History of the Indiana democracy, 1816-1916, Part 34

Author: Stoll, John B., 1843-1926
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : Indiana Democratic Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1104

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tinguished fellowship of Roscoe Conkling of New York. In 1868 the same George H. Pendleton became a candidate for the presidential nomination as a distinctive champion of the proposition to pay off with greenbacks all the obligations of the United States not specifically provided to be paid in coin.

The first movement in the direction of organized opposition to the re-election of General Grant to the presidency was originated in Missouri in 1870 under the leadership of Senator Carl Schurz, aided by others of considerable prominence in the Republican party. A ticket headed by B. Gratz Brown for Governor was placed in nomination and triumphantly elected in the fall. In response to the Missouri movement the Democracy of Ohio came to the front with the "New Departure" in 1871, and at the State convention held in Cleveland, June 27, 1872, acquiesced in the program set forth at a mass meeting held in Cincinnati May 1st of the same year by the Liberal Republicans. The new movement had by this time gained large accessions and gave high promise of prov- ing a success. So many Republicans of prominence had enlisted in it that it as- sumed the character of a political revo- lution. Carl Schurz, Horace Greeley, Reu- ben E. Fenton, Governor Andrew G. Cur- tin, Governor Austin Blair, Lyman Trum- bull, James R. Doolittle, George W. Julian, B. Gratz Brown, Salmon P. Chase, John D. Defrees, Stanley Matthews, Col. A. K. McClure and hundreds of others of almost equal prominence and distinction had identified themselves with the new organi- zation and gave it their earnest and en- thusiastic support. Abuses had sprung up under the Grant administration that afforded ample ground and justification for revolt. The whisky frauds in the West and other transgressions had become na- tional scandals. While Grant's personal integrity was not questioned, thousands of those who had voted for him in 1868 ex-

pressed emphatic refusal to do so again. His administration was adjudged a stu- pendous failure and a grievous disappoint- ment. Its defeat was confidently expected and as confidently predicted until the elec- tion in North Carolina in the month of August suddenly put a damper on the hopes and expectations of the leaders of the new party.

The nomination of Horace Greeley for the Presidency had a depressing effect on the real leader of the Liberal Republican movement, Senator Carl Schurz. Not that he in any sense disliked or distrusted Greeley, but that he had serious doubts as to his being a real representative of the spirit that caused this upheaval. The convention that nominated Greeley and Brown was held in Cincinnati. Senator Schurz was the guest of his friend and admirer, Judge John B. Stallo, one of Cin- cinnati's most highly esteemed citizens. Upon Greeley's nomination by the close vote of 332 to 324 for Charles Francis Adams, Senator Schurz repaired to the Stallo mansion. Seating himself at the grand piano, Schurz, an accomplished manipulator of the ivory keys, rendered . from "The Bohemian Girl" the melancholy strains of "The Heart Bowed Down." More pathetically than spoken words these plaintive strains revealed the mournful feelings of the chagrined and sorely dis- appointed chairman of the first and last national convention of the newly-born Liberal Republican party.

Schurz's heart had been set on the nom- ination of the scholarly but austere Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts. The delegates who inclined to the ideal- istic in politics heartily seconded Senator Schurz's efforts to secure Mr. Adams's nomination. The "practical politicians" and political manipulators strangely co- operated with General Frank P. Blair of Missouri, in a carefully-planned move- ment to make the ticket consist of Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown. The men who had most accurately sized up the sit-

