USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. III 1865-1896 > Part 14
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Conkling replied by a speech of unexampled bitter- ness, in which he poured out his long accumulated resentment against Curtis. Curtis had challenged his
5New York Tribune, September 27, 1877.
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[1877
right to New York's indorsement for the Presidency and had been the only New Yorker to vote against him through all the balloting. He had gone upon the plat- form of the convention to voice the demand for a reform candidate. In Harper's Weekly he had in article after article analyzed Conkling's record to show him unfit for the nomination. He had contrasted Conkling's opposition to Grant's nomination of a reformer like Rockwood Hoar to the Supreme Court with his championship of "Boss" Shepherd for Com- missioner of the District of Columbia and Caleb Cush- ing for Chief-Justice. He had even gone so far as to hint that if Conkling were nominated a light would be turned on his "professional relations to causes in which he was opposed to attorneys virtually named by himself, before Judges whose selection was due to his favor."6
Notwithstanding the fact that State conventions had frequently indorsed national administrations, as Curtis pointed out, Conkling said that the purpose of the convention was to nominate candidates and the national administration was not a candidate. The silence of the platform was not to be construed as an attack on Hayes. "Who are these men," he asked, "who, in newspapers or elsewhere, are cracking their whips over me and playing schoolmaster to the party? They are of various sorts and conditions. Some of them are the man-milliners, the dilletanti and carpet- knights of politics, whose efforts have been expended in denouncing and ridiculing and accusing honest men. Some of these worthies masquerade as reformers.
6Harper's Weekly, March 11, 1876.
1877]
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Their vocation and ministry is to lament the sins of other people. Their stock in trade is rancid, canting self-righteousness. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. Their real object is office and plunder. When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel he was unconscious of the then undeveloped capabilities and uses of the word reform."7
He declared that Hayes deserved the same support that other administrations had received. When he was right he should be sustained, when he was wrong dissent should be expressed. The matters suggested by the amendments were not pertinent to the day's duties, and they were obviously matters of difference. The conven- tion should put contentions aside and complete its tasks. After complimenting Platt, whose speech had scarcely made for harmony, Conkling turned upon Curtis, classed him with "man-milliners" and "carpet-knights," and denounced him with great severity and sarcasm for the attack on his personal integrity in "the journal made famous by the pencil of Nast."
Curtis, writing of the speech to Charles Eliot Nor- ton, said : "It was the saddest sight I ever knew, that man glaring at me in a fury of hate and storming out his foolish blackguardism. I was all pity. No one can imagine the Mephistophelean leer and 'spite."8 Many of Conkling's own friends were filled with con- sternation. Charles E. Fitch, editor of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, in his leader the next morn- ing expressed the criticism that was in the minds of
7A. R. Conkling, Life of Roscoe Conkling, p. 538 et seq.
8Cary, Life of George William Curtis, p. 258.
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many organization Republicans, and Conkling so resented it that he pronounced Fitch a traitor9 and broke friendship with him, as he did with many other men who tried to work with him without becoming his blind followers. Nevertheless the speech was consid- ered by all one of Conkling's greatest oratorical efforts and ranks among the political classics of that period. His manner of delivery made it all the more striking, as when, speaking of the "man-milliners," he pointed a finger directly at Curtis.
Curtis's amendment was voted down, 295 to 105, and the next day a half attended convention without oppo- sition nominated a State ticket headed by John C. Churchill for Secretary of State.10
Governor Robinson displayed in his administration the hard-headed independence that had made him feared as Comptroller. He was a sound lawyer, direct and forceful, a strict economist, and a moralist of severe character. In his first message he spoke plainly about the extravagance of the State government and vigor- ously denounced the waste and grandiose design of the State Capitol, on which, though it was not half finished, twice as much had been spent as the completed building had been expected to cost. He also incorporated into the message a legal argument written by Tilden on the proper method of counting the Electoral votes.11 He
9Alexander, Political History of the State of New York, III, p. 376.
