Missouri, William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, John McLean, of Ohio, and Jacob Collamer, of Vermont. Mr. Seward led on the first and second ballot, but the argument that he would not be a popular candidate in the’ States of Pennsylvania, In- diana, and Illinois—the States lost by the Republicans in 1856 —led to the nomination of Lincoln on the third ballot. _Hanni- | bal Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for Vice-President. The HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 39 platform was substantially that adopted in 1856. Its chief -planks were those referring to slavery in the Territories. It declared freedom to be the normal condition of the Territories, and denounced the new dogma that the Constitution, with its ‘own force, carried slavery there. In the campaign of 1860 the Republicans were united and confident, while the Democrats were divided into two factions, which fought each other about as vigorously as they did their common enemy. These factions were known by the name of their leaders, one being called Douglas Democrats, and the other Breckinridge Democrats. There were few Douglas men in the South and few Breckinridge men in the North. The strength of the new Constitutional Union party was almost wholly confined to the South. Every free State but New Jersey was carried by the Republicans, and in New Jersey the refusal of a part of the Douglas men to support the fusion ticket al- lowed four of the Lincoln electors toslip in. The electoral vote was divided as follows: Lincoln, 180, allfrom the North; Breck- - inridge, 72, all from the South; Bell, 39, from Virginia, Ken- tucky, and Tennessee; and Douglas, 12, from Missouri and New Jersey. The popular vote was, Lincoln, 1,857,610; Douglas, - 1,291,574; Breckinridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124. The very large vote given to Mr. Douglas was due, in some part, to his personal popularity. Hewas the idol of the Demo- cratic party of the North, and had the South chosen to give him its support, instead of seceding from the convention and nominating Breckinridge, he would probably have been — elected President. With his comparatively moderate views on the subject of slavery, which were becoming more and more modified in the right direction as he saw the tendency of the pro-slavery leaders, it is not unlikely that he would have averted. _ or at least postponed the war. _— CHAPTER XV. SHCESSION—-REBELLION—W AR. As soon as the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was known to be beyond dispute, movements for seceding from the Union - began in the South. The Southern leaders did not wait to learn what the policy of the new administration would be, but made haste to break the relations of their States with the Union te 388 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. and to form a separate government, under the title of the Con- federate States of America. As early as December, 1860, South Carolina seceded; other States followed during the winter, and in February, 1861, acomplete Rebel government was organized at Montgomery and a Rebel army put into the field. A con- siderable party in the Southern States, composed mostly of old Whigs, opposed secession, but were overpowered by the more active, unscrupulous, and determined supporters of the move- ment. During the session of Congress just prior to Mr. Lin- coln’s inauguration great efforts were made in the way of con- ciliatory propositions to induce the Southern States not to re- nounce their allegiance to the Union. The Republicans were willing to go to the farthest extent possible not involving the vital principle of their party that the Territories ofthe United States were free soil by virtue of the Constitution. The plan known as the Crittenden Compromise received a large vote in both Houses, although opposed by most Republicans. Its prin- cipal provision was that all of the territory north of latitude 36 degrees and 30 minutes should forever be free, and that all of the territory south of that line should be given up to slavery, — ‘Senator Anthony, a Republican, was willing to admit New Mexico as a slave State, because slavery already existed there, but this was as far as he or any other Republican proposed to go concerning the disputed question of the condition of the Territories. A series of resolutions, accompanied by a consti- tutional amendment, passed both Houses, however, guarantee- ing slavery in the States where it existed against any interfer- ence on the part of the Federal Government, and recommending the Northern States which had passed iaws obstructing the re- covery of fugitives to repeal them. A Peace Conference, invited by the Legislature of Virginia, sat in Washington in February. Thirteen Northern States and seven Southern States were rep- resented. Its propositions had no effect in staying the rising tide of rebellion. The Southern leaders had fully made up their minds to dissolve the Union, and although many of them remained in Congress up to the time of Lincoln’s inauguration, they did so avowedly for the purpose of resisting legislation which might be hostile to their section. It is not the purpose of this work to trace the history of the war for the preservation of the Union further than is necessary to show the action of the political parties concerning its prose- cution. The Republican party was the war party from the beginning to the end of the struggle, holding the Union to be war HAISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 39 a perpetual bond, and not a league of States which could be dissolved at the pleasure of any of its members. It also held that the Republic was indestructible, and that the duty of the United States Government was to enforce obedience to its authority. The Democratic party in the North was in an extremely awkward predicament when the storm of war burst upon the country. Fora whole generation it had maintained the theory of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, that the States were sovereign and were themselves the judges of the constitution- ality of the Federal laws and acts. Out of this theory grew logically another, that the Government had no right to coerce sovereign States. This was the theory upon which Mr. Bu- chanan’s administration proceeded during the three months in which the Rebellion organized itself throughout the South. It - continued to be held by a considerable portion of the Northern Democracy, but the patriotic feeling which followed the attack upon Fort Sumter caused it to be exceedingly unpopular for a while, and it was rarely avowed in public during the first year of the war. For a time there was but one political party in the North, and that was the party of the Union. As the war went on, however, and it became evident that it was going to be a long struggle and no holiday parade, as many had imag- ined, the Democrats took courage and reorganized their party as an anti-administration party. They did not avowedly op- pose the prosecution of the war at that time; some of them, indeed, insisted that if they were in power they would push it more vigorously, but the spirit of their movement was one of dissatisfaction with the contest. In 1862, after the disaster to our armies on the Peninsula and at the second battle of Bull Run, a feeling of discontent arose throughout the North which took the form of hostility to the Republican party in the fall elections of that year. The Democrats carried the great cen- _tral belt of States beginning with New York and ending at the Mississippi River. Fortunately, in only one State was there a Governor to be elected. This was in the State of New York, where the Democrats chose Horatio Seymour, by the aid of enormous election frauds committed in the City of New York. The Republicans were barely able to secure a majority in the new House, and were for a time greatly discouraged by their reverses and apprehensive that the Democratic tri- umphs might lead to the ultimate success of the Rebellion. In 1863, however, the capture of Vicksburg by General Grant _ 40 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. and the decisive victory at Gettysburg completely turned the current of public sentiment. The Republicans recovered that year every State they had lost in 1862. Wherever the contest was the hottest there their victory was the greatest. The great political battle of the year occurred in Ohio, where the Democrats nominated Clement L. Vallandigham for Goy- ernor. He was an avowed opponent of the war and an open sympathizer with the South. The majority against him was the largest ever given at any election in the State, running up to nearly 100,000. In 1863, the Democratic party in most of the Northern States threw off all pretension of sympathy with the Union cause. On this account they were given by the Republicans the name of ‘‘copperheads.” In some parts of the West they wore pins made of the butternut, to typify their sympathy with the South, the Southern soldiers being frequently clad in homespun dyed with the juice of that nut. A long and bloody riot occurred in the City of New York in 1863, in which thousands of Democrats resisted the draft and held possession of many parts of the city for several days, murdering a number of people. The Democratic Governor of | the State, Horatio Seymour, addressed the mob in front of City Hall, at the height of the riot, and styled the lawless per- sons composing it ‘‘my friends.” The riot was finally sup- pressed by United State troops, after considerable slaughter. In the State of Indiana a formidable conspiracy under the title of the ‘‘Sons of Liberty,” was organized by the Democratic sympathizers with the South, but was suppressed by the vigi- lance and courage of Oliver P. Morton, the Republican Gover- nor of the State. In several of the States the Republicans in 1863 dropped their party name and took that of the Union party, in order to save | the feelings of the war Democrats who desired to co-operate withthem. The voting force of these war Democrats was com- paratively small, but among them were a number of men of ~ undoubted patriotism and high position in the country. Most — of them continued to co-operate with the Republican party during and after the war. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. AY CHAPTER XVI. THE EMANCIPATION. OF THE SLAVES. THE Republican party did not enter the war with the purpose — of abolishing slavery. A few far-sighted men saw that the struggle must end either in the separation of the South or the freedom of the slaves, but the masses of the party did not look beyond the suppression of the Rebellion and the preservation of the Union. President Lincoln said that if he could save the Union with slavery he would save it, and that if he could save it without slavery he would save it. As the war went on, the folly of recognizing’and protecting an institution which gave the rebels a large force of laboring men to stay at home and raise food for their armies became plainly apparent, and there “was a general demand for the abolition of slavery as a war meas- ure. It was not, however, till April, 1862, that slavery was abol- ished in the District of Columbia, nor till June, 1864, that the Fugitive Slave laws wererepealed. In theearly military opera- tions against the Rebellion great care was taken not to excite insurrections among the slaves, and the negroes who came into _our lines were treated as contraband property, so as not to be restored to their masters, On September 22d, 1862, President Lincoln issued his first proclamation of emancipation, which was, - in effect, a threat to the States then in rebellion that they would ~~~ lose their slaves unless they returned tothe Union. Hedeclared that on January ist following all persons held as slaves in any State which should be then in rebellion should be then and for- ever after free. On January 1st, 1863, no rebel State having returned to the Union, he issued his second proclamation, des- ignating the States and parts of Statesin rebellion, and order- ing and declaring that all persons held as slaves in such regions ‘*are and shall be free,” and pledging the Government to main- tain their freedom. ‘‘On this measure,” said Lincoln, ‘‘I in- voke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of God.” This celebrated proclamation professed to be a war measure, adopted by authority of the President as the commander-in chief of the army and navy. - The Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution prohibiting slavery in the United States passed the Senate in April, 1864, and the House in January, 1865, but was not ratified by a suffi- cient number of States to make it valid until nearly a year 42 HISTORY OF THB REPUBLICAN PARTY. after the end of the war. It was essentially a Republican measure, all of the Republicans in Congress voting for it, and nearly all of the Democrats voting against it. It will stand for all time as the noblest of the many monuments which mark the brilliant history of the Republican party. Public sentiment was slow to take shape in favor of the total abolition of the curse of slavery, but its progress was certain, and when the amendment was ratified it was approved by the entire Republican party. For some time afterward the Democratic party continued to denounce the Thirteenth Amendment, de- elaring it void and of no effect, but long ago even the most bigoted and stubborn Democrats came to acquiesce not only to its validity but in its justice and wisdom. CHAPTER XVII. THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. ANxiIovs to secure the co-operation of all men who favored the prosecution of the war, the Republicans, in 1864, called a Union National Convention to meet in Baltimore. The convention renominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and nominated Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President. The nomi- nation of Lincoln was by acclamation, but there were a number of candidates for the Vice-Presidency, prominent among whom were Hannibal Hamlin and Daniel 8. Dickinson. Prior to the Baltimore Convention asmall number of Republicans, dissatis- fied with the administration, and especially with its leniency toward rebels, met at Cleveland and nominated Juhn C. Fre- mont for President, and John Cochrane for Vice-President. Their convention demanded the suppression of the rebellion without compromise, and the confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and their distribution among soldiers and actual settlers. General Fremont accepted the nomination but repudiated the confiscation plank of the platform. Subsequently both the candidates withdrew from the field, and the whole movement collapsed. The Democrats held their convention in Chicago, and manifested open hostility to the continuance of the war. Bitter speeches were made, denouncing the administration. A platform was adopted declaring the war a failure, and attack- ing those who carried it on for disregarding the Constitution, treading upon public liberty, perverting right, and impairing HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 43 justice, humanity, and material prosperity. The convention nominated for President General George B. McClellan, whose half-hearted, dilatory course while in command of the army of _ the Potomac was largely responsible for whatever failure had characterized the war up to that time. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, was nominated for Vice-President. The platform crippled the Democratic party in the canvass, for scarcely had it been published when news came that Sherman had taken Atlanta, and that Farragut had carried the defences of Mobile. In the face of such victories as these the declaration that the war was a failure sounded absurd and treasonable. In the canvass of 1864 the Democrats attacked the adminis- tration for exceeding its constitutional powers in suspending the habeas corpus and imprisoning rebel sympathizers and agents in the North without trial. They did not openly avow their old theory, that the States could not be coerced; but they had a great deal to say about the ‘‘ bloody and endless war, brought on by the anti-slavery agitators in the North.” They denounced the emancipation proclamation and appealad to the prejudice against the negroes, still very strong in the North, by asserting that the war was an abolition war, carried on not to restore the Union but to free the slaves. The Republicans had practi- cally but one argument to make, and that was, that it was the duty of every patriot to sustain the Government in its efforts to crush the Rebellion and save the Union. The result of the election was the success of the Republicans by very large ma- jorities. Mr. Lincoln had the electoral vote of every State not in the rebellion, except Kentucky, Delaware, and New Jersey. He received 212 electoral votes against 21 cast for McClellan. His popular vote was 2,213,665 against 1,802,237. The success of the Republicans in this critical campaign assured the ulti- mate triumph of the Union arms in the field, confirmed the emancipation of the slaves, and opened the way to the termi- nation of the war. Had the Democrats prevailed, there is little reason to doubt that the war would have ended by a recognition of the independence of the rebel States. CHAPTER XVIII. SECURING THE FRUITS OF THE WAR—THE STRUGGLE WITH ANDREW JOHNSON. AFTER the Republican party had carried the war through to a successful issue, destroying upon the battle-field the doctrine 44 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. of secession, and forcing the surrender of the rebel armies, it was called upon to meet a new and very grave issue, involving the security of the results of its past efforts. Lincoln was assassinated on April 21st, 1865, very soon after his second inauguration, by J. Wilkes Booth, anactor, who was inspired to commit the crime by his sympathy with the cause of the rebellion, which had come to utter ruin only a few days before by the surrender of the army of General Lee. The Vice- President, Andrew Johnson, became President. At first he was so radical and violent in his treatment of the conquered rebels that it was feared that he intended to depart wholly from the policy of kindly firmness followed by Mr. Lincoln. Before many months, however, he changed his attitude completely, and undertook to defeat the will of his party in Congress in respect to the reorganization of the rebel States.. He had been bitterly opposed to the dominant element of the South all his life—coming of ignorant, poor white stock, and representing in his early career the antagonism of the non-slaveholding element in Tennessee towards the slaveholders; but all at once, when in possession of the reins of government, he manifested a stubborn purpose to carry out the wishes of the leading South- ern men and to give them control of their local affairs. _ The problem of restoring the Southern States to their rela- tions to the Union was a difficult one, and the Republicans were not at first wholly agreed as to its proper solution. After near- ly two years of consideration of the question, the party, how- ever, came with substantial unanimity to the ground that the rebel States had forfeited their rights as States of the Union by the act of rebellion, and had become unorganized communities, held under the Constitution by conquest, and to be dealt with as Congress might see fit. Their re-entry into the Union must, it was maintained, be under such conditions as Congress should prescribe. In the mean time they were kept under military government, and were divided, for the purpose, into military districts. The Democrats held that sosoonas hostilities ceased each rebel State had a right to reorganize its own State Govern- ment, and to enter inte all of the privileges of a member of the national Union, without any interference or dictation on the part of Congress. This was the theory advocated by Andrew Johnson. Its purpose was to reinstate the white men of the South in full control of their local governments, leaving them to deal with the emancipated negro populations as they saw fit, under the solitary restraint of the Thirteenth Amendment. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 45 After having emancipated the slaves, the Democrats held that Congress had nothing more to do with them. The temporary governments organized by the whites in several of the Southern States proceeded to pass codes of black laws, which reduced. the negroes to a condition of serfdom, differing practically but very little from the old condition of slavery. President Johnson did not avowedly go over to the Democratic party: he kept Mr. Seward and several other Republicans in his Cabinet, but his policy toward the South was essentially a Democratic policy, and was sustained by very few people in Congress or the coun- try except the Democrats. A small body of office-holders stood by him in order to retain their places, and became popularly known as ‘‘the bread and butter brigade.” In 1867, the Re- publicans passed a series of acts, known as the Reconstruction laws, providing for the establishment of new State governments in the South. These laws allowed every man to vote, black or white, except such as had previously taken an oath to support -the Constitution of the United States and had participated in the Rebellion. Thislimitation disfranchised a very large por- tion of the active and influential white men. President John- son vetoed the Reconstruction acts, and they were passed over his veto, the Republicans having at that time and throughout his administration a two-thirds majority in both Houses. _-The conduct of Johnson created a good deal of irritation and bad feeling. He was regarded as a traitor to the Republican party and the stubbornness with which he clung to his idea of the rights of the Southern States under the Constitution was gener- ally believed among the Republicans to arise from a settled pur- pose on his part to betray his party and to destroy the substan- tialresults of its victory over the Rebellion. The intense dislike and strong suspicion of Johnson which animated the greater portion of the Republican party resulted in the passage of ar- ticles of impeachment against him, on the 22d of February, 1868. The specifications were based on the President’s illegal removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the office of the Secretary of War, his expressions in party speeches of contempt of Con- gress, and his hindrance of the execution of some of its acts. The trial began in the Senate March 23d, and lasted nearly two _ months, attracting the closest attention of the whole country. Johnson was acquitted for lack of a two-thirds majority against him, the vote on the several] articles of impeachment standing, guilty 35, not guilty 19. A few Republicans, led by Mr. Fes- genden, of Maine, not believing him guilty of an offence war- ~ 46 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ranting his removal from office, voted with the Democrats for his acquittal. The general effect of his obstinate resistance to Congress was to strengthen the Republican party, and the men that deserted its ranks to follow him were so few in number that they were scarcely missed. At one time Johnson appeared to contemplate the formation of a new party, of which he was to be the leader; but he ended, after his term of office closed; in joining the Democratic party, which sent him to the Senate from Tennessee. