USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Washington : the capital city and its part in the history of the nation > Part 17
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ble information. He lacked, however, the es- sential quality of self-restraint in punishing an humbled adversary, and thus went through pub- lic life making enemies on every side. These finally wrought his undoing, and turned his last days into days of disappointment and profitless opportunity.
Congress during Grant's two terms of office was chiefly occupied with bills to protect the freedmen in their civil rights and to extend am- nesty to those lately in arms against the govern- ment. It passed a general amnesty act in May, 1872, but it found the first half of its task a troublesome and delicate one. Studied and sometimes violent effort by the native whites of the South to shut the negro out of his vote was met by acts which made penal offences of all attempts to hinder or interfere with the exer- cise of the franchise by the negroes, or the count- ing of the votes cast by them; and the federal courts were given exclusive cognizance of all offences under these acts. Furthermore, in sev- eral of the Southern States "returning boards" were created by law to make final canvass of all State or federal elections and to judicially determine their validity. These measures were
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in entire keeping with the Congressional policy of " Thorough" in dealing with the revolted States, but they bred a swarm of evils. What with the determination on the one hand of the native whites to regain their ascendency, and on the other hand of the negroes, organized under alien white leaders, to maintain the privi- leges and the extraordinary powers which Con- gress had placed in their hands, election troubles were of constant recurrence in most of the Southern States, while opposing efforts to con- trol. the "returning boards" led too often to fraud and violence and to requests for the inter- vention of federal troops in support of Repub- lican claimants to office.
The North viewed the policy behind these " autumnal outbreaks" with divided mind, and, as time went on, an influential element in the Republican party arrayed itself in open opposi- tion to it. Moreover, Grant, who had come into office a stranger to civic duty, had shown little wisdom in many of his appointments to posts of responsibility, and when he disregarded public sentiment in upholding favorites who brought scandals upon his Administration, the faction of opposition resolved upon revolution-
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ary action. Early in 1872 a call was issued for a national convention of Liberal Republicans to meet at Cincinnati, on May I, to nominate can- didates for President and Vice-President. This convention nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, and B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri; and the Democrats in due time accepted both its platform and its candidates.
The Republican national convention met on June 5, at Philadelphia, and as the opponents of Grant had deserted the Republican standard he was renominated without a dissenting vote. A bitter contest, however, was waged for the Vice- Presidency. Schuyler Colfax was anxious for a renomination, but in some way had incurred the bitter ill-will of the Washington correspond- ents. The latter joined hands in the spring of 1872, sprang Henry Wilson's name upon the country as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and when the convention met they were present in a body to labor in their favorite's behalf. Their efforts turned the scales to Wilson, and he was made the candidate. There has seldom been a better illustration of the influence which can be wielded on occasion by a determined and united body of newspaper men. The cam-
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paign which followed was noisy and exciting, but there never was any doubt of the result. Grant's hold upon the people was still too strong to be shaken, nor could the Democrats be ex- pected to give hearty support to the stridently radical editor of the New York Tribune. Grant had two hundred and eighty-six votes in the electoral college and a popular majority of three- quarters of a million.
There were numerous changes in the Presi- dent's Cabinet during his second term. Bout- well left the Treasury in March, 1873, to take Wilson's vacant seat in the Senate, and was succeeded by William A. Richardson, of Massa- chusetts, who, in June, 1874, gave way to Ben- jamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky. Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, in October, 1875, re- placed Delano as Secretary of the Interior. Creswell resigned the Postmaster-Generalship in July, 1874, and that office during the balance of Grant's term was filled in turn by Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, and James N. Tyner, of Indiana. Edwards Pierrepont, of New York, be- came Attorney-General in 1875, but a year later, having been appointed minister to England, was succeeded in the Department of Justice by Al-
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fonso Taft, of Ohio. A more sensational Cabi- net change was the retirement of Secretary Belknap, who, in March, 1876, was impeached for accepting bribes in dispensing the patronage of the War Department, and resigned his office to escape condemnation. Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania, was Grant's last Secretary of War.