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uation in the country at large had fully satisfied themselves that the proper, the wise, thing to do was to nominate Judge David Davis, of Illinois, Lincoln's executor and devoted friend. Davis had already been nominated by a sort of Labor Con- vention, with Governor Joel Parker of New Jersey as his running mate. It was an excellent combination. Both were men of unblemished character and the business element had entire confidence in them. Had this ticket been accepted by the Cin- cinnati convention and subsequently ap- proved by the Baltimore convention, there is but little doubt that it would have been triumphantly elected. The country was genuinely tired of the manner in which af- fairs were being conducted by the Grant administration, but it was not prepared or inclined to place in the presidential chair a brainy man eminently qualified to edit a great newspaper but temperamentally and otherwise manifestly unfitted to run the governmental machinery of a great in- dustrial country like ours. There never could be any question as to Greeley's hon- esty and integrity, nor the excellence and purity of his intentions and purposes. But his nearest and dearest friends could not divest themselves of apprehension that his occupancy of the presidential office would have resulted in humiliation to himself and chagrin to his friends. Great in some things, Grant was a dismal failure in these respects, but he had elements of strength that were conspicuously wanting in America's foremost journalist-the re- vered sage of Chappauqua.

The Democracy of Indiana bore a con- spicuous part in the final acceptance of the Greeley and Brown Liberal Republican ticket. Up to the time that Indiana for- mally declared itself there was lingering in the Democratic mind considerable doubt as to the advisability of forming a coalition with the Liberal Republicans. There were many who believed that a presidential ticket headed by Thomas A.

Hendricks could and would be elected. With a view to simplifying matters the State Central Committee was convened at Indianapolis, January 9, 1872, to discuss the situation and agree upon some plan of action. Representative Democrats from all parts of the State were invited to attend this meeting and give the committee the benefit of their views. Among those who responded to this invitation were S. W. Holmes, J. B. Edmunds, Joseph E. Mc- Donald, John S. Williams, W. S. Shirely, Colonel Taylor, Wm. Mack, Bayless W. Hanna, Daniel W. Voorhees, Thomas A. Hendricks and Captain John Kirk. In their talks these gentlemen referred with marked satisfaction to the prevailing spirit of harmony and unity of purpose. The sentiment expressed was unequivoc- ally in favor of maintaining the organi- zation and nominating a presidential can- didate who had the confidence of the party and whose fitness would be so evident that he could command the respect of political opponents and the support of all who de- sired the restoration of honesty and purity in the administration of the Government. The proposal of the State Central Com- mittee that the State convention be post- poned until June met with general favor and final approval.

The convention met at Indianapolis, June 12, after both the Liberal and the regular Republican presidential conven- tions had been held. Sixteen hundred dele- gates and a goodly number of specators were in attendance. State Chairman Elijah S. Alvord called the convention to order. John R. Coffroth was chosen per- manent chairman. By far the most im- portant business for the transaction of which the convention had been called was practically though not formally disposed of the night before. Up to the last moment Mr. Hendricks had withheld his consent to make another race for the Governor- ship. He had already made two such races and gave it as his opinion that he had fully

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discharged his duty in that particular. Mrs. Hendricks was very much averse to her distinguished husband making a third race for that office. It was an open secret that she expected Mr. Hendricks to be nominated for the Presidency. When it had been made apparent that Indiana was inseparably linked with the Greeley movement Mrs. Hendricks finally relented. A decided majority of the district caucuses held the night before the conven- tion settled the party's attitude as to the Presidential nomination. In the event that Mr. Hendricks had been entered in the Presidential race it is altogether probable that Washington C. DePauw, of New Al- bany, would have been made the nominee for Governor. There was a very pro- nounced sentiment in his favor. This was made manifest by the enthusiastic man- ner in which he was named for second place on the ticket. The fight over the auditorship was kept up nearly all night. Strong efforts were made to induce Mr. Stoll to accept a place on the ticket either for Secretary of State or Congressman- at-large, so that Mr. Shoemaker might be renominated with the other gentlemen chosen in 1870. The feeling had, how- ever, grown so intense that an adjustment had ceased to be within the range of pos- sibilities. The ballot resulted in 817 votes being cast for John B. Stoll and 773 for John C. Shoemaker. The ticket in its en- tirety was composed of the following named gentlemen :

Governor-Thomas A. Hendricks, Indianapolis. Lieutenant-Governor-Washington C. DePauw, New Albany.