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in June, 1866, by Republican votes exclusively, in both Houses of Congress. The amendment made the freed negroes citizens - of the United States and of the States in which they lived, and prohibited any State from abridging or limiting the privileges or immunities of citizens. It left each State to regulate the right of voting, but if a State excluded any of its citizens on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, it lost its representative and electoral strength proportionately. The amendment also provided that no person should hold office in the United States or any State who, not having taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and had joined in the Rebellion; but Congress might remove this disability by a vote of two-thirds of each branch. It provided, further, that neither the United States nor any State should assume or pay any debt contracted in aid of the Rebellion, or for any of the losses from the emancipation of the slaves. The Democratic party vehemently opposed this amendment, and it was not fully ratified by the requisite number of States until July, 1868. Long after its ratification the Democrats were in the habit of condemning it as revolutionary, unconstitutional, null and void. Subsequent experience did not justify all of its provisions. The section creating a class of persons under disabilities in the South was after a time deemed unwise by a large majority of the Republicans, and was greatly modified by successive am- nesty measures. In 1866, the Civil Rights act was passed, providing severe penalties against any person who under color of any law or ordinance should attempt to deprive the freedmen of equal rights or subject them to any penalty or prohibition different from those to which the whites were subjected. This act as well as Amendment XIV was vetoed by President Johnson, op- posed by the Democrats, and passed by the Republicans over that veto and in spite of that opposition. ~ . PA HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 47 GHAPTER XTX. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. THE Presidential campaign of 1868 was fought upon the issues growing outof the Reconstruction acts of Congress, the Amend- ments to the Constitution, and the suffrage and citizenship they conferred upon the colored race. The Republican National Convention met in Chicago, May 20th, and nominated General Ulysses 8. Grant for President. by acclamation. A sharp con- test took place over the Vice-Presidency. The first ballot re- sulted as follows: Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, 115; Benjamin FH’. Wade, of Ohio, 147; Reuben E. Fenton, of New York, 126; Henry: Wilson, of Massachusetts, 119; Andrew G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, 51; Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, 28; James M. Speed, of Kentucky, 22; James Harlan, of Iowa, 16; J. A. J. Creswell, of Maryland, 14; W. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, 4; S. C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, 6. On the fifth ballot Schuyler Col- fax was nominated, receiving 541 votes. The chief features of the platform were the indorsements of the constitutional amend- ments securing the political and civil equality of the blacks and of the reconstruction acts of Congress. The Democratic National Convention met in New York, July 4th, and nominated Horatio Seymour, of New York, for President, and Francis P. Blair, of Missouri, for Vice-Presi- dent. An attempt was made to liberalize the party and induce it to cease its opposition to the results of the war, by the ~~ nomination of Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, who stood a little aloof from the Republican party and held rather a neutral attitude. It was unsuccessful. Moderate ideas prevailed, however, in the platform, which was cautiously worded so as not to offend a considerable number of Democrats who were in favor of what was called ‘‘ accepting the situation.” Among the candidates for the Presidency before the convention was General W. 8. Hancock, who received a large vote from men who desired to make use of his military reputation as an offset to that of General Grant. The majority of the convention were not willing, however, to nominate any man whose record of hostility to all of the Republican measures during the last ten years wasin any way doubtful. The Democratic campaign was so bad a failure that before it closed the leading Demo- 48 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. — “ cratic newspaper organ in New York demanded a change in the ticket as the only way of securing the possibility of success. General Grant was elected by a popular vote of 3,012,833 against 2,703,249. He carried all the States except Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jer- sey, New York, and Oregon. Three States—Virginia, Missis- - sippi, and Texas—had not gone through with the process of re- construction and therefore had no vote. Of the electoral votes Grant received 214, and Seymour 80. After this overwhelming defeat a growing sentiment in favor of accepting the results of the war and ceasing the hopeless contest against the inevitable took possession of the Democratic party. The election was exceedingly important in its influence upon the history of the country. Had the Republicans been defeated the whole policy of equal suffrage and citizenship would probably have been overturned. That policy was completed and firmly secured a year later by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which provided that neither the United States nor any State should abridge the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The ratifica- tion of this amendment by the requisite number of States was proclaimed March 20th, 1870. CHAPTER XX. CONDITION OF THE SOUTH—CARPET-BAG-GOVERNMENT — THE KU-KLUX KLAN CONSPIRACY. ENCOURAGED by President Johnson’s opposition to the Recon- struction acts to believe that those acts would in the end be set aside, the white people of the States which had joined the Re- bellion very generally refrained from taking part in the elec- tions under them, and thus the newly enfranchised negroes ~ became suddenly possessed of almost unlimited political power. With them acted a few respectable white natives who had con- scientiously opposed the war, a few enterprising Northern emi- grants who went South to invest their means and better their fortunes, and a few adventurers attracted by the prospect of office. This was a poor foundation on which to rear a stable structure of local government. The mass of the white population looked upon the negroes as they would upon so many cattle or horses of which they had been robbed by the National Govern- ment, and regarded them in their quality of voters and citizens HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 49 with undisguised hatred and contempt. The State Govern- ments established under the new order of things were the sub- jects of constant insult in the Southern papers, and were despised and detested by the great mass of the native tax-paying people. The poor whites were fully as hostile as the better classes. To some extent the new governments merited the condemnation they received. Most of them were ignorant and rapacious, borrowing and wasting large sums of money, raising heavy taxes, and creating numberless scandals. It made no difference, however, what was the character of the men connected with _ these governments—they were all denounced as thieves. North- ern white men who had settled in the South, whether they held office or not, were stigmatized as ‘‘ carpet-baggers,” and every native white man who joined the Republican party was de- nounced as a ‘‘scallawag,” and cut off from all social relations with his neighbors. The carpet-bag governments, as they were called, could not have existed for a moment without the sup- port of the national authority. Troops were stationed in every capital and principal city throughout the South, for the pur- pose of awing the disaffected people and compelling obedience to the local authorities. Even these means were not wholly effective, however. A secret organization sprang up as if by magic in all parts of the South, whose members were exclu- sively white men, hostile to the new-order of things, and sworn to accomplish the destruction of negro rule. This organization was called the Ku-Klux Klan. Its ostensible purpose at first was to keep the blacks in order and prevent them from com- mitting small depredations upon the property of the whites, but its real motives were essentially political. The members met in secret conclaves, and rode about the country at night wearing long gowns of black or scarlet cloth, with hideous masks or hoods enveloping their heads. They murdered many of the negro leaders, and in pursuance of their scheme for over- awing the colored population took thousands of poor blacks out of their cabins at night and brutally flogged them. In some neighborhoods scarcely a colored man escaped a visitation from these terrible midnight riders. The negroes were inva- riably required to promise not to vote the Republican ticket, and threatened with death if they broke their promises. In some places the Ku-Klux Klan assaulted Republican officials in their houses or offices or upon the public roads; in others they attacked the meetings of negroes and dispersed them. Their ~ action took almost every form of lawlessness, and was adopted 50 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. with the single purpose of breaking down the authority of the Republican State and local governments, and preparing the way for a Democratic victory at the elections. The Ku-Klux Klan order and its variations extended throughout the entire South. In some localities it was called by other names, such as the ‘‘ White League,” orthe ‘ Knights of the White Camelia,” and sometimes its members appeared without disguise and made their murderous attacks upon their political opponents in broad daylight. In such casesit was given out by the South- ern newspapers that a riot had occurred, in which the blacks were the aggressors. Wherever the facts were obtained by the investigations of committees of Congress, it was found that this explanation was a false one, and that the whites were al- ways the attacking party. The Ku-Klux Klan were particularly active in the Northern counties of South Carolina, and these counties were selected by President Grant for the enforcement of an act of Congress, passed by the Republicans for the purpose of suppressing these treasonable and murderous organizations. The habeas corpus _ was suspended by Executive order in the five counties referred to, a considerable body of troops was stationed there, and large numbers of arrests were made by the soldiers. Nearly three hundred Ku-Klux were imprisoned at one time at Yorkville, South Carolina, under military guard. Their disguises and other articles were captured, and several of them made full confession of the atrocities in which they had been engaged. A few were selected for trial and were convicted and sentenced to impris- onment in the Albany Penitentiary. The rest were released on their pledges of good behavior. The result of these severe measures was to break up the Ku-Klux organizations through- out the South. Hostility to negro suffrage and Republican government subsequently took other forms of violence, but the whipping and killing of defenceless people by masked mid- night riders was abandoned. The Republicans of the North earnestly sustained the meas- ures of the Government for the punishment of conspiracy and of crime, and for the defense of the rights of their brethren in theSouth. Theinefficiency and corruption which characterized most of the Southern State governments produced, however, considerable effect upon the Northern mind, and in course of time a large portion of the Northern Republicans grew weary of the effort to support those governments by armed force. Thus there came about a division in the party, one element HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. B1 believing it to be the duty of the administration to continue its policy of interference in Southern affairs, and the other con- tending that the difficult problem of good government and equal rights in that section could be best worked out by the Southern people themselves, without any outside pressure. The stories of Southern outrages grew monotonous and wearisome. Many people doubted their authenticity, because from their own ex- perience in the law-abiding communities of the North they could not conceive of a state of things so wholly foreign to anything they had observed at home. It did not seem reasonable that men should be guilty of such barbarous acts as were done in the South for the purpose of .gaining political power. All re- ference to those acts and arguments drawn from them were characterized, in the political parlance of the time, as ‘‘ waving the bloody shirt,” and lost their effect upon the public mind. Nevertheless only a small part of the truth concerning the state of affairs in the South between 1867 and 1876, was ever made _known. It isnot extravagant to assert that more men lost their lives during that period for the sole crime of being Republicans than fell on any one battle-field of the war. : In the course of eight years of President Grant’s administra- tion the white Democrats of the South succeeded in getting possession of all of their States except South Carolina, Florida, _ and Louisiana—overcoming the Republican majorities by a sys- tem of intimidation, violence, and fraud. The three remain- ing States passed into their hands immediately after the ac- cession of President Hayes. President Grant’s policy toward the South was not uniform and consistent. At times he was exceedingly firm in his defense of the so-called carpet-bag gov- ernments, but at other times he was yielding or indifferent, and allowed the processes for the destruction of those govern- ments to go on without interference. Toward the close of his _ Official career he came to the conclusion that it was unwise longer to attempt to support by Federal bayonets authority which was obnoxious to the influential and intelligent tax- paying classes of the South. In this conclusion a large portion of the Republicans sympathized, but their opinion did not in the least modify their feelings of condemnation of the methods by which the Southern Democrats had overturned the Repub- lican State governments in that section. _ 59 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. CHAPTER XXI. DEFENDING THE NATIONAL HONOR AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. Ir is now time to refer to a portion of the career of the Re- publican party which reflected great honor upon it, and entitled it anew to the respect and gratitude of the country. At the end of the war the United States owed an enormous bonded debt. In addition it had outstanding a large volume of paper currency, issued with the understanding that it should be re- deemed in coin as soon as the Government was able to do so. In 1867, after the floating obligations remaining from the war had been gathered in and funded, the question of how to deal with the debt and the currency was taken up in earnest by the Republicans in Congress. Their plans met with vehement op- position from a large portion of the Democratic party. A new and preposterous theory was advanced, to the effect that the -notes of the Government, called greenbacks, wereactual money instead of promises to pay money, and that the bonded debt of the United States could be lawfully and honorably discharged - with these notes. This theory started in the West and was called at first ‘‘Pendletonism,” from the fact that Pendleton, the Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1864, was among its early and prominent advocates. It was claimed by the supporters of this theory that as greenbacks were real money the country ought to have alarge supply of them. They favored an immediate issue of hundreds and even thousands of millions of dollars. All of the bonds that were not specifically made payable in coin they proposed to pay off at once in green- ~ backs, and thus stop the interestupon them. The paper money idea soon developed into a great popular mania in the West. Many Republicans were carried away by it, but the majority of the party firmly resisted it. Not much headway was made by this dangerous and dishonest heresy east of the Alleghany Mountains, but beyond that line, clear through to the far West, the excitement raged for several years. It must be said, in credit of the Democrats of the East, that they gave no assistance to the greenback idea. As a party, however, the Democrats may truthfully be said to have advocated it, since the great bulk of the Democratic representation in Congress came from the West and the South, where the mania was widely prevalent. However much praise the few Democrats who opposed the a HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PAPRTY. 