USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 4
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Having become the political focus of the nation, Chicago was naturally selected as the place for holding the Republican convention
THE to nominate a candidate for president. The conven-
WIGWAM. tion met in May, 1860. A temporary building had
been erected on the south of Market between Lake and Randolph streets. The side wall of a brick block extending from Lake to Randolph street formed the south or rear side
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THE WIGWAM
of the structure. In September, 1859, the country had been greatly stirred by the killing of David C. Broderick, United States sen- ator from the state of California; Broderick had been killed by one David S. Terry, a noted pro-slavery politician of San Francisco. Broderick lived. after receiving the fatal stab, long enough to say : "They have killed me because I was opposed to slavery and a cor- rupt administration." Upon the rear wall of the Republican Wig-
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wam, facing the entrance and the vast audience, were cartoons of heroic size having political significance. One of these was a portrait of the martyred Broderick; written underneath were his dying words. At such a time, on such an occasion, few things could have been more impressive. The convention, to the more thoughtful, was the first held by the Republicans that seemed to have in its control the naming of the next president and the inauguration of an administra- tion determined to prevent further extension of the area devoted to slavery. Subsequent events have shown it to have been a gathering, the importance of which no convocation of men has exceeded. The balloting began on the third day of the convention. Abraham Lin- coln having received the nomination for president, the selection of a candidate for vice president was taken up in the afternoon. The wide. street in front of the Wigwam was filled with an immense crowd unable to get in the building. Upon its flat roof were a num- ber of active young Republicans to whom a statement of the vote of each state as announced was passed up through a skylight directly over the seat of the chairman. This report was passed along to the front of the roof from which it was given to the throng in the street. Among the zealous young Republicans thus engaged was a rough and ready speaker, quick witted, possessed of a keen sense of humor ; somewhat of a horse trader generally known as "Horse Eddy.". Eddy commented upon the votes as announced. The tide was run- ning in favor of Hamlin. Massachusetts cast her vote for him, whereupon Eddy said, "Yes, Abe Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin are the boys that will build a fence round the Democracy over which they never can jump."
In American political oratory the voters are always "boys," whether they are twenty or eighty years old. Of the names pre- sented to the convention, Seward was most widely known and had longest stood in the public estimation as a typical representative of the anti-slavery feeling of the north. Lincoln was nominated because of his availability, the belief that he would receive many votes in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, that Seward could not obtain. The friends of Seward were greatly disappointed; nevertheless he and they most loyally supported the nominees of the' convention.
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From about the year 1856 the Weekly New York Tribune, under the management of Horace Greeley, was politically the most important paper in America. It had the largest circulation of any secular weekly and conduced more to the development of opposition to the further extension of slavery than any other journal.
Not from freedom loving Boston but from commercial New York went forth the clarion voice that aroused the north.
During the canvass preceding the convention of 1860 the New York Tribune advocated the nomination of Bates of Missouri instead of Seward, the leader of the Republicans of New York.
There is little danger that any will overrate the work done by Horace Greeley in arresting the march of slavery and dedicating this land to freedom, nor can one speak too strongly of his devotion to the cause of the Union in the great struggle that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln.
He was not a soldier nor in any way capable of advising as to military movements. The unfortunate result of the first battle of Bull Run, following as it did, his urgent cry of "On to Richmond," shook the confidence of the north in his judgment-a confidence never fully restored. From thence to the present time, with the exception of a few years during which the Chicago Tribune under the direction of Horace White, ceased to act in harmony with the Republicans and supported the Democratic candidate for president, the press of Chicago has been and now is politically more influential than that of any other city in the United States.
Before the lapse of four years, all anti-slavery men as well as all friends of the Union were convinced that the convention did wisely in selecting Lincoln. The contest was from the outset serious in purpose, method, discussion and view of the future. Many of those about to cast their first vote realized that the country stood upon the brink of the most terrible of civil wars; that we were steadily marching toward an ocean whose currents, rocks, perils and havens no mian knew; that in the red waves of this unsailed sea we should all be whelmed, and who would survive the storm, who successfully buffet the waves, who reach a peaceful if barren shore-none could tell. Would the country we loved and served remain? The flag beneath whose folds we marched and fought survive as an emblem Vol. I-3.
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of liberty or go down in the conflict of contending armies and the clash of hostile ideals? Of only one thing did young, ardent and sober-minded men feel assured. The contest is inevitable; in the nature of things it is impossible that this land should remain a coun- try based upon the highest liberty, equal opportunity and hope for some, slavery and no stepping stone to higher things and no hope for others. That for whites all avenues of knowledge should be open, and it a crime to teach negroes to read the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer or the Commandments given at Sinai. And these said, "Let the great battle for equality of every one before the law come, if come it must, while I am able to bear a part in the fight, to carry a musket and help hold freedom's banner up." Peaceful sub- mission to the popular will all hoped for; many. believed this would be, some did not.
