History of the Indiana democracy, 1816-1916, Part 37

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

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deliver two speeches-one in Indianapolis, the other at Ligonier. Much surprise was expressed that so small a place as Ligonier should have been selected when larger places were clamoring for a man so close to Mr. Tilden as was Mr. Dorsheimer. The explanation was given that this compli- ment was bestowed by reason of the fact that the cause of Tilden had been so earn- estly and persistently espoused there by Mr. Stoll's paper when in most other lo- calities abuse of Mr. Tilden seemed to be regarded a Democratic duty. Before reaching Ligonier Mr. Dorsheimer had held several conferences in Ohio with Democratic leaders of that State. He had become profoundly impressed with the assurances given him that by devoting some attention to Ohio that State could be carried for Tilden and Hendricks. When urged by the writer to present this aspect of the campaign to Mr. Tilden, Mr. . Dorsheimer stated that he had already done so, but had received no encourage- ment. Mr. Tilden, he said, had mapped out his program and could not be swerved from it. He did not believe in scattering ; that New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Indiana had been chosen as the bat- tleground and that the electoral votes of these four Northern States, coupled with those of the South, would answer every purpose. Having received no attention from the Democratic National Committee, Ohio was lost to Tilden by the paltry plu- rality of 7,506. There isn't the slightest doubt that if Ohio had been given half the attention bestowed upon Indiana, Tilden and Hendricks would have become the beneficiaries .of that State's twenty-two votes in the electoral college.

Approximately similar conditions ex- isted in Pennsylvania. Hayes carried that State by less than 18,000. With anything like an effort the Keystone State could easily have been wrested from the Repub- licans. Hayes himself had neither mag- netism nor reputation to render his candi- dacy attractive or formidable. His nomi-

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nation was an accident, the result of a plot on the part of Grant, Conkling, Mor- ton and Cameron to prevent the nomi- nation of James G. Blaine, who from the beginning to the close of the Cincinnati convention had a clear majority of the delegates. Tied up by cunningly devised instruction, the votes of Blaine delegates were withheld until plans had been ma- tured to stampede the convention to a nominal candidate, who turned out to be Rutherford B. Hayes.

The result of the election was that Til- den and Hendricks had to their credit on the popular vote 4,284,757; Hayes and Wheeler, 4,033,950; Cooper and Cary, 81,740; Green Clay Smith, 9,522. Of the electors chosen by the people, Tilden and Hendricks had 203; Hayes and Wheeler, 166. After Hayes had acknowledged de- feat Zachariah Chandler, W. E. Chandler and other Republican marplots conceived the idea of laying claim to the electors of Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana- nineteen in all-just enough to elect. Im- mediately they proceeded to carry their plans into execution. By devious methods they manipulated the returning boards of these three States so as to figure out a majority for Hayes, though Tilden was judicially shown to have carried all three by small majorities. The manipulation of the returning boards of these three States had been intrusted to the most cunning political tricksters in the North. To com- pensate, in a measure, the bona fide cit- izenship of Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana for the perversion of the Presi- dential vote of these States, all three un- der carpet-bag rule, it was arranged to withdraw support from the Governors and their cohorts and "permit" the installation of Democratic administration without in- terference on the part of Federal author- ity. So deeply interested were the white people of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana in being relieved from the car- pet-bag incubus that the loss of Presi- dential electors could be endured more

easily than continuance of the corrupt car- pet-bag "governments" that had been in- stituted in these three unfortunate States under the operation of the iniquitous fif- teenth amendment conferring upon dense ignorance the right to vote.

The country became greatly excited over this daring attempt to annul the pop- ular verdict and to steal the Presidency of the United States. Fear of civil war finally led to the creation by Congress of what is known as the Electoral Commis- sion.

This commission was made to consist of five Supreme Judges, five Senators and five Representatives. David Davis, of Illinois, was to be one of the Supreme Judges. There is but little doubt that he would have decided in favor of Tilden, for he was a fair-minded man. But before the commission met Davis was elected a United States Senator from Illinois, so he resigned to take his seat in the Senate. Judge Bradley, of New Jersey, was there- upon selected. Bradley had no conscien- tious scruples about such matters and readily allied himself with the conspira- tors. The upshot of this treason-like con- spiracy against the majesty of the ballot was the seating of Hayes by crediting him with 185 electors and Tilden with 184.