10The ticket was: Secretary of State, John C. Churchill, Oswego; Comp- troller, Francis Sylvester, Columbia; Treasurer, William L. Bostwick, Tompkins; Attorney-General, Grenville Tremain, Albany; State Engineer, Howard Soule, Onondaga.
11Rhodes, History of the United States, VII, p. 247.
--
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FACTION RENDS BOTH PARTIES
1877]
found himself at odds with the Legislature, which failed as it had done in 1876 to reapportion the State in accordance with the census of 1875, and he vetoed the New York City charter, which he thought contained many excellent features, partly because it was passed by a Legislature in which New York City was not ade- quately represented. The Governor also had difficulties in getting his appointments confirmed, most conspicu- ously in the case of General McClellan, who was nominated for the new position of Superintendent of Public Works but rejected by the Republican Senate on the ground that he was not a competent and economical administrator and that, moreover, he was not a resident of the State.
The Legislature passed a bill allowing women to vote in school elections and hold school offices, but Robinson vetoed it, asserting that it went too far or not far enough; that if they were competent to administer the schools they were competent for the less difficult work of Supervisors and Justices of the Peace. He thought that voting was not the proper work of women and that moreover the extension of limited suffrage to them was unconstitutional.
Tilden's loss of the Presidency encouraged Kelly to an attack upon his leadership. Robinson's policy had not commended itself to Tammany, and both Bigelow and Fairchild, who were receptive candidates for renomination, were obnoxious to the canal ring. Kelly determined to defeat them and thus become the master of the party. Against Fairchild he had a particular grievance, growing out of the Tweed case. Tweed had
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offered to give evidence to enable the city to recover its stolen money, on condition of release. For months, pending the settlement with Sweeney, Fairchild held the offer in suspense, but knowledge of it probably induced Sweeney to raise his bid for immunity; for neither he nor others who had not been exposed wanted to see Tweed on the stand. After the settlement Fair- child rejected Tweed's advances. This Kelly con- sidered a breach of faith.12 The New York Times thus put the issue between them : "If the Democrats renomi- nate Mr. Fairchild they will simply accept his policy of compounding with thieves. . . If a nominee of Kelly is placed in the field, he will be put up with a tacit agreement that he would release Tweed."13
When the State convention met at Albany on October 3, the Tilden forces were on the face of things in con- trol. By 19 to 14 in committee they forced the selection of David B. Hill for'temporary chairman over Clarkson N. Potter. John Morrissey for the last time led a contesting delegation against Kelly from New York City. This shut Tammany from a voice in the prelim- inary organization, but Kelly cunningly arranged con- tests in Tilden counties to counteract his losses. Still everything depended on the committee on credentials, the appointment of which by custom so much belonged to the chair that Hill might have refused to put the motion to take the power from him and been sustained by the convention, but he hesitated and riot broke loose. Kelly's spokesman, John D. Townsend, attacked Mor-
12Townsend, New York in Bondage, pp. 115-151.
13New York Times, September 21, 1877.
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FACTION RENDS BOTH PARTIES
1877]
rissey in unmeasured terms, and Kelly also had the support of such popular figures in Democratic conven- tions as George M. Beebe, DeWitt C. West, and William Purcell of the Rochester Union and Adver- tiser. Morrissey replied that though he had been a prizefighter he had sought to repair the errors of a wild youth. "No one, not even Tweed, who hates me, ever accused me of being a thief," he said, pointedly contrasting himself with Kelly, who had been so accused by Mayor Havemeyer. On the roll-call Tam- many mustered 169 to 114 votes and Tilden's control of the Democracy was broken. The roll was revised to suit Kelly, and Clarkson N. Potter was made per- manent chairman.