Lincoln having been triumphantly elected, there was in Chicago as elsewhere the customary rejoicing over the victory. March 4th · he took at Washington the oath of office and became president. April 15, 1861, in consequence of the attack upon and capture of Fort Sumter he called for 75,000 volunteers and Congress to meet in extra session on July 4th.
The expected and the unexpected had happened. Chicago was a commercial city. War deranges, interrupts, frequently destroys com- merce. In modern times the influence of commercial interests, mer- chants, manufacturers, bankers, carriers and lawyers is always for peace. Wars are less frequent, not so lightly entered upon as in by- gone ages, because commercial interests forbid. Nevertheless Chi- cago responded with alacrity to the call to arms, proffered all it had, its business, its money and its sons to enforce the law, maintain the Union. For more than four years there was in Chicago, as else- where, the sundering of ties, the disruption of business, the failure of enterprises the success of which depended upon peace; and there were thousands of faces weary and wan wishing for the war to cease, the ever present fear of disaster and death at the front. The history of the war or of Chicago's part therein will never be told; it is writ- ten in a thousand burial fields; it lies in ocean depths, by the moun- tains and the sea; on the furrowed faces and the bending forms of a vanishing host; in tenderly cherished mementoes, and built into
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stately monuments that shall for ages withstand the gnawing tooth of time.
By the stern arbitrament of war, there was graven upon the Constitution of the United States :
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
" All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the juris- dietion thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
"The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis- lation. "
It cost six thousand million dollars, five hundred thousand lives, infinite pain and sorrow to write those words there.
To him who recognizes the indescribable toil and effort, the love that passeth understanding, hope deferred that maketh the heart sick, and return of good for evil, charity that endureth all things, work- ing together through unnumbered æons past, building out of barbarism a civilization beginning to embrace the world and clasp in its arms all mankind, asking for no one a right under the law not given to all and despising none because of conditions which involve neither merit nor demerit, those lines, the fruit of striving for noble things since the morning stars sang together, are significant as to what was the strife and the suffering which made the writing of them in the Constitution possible.
The national convention for 1864 of the Democratic party was held in Chicago, beginning August 29th. Horatio Seymour, gov- ernor of New York, was selected as presiding officer. Mr. Seymour was not known as an anti-slavery man or a war Democrat : ne was a polished gentleman, a fine orator and perhaps politically the strong- est man in the Empire state. He made an earnest anti-war address, but he was not guilty of any breach of good manners. The conven- tion drew to Chicago not only the elected delegates, but a great num-
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ber of intensely pro-slavery men, eager to publicly proclaim their abomination of anti-slavery men and measures, and also of all done in the prosecution of the war or in the lifting of the negro out of bondage. Such persons spoke with unrestrained violence of Lincoln. the Republicans, the Union soldiers and all done by the north to suppress the rebellion. The assassination of Lincoln at the moment of victory gave to his life and work so pathetic a finish, that of all men who have led contending parties in times of intense bitterness, when society was being upheaved to its foundation, realms laid waste, great numbers reduced from affluence to poverty and multi- tudes slain, he has been and is the most universally beloved and kindly spoken of. The generation born since the close of the war know little and those who are to come are not likely to know at all how bitterly he was assailed during the war, not merely in the south, but throughout the country. There is hardly an . opprobrious epithet that was not applied to him, and few great crimes of which he was not openly accused. He was called a thief, a robber, an embezzler of the public money, a murderer and a gorilla ; indeed ! gorilla seemed to many the word that most clearly expressed the speaker's idea of the president's character. Those who spoke to the Democratic con- vention in 1864 for the most part, observed parliamentary usage in the choice of words, but those who harangued the multitude at street corners, in the lobbies and parlors of hotels and before bars in saloons, gave vent to the long pent-up feeling of their angry hearts. Among the milder of these utterances were remarks by C. Chauncey Burr of New Jersey, who said: "We had no right to burn their wheat fields, steal their pianos or jewelry. Mr. Lincoln had stolen a good many thousand negroes; but for every negro he had stolen ten thousand spoons. * The South could not honorably lay down her arms, for she was fighting for her honor. Two million men had been sent down to the slaughter pens of the south and the army of Lincoln could not again be filled, neither by enlistments nor conscrip- tion."
Henry Clay Dean of Iowa said: "For over three years Lincoln had been calling for men, and they had been given. But with all the vast armies at his command, he had failed, failed, failed! Such a failure had never before been known. * * And still the monster usurper wanted more men for his slaughter pens.