Congressmen for the State at Large-Col. John S. Williams of Lafayette and Michael C. Kerr of New Albany.

Secretary of State-O. M. Eddy, South Bend. State Auditor John B. Stoll, Ligonier.

State Treasurer-James B. Ryan, Indianapolis. Superintendent Public Instruction-Milton B. Hopkins, Kokomo.

Attorney-General-B. W. Hanna, Terre Haute. Clerk Supreme Court-Edward Price, Sullivan. Reporter Supreme Court-John C. Robinson, Spencer.

Mr. DePauw declined the nomination for Lieutenant-Governor. . The State Com- mittee selected John R. Cravens, a Liberal Republican, of Madison, and a gentleman of high character, to fill the vacancy.

Daniel W. Voorhees was intensely hos- tile to the adoption by the Democrats of the Greeley nomination. It was feared that if he could not be restrained from addressing the convention a row could not have been averted. But the "Tall Syca- more" finally permitted himself to be pla- cated to forego a forensic onslaught on the amalgamation scheme. He predicted, however, that nothing but disastrous defeat could and would result from this unnatural alliance. And so it turned out when in the melancholy days of November the popular verdict was rendered. After the adoption of the report of the com- mittee on resolutions the Presidential question virtually was settled. Joseph E. McDonald, H. W. Harrington, and Judge Robert Lowry were the principal spokes- men for the Greeley cause in the conven- tion proper.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.

The electoral ticket was made up one- half of Democrats and one-half Liberal Republicans :

For the State at Large-George W. Julian, John R. Coffroth, Cyrus M. Allen and James Gavin.

District Electors-John G. Shanklin, James A. Cravens, John S. Scobey, James T. Hockman, Wil- liam R. Harrison, William R. McLean, Thomas H. Harrison, John W. Evans, James Brown, Milo S. Hascall and William W. Higgins.

DELEGATES TO NATIONAL CONVENTION.

At Large-Martin M. Ray, Marion; James D. Williams, Knox; Robert Lowry, Allen; Bayless W. Hanna, Vigo. Contingents-Judge D. D. Dykeman, Cass; Dr. G. W. McConnell, Steuben; Levi Sparks, Clark; Horace Corbin, Marshall.

DISTRICT DELEGATES.

A. T. Whittlesey Vanderburg

Michael Murphy. Daviess

August Bradley . Floyd

Clement Doane. Crawford

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INDIANA DEMOCRACY-1816-1916

H. W. Harrington Jefferson

R. D. Slater, Jr Dearborn

Alonzo Blair. Shelby

W. H. Beck. Fayette

Benjamin C. Shaw Marion

Thomas W. Woollen Johnson

Thomas Dowling.

. Vigo

James W. Cookerly Monroe

John B. Ruger. Tippecanoe

Leander McClurg Clinton

George D. Tate. Howard

William Steele, Sr.

Wabash William Taughinbaugh Blackford Samuel Thanhauser . Allen

J. A. S. Mitchell. Elkhart

J. R. Lanning. DeKalb

Dr. L. J. Ham. St. Joseph

Dr. F. B. Thomas.

Pulaski

STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, 1872.

1. E. S. Alvord, Indianapolis, Chairman.

2. John H. O'Neal, Daviess county.

3. John S. Davis, Floyd.

4. Thomas J. Riley, Jennings.

5. Finley Bigger, Rush.

6. Eb. Henderson, Morgan.

7. Colonel Thomas Dowling, Vigo.

8. A. D. Lemon, Lawrence.

9. F. E. D. McGinley, Tippecanoe.

10. James M. Sweetzer, Grant.

11. William Fleming, Allen.

12. Eli W. Brown, Whitley.

13. Platt McDonald, Marshall.

THE MERGER COMPLETED.