53 schemo are entitled to, it is certain that it could not have been defeated had not the Republican party as a national organiza- tion set its face firmly against it. . Many of the advocates of inflation, having cut loose from the principles of common honesty, soon became repudiationists, and formed a party by themselves, called the Greenback party. They proposed to pay off the whole of the debt in greenbacks, and never redeem the greenbacks, but let them wear out and perish. They even went so far as to pass resolutions in their conventions declaring that all taxation should cease and that the Government should support itself by issuing paper money. ‘A constant struggle against inflation schemes was kept up by the Republicans in Congress for more than a decade, and was _ only ended by the successful resumption of specie payments on the first of January, 1879. In all of this time the Republican party was vigilant and firm in defending the national honor, and preventing its credit from suffering by the repeated as- saults upon it which came from the Democratic and Greenback parties. The party which saved the Union and abolished slav- ery was called upon to save the credit and honor of the coun- ‘try, and prevent its currency from becoming worthless, and it nobly responded to the call. CHAPTER XXII. THE LIBERAL DEFECTION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1872. _ CONSIDERABLE dissatisfaction was felt in the Republican party at the course of President Grant’s administration. A small element of conscientious men, many of whom had aided in forming the party, believed that his policy toward the South was unwise, and thatit was time to inaugurate an era of peace, reconciliation and good feeling. They also wanted to see a policy of civil service reform established, by which merit should be the test for public office, and Government officials should stick to their legitimate business, and not devote their time to managing caucuses and conventions in the interest of party leaders who had secured them their appointments. - Grant’s project for annexing San Domingo created a good deal of opposition, and many of his appointments to office were of a character not to commend themselves to the public judg- ment. An open breach occurred between him and several Re- publican leaders in Congress, chief among whom were Senators BAe HISIORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Sumner, Schurz, and Trumbull. Longand acrimonious debates over the San Domingo matter and a sale of arms to the French Government served to widen the breach. The opponents of General Grant believed that his control over all of the Federal office-holders was so great, and their control over the machinery of the conventions so perfect, that his renomination would ‘be brought about in spite of any amount of antagonistic feeling that might exist in the party, so they determined to make a demonstration which would show to the country that they would not in any event support Grant for a second term. They took the name of ‘‘ Liberal Republicans,” and held a National Convention in Cincinnati, in May, 1872. Once assembled they were surprised at their own apparent strength and at the num- ber of old-time Republicans who came to co-operate with them. The plan of the leaders of the movement was to nominate Charles Francis Adams for President. Some of them believed that so excellent and fit a nomination would so commend itself to the whole Republican party that General Grant would be dropped. Adams failed of a majority on the first ballot, and the convention was stampeded by a movement in behalf of Horace Greeley, who received the nomination on the sixth ballot, having 482 votes to 187 for David Davis, of Illinois, Governor B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, was named for Vice- President on the second ballot. The regular Republicans paid no attention to these nominations. They stigmatized the move- ment as one of soreheads and bolters, and in their own con- vention, held in Philadelphia in June, nominated President Grant for re-election by acclamation. A brisk contest over the Vice-Presidency occurred between Schuyler Colfax, the incum- bent of the office, and Henry Wilson, a Senator from Massa- ~ chusetts, in which Wilson was successful, receiving 3644 votes to 3214 for Colfax. The platform,of the Liberal Republicans demanded that sectional issues should be buried, that good- will should be cultivated between sections, that the constitu- tional amendments in all the settlements of the war should be regarded as finalities, that civil service reform should be under- taken, and that specie payments should be immediately re- stored. The platform of the regular Republicans rehearsed the glorious history of the Republican party and reaffirmed its well-known distinctive principles of equal political and civil rights and a firm maintenance of the national credit and - honor. The Democrats found themselves in a painful dilemma. If 7 Te UE Sal? cee ee Pay Sate a Se i HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 55 they nominated a ticket of their own there was not the slight- est chance of electing it. If they indorsed the Liberal Republi- can ticket they would have to abandon all of the ideas for which they had been contending since 1860. Their convention met at Baltimore in July and chose the latter horn of the di- lemma. In spite of the bald inconsistency of the proceeding, the party which had defended slavery and opposed the sup- pression of the Rebellion nominated as its candidate for Presi- dent a most conspicuous antagonist of slavery, a life-long op- ponent of the South, and a zealous advocate of all measures which had been adopted for crushing the Rebellion and giving freedom and citizenship to the blacks. This apparent conver- sion of a great party and this acknowledgment of the error of its ways would have been sublime if it had been sincere, but the object of most of the Democratic leaders was only to obtain office and political patronage. Horace Greeley made no pledges to them, and he avowed not the slightest alteration in his opin- ions on the issues of the time. They hoped, however, that if they succeeded in electing him a sense of gratitude would in- duce him to give them place and power. The campaign was a very animated one at first, but after the Republicans had car- ried North Carolina in August and Pennsylvania in October it became evident that the Greeley coalition could not win, and thenceforward the Democratic and Liberal canvass lost all vitality. A large number of the Republicans left their party to follow their old anti-slavery leader, Horace Greeley, but their votes were more than counterbalanced by those of Democrats _ who refused to support him. This class had a candidate of their own in Charles O’Conor, who was nominated by a conven- - tion held at Louisville. Hereceived but a small vote, however. Most anti-Greeley Democrats contented themselves with staying at home on election day. Some of them voted for Grant, to show in a marked manner their hostility to the course of their party. Grant carried all the States except Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. His popular vote - was 3,597,070. The vote for Greeley was 2,834,079. O’Conor received 29,408 votes, and Black, the candidate of the Prohibi- tion Temperance men, 5,608. Horace Greeley died before the electoral colleges met. The electoral vote as cast by the col- leges was as follows: Grant, 286; Hendricks, 42; Brown, 18; C. J. Jenkins, 2; David Davis, 1; uncounted because cast for Horace Greeley, 17. i The Liberal defection seriously weakened the Republican ee 56 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. party in the State campaigns of the three following years, but in 1876 the breach was fully healed, and with the exception of a few leaders who joined the Democrats the whole body of Lib- erals returned to their old party allegiance in the Presidential campaign of that year. —_—_— CHAPTER XXIII. PRESIDENT GRANT’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION—CAMPAIGN OF 1876. REPUBLICAN divisions continued to a considerable extent during the second administration of President Grant. The dis- satisfied members of the party did not, however, form any po- — litical organization, but contented themselves with holding — themselves aloof from the State campaigns. Several painful scandals affecting the appointees and personal friends of Presi- dent Grant added to the unpopularity of the administration. In 1874, the feeling of distrust and dislike culminated and resulted in an astonishing series of Democratic victories at the State and Congressional elections. A large number of Northern States that had been steadfastly Republican were carried by the Dem- ocrats. Even Massachusetts, which had given heavy Republi- can majorities ever since the party was formed, elected a Dem- ocratic Governor. In short, there was a reaction against the Republicans throughout the country of such magnitude and importance that many would-be prophets predicted the speedy death of the party, asserting that its mission was fulfilled, its work done, and its career closed. The Democrats elected a majority of the members of the National House of Representa- tives, and thus in the following year came into possession of one branch of Congress for the first time since 1860. It was not long before the Republicans who had deserted their party and thus helped its enemy to a substantial victory began to realize that they had madea grave mistake. They saw that to trust the party of slavery and rebellion with the power in the National Government was to run the risk of seri- ously compromising the results of the war. The State elections of 1875 showed the result of this conviction, for most of the old Republican States which had been lost in 1874 were regained. An exceedingly thorough and brilliant canvass was made in Ohio upon the financial question. The Democrats of that State fully indorsed what was known as the soft-money idea, They opposed the act for the resumption of specie payments, passed by Congress in January of that year, demanded the issue of HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 57 more irredeemable greenbacks, and asserted that the interest on the public debt should be paid in paper money, and some of their orators and newspapers went so far as to demand the payment of the principal of the debt in the same kind of cur- rency. The Democratic nominee for Governor was William Allen, popularly known as ‘‘old Bill Allen,” who already held the place by virtue of the election of 1873. This venerable politician personified for a time the soft-money delusion, which got the name of ‘‘the Ohio idea,” and was commonly ridiculed by its opponents as ‘‘the rag baby.” The Republican candi- date was Rutherford B. Hayes, who had been Governor for two terms, from 1868 to 1872. Taking ground in favor of: hon- est money redeemable in coin and an honest payment of the national debt, the Republicans carried the State by a small ma- jority and turned the tide of inflation. The campaign attracted national attention to Mr. Hayes, and made him the candidate of his State for the Presidential nomination in 1876. The Republicans held their National Convention at Cincin- nati on June 14th, 1876. James G. Blaine, of Maine, was the leading candidate, and his nomination was regarded as almost a certainty when the ballotting began. The other prominent candidates were Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana; Roscoe.Conk- ling, of New York; Benjamin F. Bristow, of Kentucky, and John F. Hartranft, of Pennsylvania. Bristow’s power, came, as a rule, from the element most dissatisfied with President Grant’s administration. He had been Secretary of the Treas- ury, and had differed with the President about the prosecution of certain persons in the West concerned in the frauds on the revenue. the 22d of June. The party had been suffering from the standing candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden, who had a claim upon the nomination based on the assertion by the Democratic lead- ers and newspapers that he was elected in 1876 and defrauded of the office. He personified the ‘‘fraud issue,” and it was manifestly impossible for the party to make that issue promi- nent without making him its candidate. Mr. Tilden wrote a letter just before the convention assembled, declining in terms the nomination. The letter presented, however, in a masterly manner, the arguments in favor of his candidacy, and was gen- erally regarded as intended to strengthen his chances for the nomination. On the first ballot the delegates scattered their votes as follows: Hancock, 171; Bayard, 1534; Field, 65; Mor- rison, 62; Hendricks, 494; Thurman, 68}; Payne, 81; Tilden, 38; Ewing, 10; Seymour, 8; scattering, 28. After this ballot the convention adjourned until the next 72 '- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. day, and during the night the opponents of Tilden managed to combine upon General Hancock, who was nominated next morning. The second ballot stood: Hancock, 319; Randall, 1294; Bayard, 113; Field, 654; Thurman, 30; Hendricks, 31; English, 19; Tilden, 6; scattering, 3. Changes were made be- fore the vote was announced which nominated Hancock, he having 705 votes to Hendricks, 30; Bayard 2, and Tilden 1. Hancock had been the standing candidate, since 1868, of those Democrats who wanted to repeat the McClellan experi- ment with a better soldier than McClellan. FP 2 JOHN A. LOGAN. = Se \ HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 78a, espect and affection of the Republican masses. No man who d not deeply impressed himself upon the current of his times, and upon the hearts of the people, could go through an ordeal of three years’ seclusion without a loss of prestige and popu- larity that would be fatal to any chances he might have of a Presidential nomination. The event proved that Mr. Blaine had gained instead of lost in political strength since he laid down the portfolio of the State Department. Without any effort in his own behalf he obtained the support of a very large majority of the delegates to the National Convention from the Republican States, and he received 3344 votes on the first ballot. Mr. Blaine’s chief competitor for the nomination was President Arthur, who obtained the almost solid support of the Southern States, to which was added a considerable part of the vote of his own State of New York. The weakness of Mr. Arthur’s candidacy lay in the fact that.outside of New York, and of a few scattering votes from other Northern States, his delegates represented States which could render no aid in the election of the Republican nominee. The Southern States are still under the political domination of the leaders of the late rebellion, and with the exception of Virginia, where the Democrats have di- vided into two factions, not one of them can be placed in the list of probable Republican States. Furthermore, Mr. Arthur’s candidacy assumed an official rather than a popular phase, his conspicuéus supporters being for the most part Federal office- holders, save in the city of New York, where his prudent ad- ministration had won for him the endorsement-of many promi- nent business men. Mr. Arthur’s first and highest vote was 278. The third candidate in relative strength in the ballotting was Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, who at the start was sup- ported by 93 delegates, chiefly from Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. Senator John A. Logan, of Illinois, was the candidate of his own State, receiving with some outside help - 634 votes on the first ballot. Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, had 13 votes; Senator Sherman, of Ohio, 30; Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War, ason of Abraham Lincoln, who was much talked of by the press a few months before as a possible strong candidate, received four, and the retired general of the army, W. T. Sherman, was given two votes, in spite of his repeated refusals to allow his name to be used. It is an interesting © fact that of the eight candidates voted for, only one, Mr. Blaine, held no official position at the time. One was Presi- dent, four were United States Senators, one was a Cabinet 78b HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Minister, and one a General on the retired list. The result of the ballotting is shown in the following table: CANDIDATES. First Ballot. 'Second Ballot. Third Ballot.) Fourth Ballot. Blaine, - - - - 8344 349 875 539 Arthur, - - - - 278 276 274 207 Edmunds, - - 93 85 53 33 LOganyGi- in ks = - 634% 61 69 Bebe Hawley, - - - - 13 13 13 v4 John Sherman, -— - 30 28 25 15 Lincoln, - - - - 4 4 8 15 W.T. Sherman, - - 2 2 2 2 In the convention of 1876 Mr. Blaine was defeated by a com- bination of all the other candidates. In 1880 Gen. Grant’s solid forces stood in the way of his nomination and he threw his own support to Gen. Garfield, and thus won a victory in the person of his friend. In the convention of 1884, he was too strong to be beaten by any combination or to be compelled to retire in favor of any weaker candidate. His nomination was a triumph of positive, practical statesmanship in domestic affairs, and of a courageous, intelligent Americanism in the re- lations of the United States with other nations. The supporters of Gen. Logan went over in a body to Mr. Blaine on the fourth ballot. After thisit was only natural that the friendly feeling always entertained by the Blaine men for the Illinois Senator should take the direction of a determina- tion to place him on the ticket for Vice-President. The con- vention took a recess until evening, after the nomination for President had been consummated, and when it reassembled the enthusiasm for Logan swept away all opposition. He was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 779 votes to 6 for Gresham, of Indiana, 3 for Fairchild, of Wisconsin, and 1 for Foraker, of Ohio. General Logan’s gallant war record, his strong hold on the affections of the former soldiers of the Union armies, and his long, conspicuous, and honorable career in both houses of Congress made his nomination a peculiarly fortunate one. The platform upon which the Republican party undertakes its eighth national canvass is not made up of glittering gener- alities, but deals explicitly with the living questions of the times. It re-affirms the consistent policy of the party in re- gard to protection for American industry. It favors the regu- lation of railway corporations. It opposes Chinese immigra- tion, and endorses the eight-hour system for labor. It pledges “« HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 78¢e the party to sustain and extend the Civil Service reform prin- ciples which it has introduced. It demands the reservation of the public lands for small holdings of actual settlers, and the forfeiture of lapsed land grants where there has been no at- tempt in good faith to comply with their conditions. It pledges the party to place all pensioners on an equal footing by repeal- ing the limitation of the Arrears Act of 1879, so that all pensions may date back to the time of the disability or discharge. It demands the restoration of the Navy to its old strength and efficiency. It asserts that appointments to offices in the Ter- ritories should be made from Gbona fide citizens and residents. It demands the suppressien of polygamy in Utah. It re-affirms the cardinal Republican doctrine that the United States consti- tute a nation and not a mere confederacy of States, and that it is the duty of the nation to secure to all its citizens the full and complete recognition, possession, and exercise of all civil and political rights. The Convention met on Tuesday, June 3d, and adjourned late on the evening of Friday, June 6th. It was harmonious and en- thusiastic. Its ticket was probably the first choice of a larger number of Republican voters than any that has been putin the field since the first nomination of Gen. Grant, in 1868. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 79 CHAPTER XXX. A FEW WORDS IN CONCLUSION In the foregoing chapters the main current of Republican action has been clearly traced, beginning with the hostility of the party to the extension of slavery, and continuing through its successive defence of the integrity of the American Union, its emancipation of the slaves, its reorganization of the rebel- lious States, its establishment of equal suffrage and equal citi- zenship for all, its defence of the public credit, and its resump- tion of specie payments. Outside of this main channel of pa- triotic activity it has accomplished many things which should not be overlooked, even in so brief a sketch as is given in these pages. It has steadily reduced the debt resulting from the war, and has paid off and cancelled the enormous amount of $1,186,000,000 in the period between 1865 and 1883. At the same time it has been so successful in funding the principal of the remaining debt in low-interest bonds that it has effected a _ saving, in the matter of interest alone, of €86,000,000 a year, thus further lessening the burden of the debt. It has steadily reduced taxation and public expenditures. It has greatly im- proved and simplified the protective tariff system, originated by the Whig party, and has by its legislation of the past twenty years so encouraged and shielded American manufac- tures that they have increased more than fourfold and are now able to command our own markets and to compete in many lines with the manufactures of older countries in the -markets of the world. While opposing all monopolies, the Republican party has had for its central idea in its tariff legis- lation the fact that the perpetuity of free institutions in this country requires an intelligent laboring class, and that such a class cannot exist upon the pauper wages paid to the laborers of the Old World. The party has also carried out the policy of internal improvements, originated by the Whig party, and by a system of judicious legislation has opened the great rivers of the country to navigation, improved its harbors, and con- nected the Atlantic with the Pacific coast by great railway lines. It has established a national banking system which saves the people millions of dollars annually by protecting them against the losses incident to the old State banking sys- tems which preceded it. It has greatly improved the postal 80 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. system, giving to the country fast mails and letter-carrier de- liveries. It has established the principle of international ar- bitration as a means of averting war. It has put into oper- ation a practical reform in the Civil Service. A catalogue of the wise measures it has adopted would be far too long to be given here. Nearly all of these measures were resisted at the time of their adoption by the opposition party, but with scarcely an exception they have come to be approved by that party as wise and patriotic. No one can see into the future of erican politics, but it is rty which has been able to meet all of the issues of the most important epoch in the nation’s history with such-signal-inteltigence-and such remarkable success is not near the end of its career. ‘The day is probably far distant when a complete and final history of ° the Republican party can be written. The auther presents these pages only asa brief outline sketch of the first thirty years of its existence. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 81 REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. FIRST REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 17TH, 1856. THIS convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without re- gard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed - to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory ; in favor of admitting Kansas as a free State, of re- storing the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice- President, do resolve as follows: Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promul- gated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our re- publican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States, shall be pre- served. Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalien- able rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior designs of our Federal Gov- ernment were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all of our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate, for the purpose of establishing slavery in any terri- tory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, or of a Territorial Legislature, of any individual or 82 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present Constitu- tion shall be maintained. Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sover- eign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism—polygamy and slavery. Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- quility, provide for the common defense, and secure the bless- - ings of liberty, and contains ample provisions for the protec- tion of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority sustained by the military power of the Government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office; the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated; they have been deprived of life, hberty, and property without due process of law; that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished ;—that all of these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present administration, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign the ad- _ ministration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the country and before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atro- cious outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign — punishment hereafter, / hs HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 83 Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at. once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the en- joyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory. Resolved, That the highwayman’s plea, that ‘‘might makes right,” embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction. Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Govern- ment ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its con- struction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate con- struction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad. Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improve- ment of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obliga- tion of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. SECOND REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, May 17TH, 1860. Res lved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Re- publican electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations: 1. That the history of the nation during the last four years has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organi- zation and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. 2. That the- maintenance of. the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal _ Constitution, ‘‘that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” 84 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States must and shall be preserved. 3. That to the union of the States this nation owes its unpre- cedented increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happi- ness at home, andits honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may ; and we congratulate the country that no Republican member ~ of Congress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often made by Democratic members without rebuke and with applause from their political associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency as denying the vital principles of a free govern- ment, and as an avowel of contemplated treason which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence. 4, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the rights of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment ex- clusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 5. That the present Democratic administration has far ex- ceeded our worst apprehensions, in its mcasureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Consti- tution upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal relation between master and servant to involve an un- qualified property in persons; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Con- gress and of the Federal courts, and of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people. 6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extrav- agance which pervades every department of the Federal Gov- ernment; that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to arrest the systematic plunder of the public treasure by favored partisans; while the recent startling de- velopments of fraud and corruption at the Federal metropolis HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 85 show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded. 7. That the new dogma that the Constitution of its own force carries slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contem- poraneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial prece- dent; is revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. 8. That the normal condition of all of the territory of the United States is that of freedom; thatas our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all of our national territory, ordained that ‘‘no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to main- tain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and wedeny the authority of Congress, of a Terri- torial Legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. 9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, asa crime against humanity and a burning shame to our country and age; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final sup- pression of that execrable traffic. 10. That in the recent vetoes, by their Federal Governors, of the acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska prohibit- ing slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignty embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demonstration of the deception and fraud involved therein. 11. That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State under the constitution recently formed and adopted by her people, and accepted by the House of Representatives. 12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imports, sound policy re- quires such anadjustment of these imports as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which se- cures to the workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remu- nerating prices, to machanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence, 86 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 13. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the free homestead policy which regards the settlers as pau- pers or suppliants for public bounty; and we demand the pas- sage by Congress of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already passed the House. 14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our naturalization laws, of any State legislation by which the rights of citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired, and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citi- zens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor im- provements of a national character required for the accommo- dation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively de- manded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and that as preliminary thereto a daily overland | mail should be promptly established. 17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however differing on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance and support. THIRD REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT BALTIMORE, JUNE 7TH, 1864. Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States; and that, laying aside all differ- ences of political opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment, and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Govern- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 87 ment of the United States not to compromise with rebels, nor to offer any terms of peace except such as may be based upon an “‘unconditional surrender” of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the Government to maintain this position and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, the patriot- ism, the heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the Ameri- can people to their country and its free institutions. Resolved, That, asslavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength, of this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of republican govern- ment, justice and the national safety demand its utter and com- plete extirpation from the soil of the Republic, and that we up- hold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil. We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits of the juris- | diction of the United States. Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and_sailors of the army and navy, who have perilled their lives in defense of their country, and in vindica- tion of the honor of the flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of their patriotism and valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their survivors who have received disabling and honorable wounds in the service of the country; and that the memories of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remem- brance. ~ Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the unselfish patriotism and unswerving fidelity to the Consti- tution and the principles of American liberty, with which Abra- ham Lincon has discharged, under circumstances of unparal- leled difficulty, the great duties and responsibilities of the Presi- dential office; that we approve and indorse, as demanded by the emergency and essential to the preservation to the nation, and as within the Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes; that we approve especially the proclamation of emanci- pation, and the employment as Union soldiers of men here- tofore held in slavery; and that we have full confidence in his * 88 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, determination to carry these and all other constitutional meas- ures essential to the salvation of the country into full and com- plete effect. ‘ Resolved, That we deem it essential to the general welfare that harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those - only who cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize the administration of the Government. Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full pro- tection of the laws of war, and that any violation of these laws of the usages of civilized nations in the time of war by the rebels now in arms, should be made the subject of full and prompt redress. Resolved, That the foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth and development of resources and increase of power to this nation, the asylum of the op- pressed of all nations, should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of a railroad to the Pacific. Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemp- tion of the public debt, must be kept inviolate; and that for this purpose we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expenditures, and a vigorous and a just system of taxation; and itis the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national currency. Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the Govern- ment that the people of the United States never regarded with indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any re- publican government on the Western Continent, and that they view with extreme jealousy, as menacing tothe peace and inde- pendence of this our country, the efforts of any such power to ob- tain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by a foreign military force, in near proximity to the United States. FOURTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, May 21st, 1868. THE National Republican Party of the United States, assem-~ bled in National Convention in the city of Chicago, on the 21st HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 89 day of May, 1868, make the following declaration of principles: 1. We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress, as evidenced by the adop- tion, in the majority of the States lately in rebellion, of con- stitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the Government to sustain those constitutions and to prevent the people of such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was demanded by every consideration of pub- lic safety, of gratitude, and of justice,°and must be main- tained; while the question of suffrage in all of the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States. 3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and the national honor repuires the payment of the public in- debtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. 4, It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 5. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preser- vation of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period of redemption; and it is the duty of Con- gress to reduce the rate of interest thereon whenever it can be honestly done. 6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to soimprove our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay and must continue to pay so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. 7. The Government of the United States should be adminis- tered with the strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew John- son call loudly for radical reform. 8. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew J ohnson, who fac acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who - has employed his executive powers to render insecure the 90 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIOAN PARTY. property, the peace, liberty, and life of the citizen; who has abused the pardoning power; who has denounced the national legislature as unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by every means in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction of the States lately in re-— bellion; who has perverted the public patronage into an engine of wholesale corruption; and who has been justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly denounced guilty thereof by the vote of thirty-five Senators. 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that because a man is oncea subject he is always so; must be resisted at every hazard by the United States, as a relic of feu- dal times not authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Naturalized citi- zens are entitled to protection in all of their rights of citizen- ship, as though they were native born; and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be lable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country; and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf. 10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperilled their lives in the service of the country; the bounties and pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation are obligations never to be forgotten; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people—a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation’s protecting care. 11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this Republic, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all op- pressed peoples struggling for their rights. 13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity-.and forbearance with which men who have served in the Rebellion, but who now frankly and honestly co-operate with us in re- storing the peace of the country and reconstructing the South- ern State governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and m vT - | HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 91 restrictions imposed upon the late rebels in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty will die out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people. 14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic government, and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of-American soil. FIFTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 6TH, 1872. THE Republican Party of the United States, assembled in National Convention in the City of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 6th days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history, and announces its position upon the questions before the country: 1. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted with grand courage the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for political offenses, and warmly welcomed all who proved loyalty by obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has steadily decreased with firm hand the resultant disorders of a great war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians. The Pacific Railroad and similar vast enterprises have been generously aided and success- fully conducted, the public lands freely given to actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged, and a full acknowledg- - ment of the naturalized citizen’s rights secured from European powers. A uniform national currency has been provided, repu- ~diation frowned down, the national credit sustained under the most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds negotiated at low rates. Therevenues have been carefully collected and honestly applied. Despite annual large reductions of the rates of taxa- tion, the public debt has been reduced during General Grant’s Presidency at the rate of a hundred millions a year, great finan- cial crises have been avoided, and peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties have been peacefully and honorably composed, and the honor and power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. This 92 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, glorious record of the past is the party’s best pledge for the future. We believe the people will not intrust the govern- ment to any party or combination of men composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of this beneficent pro- gress. 2. The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely toler- ated because they are law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be intrusted only to the party that secured those amendments. 3. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil; political, and public rights should be established and effectually maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude. 4. The National Government should seek to maintain honor- able peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sympathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. : 5. Any system of the civil service under which the positions of the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing, and we therefore favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity, the essential qualifica- tions for public positions, without practically creating a life tenure of office. 6. We are opposed to further grants of public lands to cor- porations and monopolies, and demand that the national do- main be set apart for free homes for the people. 7. The annual revenue, after paying current expenditures, pensions, and the interest on the public debt, should furnish a moderate balance for the reduction of the principal, and that — revenue, except so much as may be derived from a tax upon tobacco and liquors, should be raised by duties upon importa- tions, the details of which should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative wages to labor, and promote the indus- tries, prosperity, and growth of the whole country. 8. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 93 their country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the Government to all of our soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and who in the line of duty became disabled, without regard to the length of service or the cause of such discharge. 9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers concerning allegiance—‘‘ once a subject always a subject ”— having at last, through efforts of the Republican party, been abandoned, and the American idea of the individual’s right to transfer allegiance having been-accepted by European nations, ~ it is the duty of our Government to guard with jealous care the right of adopted citizens against the assumption of un- authorized claims by their former governments, and we urge continued, careful encouragement and protection of voluntary immigration. 10. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and the way prepared for a speedy reduction in the rates of postage. 11. Among the questions which press for attention is that which concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Re- publican party recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of capital, the largest opportunities, and a just share of the mutual profits of these two great servants _ of civilization. 12. We hold that Congress and the President have only ful- filled an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent and treasonable organizations in certain lately re- bellious regions, and for the protection of the ballot-box; and, therefore, they are entitled to the thanks of the nation. 13. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of in- terest upon the balance, and confidently expect that our excel- lent national currency will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment. 14. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom. Their admission to the wider fields of usefulness is viewed with satisfaction; and the honest demand of any class of citizens for additional rights should be treated with respect- ful consideration. : 15, We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending \ § , p) + d 94 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land. 16. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights re- served by the people to themselves as the powers delegated by them to the State and to the Federal Government. It disap- proves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils, by interference with rights not surrendered by the people to either the State or National Government. 17. Itis the duty of the General Government to adopt such measures as may tend to encourage and restore American com- merce and ship-building. 18. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest pur- pose, the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorrup- tible integrity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses 8. Grant have commended him to the heart of the American people, and with him at our head we start to-day upon a new march to- victory. 