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Ever since the usurper, traitor and tyrant had occupied the presi- dential chair, the Republican party had shouted 'War to the knife and the knife to the hilt.' Blood had flowed in torrents; and yet the thirst of the old monster was not quenched. His cry was for more blood."
The platform adopted by the convention contained among other things the following: "Resolved, that this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that, after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which under the pretense of a military necessity higher than the Con- stitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part. and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, hu- manity, liberty and the public welfare demand that efforts be made for the cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the states or other peaceable means to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the states."
There was published in Wisconsin during the war a newspaper that acquired an inter-state reputation and circulation by the viru- lence and savageness of its assaults upon Lincoln and his work. For the most part the people of Chicago made no reply to the disloyal utterance of those in attendance upon the convention. Chicago was host, and guests are privileged persons ; but when the trumpeting had ceased and the guests were gone, the people of Chicago had some- thing to say. Among those who spoke was Long John, as he was familiarly known to everybody. John Wentworth had been repeat- edly elected to Congress and mayor of the city. He is the man of whom the story was first told that when he went into the country to speak, instead of having him stand upon a stump so that all the audience could have a view of him, he was so tall that they dug a hole for him to stand in, so that all might have a good look at his face. Long John said, "During the convention I met a man who said to me that we could not destroy slavery because God would preserve it." "Well," said Long John-no one who has not seen and heard him can imagine the ugliness of the grin, the size of the mouth or the stridency of tone with which "Well" was uttered-"I said to him
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that's right, leave it to God, and when a nigger runs away, let him run till God takes him back."
In October,. 1871, there occurred in Chicago a fire which in extent of the devastated area, number of people rendered homeless and value of property destroyed, was the greatest that to that time had afflicted man. The night following the twenty-four hours during
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which the fire, directed by the wind, moved steadily along, till it reached a place where there was nothing to burn, one hundred thousand peo- ple slept beneath the stars upon the uncovered prairie. The fire had not ceased before relief organizations, far and near in city and vil- lage, country and town, were organized and relief to the stricken people was on its way. Nor was sympathetic action confined to this country. There was hardly a city of importance in Europe from which relief was not sent. By mail and by telegraph came sympa- thetic messages and practical help.
"From underneath the severing wave The World, full handed, reached to save."
To the suggestion that as their property had been destroyed, the business obligations of Chicago debtors should be wiped out. the
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merchants and manufacturers replied, no; we will perform our prom- ises; there will be no repudiation. And so Chicago rose, not like the fabled Phoenix out of its ashes, but out of its courage and its integrity, which no fire could destroy.
Along in the seventies there was constructed on Monroe near Market street, a large auditorium for the use of Moody and Sankey as evangelists. Dwight L. Moody had been for some time a Metho- dist minister preaching in Chicago. Ira D. Sankey was a singer having a remarkably melodious voice, an enunciation so distinct that every word he sang was understood by all within the great space to which his tones extended. The multitude love to hear such sing- ing and are profoundly moved by it. Moody was an eminently earnest, practical Christian; faith without works was of no conse- quence to him. He said to the women who hung upon his words and were enthusiastic over his mission: "Look to your homes and your household duties first." "Don't come here until you have made your home as pleasant and as comfortable as you can." "When all you ought to do there is done, we shall be glad to see you here." To the men who came forward expressing a desire to help in the good work, he said : "You cannot be true to God unless you are true to man. You must acknowledge your faults, confess your sins and repent." "Repentance is of no consequence unless it is accompanied by reparation as far as it is possible for you to make it." "If you have cheated or defrauded any one, you must make him whole, put back all that you have unjustly obtained." "All now, if you can; if not all now, a portion and little by little until all is paid." "Nothing is yours that you have improperly obtained from another." From America, Moody and Sankey went to England, and in that country met with the success and did good and blessed work like unto that they had done in Chicago. Mr. Moody, when he first came to Chicago, had charge of a small chapel located very near a Catholic neighborhood. The windows of the chapel were broken and at- tendants annoyed, Mr. Moody thought, by children of Catholic par- ents. So Mr. Moody called upon the Catholic bishop, and telling him of the trouble, asked if he would not use his influence; the bishop said he would, and that as he and Mr. Moody prayed to the same God and were servants of the same Master, they could and
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would pray that they and their parishioners dwell together in unity. "Yes, yes," said Mr. Moody, "and no time like the present, Father," and down upon his knees he fell and together the Methodist clergyman and the Right Reverend Bishop prayed earnestly for the entrance of Christ into the hearts of all men.