Secretary Belknap was not the only member of the Grant Administration to offend against official honesty. Secretary Bristow's efforts to break up the so-called "Whisky Ring" dis- closed concerted action in the West between .distillers and federal officials to defraud the government of large amounts; and it is now an admitted fact that a profound demoralization pervaded all branches of the public service dur- ing the whole of Grant's second term. Nor did Congress escape this demoralization, chiefly due, no doubt, to the prolonged domination of a single party in the government. An investiga- tion early in 1873 of the operations of the cor- poration known as The Credit Mobilier, under whose auspices the Union Pacific Railway, aided by enormous government grants, had been com- pleted across the continent, brought forth clear
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proof that several members of the House had been guilty of dishonest practices, fixed upon others a strong suspicion of unworthy motives, and impressed the country with the belief in the existence of a corrupt Congressional "ring." And this belief that disgraceful influences gov- erned legislative action was strengthened by the early passage of an act granting an increase of compensation to Senators and Representatives, and making this increase apply retrospectively to the salaries of the members of the existing Congress. The next session saw this measure repealed; but the opposition and discontent manifested in the nomination of Greeley and Brown steadily gathered head as the corruption of the Administration' was more and more clearly brought to light, while the financial dis- tress of 1873 helped not a little to set the popu- lar will against the dominant party. The Demo- crats, in 1874, gained a decisive majority in the House of Representatives; in 1875 they car- ried their State tickets in many Northern States ; and the assembling of the national con- ventions in the following year found public opin- ion still trending strongly in their favor.
James G. Blaine, lately transferred from the
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House to the Senate, was the most conspicuous candidate before the Republican national con- vention which met at Cincinnati. Other strong candidates were Oliver P. Morton, Roscoe Con- kling, and Benjamin H. Bristow. Pennsylvania had a candidate in John F. Hartranft, and Ohio
offered one in Rutherford B. Hayes, who had won a brilliant campaign for governor the pre- vious year. All of the enthusiasm, however, was for Blaine. He had a majority of the delegates, and a majority of the convention voted for him at one time or another, but never on the same ballot. The fact that he had suffered a supposed stroke of apoplexy a few days before gave an argument to those who opposed him that was used with great effect; but his final defeat was due to Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania. On the morning of the sec- ond day Cameron, who had astute and willing lieutenants in Robert W. Mackey and William H. Kemble, proposed to the Pennsylvania dele- gates, many of whom favored Blaine, that as they were instructed for Hartranft and to vote as a unit, they should do so only when Hartranft's vote increased, and that whenever he dropped in the race they should then vote as a unit
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and as the majority directed. This proposition was eagerly accepted by the friends of Blaine, as they believed that Hartranft's strength would soon be exhausted, and that then they would get a solid vote for their candidate. But Mackey and Kemble, skilled in the management of poli- ticians of every grade, arranged with a number of delegations, chiefly from the South, to have Hartranft's vote slightly increased on every bal- lot. Thus, instead of starting Hartranft with an exhibition of his full strength, part of it was held back, and, to the surprise. and dis- may of the Blaine men from Pennsylvania, Hartranft's vote steadily increased with each successive roll-call. The climax of this shrewd manœuvre came in a landslide on the seventh ballot to Hayes as a compromise candidate, with whom William A. Wheeler, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President.
The issue of the Democratic convention, which met a fortnight later at St. Louis, proved Samuel J. Tilden to be one of the master poli- ticians of his time. From the governor's office at Albany he had planned and executed a cam- paign for the Presidential nomination of his party that was at once tireless, methodical, and
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sagacious. Control was secured of the delega- tions from most of the doubtful States, and a watchful eye kept upon the men chosen as dele- gates. As a result of this early and complete organization, it was a Tilden body that con- vened at St. Louis, with discreet and able leaders to shape and direct its work. Thomas A. Hen- dricks, of Indiana, was also in the field as a candidate, but his supporters, though zealous and aggressive, were outclassed in leadership, and fought from the first against hopeless odds. Til- den was . promptly declared the nominee, and second place on the ticket given to Hendricks.