19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for liberty as.an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incor- ruptible legislator and representative man of American institu- tions, is worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them. SIXTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CINCINNATI, JUNE 15TH, 1876. WHEN, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be — purged of human slavery, and when the strength of govern- ment of the people, by the people, and for the people was to be demonstrated, the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed into history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by their memories to high aims for the good of our country and mankind, and looking to the future with un- faltering courage, hope, and purpose, we, the representatives of the party in National Convention assembled make the fol- lowing declaration of principles: 1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league, By the combined workings of the National and State Govern- ments, under their respective constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured, at home and abroad, and the common vwel- fare promoted, HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.’ 95 2. The Republican party has preserved these governments to the hundredth anniversary of the nation’s birth, and they are now embodiments of the great truths spoken at its cradle— “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that for the attain- ment of these ends governments have been instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the goy- erned.” Until these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or if need be vigorously enforced, the work of the Republican party is unfinished. 3. The permanent pacification of the southern section of the - Union and the complete protection of all of its citizens in the free enjoyment of all of their rights is a duty to which the Re- publican party stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement of the principles embodied in the recent constitutional amendments is vested by those amendments in the Congress of the United States, and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of the legislative and executive departments of the Government to put into immediate and vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the ex- ercise of all civil, political, and public rights. To this end we imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Executive whose courage and fidelity to those duties shall not falter until these results are placed beyond dispute or recall. 4, In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the National Government assumed to remove any doubts of its pur- pose to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and ‘‘solemnly pledged its faith to make provision at the earli- est practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin.” Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national-credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a con- tinuous and steady progress to specie payment. 5. Under the Constitution the President and heads of de- partments are to make nominations for office; the Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Repre- sentatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that Senators and Representatives who may be. judges and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in appointments should have reference to 96 AAISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. the honesty, fidelity, and capacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be represented, but permit- ting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole refer- ence to efficiency of the public service; and the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the country. 6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people con- cerning political affairs, and willhold all public officers to a rigid responsibility, and engage that the prosecution and pun- ishment of all who betray official trusts shall be swift, thor- ough, and unspairing. . 7. The public school system of the several States is the bul- wark of the American Republic, and with a view to its security and permanence we recommend an amendment to the Consti- tution of the United States forbidding the application of any public funds or property for the benefit of any schools or in- stitutions under sectarian control. 8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obligations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote the interests of American labor and ad- vance the prosperity of the whole country. 9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public lands to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be devoted to free homes for the people. 10. It is the imperative duty of the Government so to modify existing treaties with European Governments that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is given to the native born; and that all necessary laws should be passed to protect emigrants in the absence of power —— in the States for that purpose. 11. Itis the immediate duty of Congress to fully investigate the effect of the immigration and importation of Mongolians ~ upon the moral and material interests of the country. = 12. The Republican party recognizes with approval the sub-_ ~ stantial advances recently made toward the establishment of — equal rights for women by the many important amendments effected by Republican legislatures in the laws which concern the personal and property relations of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the appointment and election of women to the superintendence of education, charities, and other public trusts, The honest demands of this class of citizens for addi- HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 97 tional rights, privileges, and immunities should be treated with respectful consideration. 13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government, and in the exercise of this power itis the right and duty of - Congress to prohibit and extirpate, in the Territories, that relic of barbarism—polygamy; and we demand such legislation as shall secure this end and the supremacy of American institu- tions in all of the Territories. 14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those who imperilled their lives for the country’s preser- vation in the kindest remembrance. 15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tenden- cies. We therefore note with deep solicitude that the Demo- cratic party counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the elec- toral vote of a united South, secured through the efforts of those who were recently arrayed against the nation, and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights. 16. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason; with making its control of the House of Representatives the triumph —and opportunity of the nation’s recent foes; with reasserting and applauding in the National Capitol the sentiments of unre- pentant rebellion; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promoting Confederate soldiers to the front; with deliberately proposing to repudiate the plighted faith of the Government; with being equally false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial questions; with thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement and obstruction of investigation; with proving itself, through the period of its ascendency in the lower House of Congress, utterly incompetent to administer the Government; and we warn the country against trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, and incapable. 17. The national administration merits commendation for its honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs, and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the American people for his patriotism and his eminent services, in war and in peace. - Upon the reading of the resolutions, Edward L. Pierce, of 98 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Massachusetts, moved to strike out the eleventh resolution; which, after debate, was disagreed to—yeas 215, nays 532. Edmund J. Davis moved to strike out the fourth resolution- and substitute for it the following: Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to provide for carry- ing out the act known as the Resumption Act of Congress} to the end that the resumption of specie payments may not be longer delayed. Which, after a brief debate, was disagreed to on a viva voce vote. The candidates were: Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President; William A. Wheeler, of New York, for Vice-Presi- dent. —— SEVENTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, JUNE 5TH, 1880. THE Republican Party, in National Convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States this brief report of its administration: It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the national authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States, with freedom instead of slavery as its corner-stone. It transformed 4,000,000 human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infa- mous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to seé that slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per cent. to the par value of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis, payment in coin for all the national obligations, and has given us a currency ab- solutely good and equalin every part of our extended coun- try. It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where six per cent. bonds sold at eighty-six to that where four per cent. bonds areeagerly sought ata premium. Under its adminis- tration railways have increased from thirty-one thousand miles in 1860 to more than eighty thousand miles in 1879. Our for- eign trade has increased from seven hundred millions to eleven hundred and fifty millions in the same time; and our exports, which were twenty millions less than our imports in 1860, were $264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and disbursed annually more than $30,000,000 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 99 for soldiers’ pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and, by refunding the balance at a lower rate, has re- duced the annual interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. All the industries of the country have revived, labor isin demand, wages have increased, and through- out the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Re- publican party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this convention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts: 1. We affirm that the work of the last twenty-one years has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the fruits of costly victories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace so gained should be cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily restored, should be perpetuated, and that the lib- erties secured to this generation should be transmitted undi- minished to future generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pension promises should be paid; that the debt so much reduced should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce, already so great, should be steadily en- couraged. 2. The Constitution of the United States isa supreme law, and notamere contract. Out of confederated States it made a sov- ereign nation. Some powers are denied the nation, while others are denied the States. Butthe boundary between powers dele- gated and those reserved is to be determined by the National and not the State tribunals. 3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but itis the duty of the National Govern- ment to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate intelligence of the several States, and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. 4, The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against influence of sectari- ~ anism while each State is exposed to its domination. We therefore recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to 100 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. lay the same prohibition on the Legislature of each State, and to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. 5. We reaffirm the belief avowed in 1876 that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor; that no further grant of the public domain should be made to any railroad or other corporation; that slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must diein the Territories; that everywhere the pro- tection accorded to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens of American adoption; that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our water-courses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corpora- _ tions must cease; that the obligations of the Republic to the — - men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are undi- minished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory, and their perpetual honor is and shall forever be the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people. 6. Since the authority for regular immigration and inter- course between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted im- migration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of that power to restrain and limit that immigra- tion by the enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will produce that result. 7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier career of R. B. Hayes, in peace and war, and which guided the thought of our immediate predecessors to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief Executive, and that history will accord to his ~ administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his interpositions between the people and proposed partisan laws. 8. Wecharge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice ~ of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust of office and patronage; that to obtain possession of the National Government and State Governments, and the control of place, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage; have labored to unseat law- fully elected members of Congress to secure at all hazards the majority of the States in the House cf Representatives; have endeavored to occupy by force and fraud the places of trust -_ HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, ~~ 104 given to others by the people of Maine, and rescued by the courage and action of Maine’s patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached parti- san legislation to appropriations, upon whose passage the very movements of the Government depend; have crushed the rights of the individual, have advocated the principles and sought the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have endeavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war and to overcome its inestimably good results of nationality, personal freedom, and individual equality. The equal, steady, and complete enforce- ment of the laws and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and immunities guarantecd by the Constitution, is the first duty of the nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the nation has made to its citizens. The execution of the laws and the punishment of all those who vio- late them are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation makes the nation must perform, and the nation cannot with safety relegate this ‘duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find free expression; and to this end the honest voter must be pro- tected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all States of this Union to the most perfect harmony which may be possible. And we submit to the practical, sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country at this time to surrender the administration of the National Government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy, under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring dis- trust and confusion where there is now order, confidence, and hope. The Republican party, adhering to the principle affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the constitutional rules governing appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical, and complete. To this end it demands ' the co-operation of the legislative with the executive depart- ment of the Government, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service. 102 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. EIGHTH REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, JUNE 5TH, 1884. THE Republicans of the United States in National Convention assembled renew their allegiance to the principles upon which they have triumphed in six successive Presidential elections, and congratulate the American people on the attainment of so many results in legislation and administration by which the Republican party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render its institutions just, equal and beneficent—the safe- guard of liberty and the embodiment of the best thought and highest purposes of our citizens. The Republican party has gained its strength by quick and faithful response to the de- mands of the people for the freedom and the equality of all men; for a united nation, assuring the rights of all citizens; for the elevation of labor; for an honest currency; for purity in legislation, and for integrity and accountability in all de- partments of the Government; and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform. We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a strong and successful administration, a promise fully real- ized during the short period of his office as President of the United States. His distinguished success in war and in peace has endeared him to the hearts of the American people. In the administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the coun- try has been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty approval of every citizen. It is the first duty of a good Government to protect the rights and promote the interests of its own people. The larg- est diversity of industry is most productive of general pros- perity and of the comfort and independence of the people. We therefore demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, not for revenue only, but that in rais- ing the requisite revenues for the Government such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our diversified indus- tries and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man. his. full share in the national prosperity. HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 103 Against the so-called economic system of the Democratic party which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter our,.earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnec- essary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the unequali- ties of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such methods as will relieve the taxpayer without injuring the la- borer or the great productive interests of the country. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the United States, the serious depression which it is now experi- encing and the danger threatening its future prosperity ; and we therefore respect the demands of the representatives of this important agricultural interest for a readjustment of duty upon foreign wool, in order that such industry shall have full and adequate protection. We have always recommended the best money known to the civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite all commercial nations in the establishment of an inter- national standard, which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver coinage. The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and be- tween the States is one of the most important prerogatives of the General Government, and the Republican party distinctly announces its purpose to support such legislation as will fully and efficiently carry out the constitutional power of Congress over inter-State commerce. The principle of the public regulation of railway corporations is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes of the people, and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust discrimination-and excessive charges for transportation, and that shall secure to the people and to the railways alike the fair and equal protection of the laws. We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor, the enforcement of the eight-hour law, anda wise and judicious system of general education by adequate appropriation from the national revenues wherever the same is needed. We be- lieve that everywhere the protection to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens of American adoption, and we favor the settlement of national differences by interna- tional arbitration. The Republican party having its birth in a hatred of slave 104 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. labor, and in a desire that all men may be free and equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competi- tion with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. ‘In this spirit we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offence against the spirit of American institutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain ° the present law restricting Chinese immigration, and to pro- vide such further legislation as is necessary to carry out its purposes. The reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Republican administration, should be completed by the further extension of the reformed system, already established by law, to all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all exec: utive appointments, and all laws at variance with the objects of existing reformed legislation should be repealed, to the end that the danger to free institutions which lurks in the power of official patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided. ‘The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, for small holdings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts of these lands by corporations or individuals, — especially where such holdings arein the hands of non-resident aliens, and we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this evil. Wedemand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all land grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with acts of incorporation, in all cases where there has been no attempt in good faith to perform the condi- tions of such grants. The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the Union soldiers and sailors of the late war, and the Republican party stands pledged to suitable pensions for all who were dis- abled and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the war. The Republican party also pledges itself to the repeal of the limitation contained in the arrears act of 1879, so that all invalid soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions shall begin with the date of disability or discharge, and not with the date of their application. - The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which shall give the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from meddling in American affairs—the policy which seeks HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 105 peace and can trade with all Powers, but especially with those of the Western Hemisphere. : We demand the restoration of our navy to its old time strength and efficiency, that it may, in any sea, protect the rights of American citizens and the interests of American commerce, and we call upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed, so that it may again be true that we have a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored and a navy which takes no law from supe- rior force. Resolved, That appointments by the President to offices in the Territories should be made from the bona fide citizens and residents of the Territories wherein they are to serve. Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws as shall promptly and effectually suppress the system of polygamy within our territory, and divorce the political from the ecclesi- astical power of the so-called Mormon Church, and that the law so enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil authori- ties if possible, and by the military if need be. The people of the United States, in their organized capacity, constitute a Nation and not a mere confederacy of States. The - National Government is supreme within the sphere of its na- tional duty, but the States have reserved rights which should be faithfully maintained; each should be guarded with jealous care so that the harmony of our system of government may be preserved and the Union be kept inviolate. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free ballot, an honest count and correct returns. We denounce the fraud and violence practised by the De- mocracy in Southern States by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free institutions, and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipient of the fruits of such fraud and violence. We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our utmost earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and complete recognition, possession and exer- cise of all civil and political rights. 7 106 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. BY CHARLES T. CONGDON, THERE is abundant evidence that slavery in America was never germane to the sentiment and conscience of the Amer- ican people. The plea sometimes adduced during the anti- slavery discussion, that the slaves were forced upon the colo- nies by the commercial cupidity of the mother country, was not without a modicum of truth. It is historically true that both Virginia and South Carolina, in the eighteenth century, sought to restrict the importation of slaves. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania pressed the adoption of similar measures, but in each instance the veto of the colonial governor was in- terposed. It must be understood that, notwithstanding slave labor was in many of the colonies found profitable, there was . always sturdy protest against it. The constant testimony of the Quakers against it is of record. John Wesley had de- nounced it as the sum of all villainies; Whitefield had spoken to the planters of ‘‘the miseries of the poor negroes;” Dr. Hop- kins, the eminent theologian, had fitly characterized the traffic in its very centre, and to the faces of the Newport merchants engaged in it. The Continental Congress in 1774 had pledged the United Colonies to discontinue altogether the slave trade. Several of the slave colonies themselves joined in the declara- tion against the trade. These facts are worth remembering, because they show that even at that time there was a strong and conscientious feeling against slavery and in favor of jus- tice and humanity. The defence of slavery upon moral, theo- logical, and political grounds came afterward. It is nearly a hundred years since the establishment of the Pennsylvania. Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and Benjamin. Franklin was made its president. There were other and simi- lar societies in different States. The first anti-slavery national convention was held in 1795. Perhaps the earliest abolitionist intimately connected with the anti-slavery agitation which culminated in such great results was Benjamin Lundy, a member of the society of — EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. 107 Friends, who, born in New Jersey in 1789, in 1815 had estab- lished an anti-slavery association called ‘‘The Union Humane Society,” at St. Clairsville, Va. Lundy wrote, traveled, lec- tured, and everywhere maintained his crusade against the in- stitution. In 1821 he started the Genius of Universal Emanci- pation, the office of which he removed to Baltimore in 1824. Having made the acquaintance of William Lloyd Garrison, he engaged the assistance of that gentleman in the editorial man- agement of the newspaper. Lundy was the first to establish anti-slavery periodicals and deliver anti-slavery lectures. Itis stated that from 1820 to 1830 Lundy traveled twenty-five thou- sand miles, five thousand on foot, visited nineteen States, made two voyages to Hayti, and delivered more than two hundred addresses. . . The first number of Mr. Garrison’s Liberator was published in Boston, in January, 1831. The history of the agitation which was then begun has already been partially written and is famil- iar to many still living. From this time forth to the bloody issue, and the final triumph of right and of justice, slavery began to be felt in the politics of the country. Undoubtedly a vast majority of both the Whig and Democratic parties were upon its side. Upon the other there were two classes. There was that which would keep no terms with slavery, but at all times and seasons yielded not one jot or tittle, but demanded its im- mediate abolition. There were others who took more moderate ground; who doubted the policy of instant abolition; who ad- hered to the parties with which they found themselves allied; but who nevertheless insisted upon the right of free discussion and the right of petition. The great champion of this right in the House of Representatives was John Quincy Adams. He had gone from the White House to the House of Representa- tives with no special feelings of kindness for the Southern States or for their political leaders. But he was always care- ful to declare that personally he was not in favor of the aboli- tion of slavery in the District, while he deemed the right of pe- tition ‘‘sacred and to be vindicated atall hazards.” His position must not be misunderstood. Asserting energetically the right of the petitioners to be heard, he had no sympathy with their opinions. He did not regard the question of slavery in the District as of much consequence. He took no humanitarian ground. He fought the battle, and fought it nobly, but it was as a constitutional lawyer, and not as an abolitionist. He ar- | gued the matter as he argued the famous Amistad case, upon # ee ae 108 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. strictly legal principles. Fortunately, they happened to be upon the right side, and Mr. Adams’s services at this time were un- questionably of great value to the cause of freedom. Among the few who took an entirely different ground, and who avowed their sympathy with the prayer of the petition- ers, was William Slade, of Vermont, who was in the House from 1831 to 1843, and afterward Governor of Vermont. He said, with manly precision and courage, ‘‘ The petitioners wish the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; so do I. They wish to abolish the slave-trade in the District; so do I.” But protest at such a time was vain, and the petitions were laid upon the table by a great majority. Agitation must at any cost be arrested. Tranquillity must by any expedient be secured. In the Senate at the same time a similar controversy was going on. Singularly enough, the champion of the right of petition here-was Mr. James Buchanan, who spoke and voted for the reception of the petitions, though he also advocated the instant rejection of their prayer; and he actually succeeded, to the great indignation of Mr. Calhoun, in carrying his point. Mr. Morris, of Ohio, vindicated the right, and declared that ‘‘no denial of it by Congress could prevent them from expressing it.” Similar ground was taken by Mr. Prentiss, of Vermont. Mr. Webster, not then so regardless of the popular opinion as he afterward became, advocated the reference of the petitions to the*proper committees. Among those who in those dark days of Northern subser- viency nobly stood up for free speech and a free press, was Governor Joseph Ritner, of Pennsylvania, whoin one of his mes sages said: ‘‘ Above all, let us never yield up the right of free- discussion of any evil which may arise in the land, or any part of it.” Thaddeus Stevens, then chairman of the Judiciary - Committee of the Pennsylvania House, took ground equally brave and independent. The Southern Legislatures had asked of the Northern States the enactment of laws for the suppres- sion of free discussion. ‘‘No State,” said Mr. Stevens, ‘‘ can claim from ussuch legislation. It would reduce us to a vassal- age but little less degrading than that of the slaves.” But in no State can the progress of this great controversy be more satisfactorily observed than in Massachusetts. There the abo- litionists were most uncompromising and determined, and so respectable were they in numbers and character that those who were opposed to their opinions and proceedings were not long afterward glad enough to get their votes in seasons of particu- EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. 109 lar emergency. But Massachusetts respectability, taking its tone from Boston, as the tone of Boston was governed by its commercial interests,. was then ready for almost unconditional surrender, of all which it should have held most dear, to the ‘slave power. Edward Everett was Governor of the State, and went so far as to suggest that anti-slavery discussion ‘‘might be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law.” This part of Governor Everett’s message was referred to a committee of which Mr. George Lunt was chairman. Be- fore this committee appeared in their own defence such abolitionists as Ellis Gray Loring, William Lloyd Garrison, Dr. Charles Follen, Samuel J. May, and William Goodell. It is almost impossible now to conceive of the indignities as possible to which these gentlemen were subjected by the chair- man, Mr. Lunt. Dr. Follen, one of the mildest and most amia- ble of men, was peremptorily silenced. ‘‘ You are here,” said Mr. Lunt to Mr. May, ‘‘ to exculpate yourselves if you can ”—~ as if the remonstrants had been criminals at the bar of public justice. Such treatment excited great indignation among those who were present merely as spectators. Dr. William Ellery Channing—the story is still related in Boston—walked across the room to offer Mr. Garrison his hand, and to speak to him words of sympathy and encouragement. From that day the _ progress of anti-slavery opinions in Massachusetts went on almost without cessation. They colored and affected the ac- tion of political parties; they broke up and scattered an organ- ization which had held the State in fee for more than a gener- ation; they proved themselves superior to all the reports and resolutions which such men as Mr. Lunt could bring forward; they won for their supporters all the distinction which place and popular confidence could confer, and reduced those who rejected them to the leanest of minorities. All things worked together for good. The murder of Lovejoy, at Alton in 1837, was a triumph of slavery which proved in the end one of the most fatal of its misfortunes. It sent Dr. Channing to Faneuil Hall to protest against such an outrage upon law and justice. Itsent there Wendell Phillips to make his first speech, which ren- dered him at once famous. It created a public sympathy in Boston and throughout the State which was never lost, which the immense influence of Mr. Webster was unable to over- come, and which prepared the way, first for the Free Soil and they for the Republican party. Boston Conservatism occa- sionally made a good deal of noise afterward, but it never car- Lote, HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ried another election. ‘‘ Politics,” said Mr. Franklin Pierce about that time in the Senate, ‘‘are beginning to mingle with that question.” And ‘‘he profoundly regretted that individ- uals of both parties were submitting to the catechism of the abolitionists.” Mr. Pierce was right; but there was a good deal more to come. The intense hostility of a portion of the Northern people to the measures and methods of the early abolitionists did not and could not prevent a gradual change in the temper and the opinions of vast numbers of reflecting and conscientious men, who saw the sole remedy only in political action. The au- dacity of the slave power, never for a moment satisfied, gave its friends at the North no opportunity of appealing success- fully to Northern interests. The most imprudent of mankind were always doing something which fanned the slumbering embers again into a blaze. They would not let well enough alone. They would not temporize even when to do so would have been greatly to their advantage. South Carolina, for in- stance, had been for years in the habit of imprisoning colored seamen during their detention at Charleston. Massachusetts appointed Samuel Hoar, of Concord, the agent of the State to prosecute suits to test the legality of these imprisonments. Mr. ‘Hoar was not only a gentleman of great personal worth, but he belonged to one of the oldest families in the State, and for many years had been respected as a jurist of great ability and © integrity. To what indignities he was subjected, and how he was expelled from the State, the history of those times will never fail to tell. One result of this was to make abolitionists of a great number of highly respectable people who otherwise might never have been moved from the path of the strictest conservatism, The admission of Texas asa slave State brought into the anti-slavery ranks, ill-defined as they were, great num- bers of persons who otherwise might have kept silence for- ever. It caused a meeting of protest in Faneuil Hall, over which Charles Francis Adams presided. The resolutions were drawn up by Charles Sumner. They were presented by John G. Palfrey. Garrison and Phillips were there, and for once the anti-slavery men of the non-political and the political schools worked together. The matter was discussed in the colleges and the law schools, in the factories and work-shops; it was then that the great political revolution in so many States began. Above all, it sharply defined the line between those ° Whigs and Democrats who, after a political wrong had been EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS, 111 accomplished, were willing quietly to submit, and those who thought that the wrong would be a fair warning against others of a similar character. If the motive of annexation was the preservation of slavery, then there was all the more reason for watching slavery closely. The case of Mr. Giddings is an excellent illustration of the folly by which the Whig party alienated many of its best friends. If he was anything, Mr. Giddings was every inch a Whig. He clung to his political organization when many another man would have left it in disgust. He was, while Mr. John Quincy Adams survived, the steady and able ally of that statesman in the House of Representatives. But neither this nor his strong anti-slavery sentiments prevented him from being a warm friend and supporter of Henry Clay. He clung to his party until his party nominated General Taylor. This was a supposed submission to the slave power, though it did not turn out to be afterward, which sent Mr. Giddings into the Free Soil ranks in 1848. What men went with him, and what came of that movement, even after it had to all appearance utterly failed, is well enough known. Nowonder Mr. Giddings felt that the North should have different men in the public councils, when with a large majority it could not shield him from outrages’ in the House to which the lowest of men would hardly have submitted outside of it. The Democratic party often exhibited as little wisdom. It had not, for instance, a stronger and more able soldier than Mr. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire. Personally very popular, he was an excellent debater, never found wanting in an emer- gency, and one who was alike equal to attack or defence. He was, however, foremost in his denunciation of the plan for the annexation of Texas—a measure which he characterized as ‘‘eminently calculated to provoke the scorn of earth and the judgment of Heaven.” He had already been nominated for the next Congress by the Democrats of his district, but another convention was called, and the name of Mr. Hale was taken from the ticket. It is to tell the whole historical story to say that this day’s absurd action made Mr. Hale a Senator of the United States. Thisis the story everywhere. The Whig Na- tional Convention, which treated with such utter contempt the protests of anti-slavery Whigs, was the last which met with any prospect of good fortune before it. The day was pregnant with great events, and great political changes were at hand. The Barnburner revolt in New York assisted in forwarding 119 ‘ HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. the great reform. There were yet to be defeats, and men’s minds were not entirely fixed; but both great parties in 1848 sealed their political doom with suicidal hands. Mr. Allen, of Massachusetts, had said in the Whig National Convention, ‘ It it evident the terms of union between the Whigs of the North and the Whigs of the South are the perpetual surrender by the former of the high offices and powers of the Government to their Southern confederates. To these terms, I think, sir, the free States will no longer submit.” Mr. Wilson declared that he would ‘‘not be bound by the proceedings of the conven- tion ;’ and Mr. Stanley, of North Carolina, with far-seeing sagacity, retorted that he was ‘‘ injuring no one but himself” —a declaration which in the light of subseqent events seems sufficiently amusing. Before the dissatisfied delegates went home the Buffalo Con- vention was decided upon. The first State Convention of the new party in Massachusetts was held in Worcester, and was attended by men who have since been often enough heard of— by Henry Wilson, Charles Francis Adams, Charles Sumner, E. Rockwood Hoar, to mention no others. The action of the Buffalo Convention in nominating Mr. Van Buren for President brought a great portion of the Democratic party to the new or- ganization, especially in Massachusetts, and in that State the party has never fairly recovered from the events of that cam- paign. The nomination of Charles Francis Adams for Vice- President was deemed a sufficient concession to the bolting Whigs. It was a ticket for an honest man to support, although no prospect of success was before it. The campaign started with great spirit in Ohio, being led by Chase, Giddings, Root, and other distinguished men. The new party went througha campaign which resulted in entire defeat and—in victory! But | it had cast two hundred and ninety-thousand votes for freedom ; it had defeated a candidate the avowed supporter of slavery ; and it had secured the election of another who, althougha slaveholder, was at least not a trimmer or a doughface. © Here as wellas anywhere may be considered the distinctive character of those who early engaged in this war against slavery extension. It need not be said that coalition was necessary, and coalition always implies the co-operation of those who find each — other useful, but who may be governed by widely different motives. Those who had conscientiously entertained a hatred of slavery found an opportunity of alliance with others, whose hostility was at least recent, and who had managed to get along EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. . 