After Indiana's Democracy had de- clared in convention that Greeley and Brown should also be made the nominees of the National Democracy, all doubt van- ished as to the outcome of the Baltimore convention, fixed to be held July 9. Sen- ator James R. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, was made permanent chairman. The platform adopted at Cincinnati by the Liberal Re- publicans was accepted without change, alteration or modification, although Sen- ator Thomas Francis Bayard, of Dela- ware, opposed it vigorously. The vote stood 670 for, 62 against its adoption. The vote for Presidential candidates was : Horace Greeley, 686; Jeremiah S. Black, Pennsylvania, 21; Thomas Francis Bay- ard, Delaware, 16; William S. Groesbeck, Ohio, 2; blank, 7.

B. Gratz Brown was nominated for Vice-President by an almost unanimous vote.

A so-called straight-out Democratic ticket was subsequently nominated, com- posed of Charles O'Conor, of New York, for President and John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. The ticket was made up of two eminent men, but it cut very little figure in the cam- paign or at the election. The State ticket, however, served its purpose in Indiana by way of diverting just about enough votes from the regular Democratic nominees to insure the election of most of the Republi- can candidates. The so-called straight-out Democratic ticket polled altogether from 131 to 221 votes in the entire State. The result of the October election was so close that the exact outcome as to Secretary and Auditor of State was not finally set- tled until a week after the election.

It will be noticed that James B. Ryan made his fourth race for State Treasurer in this campaign. He was first nominated in 1866, then in 1868, 1870, 1872. Three of his races were unsuccessful; the one made in 1870 was crowned with success. Mr. Ryan was one of the cleverest of men in the State. Everybody who knew him liked Jim Ryan. He was an honored resi- dent of Indianapolis and engaged in the wholesale liquor business, which in those days was not under the ban as it is today.

LIBERAL REPUBLICAN AND DEMO- CRATIC NATIONAL PLAT- FORM, 1872.

"We, the Democratic electors of the United States, in convention assembled, do present the following principles, al- ready adopted at Cincinnati (by the Lib- eral Republicans), as essential to just gov- ernment.

"We, the Liberal Republicans ..... pro- claim the following principles as essential to just government. ..... The equality of all men before the law ...... The union of the States, emancipation and enfran- chisement, and to oppose any re-opening

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of the questions settled by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments .... The im- mediate and absolute removal of all dis- abilities imposed on account of the Rebel- lion .. . Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any cen- tralized power .. The supremacy of the civil power .. The civil service .. . a mere instrument of partisan tyranny .. is a scandal and reproach upon free insti- tutions .. . No President shall be a candidate for re-election. A system of Federal taxation which shall not un- necessarily interfere with the industry of the people ...... We denounce repudia- tion in every form and guise ...... Speedy return to specie payment is demanded .... We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors .. . We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other corporations .. . It is the duty of the Government, in its intercourse with foreign nations, to culti- vate the friendships of peace .... "

OFFICIAL VOTE, 1872. GOVERNOR.

Thomas A. Hendricks, Democrat. . 189,424 1,148 Thomas M. Browne, Republican ... 188,276

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

John R. Cravens, Democrat. 188,292 Leonidas Sexton, Republican. 188,722 430

SECRETARY OF STATE.

Owen M. Eddy, Democrat.

188,668

W. W. Curry, Republican

188,852

184

AUDITOR.

John B. Stoll, Democrat. 188,546 James F. Wildman, Republican. 188,821 275

TREASURER

James B. Ryan, Democrat. 188,250 John B. Glover, Republican. 189,032 782

ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

Bayless W. Hanna, Democrat. 188.360 James C. Denny, Republican 189,004 644

SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

Milton B. Hopkins, Democrat . 189,194

957

Smith, Republican . 188,237

CLERK SUPREME COURT.

Edward F. Price, Democrat. 187,854 Chas. Scholl. Republican. 189,357 1,503

REPORTER SUPREME COURT.