The Democratic candidate directed his own campaign with shrewdness, system, and splendid command of details. The South was supposed to be surely Democratic, and the battle centred in the doubtful States of New York, New Jer- sey, Connecticut, and Indiana. One after an- other of these doubtful States on election night swung into line for Tilden. These with the solid South elected him. At midnight people went to bed and considered the fight over. But at five o'clock next morning Zachariah Chand- ler, chairman of the Republican National Com- mittee, received an unexpected caller in his room
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in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. The visitor, John C. Reid, of the New York Times, roused the sleeping chairman from his bed and went over the ground carefully, counting the electoral vote in each State. Hayes had re- ceived one hundred and sixty-six electoral votes, but one hundred and eighty-five were needed to elect him. Where were the other nineteen votes to come from? South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, said Reid, could furnish them. Though claimed by the Democrats, the result there was still in doubt, and in each of these States the Republicans controlled the returning board. Hayes's managers had but to keep their heads and his election was assured. Chandler asked what should be done. " Telegraph at once," was the reply, "to leading Republicans, men in authority, in the States I have named. Tell them that Hayes is elected if we have car- ried those States, and to hold them no matter what the odds against them. Then back these men up with the support and resources of the Republican party in the North, and there need be no fears of the result."
The course suggested was instantly adopted, and telegrams, dictated by Reid, were sent off to
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the three States which were to become the bat- tle-ground of a new contest for the Presidency. There was no departure during the exciting days that followed from the shrewd plan of campaign laid out in Chandler's room in the early morning of November 8, 1876. Double sets of electoral votes in due time were sent to Congress from Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, each certified by rival returning boards. Thence arose a condition without precedent in our po- litical history. The Senate was Republican, the House Democratic, and there is little doubt that had the President of the Senate in February, 1877, opened the certificates, counted the elec- toral votes, and declared Hayes elected Presi- dent, by including the returns from Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina among the others that were not disputed, the House would have at once proceeded to elect Tilden, voting by States. The result would have been two Presi- dents, each supported by his own party, a double inauguration, and the two branches of Congress arrayed against each other, with the probability of armed collision, anarchy, and civil war.
A way out of this perilous dilemma was found in a bill, passed by Congress and approved by
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the President late in January, 1877, which pro- vided for the reference of all questions arising in respect to States from which more than one certificate had been received to a commission consisting of five Senators, five Representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court, the de- cision of a majority to be final, unless rejected by concurrent votes of both Houses, in which event their order should prevail. Four of the justices were designated in the bill-those as- signed to the first, third, eighth, and ninth cir- cuits; they to select the fifth in such manner as they might decide.
It was the hope of the framers of the bill that a commission thus made up would decide with judicial impartiality the vexed and puzzling questions involved ; but a strange caprice of for- tune intervened to disappoint them. There had been four changes in the Supreme Court during the previous half-dozen years. William Strong, of Pennsylvania, Joseph P. Bradley, of New Jersey, and Ward Hunt, of New York, had been duly appointed to the vacant seats of Justices Catron, Wayne, and Grier, and, in 1874, Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, had suc- ceeded Chief Justice Chase. The four justices
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designated as members of the commission were Clifford, Field, Miller, and Strong,-two Democrats and two Republicans. This equally divided the commission in politics, with the fif- teenth member in abeyance and to be chosen by the four justices from their associates. It was generally understood that seniority of service would control their choice, and that it would fall on Justice David Davis, of Illinois, who was. believed to favor Tilden.