113 with the South so long as that section conceded to them a fair share in the Government. The Democratic wing of the Free Soil party made great pretensions to anti-slavery sentiment. Among those who were loudest was John Van Buren, of New York. He went so far as to say at Utica, in the Barnburners’ Convention, ‘‘ Weexpect to make the Democratic party of this State the great anti-slavery party of this State, and through it to make the Democratic party of the United States the great anti-slavery party of the United States.” Subsequent events showed that this meant very little save the desire for revenge on the part of a son who was irritated by what he regarded as the personal wrongs of a father. Not many years elapsed before John Van Buren was again in the Democratic party, when it was even more thoroughly than before the servant of slavery, with the immoral aspects of the institution more fully developed. With him returned to their allegiance many thou- sands of Democrats. He was supple, clever, and adroit. As a platform speaker he had few equals; but that he was alto- gether sincere perhaps it would be too much to say. No man is personally identified more historically with the Republican party than Henry Wilson. He had great virtues and great faults of character. His natural impulses were warm and generous. He had absolute physical courage, and when his passions were aroused he was a formidable enemy. He could put a personal injury in abeyance if he thought it for his advantage to do so; but he had a long memory, and although he might forgive he never forgot. He had great skill in party manoeuvre, and a perfect faith in party management. It was perhaps his real misfortune that his first political suc- cesses of any importance were secured by coalitions. It is true that many of these were originated by himself, but he was not, it must be said in his defense, the originator of the opportunity. He was perfectly frank in his avowal of what he thought to be not only the expediency but the virtue of joining in any polit- ical movement which would advance his own political opinions, without much regard for appearances. Others acquiesced in such bargains— Mr. Wilson went farther, for he believed in them. There was no nicety, no moral scrupulosity in his consti- tution. This made it easy for him to act with anybody or every- body ; and to this easy political virtue he owed his first election to the United States Senate. He joined the Know-Nothing party without in the least accepting its particular tenets. He did not hesitate to receive Democratic votes. In Massachusetts the 114 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Whig party was in his way, and in the way of the anti-slavery views which he undoubtedly entertained, and he determined upon its destruction. He never apologized for alliances which others thought to be immoral. He was a leader of those who regarded slavery as sinful and impolitic; he himself undoubt- edly shared in their opinions; but he did not hesitate in an emergency to act with those whose views were widely differ- ent. After his success was definitely assured he became more independent, and, it must be added, more consistent. His capacity for public affairs was of a first-rate order, and he had entirely risen above the defects of hisearly education. He was a born political soldier, and did quite as much as any man to bring the Republican party to compactness and coherence. Mr. Charles Sumner was of a character widely different from that of his colleague. The latter, with all his merits, was in grain a politician; Mr. Sumner was perhaps the worst politician in the United States. While the struggle which resulted in making him a Senator of the United States was going on in the Massachusetis legislature, he kept resolutely aloof from the contest, and neither by word nor by deed indicated his approval or disapproval of the coalition. Even when the pro- longed contest resulted in his election, he left the city of Boston that he might avoid the congratulations of his support- ers of either sort. He followed what he called ‘‘a line of reserve.” Ina letter to Mr. Wilson he thanked that gentleman for ‘‘the energy, determination, and fidelity” with which he had fought the battle, and said, ‘‘For weal or woe, you must take the responsibility of having placed me in the Senate of the United States.” Itis doubtful whether Mr. Sumner did entirely approve the means which were used to make him in the first instance a Senator; but, like other anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats, he acquiesced. Sosturdy amanas Robert Rantoul, Jr., accepted a seat in the Senate under precisely the same con- ditions, and he was elected to the House of Representatives in the same way. Even Horace Mann defended the coalition. Mr. Sumner’s career in the Senate was never in the least influ- enced by the necessity of conciliating Democrats at home; and long before his re-election anything like coalition had, by the march of events, been made unnecessary. Ultimately Mr. Sum- ner’s hold upon the hearts of the people of Massachusetts be- came so strong that the efforts of a petty clique to unseat him, could not under any circumstances probably have been success- ful. He was regarded, especially after the felonious assault EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. 115 upon him in the Senate Chamber, asa martyr to thecause. He was a great man for great occasions; and by long familiarity with the business of the Senate he became much more prac- tically useful than he was at first; but he could not be consid- ered a popular member, and there were those who thought him somewhat arrogant. He never worked well in the traces of party, and there was something of the virtuoso in his character, which his less refined associates did not relish. His speeches were very carefully prepared, but they were often loaded with - learning, and the more elaborate portions of them smelt of the lamp. His name, however, is inseparably and most honorably connected with the greatest of events, and he will doubtless be remembered long after he ceases to be read. Charles Francis Adams had been among the earliest of the Conscience Whigs of Massachusetts. His distrust of the South and of the slaveholder was natural, for he had received a large inheritance of family grievances, real or supposed. None of them, however, prevented him from permitting his name to be used with that of Mr. Van Buren, and he accepted the nomina- tion for the Vice-Presidency from the Buffalo Convention with perfect complacency. But if his passions were strong, his political tastes were occasfonally fastidious and probably he never thoroughly relished the Massachusetts coalition. He exhibited on many occasions the same remarkable mixture of ardor and conservatism which characterized his illustrious father. He could lead sometimes with special ability, but he could not be easily or often led. Party harness sat very easily upon his shoulders, and he could throw it off whenever he pleased. But of the new party he was an invaluable member, for his training for public affairs had been first-rate; the his- torical associations of his name were interesting and attractive; he was very wealthy; and he was a master of political science. Opposed as he was to the coalition which elected Mr. Sumner, he shared that opposition with Richard H. Dana Jr., Samuel Hoar, John G. Palfrey, and some other eminent Free Soilers. Ultimately, of course, these differences of opinion subsided; but Mr. Adams has shown, with other members of the party, that the same freedom of judgment which had led to its forma- tion still guided many of its choicest spirits. Of the brilliant career of Mr. Adams, subsequent to these events, it is unneces- sary here to speak. The present time finds him a member of that Democratic party which he has so often and so bitterly 116 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. denounced. The fact is to be most pleasantly regarded as evi- dence of the perfect independence of his character. All the temptations which led several prominent Whigs to repudiate the nomination of General Taylor in 1848 had no effect upon Mr. Willian H. Seward. His time had not yet come, but it was well known that his political opinions were of an anti-slavery color, and that he was particularly sensitive upon the point of surrendering fugitives from slavery. These views began to develop more definitely after his election to the United States Senate in 1849. In the debate upon the admission of California into the Union in 1850, he used the phrase ‘‘ higher law than the Constitution,” a part of which has become prover- bial. He fought the compromises to the last. In his speech at Rochester in 1858 he had alluded to the ‘‘irrepressible conflict,” and this phrase also has become famous, as well as the declara- tion that ‘‘the United States must and will become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free labor nation.” In 1860 in the Senate he avowed that his vote should never be given to sanction slavery in the common territories of the United States, ‘‘ or anywhere else in the world.” His services as Secretary of State during the Rebellion were of the first order, and especially his management of our foreign relations. Undoubtedly his wisdom and forethought saved us upon more than one occasion from a foreign war. His adherence to office under President Johnson did much to injure his popularity, and perhaps he was not sorry definitely to retire from public life in 1869, and to find a new and rational pleasure in pro- longed foreign travel. Mr. Seward was a man of fine literary tastes of no mean literary skill; he had the faculty of acquir-- ing and of keeping friends; and.in the social circle he was de- voted and affectionate. The disappointment of his public life, which considered altogether was eminently successful, was his failure to secure the Presidency; but it must have been an al- leviation to know that he shared this with so many eminent men. His public career was peculiarly consistent, and perhaps of all public characters of his time he was oftenest found upon the side of the oppressed and the unfortunate, even in cases which had no political significance. The man who even before 1846, and in that year, argued that slavery was local and dependent upon State law, was Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, and nothing could be more astonishing than the changes ° which ultimately placed such a lawyer upon the bench of the Supreme Court, and in the place just before occu- EARLY REPUBLICAN LEADERS. = 117 pied by Chief-Justice Taney. He was one of the few remarkable men to whom the old Liberty party was indebted for an exist- ence, to which the Republican party also owes something. He was the first or among the first to propose the Free Soil move- ment and the Buffalo Convention in 1848, and over this body he presided. He too was sent to the United States Senate by a coalition of Free Soil members and Democrats of the Ohio Leg- islature in 1849; but the Ohio Democrats in their State Conven- tion had already declared slavery to be a national evil, which rendered the coalition at least not absurd and contradictory. Mr. Chase made haste to disavow all connection with the Demo- crats after the nomination of Mr. Pierce in 1852, upon a pro- slavery platform. ~ With his record and strong opinions upon the subject of slavery the came naturally into the Republican party, and into the Cabinet of President Lincoln as Secretary of the Treasury in 1861. As Chief-Justice of the United States, his great learning, his sense of equity, and his liberal views of important public questions won him a permanent reputation _as a lawyer. He did not always agree with the policy of the Republican party, and he was even talked of as a candidate of the Democrats for the Presidency—a nomination which was not accorded to him, but which it was understood that he was willing to accept under certain conditions. He is an excellent instance of what the reader of this chapter must have observed —the tendency, during stormy political seasons, of really able men to cut loose the bonds of party and to seek in new affilia- tions the accomplishment of cherished purposes and the vin- dication of profound convictions. Judge Chase, in his own State, was a man of unbounded popularity. This was never shaken by any course which he thought fit to pursue; and to the last no man ever doubted his integrity. _ Not as President, but as one of the leaders who made the Republican party possible, the career of Abraham Lincoln be- fore he was elected to the office in which he died a martyr to his principals, ought here to be alluded to. In Congress, which he entered in 1848, he doubted the constitutionality of slavery in the District of Columbia; he suggested the expediency of abolishing the slave-trade there; and he warmly advocated the “Wilmot Proviso. When the project for the repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise was brought forward, he found his place in the great contest at once. His platform duels with Douglas in Illinois will never be forgotten, and his speech at Springfield utterly demolished the sophistry of the ‘‘great principle” 118 HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.~ which asserted that a man in Nebraska might not only govern himself but also govern other persons without their. consent. - He too declared that no government could endure permanently which was “half slave and half free.” How well he demeaned himself in his high office it is unnecessary to say. He grew larger and larger under the pressure of the terrible situation ; he was as tender as a woman, and as stern as a Roman; he thought, planned, acted, always with perfect caution, with native sagacity, with a perfect appreciation of the situation. It was no accident, it was the impulse of character and the prompting of the heart which led Abraham Lincoln into the Republican party, of which he was a defender and ornament. In the most doubtful days, if there be a party which is on the side of justiceand humanity, a man with a heart is sure to find it; and if there be another, its exact opposite, pledged to op- pression, to selfishness, and to corruption, the man without a heart is sure to drift into it. In this chapter many honored names have been necessarily omitted. The object has been to refer to only a few of the most prominent as examples of fidelity to great principles and to ideas worthy of the support of the American people. After all, more have been omitted than mentioned. We might have spoken of Horace Mann, the uncompromising philanthropist, the profound scholar, and the life-long advocate of popular edu- cation; of John G. Palfrey, who was among the first of Massa- chusetts Whigs to risk all save the reward of a good conscience for the sake of the slave; of the young and eloquent Burlin- game, first known as a popular speaker, but who afterward developed into a most able diplomatist; and we might have added something of the magnetic influence which drew the young men of the North about the banner of freedom, and awakened an enthusiasm which made the strict lines and the self-seeking policy of the old parties distasteful of their gener- ous natures. Happy will the nation be should any such great emergency again arise, if once more the old honesty shall be awakened and the old enthusiasm stimulated! REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. THE POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTE AT EACH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SINCE THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. REDUCTION OF THE PUBLIC DEBT. 120 WOONIAOE Wwe James Buchanan, STATES. Democratic. Vote Maj Alabama.... 46,739 18,187 Arkansas... 21,910 11,123 California. . 35300 7,200 Connecticut D4 QOD Flere ee els Delaware. .. 8,004 1,521 Florida...... 6,358 1,525 Georgia..... 56,578 14,350 Tllinois...... 105,348 +9,159 Indiana..... 118,670 1,905 TOV SY ices SONU TUR reves cteetets Kentucky... 74,642 6,912 Louisiana... 22,164 1,455 Maine. ..... D9, O80F eee s Maryland.. fal Wi Ue Pee eee Massachus’s 39240 Gite cc els Michigan. .. LSM Rs ae lent cy ee Mississippi. . 35,446 11,251 Missouri.... 58,164 9,640 N.H’pshire.. DO (OI Matic se New Jersey. 46,943 *18,605 New York.. TO) S1G cllataetcae N. Carolina. 48,246 11,360 Ohiogn wn: LEO OTE wearers P’nsylvania 230,719 1,025 R. Island.... 66802 es einan S.Carolina..| Electors | choson Tennessee.. 73,63: 7,460 TOXAS ieee 81,169 15,530 Vermont.... AD SB0 Sos jaa ate oe Virginia .... 89,706 29,105 Wisconsin... Be RAS IC ce amie Total... 32; 1,838,169 142,353, Buchanan’s Plurality..| +496,905 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. POPULAR VOTE OF 1856. John C. Fremont, Republican. Vote. ; Maj Hana) GOL Sete ot 42,715 5,105 Soy He DEABOY so races O46 STDTIE gases 43,954 £7,784 SLA oe ate aieeeas isis ee Te 108,190 | 49,324" 71,762 17,966 Asie ee 35 348° nee re 8338 Al llertaah tee sets 76,007 £80,129 ras 187,407 |" 16,683" Va 51 Onl deaeecres 11,467 8,112 by the Legis- se aNetahors abi D8 aa 201; aeons 66,090 12,668 1,341,264 146,730 M. Fillmore, American. wee eeeee sew eens see eww ee see eweee wee ew wee eee ewes wee ewee or ey nee eeeee er tee ee eee see eenes sew eeeee sete wees eee wee teens a Total Vote. ~ "5,291 32/697 860,395 19,822 139,816 46,808 6, 50,675 150,307 119,512 4,053,967 * Plurality over Fillmore. tPlurality over Fremont. + Plurality over Buchanan. STATES. 1;Alabama.... 2| Arkansas. .. Be ret eee 3/California. . OE ee 4'Connecticut).. Gris 5|)Delaware. .. rg’ [oe aaa 6|Florida. .... Bo oe V\Georgia..... isc 8)Illinois...... ; ae 9\Indiana..... Le Pa ecaiet crate 10\Iowa........|.. oa | ar ies Seat diiKentucky...\°124)...0].... 12|/Louisiana...| 6 ]|....].... 18|Maine....... LOA lino a iebe 14|Maryland...}....|....| 8 15|Mass’chu’ts.|....| 13 }.... 16)Michigan...|....| 6]... FSwes: imc | Buchanan. REPUBLICAN VICTORIES, KLECTORAL VOTE OF 1856. - PRES, | Fremont. | Fillmore. V. PRES. con SCO | Breckenridge. | Donelson. STATES, 17, Mississippi. . 18 Missouri.... \20 New Jersey. 19 N.fHamps’e .|. 21 New York..|.. 122 N. Carolina. \23 Ohio (24'Pennsylv’ia (26S. Carolina . |27,Tennessee... 28; Texas. ..:... 30 Virginia.... ig ,Wisconsin.. Total... : 25 R. Island....|. 29 Vermont....|.... PRES. V. PRES. r) ) d a : Saf son| ad = ¢ Bi isi sigigia si|g@/siolei{e ) Par (er a leah 3 ° Almi/m ima ;/aQiA fH APES Ni Ge Oe RAPS race al Ota eae ma eo ral ee anal aioe han sen De Li ome all aes Nas TT lm NP A nue TOG ae oe ee ON |e PLEA Rese sce ar Wee Haat Acahe Wrveiteiciers | oa re Mh SPA slab ies PS a ee We pede lees ae ONS Ses Or eieteal Pet Sali ae eel ebEN remem | Bree dit OD ROC eal wees LOR eects yl eee gee ag 174 \114 | 8 1174 1114! 8 | 1 5 Total. xn co a REPUBLICAN VICTORIES, POPULAR VOTE OF 1860. 122 A. Lincoln, S.A.Douglas, STATES. Republican. Ind Dem. Vote. | Maj. Vote. |Maj. ATLA DANA Sl cates 7s eer Itasca 3/65 15H ere QIATRAMBSAS. .lcicnsccvelice eibsctiewicetes 220 etc ia 8/Calif ornia, 39,173 #657 B86 sok eee 4;Conn’icut. 43,692 10,238 TO 522 oh ats 2s 5|Delaware.. SOLO ereey ee aes 3023 Itetse sre 6 Mloridd.c. cites. team rete SONe hs eee BUG OOP DA Ase fal verre aie oh ee se fe Sa T1690 a). 2 a0 8 Illinois.. 172,161 5,629 160, 215s) eee 9Indiana...| 139,033 5,923 115, 509seom wc 10\lowa..... 70,409 12} 487 D5, lla lee ae 11 Kentucky. 364. siatsts pana 20, 00LG roams TPLVOUISIATIA ci A6 sac sitet lO cee aes GOL Wie ane 13)Maine..... 62,811 27,704 26,6980 n can 14|Marvland. 2 Body eae eect GOO ubewGnan 15|Mass....... 106,533 43,891 SA Ollie eae 16|Michigan.. 88,480 22,213 GOOD tsteenen 14/Minnesota 22,069 9,339 VE O20 esas c ASI NLUSSISS PDL lare sees a otsliorien cums POO aenins 19|Missouri.. aT O28) peer ete 58,801 | +429 20|N. Hamp.. 37,519 9,085 D5/ SS haere 21|N. Jersey... Beye SE Ay teas he 62,801 | 4,477 22;\New York.| 362,646 50,136 OLADIO eviews BRIN OAT OMMNE sii 2 oslo [is oR. QOL aerate QW OhIOW) 08. 231,610 = 119 ABs 2oe leet 25 Oregon 270 1,319 DOO Lei ee weer 26;Penn... 5.0. 268,030 50" 618 LG s(Od ieee ree 27\R. Island 12,244 4,537 Os Ol cle sures 28'S. Carolina|Electors |chosen || by the |Legis cineca Mek, in 5 ee ere MISSSOLIe erie DOULOR AS. each eb ae otitis Le acetates rueenere sve sill ap eatte 31, Vermont.. 33,808 24,772 65840" pon Re 82| Virginia. . ORO Mahe raete sate Os PON Ns osha ie 33 Wisconsin 86,110 | 20,040 65,021 Vee eh. Total....| 1,866,352 | 326,39 1,375,157 | 4,477 Lincoln’s Plurality.. *491,195 *Plurality over Douglas. if + Plurality over Bell. J.C. Breckin- ridge. Dem. Vote. Maj, “48, 831 | 7,855 2%, (82 | 3,411 eee eee ees fae " 64,709 nt 548 969 78393 888 }.. 847,514 | 58,737. John Bell, Const. Union. steer 4,676,853 + Plurality over Breckinridge, REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1860. STATES. A. Lincoln, of Illinois. a PAM ANERITI Gos Coa Nee ica es lore tice antec tase Ms ACIGATTRA Gite cee hs Daaeintels d'sttn see! se precdieion, Seas POC OTe tetra stokes acta sigislviole G-s'e's eo hadis a sisiiewe eed (OIE C929 o ® 2 3 © q © BEUH SL ONVU: Ui echelcs2 elu hs es ote. iain’ Ss Seo miele. osotexkre’s otis MMCINEILC Keyes ors ea can Sale niin s Sded Seas fa rate SUA HOUISIANA..... 6. cece esse esse et eee els cence ES RRL ABILO ah ta ae tee apace b srojele = oth sie! e a aie olacs ANT EET LATICL 0.5, Chea ciecetselo’ ca acedules seks cress TO Massachusetts. . 2.2. cick... clinaeeee ss PRG UNEE CHAO ATS overs ie dh sists date acecceied ¢ cones Be VIATINIOS OGD 1.5 calves enced vivid ac leiele oie MAMVELSSLSSET) Din patsracmic cs cos a ec.e set cell Maus « ES RVI BOUIN Ne aa ar ees ania A eats warns abn es o's 20 New: Hampshire, . 6 7h. tas eyelets PRIN Wits CLSCY. sweps ccideewsiceenecdeacaee INS WU COL ogra wo es a wu weal coo sis .arcreiers PDENOLEMTCALOUN Gages «ors 3 ied cess BC MUREL ON een ee oe aia Ges Vs ac Gea Oe b myaltiaen od NRE OLR ONS ee Fak erates wie. enis'e aie 5 v alte. OME M TGV VATL Ase als ce cee dinis ot gc ets PAPO O ESTA Cs: a srcvers sc gale sie so tereete sc HOCUS REC dy jeter Re Re IR ree arise tre aaa SARE 6 [Pt SAT Rd eS are rt re ee Poi VVLISCOMSENC LS cvs cae wate ne nels ee ees PRESIDENT. ‘| J. C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, co of Tennessee. John Bell, we eeee S. A. Douglas, of Illinois. eee eoe VICE-PRESIDENT. of Massachusetts. H. Hamlin, of Maine. | Joseph Lane, of Oregon. | Edward Everett, H. V. Johnson, of Georgia, eoesee| s GP foweceslesscee HCO 123 124 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES, POPULAR VOTE OF 1864. 