The platform paid the tribute to Tilden of denounc- ing his defeat as due to fraud, and even gave a compli- ment to Robinson, pledging a Democratic Legislature to follow the honest and fearless Chief Magistrate in reform. It mildly commended Hayes for withdrawing the troops from the south and denounced the Repub- licans for failure in two Legislatures to make an apportionment. Kelly asserted himself not in the platform, but in the candidates. With the aid of the canal ring he put up Allen C. Beach instead of Bigelow, and nominated Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., in place of Fairchild. True to the Times's prediction, Kelly when Schoonmaker was in office asked for Tweed's release, which was promised after the adjournment of the Legislature. But Tweed died on April 12, 1878, before the plan could be carried out. For Comptroller, Kelly
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[1877
named Frederic P. Olcott, who had been appointed to the place when Robinson became Governor.14
Beach was a man of agreeable bearing and personal respectability, who always had the friendship of the canal ring. Jarvis Lord declared the convention "the first democratic triumph in the Democratic party since 1873. It lets in the old set."15 This was so clearly recognized that the Tilden men made no pretense of supporting what they regarded as a repudiation of reform. Governor Robinson in a letter to a Tammany meeting failed to mention the Democratic candidates, and Tilden, who had been in Europe with Bigelow in the early autumn while the struggle was going on, declared just before election that any nominations that did not promise cooperation with the reform policy that he had inaugurated and that Governor Robinson was consummating would be disowned by the Democratic masses. Nevertheless Beach was elected by 11,264 plurality, receiving 383,062 votes. Churchill received 371,798. John J. Junio, the Labor Reform candidate, had 20,282 votes, Henry Hagner (Prohibitionist) 7,230, John McIntosh (Social Democrat) 1,799, Francis E. Spinner (Greenback) 997.
Junio's astonishingly large vote reflected the extent of the labor movement that brought about the great railroad riots in July of that year, when Governor Robinson by promptly and courageously calling out the
14The ticket was: Secretary of State, Allen C. Beach, Jefferson; Comp- troller, Frederic P. Olcott, Albany; Treasurer, James Mackin, Dutchess; Attorney-General, Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., Ulster; State Engineer, Hora- tio Seymour, Jr., Oneida.
15New York Tribune, October 4, 1877.
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National Guard put down disorders in Hornellsville, Elmira, and Buffalo, which might easily have resulted in such destruction and pillage as occurred in Pitts- burgh. Olcott, who had the support of many inde- pendents anxious to see Robinson's canal policy continued, won by 36,111 votes, and the plurality for Horatio Seymour, Jr., the Democratic candidate for State Engineer, who had the same support, was 35,164. The rest of the Democratic candidates had about the same pluralities as Beach. The Republicans carried 19 Senate districts, while the Democrats carried 12 and the Greenbackers 1. The Assembly stood : Repub- licans, 66; Democrats, 61; Independent, 1. John Mor- rissey made his last fight for the Senate and with Conk- ling's aid won by nearly 4,000 majority over Augustus Schell, Kelly's candidate, but he did not live to take his seat. Conkling's candidates for Senator, on whom he depended for his own reelection in 1879, were, however, openly cut by Hayes Republicans. In his own Oneida district a personally popular candidate who represented him was beaten by 1,133 votes, although the Repub- licans carried the county for District Attorney by 2,336 plurality. But Conkling still had a majority of the Senate, which would suffice if he could carry the Assembly a year later. Husted was elected Speaker for his third term.
CHAPTER XVII THE GREENBACK REVIVAL
1877-1878
A FEW weeks before the election of 1877 the President struck back at Conkling by the nom- ination of the elder Theodore Roosevelt for Collector of the Port of New York and L. Bradford Prince for Naval Officer to succeed Chester A. Arthur and Alonzo B. Cornell, Conkling's most faithful and efficient organizers. A commission headed by John Jay had made an investigation of the customs service, pointed to many abuses, and suggested remedies. Its report was made the basis for the administration's pro- posal of a change, notwithstanding the fact that Arthur had loyally and effectively cooperated to carry out sug- gested reforms.1 Conkling opposed confirmation of what he represented to be merely factional appoint- ments. The President's failure to make any charges against Arthur or Cornell was in sharp contrast with his declaration against removals except for inefficiency. His construction of political activity as necessarily in- volving inefficiency, found little support in Congress, and when on December 12 the nominations came up they were both rejected by a vote of 32 to 25, all the
1New York Tribune, January 28, 1879.