John C. Robinson, Democrat. .188,464 James B. Black, Republican .. . 188,891 427

CONGRESSMEN-AT-LARGE.

Michael C. Kerr, Democrat.

188,502

John S. Williams, Democrat.

188,227

Godlove S. Orth, Republican

188.664

162

William Williams, Republican. 188,760 258

In the election of members of Congress the Democrats fared badly. Thirteen rep- resentatives were chosen, two of them by the State at large. These were Godlove S. Orth, of LaFayette, and William Wil- liams, of Warsaw. The three Democrats chosen were William E. Niblack, Simeon K. Wolf, and William S. Holman, respect- ively, from the first, second and third dis- tricts. The re-elected Republicans were Jeremiah M. Wilson, John Coburn, James N. Tyner, John Peter Cleaver Shanks, and Jasper Packard. Morton C. Hunter de- feated Daniel W. Voorhees in the Terre Haute district and Thomas J. Cason "got away" with General Mahlon D. Manson in the Crawfordsville district. Huntington county having been gerrymandered into the tenth district, Henry B. Sayler, a Huntington lawyer and glib. stump speaker, was nominated and elected by the Republicans. The next Legislature took Huntington out of the tenth, and Sayler was put off with a single term. Later on he was made a circuit judge, serving a number of years.

It will be observed by scanning the fore- going tabular statement that of the can- didates on the Democratic ticket Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Hopkins alone were elected and the remainder defeated by majorities ranging from 184 to 1503. When genial Thomas M. Browne was by the Republicans nominated for Governor he pledged himself in his acceptance speech that he would thenceforth cease to offend his brother by eating meat-that is to say, he would no longer indulge in strong drink. Tom Browne seemingly for- got this promise during the progress of

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the campaign, so several hundred pro- nounced temperance Republicans rebuked his transgression on election day by voting for Mr. Hendricks. "Bishop" Hopkins was re-elected partly by the favor of Repub- lican school teachers and partly by being made the beneficiary of the favor of the Christian (Campbellite) church of which he was a conspicuous and deservedly hon- ored elder.

The campaign of 1872 was in several re- spects one of the most unique in the his- tory of the Republic. For years Horace Greeley lambasted the Democrats as no other journalist ventured or thought of doing. Big-brained and big-hearted as he was, he criticised and denounced them in unmeasured terms when campaigns reached fever heat. He was an ultra pro- tectionist, an uncompromising foe of slavery, a faddist in some particulars, and vehemently opposed to the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage. At the beginning of the war he blandly told the Southern States that wanted to secede: "Wayward sisters, depart in peace." In some of his vehement anti-slavery outbursts he was not much at variance with those extrem- ists who referred to the Stars and Stripes as a "flaunting lie." Angered at General George B. McClellan's slowness in driving the rebels southward, he greatly annoyed President Lincoln by printing from day to day in his New York Tribune in black type the imperious command, "On to Rich- mond!" After the collapse of the rebellion he startled and embittered many of his Republican brethren by joining Gerritt Smith, Cornelius Vanderbilt and a num- ber of others in going on Jeff Davis's bail bond, guaranteeing the rebel chieftain's appearance before a proper tribunal when he was to be tried for treason-which, by the way, never happened, for reasons that no one better comprehended than Abra- ham Lincoln. Naturally these incidents and episodes in the career of the foremost American journalist were used for all

there was in them, and more too. Repub- licans who favored Greeley were not dis- turbed by any of the attacks made upon the white-coated philosopher by the sup- porters of Grant. Hence more attention was bestowed upon disaffected Democrats than upon Liberal Republicans. When the Grantites couldn't think of anything else wherewith to excite Democratic in- dignation they would resort to the rasping taunt: "Of course you'll vote, work and shout for Greeley if for no other reason than that he once upon a time declared that while it doubtless was true that not all Democrats are horse-thieves, it was equally true that all horse-thieves are Democrats." This biting observation was one day made to an ardent Democrat of Irish extraction. Instead of boiling over with rage and indignation the level-headed Irishman complacently replied: "Begorra, we Democrats said some mighty mean things about old Horace. If he said meaner things about us than we said about him, he is welcome to it."