18 19 OO IBIP Wwe STATES. California ...... Connecticut Delaware or ee eereeccsee KANSAS. civiv-c.c,ehae Kentucky....... Louisiana*...... MaIN@ sie corse. Maryland...-... Massachusetts.. Miechigan).)..24-<. |\Minnesota...... \Mississippi*..... Missouri......... |Nevada.......... New Hampshire New Jersey..... New York....... North Carolina* OTegON ns cae oe Pennsylvania... Rhode Island... ‘South Carolina* West Virginia. . Wisconsin eseeee Ce Ree ewer ever eseeseseee Cr a ee ee ee ec i i i a ay ee i eC reece er weereeseneese ee ee Cee e weer ewer tere reee Cr a i a ee i rey i ee i i a ae ay Se a ay Pe a oe a a ee ey eee wee w eee e ew eee s eel eeereseecesel| aces aseeee eee ewww sere rs ersecces a Abraham Lincoln, CLOT saat a ctetenays ciere ee cle ale ae gt caistg terait ill iete ete lcha aiaceisisied (een ee Ete Republican. Vote. Maj. 62,184 18,293 44,691 2,406 lOO | haere a a, 189,496 30.766 150,422 20,189 89,075 39,479 Ss) 441 12,750 Ms TBO S| Meee ewes so att "17,592 40,153 4,414 126,742 77,997 91,521 16,917 25,060 %, "72,750 || 41,072” 8 3,282 265,154 59,586 9,888 1,431 296,391 20,075 13,692 5,222 ee ee i ee ar a a) VT LINEA Ae, Sieile eaten apis eines eso cwipinstecall aloe ere sweater We ebreeere aie 23,152 12,714 83,458 1% ‘v4 2,216,067 | 451,770 poeiecoe ests 407,3 weet arenes Geo. B. McClellan, Democratic. AY Vote. ie ee Se eee eee eseee ed ee ee wees ees 1,808,725 The eleven States marked thus (*) did not vote, Maj. weer eceses ey cow eee ene So ee y ee i ay a ry ee ey eee eeseeee eee ee esee a se eee ceeee Ce eee reccees eee cece ees a ey see eeeceee see eeeeeee eee ee ernee ed ee eeeeeeee been wewwe see ecw neces see ee or eee eect eeweee tee eeeecee eee een eee see eeeeeee eee eeeceer teen neces er 44,428 es Cr iy ee eee renee eae eeceeee eee we weeee ay ee oy sete etree eee ew eeee 4,024,792 ree) REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. 125 ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1864. PRESI- || VICE- PRESI- || VICE- DENT. || PRES. DENT. PRES. SI Uhl! BLT als zi |i 4| || din a Sk pele 10 Clie STATES. Bla] |iea|3 STATES. Ag] ola] (8 SS} || 5/8 ;| 2 5 ol ;| 2 | fray aes es 30/2 \\g 818 31/8] S)a/8 aS ES a Qu E he g = 5 Fle 4 ao Ala} Sis a Sis je S|) Si/S|| $ 4/5 |> |) /6 >| [6 SIP || is |> |) & MUPAIA DARA Y. cous ees cee ce els «|= +f) lee} oret- 81 | 8) ZO PMissOUrT: 2... fy oa. cs Pie Heres nods API ANIBAS. orcas ee sle ceed ss TDi bee Oneortel| NEvadaicssc st sae se PAS fa ie 3 al) ser SS ORMLOPMIA 2) adslns's og.be-e 5}..]..|| 5]--!.-.|) 5|/22;/New Hampshire....| 5]..}..|| 5}..|..|] 5 _4\Connecticut............ 6|..|..]] 6|..]..|| 6/|23|New Jersey,......... Hole Chiefs «solar Cero pee GIDCIAWATC si... vcs cee cl oe Oecthe a Olea ofleei New Vork icc. ieee. . 3o|--|+=|| 3d{..]..1] 80 MPEMOLIO GD, cue tines oats cota vals «| ss Bi|..[--| 3}| 3] 125 Rone Carolina..... PA csole Ol owl oct Oiled. ROOT RTA 24 cs oetak s cet Pelee h OMe sei Oh] Ai 2OtOMiOceen ce enanokeseaes eh Ae) | aaf ap Bnet Pc hab MU ATEENOIS:, S202 otek seeks sie LG Ee NG toa | Oreson Saas hh eee Let 5A Peed Bl ats ete ora (iS SMELL ATIOS 2 iblere's sine sig ¢.o 13}..}2./|13]..|..||18}/28|/Pennsylvania....... Qosmio ai:? BObcaipesth eo BU GNA Sia tates Wels trek death's ale 8}..|..]| 8}../--|| 8)/29| Rhode Island ....... BA ale Ite Hee bese Pa ie 2 MURA SAS 5. SScde vue cosines 3]..]..]| 3]..].-]| 3)/80|\South Carolina Seale ot Ol lac ebesieOu une ISON TUCK Y~. cs esa scicensl -{11)..}]..]11}..|/11!/81/Tennessee......5..:.|...]. .{10)}...}..|10}| 10 UEIRG ahr hs2 kB pe eae eae Spe cles He 1 [Oe EEO MASEL etc lade ee ko flas ater GS. Se6it 6 ANNE RAINE Sees so oth Seta vee os Cit Mein eheahleel So WeMMONt as sce Acasa Re alee aaleele teeo A MAP VIAN socs . 50 tsie tees Giorno betel ali eel Bon Va oT Taw oe ken Cockle ees sos 10}. ..}../10)} 10 16|Massachusetts......... 12}..|..|/12)..]..||12)/35| West Virginia....... 5 shes Dies eels pecan Pa emote Shee s Olek ahi Sleal| sal Ol SOT WASCONSIM Ghecs scene ate, Sloss a -Ol eufeolane 18 Minnesota............-- 4).be. {Vai —| |=} |— |= || |— 19 Mississippi Lome ss cleate ore a Roe fae pa ea rere dk eg PObALI Us eyo eee cent 212) 21/81) |212/21 |81| |3814 i \ 126 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. POPULAR VOTE OF 1868. Ulysses 8. Grant, || Horatio Seymour, STATES. Republican. - _ Democratic. Aion Vote. Maj. “Vote. Maj. A ATA RING a celeos ose goatee aleis hots eo sts 76,366 4,278 72,088 148,454 QtATKANGASL TN cose cote moet reese Bs 297112 3,034 19,078 ,190 BS OBMTORNIA Ie ashes ts Parcs see oe 54,583 506 54,077 108,660 A | CONNCCHICUE Yih dees tse sees 50,995 3,043 47,952 947 HIDELA WATER: 2 Seen ssaieeac sen 5020 salb- ates ec 0,980 18,603 GILOTI GAM eae: eeaneeee hs Electors | chosen by the ture, " ae ile RaMa\wiahe ep ote ethers tisha BD eg LEA ea lierssereta aie ots 102,722 ; 159,856 SWIM OISUe:. sephiresta te eee triste s 250,303 51,160 199,14 449,446 OTA TIO cfs: .ie ciclels o Gaeic Ste 176,548 068 ay! 343,528 OMT ONV GLb see Moean s beset 120,899 46,359 74,0 194,439 UL PIR BAS fee eae cms Bek hice acing eile 31,048 17,058 13,$ 45,038 PPNICOMGUCEY: ce segan seb.ceelslemet clete «eee SODHG Ail Case cee 115,890 76,324 155,456 A BHROUISTADOA mo faesccabedeccioe pate ne maies BO; 203 ila ieee 80,225 46,962 113,488 ICU REE hae) qeeaee Spares OR Cnn RAS er 70,493 28,033 AZ ABO i) Sey iets 112,953 LSUMAT VLAING Votan carte cece ateteae colton SO ASS ieee tee 62,357 31,919 92,795 do Massachusetts. .2. .Ciakse. 2 eee. ne 136,477 77,069 59,408. 1h Seceer noes 195,885 An MNCHISAN at nce cme aiceh ad oan eee 128,550 81.481 94,069 sane 225,619 LSI MI NIVESO CATs. age de shisha brant cae 43,545 15,470 28, 075 RL Ar > 71, AQ MISSISSIPPI si. os eeiglas o.srats bos wisn OWS ake ois oteen late a Rose esate 0 Paes ania Pane w/e | onie: te sheers ara IE tate cack Ay MASSOULT le cs cic Brice ota atelier eee 86,860 21,232 Gbi6287 hi eae 152,488 DUNG DPAS KA Re ok ose ae eaten as We!) 4,290 94004 Sis rater 168 PAINE VAAAcHee mete. seioewies cee meee: 6,480 1,262 5,218. Mie eevee 11,698 25| New: Hampshire. 2.6 sctsecs cere obs cele 88,191 6,967 Ol, Pod, tie tea 69,415 QUIN GW.) CL BOY ie + Vaiss bp ies ails sealers oes SOMSL a iteaen cease 83,001 2,870 163.132 RON GW. SW OLK ee 6chsig aie nese haere 419, R88 Sa cnet 429,883 10,000 9,766 26 NOEtH ATONE. be hancebecwe es comece 96, 769 12,168 SOQ: 7 eens 181,370 RE ONIONS whe mieia's see ERY oe ees Coane 280,223 41,617 238;006; | |Gbuce gates 518,829 ROW OROL OMe tk Ao atas’s chee eels eeabeaneing traeialy TOOG1 Sole eee 11,125 164 22,086 Ao Pep nsy LV ADsia.o. ct lses pie sdivistnieis ares 842,280 28,898 OLB soos. a |aereraele hie 5,652 SOMRHOG SG ISIANG Zeones piri aeer wun wet vee 12,993 6,445 sDAB > peda sees 9,541 Sipouthy, Carolina. scivees cee ste cveeacs 62,301 17,064 1 BY oo ae Se os op 107,538 32) 'TONMCSSCE:. ta... cae} soba och ov eegn ter 56,628 80,499 S120 2 | Meanie ear 82,757 BOE ETS seine are, Sia valu to's fracas Ste esa ec Eie etarauetore Ie pier erate locas) ode aif seb eis.ne leew p/atps Del arte cotetnve tous. ora Iheser ce clones ia | oe DAIMICTIM OWL se ericcre fakes siecle helene ees 44,167 32,122 12,045 Hae seaee 56,212 OO VAL SUTIIA Mian te Vem iw is a hata bors Gis wlew isco aille bis Siem ors Riele,odieie ole w hravele el] Ikebe oeesosele Sze eee ft cbc uate ate ecTeneT Ete eee SOIWVESU VAT SINIA.. cm. es cat ceca cere 29,175 8,869 20; 306 "ol ae sae eee 49,481 Bd WASCODBIN- a: aks shiceint cet cinsicebies oe ois 108; 857 24,150 Bh, 70T ex stecrouis 064 TOUAL Se Po sealing hs sce nee ~ 3,015,071 522,642 2,709, 613 217,184 5,724,684 Grants Maori bys. oes os ene ae lives cere ee 305,458 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1868. 127 a POO FD OM CSD HS — = PRESI- DENT. 4 STATES, wl 0 ~~ fa a AES 27 =ihs) o Bs q | 8 Didi AATID SE OTE Wee ee ees Bie. PNUERATIAAS oc cs cece cate lime Calafomiaz.. cA... Bisse Connecticut............ Gl... WICVAWOELE 66. do. occas veoh. -! 3h. POMP ICT AN aie. 4, die a ae Sas Ble lets CE Gla E lea ae selene are Oe. LUTE S020) Ei AR ee dane AG{ acts Ea B26 94: ee doe ah a 7 Paes HADMY EEE aiale tice ee oe eels Loles|s Kansas...... Be cists Soe wet Bale PSOE CK Yoo lav ses clove eal’ ny ae OUISIATIA. cs core lowe se «ee seal hk Late NIE SINO Cee oe eaves coe i iiesca Wes Marylanist os cee's eae SX te Massachusetts ......... 174 eet ea MIICHIC A) Sesaee 8s bes Biot is. Minnesota......00.-008- Ae sles MISSIBSIDDL vencecc sess cues ac 7 VICE- PRES. | F. P. Blair, of Mo. | Vacancies, | Total. wo: : > gota: ool aaaa |S. Colfax, of Ind. aver = = AER WWIII wMDMWNRwowon oreo VICE- | F. P. Blair, of Mo. | Vacancies. : reset |S. Colfax, of Ind. 33). . PC rico. 2: et Sane: | cou: on PRESI- DENT. bt =I A STATES, ce 3 OTs 3/5]. a\g\2 bral 3) O/ Fla vi|2/ 6 b ied > 20 MISSOUP A. acacs cea 11 21|/Nebraska..........-- 3 22|NeVada........see00- Biles 23;|New Hampshire.. Bioline 24\|New Jersey,......... Pls ee 20) INOW wl OFS oc lsaees a alOOls« 26|North Carolina..... os ee PL OBLOR re oe se Re aie aleve! <3 20 ORC LONE ret kaa get Be Sy ae 29|Pennsylvania....... 26a i's 30| Rhode Island....... dies 31|/South Carolina......| 6)..|.. 82|Tennessee...........- LON Sher Bo) LEX AS vas... FS De NAe he 6 34) Vermont... ........0% Oiees SOV PERNA: oe chistes cere oles .|..|10 86) West Virginia....... Olean SUPWASCONSIN. 4 oe cice ye-0 8. Total nate. 214 80 23 PRES. wrcoBareneseo | Total. wo — is 128 STATES. 1;Alabama.......... ATKOANBAS, <0. 32.65 California. ....... 'Connecticut...... |Delaware. Florida. Georgia Illinois, OOESD Oui CdD 14\Maine. ... 15|Maryland......... 16|Massachusetts... Pi Michigan: ice... 18|Minnesota........ 19|Mississippi........ 90| Missouri 2.0.4.2... 22|Nevada........... 26| North Carolina... PULONI Oe. relates a8 28) Oregon.......-.6.- 29|Pennsylvania.... 80)/Rhode Island..... 31 South Carolina... oH VITPINIAt cece ces 36) West Virginia.... 37|Wisconsin........ REPUBLICAN VICTORIES, POPULAR VOTE OF 1872. U.S. Grant, Republican. Vote. Maj. 90,272 10,828 41,373 3,446 54,02 2,284 16 4,348 11,115 422 17,763 2,336 G2, G00 sea neice 241,944 53,948 186,147 21,098 131,566 58,149 were scenes 71,663 14,634 61,422 32,330 GO; 6G0 | ee. ads ste 133,472 74,212 138,455 968 55,117 20,694 82,175 34,887 ETO 196 «eo ee ee 18,329 10,517 8,413 2,177 37,168 5,444 91,656 14,570 440,736 1,800 94,769 24,675 1,852 84,268 11,819 3,017 849,589 | 185,918 13,665 8,336 72,290 49,400 DODD Head ets BT A0O THe a ciale: tole sie 41,481 29,961 93,468 1,772 82,315 2,264 104,997 17,686 3,597,070 | 825,326 BSCR sect 727,975 > | H. Greeley, Dem. & Lib, Rep. Vote. 2,834,079 74,709 O’Conor, Dem. Total Vote. 169,716 iy 6,466,165 cna sites es « QOj 254 Wawa cees AA-092's| 235839 i |iee-ateletsote)||s eres |e aa tetete 64,346 BOUVAESIN a wane hae. eee .-| 189,670 | 44,112 5 DOS she a tebe cl eiherclett ole ota einkell eieeterane 235.228 37| West Virginia......... 6,455 | 12,38 AQ, O98 W\isacnse« BGS Reged crane 100,526 88) Wisconsin ............. ZO Oat mee cas 130,668 | 5,205 Z 7 een 256,131 Ota ate eee “4,28 284, (57 545,672 || 4,033, “4,083,950 248,501 | 81,740 | 9,522 | 2,686 || 8,412,606 Tilden’s Majority.....].......... 156, REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. 131 ' ELECTORAL VOTE OF 1876. PRESI- VICE PREsI- || VICE- DENT PRES. DENT PRES, ; bid i ij s|y|lel4 ginllele i) f ay | o) . Gy | oA Oly{| ao} ° OFS Ae ORES STATES, Sale cael pe 1 oe STATES, es |u|] as | ool] o | o|°9 o | e| pile a o| gil | a £8 i 2|% Ese |e @/Uile | a e| 3 q |e & Il BIBWE si ° — . | Ais it} 4is AiR WA Las aia llE le lie alos Ele lle VATA DaINIA, oS fennis cro A | ee 10 10°} | 10)/21| Missouriy....s.0.5 ek locas AB eb pei MU MEATIGRS pouieceees ss [eis 6 6 || 6//22|Nebraska............ Seles hinSal tee toes 3iCalifornia ...22....- a lG Gitess alt Oulea| NEVad ance src ssc cee Bs laes Spies ce ee ANS OLOL EGO. .% sic:.o cite os s 3 3 |....||.3|/24|New Hampshire....} 5/}....)) 5 }....]- 5 HICONNECICUE... c.c056. }eees 6 6 || 6||25|New Jersey.,........].... Or hvest eid. 9 CMDOIAW ATOMS ee cis cece dese Dartiliete ats 3||26|New York...... SIAL ol ae yee 8b Jle.<:| 80: | {on OTA AN IG 5 ams: cie's «cis 4|....|| 4]....|/| 4)/2#)North Carolina.....}.... 10 ||....} 10 || 10 8 Georgia...... Weare Soares heck Nese Le TAS TONLOss ines Soman cee 22 22 eee OPM TETL OTS 's:0.c viv asics 0:0 0ie QTE ose aide olan ebee | Pen OO ORE POM: =o ams ee) ats Pa ces Nh ets dbl lect Ma DOI CL ANA ss vic cyoc'ste a,c ncmhe «5% 15 ||....| 15 ||15)|80| Pennsylvania....... 29 20}. 29 LITO Wis Le oo oa ces Healt he eH ELISt RiGdélisland’ Ses |2 4 4}, 4 12/Kansas..... Sic plstety eae Orla ceiiol Onl ece stl, O} fos SOUt a Carolnars:® «, binge bawcs plot teamed AS COTGUICKY “ios ve sede wes 12 }|....| 12 |}12)133)}Tennessee:..........}.00: Ha ag lB Fn 14|Louisiana*.,......... Si ee eS Melee PONTO ORAM ct, wetaeuas roman baits SAIS ees icets. 8 Tey V9 0S a pee Coe a Sh V exrmont. eit ca [oe Dich rerare Ata eee ah pe AGIMMATVALATIO Ate os acess [sees Bilieeech eS: RO) ooLVireinia:: 2. v. We pode ahrae 5p eaegeaes fae a 17|Massachusetts...... 13 }....}| 18 |....|/13)|/387| West Virginia.......|.... Di fleste le D 5 ASMIONI CAN 8 cs ce ws 0 vs Se irae tie 31 ..--||11//88} Wisconsin,.......... LO echt LOM ta Heke 19|Minnesota........... fe Peber Hie twee lot) —|—| |—_—__|——||—_. 20|Mississippi ..........|.... Shee eB 8 Ota Socks Woks tens 185 |184 |/185 |184 ||369 *From Florida two sets of certificates were received; from Louisiana, three ; from Oregon two; and from South Carolina, two. They were referred to an Electoral Commission, forme under the provisions of the Compromise Bill, approved January 29th, 1877; the Commission decided in favor of counting the Electoral Vote, as returned in the table. Number of Counties in each State and Territory in 1878. TjAlgbama.....csceveeess| 67}/19| Minnesota, .....s.. ees (1||\37| West Virginia ......... o4 QVATERANSAS Wo .5 cis eee e cc's %4||20| Mississippi. ............ 75||38| Wisconsin.............. 60 8\CalifOrnia .....ccce8es OZ ZEMISSOULL < oan vied cies en 115 — AIOOIOTAAO... 565.0 o cles ok 30/22) Nebraska,.............. 62 Total Counties..., ..|2299 5|/Connecticut........... 8) 28) Nevadar io.t.. cssccsslecs 14 OIDOIAWALECH soso) waive cos 3||24|New Hampshire....... 10 WPMNOTLGG. Sirs we tale ca es 89) /25| New Jersey. .........2. 21 TERRITORIES. GURCOLELIA, (21052 coe ec cads TSH ZOUN OMe YOLK 2 cnc cee ce tines 60 OURIN O18 ao Heke eck ob ea ce 102) |27;/North Carolina ........ 94)) 1)Arizona... 6 10|Indiana... eatlane tvs, OB 28 ODIO cicer, hose a ais) oe aro 88|| 2) Dakota. 34 ER UOW hicte ce aig ed ee o teile ae 99} |29|Oregon....... ...| 208|| 3)Idaho.... 10 POMSBUEAS oS. sl eoatieess 76) 30) Pennsylvania. 67|| 4|Montana.. 10 Lp ACOMGUCKYs. oosccccnedes 117) |31| Rhode Island... 5|| 5 New Mexico. ~|peke 14|Louisiana. been ||32|\South Carolina........| 33)| 6)Utah.......... -| 20 6 MAIO OF eo ea ee conte 16) |33)Tennessee............5- 94|| 7| Washington «| 24 16) Maryland)... os. cseces PINS LORAGS Ho aaieige rece okies $51) 8) Wyoming o..2 02 reece 5 17|Massachusetts......... AAW BOT VEENION Gas cscs ace cae cnc 14 — TSIMAGHISAT ics ceee ce sez-| (6\|50| VIFZINIA, «. 000008 Rests 105 Totalicn sce Saito Retettie te 121 132 REPUBLICAN VICTORIES. POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTE FOR PRESIDENT, q 3 s STATES. ar oe e ® 3G i.) Alabama, vd... 45.4 -. 56,178 Arkansas's.2. ofA os 41,661 Call Grinlaee niet te 80,348 Colorado, sickle. 7,450 Connecticut........... 67,073 Delaware S220 6seo6 4,150 HULOLIGAE ous secenak 23,654 SWE VSTOS doy FO Rie ge 52,648 PRN GiSe ei eh Gato 318,037 THOLAN Gale ket tsa coee 223, 164 LOW tte ficet ete eee 83,904 KRanisasnincge ch, aan 121,520 Kentucky. st....Js 02k. 104, WOWUISIANay. 2h. oe oe es 37,994 NEAINGRa ee CN et ae 74,039 Maryland 2.22 ooo ee 78,515 Massachusetts ........ 165,205 Michigan cso ticios chiens 190 Minnesota: f.)0isn 5 sen 93,903 Mississippi............. 34,854 PISS OUI: ae stork hig casinie o 153,567 Nebraska sia... ovehccn ss 54,979 ING VES eee 8,732 New Hampshire...... 852 New Jersey............ 120,555 NOW -YOPrkKi2 e055 iss os 595,544 North Carolina........ 115,878 ONTO Sees shaw esas 375,048 OLERON ett oo iet pene 20,619 Pennsylvania......... 444,704 Rhode Island.......... 18,195 South Carolina........ 58,071 TENNIEGSECO oikioe cect ee < 107,677 LO ROB ar eee ass a vac eee ses 57,815 IMGBINONG: cise & stelssebe ale , Of ASG hag gH bey See iA 84,020 West Virginia......... 46,243 WASCONSIN iris cceee ses 144, 397 Motal stat eantee ee 4,449,053 Ee Lupsli ty. 5 ete tose 7,018 PCr Cent ckikeesce sas 48 .26 Hancock, Democrat. 127,976 57,391 114,634 4,442,035 48.25 1880. Ste i . S| B| 28 i! 2) C3 pe ® On He $ as 95 | 8 | ae e n o AGIA nels sel oles ode AQT OIE peeve Nc saneene BBs Aieas Pal Pace e 1 Asse eaw ese 2,803 868 412] 2,656 bet ethereal Pa See tae 26,358 596} 40,71 12,986]...... 6,636 32,327 630| 79,059 eLO ears 61,731 11,498 251 se ees ABO tie all am tenets 4,408 235) 8,86 P18) Ps Cease 4,548 799) 53,245 84,795| 1,156; 58,890 3,267 286) 40,588 5,797 yi ele Ses Bb; 045) eet cnles antes S853] eaeeee 26,456 528] 189] 4,058 2,617 LOL ees. Sees 12,373} 2,177) 21,033 LAS Bene Ree ee 6,456| 2,642) 34,227 249 PE esas 671) 20,668; 1,983] 37,276) 236 25 | 416 566 A 5,916 AD Jab eis P(e steer Burst con 1,212 110} 26,909 130 eee ee ORT CU Paid eel ieee 4,080 161) 29,763 307,306 *12,576|537,001 7,018 3.33 Re oa Hancock’s plurality. eeeceee se eceee eceeeee wee eens see ewee teen aee eee twee eee eeee eee sees Total popular eon see eteene Electoral vote. { * J} 4 [-) is) ° (5) Le E|e| $ o an i= cane 10) 10 Sania 6] 6 al 5) 6 Sivek we 3 Glia Sos 6 Short Ble ot erates 4) 4 aotabe 2 Ue ay QL seca 21 AD eaters 15 nh GD ib Hie 5 wait es 22) 12 vanes 8} 8 Mi ornate 7 Helen 8} 8 Sie race 13 pay 11 Oh 5 a Nee 8} 8 seen 15)-715 Dike sn 3 Salts 3} 3 Dlieeter 5 Rein 9) 9 30)... 35 Ey 10; 10 79 Pe 22 Siete 3 29 ecto 29 NR ee 4 geeks UiiveeG beatae 12) 12 aaa 8| 8 BS eee a 5 RO Hy Hen ih Eke a} ret A TO) Se 10 214| 155) 369 59 '58.00/42.00 * Of the scatterin: and 707 votes for Jo. ecret-Society candidate, votes, 10,305 were cast for Neal Dow, “‘ Prohibition” candidate for Presiden‘, nw. Phelps, “American” or Anti-§ \ REPUBLICAN VICTORIES, 133 REPUBLICAN FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENTS. : OFFICIAL TREASURY STATEMENT, SHOWING THE ANNUAL REDUCTIONS IN THE Princi- pal, Interest, AnD Per Capita AmounT oF THE Public Debt rrom 1865 To 1883. Total interest- nat interest |Debt on which in-} Debt bearing bearing debt. charge, terest has ceased.} no interest. NSBOMON sce ello cosas. oe 2,221,311,918 29 137,742,617 43 1,245,771 20 458, 090, 180 25 1865—Aug. 8d...... 2,381,530,294 96 150,977,697 87 1,503,020 09 461,616,311 5l 1866—July Ist...... 2,032,831,207 60 146,068,196 29 935,092 05 439,969,874 04 1S Ry Ae a pe ee 2,248,067,387 66 188,892,451 39 1,840,615 01 428,218,101 20 QUO Satta k ect ecelts nes 2,202,088,727 69 128,459,598 14 1,197,340 89 408,401,782 61 BHO neers vie vie. Sha alesls 2:162,060,522 89 125,523,998 34 5,260,181 00 421,131,510 55 MS iOpen: hae sais 2,046,455,722 39 118,784,960 34 3,708,641 00 430,508, 696,750 00 111, 949, 830 50 1,948,902 26 416,565,680 06 1,814,794,100 00 103; 988,463 00 7,926,796. 26 430,530,431 52 »710,483,950 00 98,049,804 00 51,929,710 26 472,069,332 94. 750 00 8,796,004 50 216,590 26 509,543,128 17 ,676,300 00 50 11,425,820 26 498,182,411 69 1,710,685,450 00 95,104,269 00 3,902,420 26 465, 807,196 89 1,711,888,500 00 93,160,643 50 16,648,860 26 476,764,031 84 1,794,735,650 00 94,654,472 50 994,560 26 455,875,682 {7 797,643,700 00 83,773,778 50 37,015,680 26 410,835,741 78 1, 723,993,100 00 79,633,981 00 7,621,455 26 388,800,815 37 567,750 00 75,018,695 00 6,723,865 00 422,721,954 00 10,400. 00 57, 7360, 111 00 16,260,805 00 438,241,789 00 1,338, 229,150 00 51, 436, 709 00 (a 831, 415 00 538, 111,163 00 of Loe Outstanding Cashin the | Total debt, less | Population Debt |S as principal. Treasury, cash in of the per [92 July 1. Treasury. (United States,| capita. |> 3S TiS a 2,680,647,869 74 5,832,012 98 2,674,815,856 76 34,748,000 "6 98 3 97 ISGDE;. os 21844, 649, 626 56 88,218,055 13 2,756,431,571 43 35,228,000 78 25 4 29 ISGGi cs oe 2773. 236,173 69 137,200,009 85 2,636,036,163 84 35,469,000 74 32 4 12 Seed Ske wo 2°678,126,103 87 169,974,892 18 2,008, 151,211 69 sell, 69 26 8 84 ABOSsn eeiste 2,611,687,851 19 130,834,437 96 2,480,853,413 23 36,973,000 67 10 3 48 ASOD oa. 2,588, 452,213 94 155,680,340 85 2,432,771,873 09 37,756,000 64 43 3 32 1870...... 2,480,672,427 81 149,502,471 60 9/331, "169,956 21 38,558,371 60 46 3 08 AESy bn 808,211,382 82 106,217,263 65 2/946, 4) 67 39,555, 56 81 2 83 They erste 2,253,251,828 78 103,470,798 43 2,149,780,5380 85 40,604,000 52 95 2 56 ive eras 2,234,482,993 20 1 32 45 ,105,462,060 75 41,704, 50 49 2 3d Sides wee 2,251,690,468 43 147,541,314 74 2,104,149,153 69 42,856,000 49 10 2 31 Sipe. 2,232,284,531 95 142'243'361 82 2,090,041,170 13 44,060,000 47 44 219 PIG. rhi-2 2,180,395,067 15 119,469,726 70 2,060,925,340 45 45,316,000 45 48 2 10 ASC ieee oe 2,205,301,392 10 186,025,960 73 2019,275,431 37 46,624,000 43 31 2.00 TR(Sacek os 2,256,205,892 63 256,823,612 08 1,999,382,280 45 47,983,000 41 67 197 iteye! Bee 9°945,495,072 O4 249, 080,167 O1 1,996,414,905 03 49,395,000 40 42 1 69 1880...... 2,120,415,370 63 201,088,622 88 1,919,326, 747 75 50,858, 87 74 1 56 ABST Se os 2,069,013,570 00 249'363.415 00 1,819,650,154 00 51,730,000 85 22 1 45 1882...... 1,918,312,994 00 243,289,520 00 1,675,023,474 U0 52,605, 81 72 1 09 Fists Eee 1,884,171,728 00 345,389,903 00 1,538,781, 825 00 54,143,000 28 41 95 Lee; eae MN I i ti 1 Biehele eee ashe eee