Great as Tilden proved himself as an organizer and leader, he seemed to be un- able to come to a definite conclusion as to what attitude should be assumed by the Democrats in Congress with reference to the electoral count. Some friction grew out of this. The leaders in both houses manifested an entire readiness to do what- ever Mr. Tilden might have wished to have done. On the other hand it is as- serted that Mr. Tilden had indicated that there was but one course to pursue, and that was for the Democratic House to de- clare the result and throw upon the Re- publican Senate the responsibility of dis- regarding such declaration. Be that as it may, the perfidy was consummated. The

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will of the people was set aside and that of the conspirators made supreme.

Some peculiar incidents are to be coupled with this national tragedy. Colo- rado was admitted into the Union in 1876. It was Republican territory. Foxily the . Republicans "permitted" a former Indi- ana Democratic politician, Thomas M. Patterson, to be elected as delegate to Con- gress in 1874, for the special purpose of utilizing his political influence to secure that territory's admission into the Union. As soon as this was done an election was held, a Republican Legislature was chosen, and that body immediately proceeded to elect two Republican United States Sen- ators and three Presidential Electors. One of these Senators, Henry M. Teller, be- came very active in shaping affairs so as to make certain of Hayes and Wheeler be- ing counted in.

Another peculiar circumstance was this: Senator Roscoe Conkling never took any stock in the claim that Hayes was entitled to the electoral votes of Flor- ida, South Carolina and Louisiana. He permitted the impression to go out that he would not vote with the marplots who had determined to seat Hayes. Kate Chase, an exceedingly attractive leader in Wash- ington society, was known to have a great deal of influence over Conkling. Kate Chase never forgave Samuel J. Tilden for having prevented her father, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, from securing the Dem- ocratic Presidential nomination in 1868. Several other Republican Senators had in- dicated a purpose to join Conkling in voting against seating Hayes. When the time came for action, Conkling was con- veniently absent, the Republican Senators who had indicated their purpose to follow Conkling were minus their leader, and thereupon concluded to maintain their party standing by voting with the ma- jority. Kate Chase had gotten in her work. She was avenged.

Colonel McClure is authority for the

statement that at a certain stage in the proceedings of the Louisiana Returning Board a single word from Tilden would have secured the electoral vote of that State for him.

Don Cameron was Grant's Secretary of War while all this was going on. Cam- eron was a determined sort of fellow. He let it become distinctly known that a de- cision in favor of Hayes and Wheeler would be enforced with all the power at his command. This had much to do with creating apprehension in the public mind that civil war might result from the con- troversy over the electoral count. Presi- dent Grant would doubtless have con- curred in such procedure, although he made but slight concealment of his belief that the eight electoral votes of Louisiana belonged to Tilden, conceding Florida and South Carolina to Hayes.

The enormity of this political crime is thus characterized by A. M. Gibson in the "History of the Great Fraud of 1876-7":

"On Tuesday, November 7, 1876, the people of the United States, by their suffrages, selected for President and Vice- President, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and were deprived of their choice by illegal methods, bolstered by frauds, perjuries and forgeries.

"Sectional prejudices, engendered by years of violent political agitation, and intensified by civil war, the excitement of a fiercely contested Presidential campaign, and vast and widely ramifying financial interests, warped the judgment of many good men and constrained them then to countenance and acquiesce in the acts of politicians bent on self-aggrandizement, intent upon the gratification of their am- bition, and determined, at all hazards, to perpetuate their power. Calm reflection, sober reasoning, deliberate consideration in the midst of the wild excitement of that hour, was perhaps more than ought to have been expected.

"What a monstrous crime it was! And what dire disasters and innumerable woes it would inevitably have led to, if the man who represented the cause of liberty and law, justice and right had not been a true patriot, a great statesman, a wise political

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philosopher! Humanity would have had cause to mourn had not Samuel J. Tilden possessed a well-poised, evenly-balanced, serene mind, and had not those he repre- sented been consistent and stanch friends of law and order. Had he been an aspir- ing demagogue, a selfishly ambitious poli- tician, instead of a broad-minded, far-see- ing leader of men, civil war, in all human probability, could not have been averted. But he possessed that rare quality of look- ing beyond the present turmoil and divin- ing the evolutions of the public conscience. He reposed implicit confidence in the peo- ple. Had his advice been heeded by those who aspired to the leadership of their party in Congress there would have been no resort to an extra constitutional tribunal to decide the electoral dispute. He would have had the House of Repre- sentatives plant itself firmly on its consti- tutional rights and calmly awaited the result. The position would have been im- pregnable. Desperate as were the men who were seeking to set aside the constitu- tionally-expressed will of the people, they would not have dared to assume the fear- ful responsibility of unsettling the founda- tions of the Government. The timid Dem- ocratic leaders in Congress disregarded Mr. Tilden's advice and accepted the arbit- rament of a tribunal so constituted as to leave to the determination by chance the deciding vote.