General Grant having been president from 1868 to 1876, after the conclusion of his second term, went upon an excursion around the world. He returned to this country in 1879. Prior to his home com- ing a movement to make him in 1880 the Republican nominee for a third term had begun. Conkling, the United States senator from New York, Logan, senator from Illinois, and a senator from Penn- sylvania, were most earnestly for the nomination of Grant. There was for him a strong feeling in every state, and nowhere any per- sonal hostility to him. The arguments made use of by those opposed to his nomination were-the inadvisability of a third term for any man, and the alleged baneful influence of those by whom he was most closely in touch and most immediately surrounded. As to the nom- ination, the divided opinion of Chicago resulted in the most vigorous contest before or since waged in Illinois over the selection of dele- gates to a convention to nominate presidential candidates. During the afternoon upon which the primary election to select delegates to the state convention which was to choose the delegates to the national convention, was held, a violent thunder storm came on, amid which long lines of Republicans stood in line in the streets waiting for their turn to vote. A majority of the delegates chosen to the county con- vention were opposed to the nomination of Grant. The minority favorable to Grant was large enough to make the composition of the convention doubtful if a number of delegates whose election was disputed were denied admission. Vigorous contests were presented to the convention when assembled. The first clash was over the organization of the assemblage. A majority of the county central committee, being opposed to the nomination of Grant, selected for the temporary presiding officer, Elliot Anthony, an old resident of Chi- cago, afterwards judge of the superior court. To this the Grant forces strenuously objected, and when Mr. Anthony went forward to preside, the minority under the leadership of Lieut. Richard S.
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Tuthill, a gallant soldier of the Civil war, and a personal friend of General Grant as well as of General Logan, left the hall. went to the Palmer House and in its great parlor organized another convention, which selected as delegates to the state convention some ninety persons. all the county was entitled to have. The convention from which the Grant men broke away selected an equal number and thus a few days later there were presented to the state convention at Springfield con- testing delegations equal in numbers, each insisting that its members were alone entitled to act for the Republicans of Cook county. The contest in the other counties of the state resulted in the election of such a greater number of delegates favorable to Grant that the dele- gation which should be admitted from Cook county could make a majority favorable to or against him. There was at Springfield be- fore the committee and the convention a vigorous contest. In the convention Emory A. Storrs, a brilliant lawyer and orator, spoke for the Grant men ; Kirk Hawes, a lawyer, afterwards a judge of the circuit court, represented the opposition ; with the result that the state convention admitted of the supporters of General Grant a number proportionate to the delegates which the Grant forces would without contest have obtained from the Chicago convention, and did likewise with the opposition to the general. The result being that while the opposition to the nomination of General Grant had, in the state con- vention, a majority of the delegates from Cook county, General Grant had in the entire convention a majority of the delegates, thus giving to such majority the power to select delegates to the national convention, all of whom were favorable to the nomination of General Grant, which was done.
The Republican national convention, which met in Chicago, se- lected for its presiding officer Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, who. amid the strenuous contest that followed, presided with such impar- tiality and manifest fairness as to satisfy all parties. For the first time in the history of the party, the convention was unable to finish its business in one week. Senator Conkling in. nominating General Grant, delivered a great oration. Garfield in presenting the name of Senator Sherman received well merited applause from everyone. Grant and Blaine had together a large majority of the delegates, and the friends of each were glad to show their regard for Senator Sher-
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man, each hoping that his supporters would eventually turn to the candidate, the probability of whose nomination was much greater.
The prolongation of the convention into a second week gave time for much consultation as to what could be and had best be done; the result being that in spite of the protests of James A. Garfield he was nominated for president; the delegation from New York uniting in putting forward for vice president Chester A. Arthur of that state, Garfield and Arthur were nominated. General Grant was the soul of loyalty, loyal to his country, to principle, to party and friends; he did not seek a nomination, in fact, never sought either of those under which he was elected. His friends put him forward for a third term and he yielded to their importunities.
Following the explorations of Jean Nicollet in 1634 there were within the following two hundred years civilized men, priests, en- gineers, soldiers, hunters, traders and adventurers who visited the western wild, sailed upon the great lakes, along the majestic rivers, and looking upon the fertile prairies did not fail to recognize the possibility that this vast domain would in time become the home of millions and the seat of an empire the equal of any the world had known. Of things material or spiritual man sees only those to which his mind is open. To all else he is deaf and blind. The early explorers saw a vast extent of most fertile land ready for the plow ; they realized that these lands could be made to furnish food for mil- lions ; they were to them a most valuable agricultural domain; there is nothing tending to show that they thought of them as the future seat of a manufacturing industry such as the world had never seen. They do not seem to have observed indications of coal and if they had they would not have realized their importance. Mineral coal was then little used; the civilization of the world, since said to rest upon coal. alcohol, sulphuric acid and iron, certainly did not then rest upon a quartette of which coal was one.
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