Here intervened the strange caprice of for- tune. A Senatorial contest was in progress in Illinois, with John A. Logan, the incumbent, an active candidate for re-election. The Legislature was so nearly a tie between the Republicans and Democrats that five "independents" hield the balance of power. They supported Justice Davis, and, after a prolonged struggle, the Democrats united with them and elected him as Logan's successor. Whereupon Davis re- signed from the Supreme Bench to take his seat in the Senate, and Bradley, the next rank- ing justice, was made the fifteenth member of the electoral commission. Bradley was a Re- publican, and his selection gave that party a majority of the commission, whose every vote
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proved to be a vote upon partisan lines. A vote of eight Republicans to seven Democrats de- cided all disputed questions in favor of the Re- publicans, and though the process of decision was slow,-not until two days before the date set by the Constitution for the inauguration of the new President was the counting finished,- it was duly determined that Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina had cast their electoral votes for Hayes, who was declared elected.
Tilden might have won, nevertheless, had not his part in the nomination of Seymour over Chase in 1868 returned to plague him. Kate Chase Sprague, daughter of the Chief Justice, was long the most brilliant woman in Washing- ton society, counting among her friends and admirers many of the ablest men in public life. One of these was Senator Conkling, of New
York. The vote of Louisiana determined the contest before the electoral commission, and, under the bill creating the latter body, it required the approval of the Senate to assure the elec- toral vote of that State to Hayes. Had it been given to Tilden, he would have been the Presi- dent. Many Republicans, Conkling among them, believed that Tilden had been rightfully II .- 24
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elected, and in the Senate enough votes were marshalled to throw the vote of that body in his favor, provided Conkling would lead in such a course. This he agreed to do, but failed to appear at the critical moment, and the anti-Hayes Republicans, thus left without a leader, fell back to their party lines and gave the vote of the State and the Presidential cer- tificate to Hayes. It came out afterwards that Conkling's failure to keep his word was due to the influence and cajolery of Mrs. Sprague, who thus avenged the defeat of her father's nomi- nation eight years before. The quick wit of an editor and a woman's ill-will lost Tilden the Presidency, to which he had been elected by a popular majority of over two hundred and fifty thousand.
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CHAPTER XIV
A NEW ERA AND A NEW CITY
"I 'T was my misfortune," said Grant in his last annual message to Congress, " to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training," and when his second term was ended he confessed that he had failed in the discharge of an unfamiliar task. His years in the Presidency, nevertheless, marked a turning-point in the history of the country. The war was now a memory. The period of recon- struction was past. Natural legal and political conditions had been in large part restored, and repaired economic forces, both North and South, were gathering head for new achievements. The national spirit, when it took stock of its re- sotirces at the Centennial Exposition in Phila- delphia, awoke at last to full consciousness of its strength, and, subordinating every other sen- timent to that of hope, a reunited and homo- geneous people turned with pride and joy to face the long future of peace, prosperity, and grow- ing greatness in store for their common country.
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The birth of a new era found Washington transformed into a capital worthy of the re- public. The federal city, in 1860, had attained a population of nearly seventy thousand inhabi- tants: but its growth had been slow, and it remained in reality little better than an over- grown village, far inferior to many State capi- tals in beauty, size, and comfort. Its houses, as a rule, were built of wood, and plain to the point of ugliness. There were no regular grades throughout the city, and most of its walks and avenues were unpaved and ill kept. The entire water supply came from pumps and springs. The sewerage system was fatally defective, and the wide, shallow canal which extended from the Potomac nearly to Capitol Hill was a disease- breeding receptacle for the city's refuse and filth. There were no street railroads : omnibuses were the only means of communication between dif- ferent quarters of the city, and not a street was lighted except Pennsylvania Avenue. The fire department was little more than a name, the police force a mere constabulary, and the com- mon school system would have brought shame to any New England town. The Capitol and the present Departments were unfinished or not
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yet begun; weeds grew in the parks and com- mons; and stables, wooden fences, and patches of bare earth surrounded the White House.