Democrats took delight in reminding Republican newspaper men who were es- pecially severe in belaboring Greeley that they were stung by the sage and philoso- pher when he referred to his critics as "little creatures whom kind Providence for some inscrutable purpose permits to edit the county printing." That usually put a quietus on the offending county editor.

It stood very much to the credit of the Democrats that taunts and jibes did not swerve them from the path of duty. While Horace Greeley had attained the height of intellectual greatness he was by no means free of human frailty. He had his short- comings, foibles and frills; he was irascible and on occasion swore like a trooper. But he was as honest and sincere as the days were long. He was pre-emi- nently a humanitarian. His desire and longing ran unswervingly in the direction of human happiness-not for the favored

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few but for all really deserving of such beneficence and capable of appreciating the same. Pronounced and ultra in his views on some questions, he was prone to indulge in severity of phraseology. That, of course, gave his writings wider circu- lation and made him the subject of cor- responding criticism.

When the rebellion was crushed and the war ended Greeley wanted peace, fra- ternity, pacification and restoration. He was too big a man, too large-hearted to countenance petty tyranny or the inflic- tion of widespread punishment upon those who for one reason or another joined in ill-advised rebellion against the authority of the Government. Eager that the wounds inflicted by four years . of carnage be healed as speedily as possible, Mr. Greeley went to Richmond, Va., to stand good for Jeff Davis's appearance to answer to the charge of high treason. The popular interpretation of this generous and patriotic action on the part of Mr. Greeley was that he went to Richmond to release from imprisonment and set free the fallen chief of the collapsed Southern Confederacy. The fact that Gerritt Smith, a life-long champion of the anti-slavery cause, was associated with Mr. Greeley and others in this pacificatory mission was conveniently ignored and all the censure heaped upon the head of the famous Tribune editor. The Union League Club of New York, of which Mr. Greeley was a prominent member, took it upon itself to cite that gentleman to appear before it and explain and defend his signing of the Jeff Davis bail bond. In a letter such as Horace Greeley alone could write he flatly refused to put in the requested ap- pearance and so blistered the officials of the club with his scathing denunciation of their narrowness of vision that on the heels of the receipt of the Greeley philip- pic a resolution was introduced and adopted that there had been nothing "in the action of Horace Greeley, relative to

the bailing of Jefferson Davis, calling for proceedings in this club." The latter part of Mr. Greeley's reply to the Union League Club's ill-advised summons is such a vig- orous assertion of manly independence and such a stinging rebuke to organized affrontery and arrogance that it richly merits a place in the pages of this work. It is therefore herewith reproduced for thoughtful perusal:

"Gentlemen, I shall not attend your meeting this evening. I have an engage- ment out of town, and shall keep it. I do not recognize you as capable of judging, or even fully apprehending me. You evi- dently regard me as a weak sentimental- ist, misled by a maudlin philosophy. I ar- raign you as narrow-minded blockheads, who would like to be useful to a great and good cause, but don't know how. Your at- tempt to base a great, enduring party on the hate and wrath necessarily engendered by a bloody civil war, is as though you should plant a colony on an iceberg which had somehow drifted into a tropical ocean. I tell you here, that, out of a life earn- estly devoted to the good of human kind, your children will select my going to Rich- mond and signing that bail-bond as the wisest act, and will feel that it did more for freedom and humanity than all of you were competent to do, though you had lived to the age of Methuselah.

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History of the Indiana democracy, 1816-1916, Part 34

Author: Stoll, John B., 1843-1926 Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : Indiana Democratic Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Stoll, John B., 1843-1926
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : Indiana Democratic Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1104