"How dignified, manly and self-respect- ing was the bearing and conduct of Mr. Tilden during the eventful months inter- vening between the 7th of November, 1876, and the 4th of March, 1877! Personally it was not a deprivation to lose the Presi- dency. Predisposed to the life of a stu- dent, weary of the strife of the forum, pos- sessing ample fortune, caring not for the pomp and circumstance of official life, Mr. Tilden, at sixty-three years of age, with health enfeebled by unremitting attention to his clients, private and public, and by unselfish labor in the cause of Democratic institutions and good government, would have greatly preferred the unalloyed pleas- ure of private life, the communion with books, the recreation of travel, and the so- ciety of congenial friends, to the vast, the more than herculean labor of 'working out a reform of systems and policies,' and ex- tirpating 'the cancerous growths of false constructions and corrupt practices' during 'years of continuous maladministration,

under the demoralizing influence of internecine war, and of bad finance.' He would not have been content with 'gliding through an official routine.' He had 'never accepted official service except for a brief period, for a special service, and only when the occasion seemed to require .

that sacrifice of private preferences to the public welfare.' For forty years, without thought of an official career, he had 'de- voted at least as much thought and effort to the duty of influencing aright the action of the governmental institutions' of his 'country, as to all other objects.' He had acted upon the belief that "there is no in- strumentality in human society so poten- tial in its influence upon mankind for good or evil as the governmental machinery for administering justice and for making and executing laws. Not all the eleemosynary institutions of private benevolence to which philanthropists may devote their lives, are so fruitful in benefits as the rescue and preservation of this machinery from the perversions that make it the in- strument of conspiracy, fraud and crime against the most sacred rights and inter- ests of the people.'"

CONDEMNED BY INDIANA DEMOC- RACY.

In State convention assembled, on the 19th day of June, 1878, the Democrats of Indiana condemned the infamy of 1876-7 in these emphatic terms :

"That we abhor and hold up to public detestation the leaders in the Republican party who secretly connived, and with barefaced effrontery carried out the scheme, by and through venal returning boards, whereby Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, the people's choice for President and Vice-President, were wrongfully kept out of the positions to which a free people had called them. We hold it up as the monster crime of the age, a crime against free government, a crime against the elective franchise and a crime that can only be condoned when the male- factors who seated a fraud in the Presi- dential chair are driven from power and consigned to everlasting infamy by the people whom they have outraged. And we denounce the act of the President of the United States in appointing to high and lucrative positions the corrupt members of the returning boards, and condemn the acts

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of Federal officers in attempting to inter- fere with the rights and powers of the State courts in the prosecution of these criminals."

INDIANA VOTE, 1876. For Governor-October Election.

James D. Williams, Democrat .... 213,219 Benjamin Harrison, Republican .. 208,080 Henry W. Harrington, Greenbacker 12,710 Lieutenant-Governor.

Isaac P. Gray, Democrat. 212,076 Robert S. Robertson, Republican .. 206,641 Richard Gregg, Greenbacker. 15,388

For President-November Election. Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat 213,526 Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican. 208,011 Peter Cooper, Greenbacker. 9,533

Congressman Godlove S. Orth, of La- fayette, was the original nominee of the Republicans for Governor. Soon after his nomination developments at Washington connected Orth with some guano deals in Venezuela that were very annoying to the Republican leaders. Discussion of the af- fair intensified popular feeling and finally led to Mr. Orth's withdrawal from the ticket. General Benjamin Harrison, who was Orth's chief competitor for the nom- ination, was induced to accept the tender by the State central committee to fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Orth's with- drawal. General Harrison at once entered upon a vigorous campaign and did his utmost to avert defeat at the polls. But the sentiment in favor of the sturdy Vin- cennes farmer, "Blue Jeans" Williams, was so pronounced that all of General Harrison's eloquence and extraordinary ability as a lawyer proved unavailing. The bull's eye was "sot." Among the common people "Blue Jeans" had a decided prefer- ence over "kid gloves."

CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION.

New men were chosen-in the Second District, Thomas R. Cobb, Democrat, in place of James D. Williams, resigned, and Andrew Humphreys, chosen to fill vacancy caused by resignation; in the Third Dis- trict, Geo. A. Bicknell, Democrat, in lieu

of Speaker Michael C. Kerr, who died, and Nathan T. Carr, chosen to fill vacancy ; in the Fourth District, Leonidas Sexton, Re- publican, to succeed Jeptha D. New, Dem- ocrat; in the Fifth District, General Thomas M. Browne, Republican, to suc- ceed Wm. S. Holman, Democrat; in the Seventh District, John Hanna, Republican, to succeed Franklin Landers, Democrat; in the Ninth District, Michael D. White, Republican, to succeed Thomas J. Cason, Republican; in the Tenth District, Major William H. Calkins, Republican, to succeed William S. Haymond, Democrat. The Congressmen who succeeded themselves were: Benoni S. Fuller, Democrat, in the First District; Milton S. Robinson, Re- publican, in the Sixth District; Morton C. Hunter, Republican, in the Eighth Dis- trict; James L. Evans, Republican, in the Eleventh District; Andrew H. Hamilton, Democrat, in the Twelfth District, and John H. Baker, Republican, in the Thir- teenth District. Thus the delegation stood four Democrats to nine Republicans. In view of the fact that the State voted Dem- ocratic by over 5,000 at both the October and the November election, this dispropor- tion was chiefly attributable to the ad- vantage enjoyed by the Republicans in gerrymandering the State by the General Assembly of 1873.

DEATH OF SPEAKER KERR AND SENATOR MORTON.

Two distinguished members of Con- gress, from Indiana, died in 1876 and 1877. Michael C. Kerr, Speaker of the House of Representatives, a native of Pennsylvania, and five times chosen a member of that body, passed away after a lingering illness, August 19, 1876, at Rockbridge Alum Springs, in the State of Virginia, at the age of forty-nine years, five months and four days. He was sur- vived by a devoted wife and an only son. Prior to his distinguished service in Con- gress he practiced law at New Albany, officiated as city attorney, represented

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Floyd county in the General Assembly, and at the age of thirty-five he served the State with marked ability as Reporter of Supreme Court. He was a man of extra- ordinary intellectuality. His knowledge was varied and luminous. His devotion to principle was inflexible. Expediency sel- dom swerved him therefrom. For honesty and integrity his record was unsullied. The accumulation of riches gave him no concern. The welfare of his country was uppermost in his mind and uniformly guided his public career.

Senator Oliver P. Morton died after a lingering illness, November 1, 1877. Orig- inally a Democrat, he severed his connec- tion with that party in 1854 on account of the slavery question. Two years later he was made the nominee of the newly formed Republican party for Governor and defeated by Ashbel P. Willard. In 1860 Morton accepted second place on the Republican State ticket and was elected. By a previous understanding Henry S. Lane resigned as Governor, having about the same time been chosen United States Senator. In 1864 Morton was nominated for Governor and in the fall elected over Joseph E. McDonald. In the winter of 1867 Governor Morton was elected United States Senator, to succeed Mr. Lane, who failed to meet popular expectation and had therefore ceased to be a factor in Indiana politics. From 1861 to the end of his earthly career Oliver P. Morton was the undisputed leader of his party in Indiana, though not without enemies within the organization. It is generally understood that it was Morton's influence, silently ex- erted, that humiliated Schuyler Colfax in 1872 by being denied a renomination, with Grant, to the Vice-Presidency. As a mat- ter of fact, however, it is due to state that Mr. Colfax invited his own defeat by mak- ing it known that he did not desire a renomination to that office and that in a quiet way he sought to succeed Grant in 1872 as the Republican nominee for the Presidency. Upon discovering that this

could not be accomplished he became an avowed candidate for renomination to the office he then held. Opposition in unex- pected quarters rendered such renomina- tion impossible. Thus Colfax's long pub- lic career ended when he retired from the vice-presidential chair in 1873, being succeeded by Henry Wilson, of Massa- chusetts.