The Civil War, however, wrought a complete and gratifying change in the hitherto unfortu- nate city. No longer was it regarded as a sorry burlesque on the ambitious dreams of its founders, but as the heart of a nation engaged in a giant's struggle for existence. Its popula- tion nearly doubled in a single decade, adding an active and progressive force to the life of the city, and with the return of peace a movement was set on foot by a few liberal citizens to rescue it from the ancient ruts of indifference and sloth. Early in 1871 Congress abolished the old and established a new form of government for the District. The act effecting this change provided for a territorial form of government, with governor, legislature, and delegate to Con- gress. A board of public works was also cre- ated, with Alexander R. Shepherd as chairman. This remarkable man, who soon succeeded to the governorship, proved equal in every way to the complex and difficult task before him. A native of Washington and of humble parentage, he had early become a prosperous master
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plumber, and later a large and successful opera- tor in real estate. He knew every inch of Wash- ington, and was an enthusiastic believer in the future which waited upon the adequate develop- ment of its natural advantages. He was, more- over, a man of indomitable perseverance, and of more than ordinary executive ability, and he thus brought to the work in hand many of the rarest qualifications of success.
Governor Shepherd, in carrying out one of the most comprehensive schemes of municipal improvement ever conceived, followed the pro- fessional advice of Alexander B. Mullett, a skilled architect, under whose supervision the Treasury building had lately taken on its present imposing shape and dimensions, and who after- wards planned and built the splendid State, War, and Navy building. Attention was first given to the construction of a proper sewerage system for the city. This proved a by no means easy task. Portions of the city were below high- water-mark, and Tiber Creek, which rises on the terrace north of the city, and which at that time flowed into the canal near Capitol Hill, was wont in rainy seasons to become an unruly stream. The canal was arched over with brick
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and converted into a sewer by the engineers, who at the same time deflected the Tiber from its course and into the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, while its former bed and three of its branches were arched over with brick and made the main sewers of the system. Careful provi- sion was also made for the needs of Georgetown and the West End, so that by the end of 1875 there were one hundred and twenty-three miles of this underground work in operation, and Washington's sewerage system had been trans- formed from the worst to the best in the country.
Side by side with this transformation went other improvements of equal scope and impor- tance. An aqueduct had been built some years before from the Falls of the Potomac, fourteen miles above the city, bringing a generous and unfailing supply of pure water to a reservoir two miles west of Georgetown. Mains were now laid from this reservoir, hitherto connected only with the public buildings, and at the end of three years one hundred and thirty-three miles of mains and pipes were in operation. The intro- duction of gas mains was carried forward by private enterprise on the same comprehensive scale, and ere the close of 1873 upward of three
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thousand public lamps illuminated the streets and squares. Meantime, the streets within the city limits were raised or lowered to a uniform grade-a laborious and vexatious task -- and then transformed into the shaded and beautiful thoroughfares designed by L'Enfant. Before Shepherd and his associates rested from their labors they had laid fifty-eight and one-half miles of wood pavement, twenty-eight and one-half miles of concrete, and ninety-three miles of cobble, macadam, gravel, and Belgian block,- a total of one hundred and eighty miles. To reduce the cost of paving,-the main avenues were one hundred and sixty feet, and the streets from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty feet in width, covering in the aggregate two thousand five hundred acres,- Mr. Mullett devised an admirable remedy. He advanced the pavements into the streets a uni- form distance, and reduced the cost of the former by sodding between them and the house fronts, thus giving each householder a front yard, with- out lessening the original width of the streets above the sidewalks. Two hundred and eight miles of these sidewalks were laid,-seven miles of flag and concrete, the remainder of brick .-
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and finally there were planted in different sec- tions of the city no less than twenty-five thou- sand shade trees, of many varieties, whose sub- sequent growth has given Washington the appearance of a city built in a forest.
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