Senator Morton was a candidate for the Presidential nomination in 1876, but failed to develop the strength his friends had confidently counted on. The real choice of that convention was James G. Blaine. By the bull-dog tenacity and po- litical cunning of the Grant-Conkling- Cameron forces the defeat of Blaine was accomplished by these factions concentrat- ing their support on Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, whose nomination was accom- plished on the seventh ballot.

Senator Morton, intense partisan that he was, may be said to have been quite chary about bestowing compliments on political opponents ; yet he felt impelled to speak thus eulogistically in his tribute to the memory of the departed Speaker of the National House of Representatives :

"His name will be remembered with pride and with affection in Indiana. He was one of her most highly favored and gifted sons, and it gives me satisfaction to bear testimony to his patriotism. I believe he was a devout lover of his country, and went for that which he believed was for the best. I have always given him credit for his integrity, for his patriotism and for love of his country, and the strongest testimony which I can bear to the char- acter of Mr. Kerr is to say that he was re- garded by men of all parties in Indiana as an honest man, an able man, a patriotic man, and that his death was mourned by all his neighbors and by all who knew him without distinction of party."

Neither Kerr nor Morton accumulated wealth, although both could have done so had they felt thus inclined. Public ser- vice had greater attraction for them than the pursuit of riches. Morton had a larger share of the world's goods than Kerr. As

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a matter of fact the latter lived and died a poor man. With opportunities to make money, possessed by few, he chose to do that which was right, preferring a good name to great riches. When on his death bed he said to his son and only child: "I have nothing to leave you, my son, except my good name. Guard it and your mother's honor, and live as I have lived. Pay all my debts, if my estate will war- rant it without leaving your mother pen- niless. Otherwise pay what you can, and then go to my creditors and tell them the truth, and pledge your honor to wipe out the indebtedness." In 1862, when Mr. Kerr went into politics he had a fine law practice, which his entrance into public life measurably destroyed. At a bar which contained an Otto, a Crawford, a Smith, a Browne, a Howk, a Stotsenburg, and other leading men, he ranked with the best.

Mr. Kerr, unlike a goodly number of other Indiana politicians, emphatically de- murred to being a trimmer. He had con- victions, strong ones at that, on all ques- tions of public policy. He disdained to trim his sails to catch the popular breeze. What he held to be right he manfully and courageously maintained. Naturally this led to the development of factional hos- tility. In several campaigns he not only had the common enemy to fight but also members of his own party who were mis- led into embracing and championing false governmental doctrines. He was accus- tomed to being elected by large majorities. In 1864 he defeated Rev. W. W. Curry by a majority of 1,793. In 1866 he had pitted against him a strong man like Gen- eral Walter Q. Gresham, whom he de- feated by 1,743 votes. Two years later he beat Gresham a second time, by 6,436 ma- jority. In 1870 he defeated a popular opponent by 5,834 votes. During one of these campaigns Mr. Kerr encountered some opposition within his own party. I was very partial to Mr. Kerr, both on ac- count of his sturdy fidelity to principle and

by reason of his superior ability. I learned to admire and honor him because he was so sincere in his convictions and so free of demagogy. So, when he communicated an earnest desire that I come down into his district and deliver some speeches in his behalf I cheerfully responded. The greater part of a week was thus spent. By special request I made the Kerr home my stopping place. And a most delightful home it was. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Kerr and her mother. Amia- bility, affection and mutuality reigned su- preme in that happy household. Sam, the only child, was away at school. Mr. Kerr and myself had separate meetings-that is to say, we did not go to the same places to speak, the conclusion having been reached that each of us should have a monopoly of the speaking in the afternoon or night, as the case might be. But we managed somehow to "turn in" about the same time, usually a little after midnight. Whosoever came in first would await the arrival of the other before retiring. Sit- ting before the open fire grate, admiring the playful, blue flames as they ascended from and circled around the chunks of soft coal; luxuriating in a fragrant cigar; guardedly quaffing occasional draughts from the seasoned product of the Rhenish vineyards; discussing politics, religion, in- dustry, etc., the hours passed only too swiftly. What a delightful entertainer and conversationalist Michael C. Kerr proved himself during those ever memor- able hours! What a pity that a man of his sturdy qualities should have died so young, so short a time after his elevation to the Speakership of the American House of Representatives !

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History of the Indiana democracy, 1816-1916, Part 37

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