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LUCIUS ROBINSON
Lucius Robinson, 28th governor (1877-1879 - three-year term) ; born at Windham, Greene county, N. Y., November 4, 1810; educated in public schools and Delhi academy; admitted to the bar, 1832; district attorney of Greene county, 1837; master of chancery, New York City, 1843-1847; member of assembly, 1860; state comptroller, 1861-1865 and in 1873; elected governor, 1876; defeated for governor, 1879 by Alonzo B. Cornell; died at Elmira, N. Y., March 21, 1891.
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187 8]
Republican Senators except five, and several Demo- crats, supporting Conkling. For the moment Conk- ling and Blaine were brought into cooperation after their long estrangement growing out of Blaine's cruel ridicule of Conkling as the strutting wearer of the mantle of Henry Winter Davis.2
The President bided his time until after the adjourn- ment of Congress. Then on July 11, 1878, he suspended Arthur and Cornell and appointed General E. A. Merritt, Collector, and Silas W. Burt, Naval Officer. Roosevelt had died on February 9. Merritt was an able, honest man who had rendered good service during the Civil War, had been driven from the naval office in the day of Conkling's ascendancy over Fenton, and had joined in the Liberal movement but returned to his old party. He had been confirmed without opposition for Surveyor when Conkling defeated Roosevelt. Colonel Burt was one of the pioneers of civil service reform, who was destined as Naval Officer, and later as New York Civil Service Commissioner, greatly to promote the merit system. The appointments were a challenge to Conkling, but he proceeded with astonishing self- restraint, avoiding any offense to the administration all through the campaign of 1878, on which his own future depended.
Governor Robinson and the Republican Legislature continued at odds through the session of 1878, and little of importance was accomplished. Husted was again Speaker. The Republicans continued to neglect their constitutional duty of reapportioning the legislative
2New York Tribune, December 17, 1877.
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districts. Conkling sought reelection with the aid of the next Assembly and had no desire to increase the Tammany delegation. The Governor set his face against the movement that had been long under way for a codification of the laws. One part of the new code had been enacted, and the Legislature of 1877 passed the second part, but it failed among the thirty- day bills. It was passed again in 1878 and this time Robinson vetoed it and urged the repeal of the first part, which had not yet gone into effect. He believed the code would complicate and unsettle legal pro- cedure, which under the old practice had been adjudi- cated and was well understood. The Governor asked the Senate to remove John F. Smyth, Superintendent of Insurance, on the ground that he had drawn large sums from insurance companies for investigations without the Comptroller's audit.3 The facts were admitted by Smyth, whose defense was that the act for audit was inoperative for lack of appropriations and that he had proceeded under an earlier law. In his trouble, which he attributed to large insurance companies whose investments he declined to approve, he had the friend- ship of a host of Republican politicians who remem- bered gratefully how he had encouraged and guided their early steps in public life and always sought to bring forward young legislators of promise.
The approach of the date for resuming specie pay- ments gave the Greenback movement a new and for a time ominous lease of life. Greenbackism had not been strong in New York when it had been rampant in the
3Message of February 21, 1878.
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middle west and when William Allen and Thomas Ewing had led the Democrats of Ohio against hard money. Peter Cooper had polled only 1,987 votes in New York in 1876, and the next year the Greenback vote had fallen to 997. At the same time, however, the vote of the Labor Reform party, which also held infla- tionist views, showed a growing unrest. Benjamin F. Butler, in Massachusetts, embraced Greenbackism and broke up old party lines. Denis Kearney was carrying on his "sand lots" agitation against the Chinese and for radical labor measures in San Francisco. A large class of debtors, especially farmers, struggling under mort- gages on lands whose value had fallen with the panic of 1873, were caught by the appeal for cheaper money. They had little in common with the radical labor element, but when the latter held a convention at Toledo on February 2, 1878, and declared against the resumption of specie payments, a way was opened for the union of these dissatisfied elements into the National Greenback Labor Reform party, which held a convention at Syracuse on July 25.
This meeting was marked by much wrangling, chiefly due to lack of experienced leadership and unity of policy. Several rival labor delegations appeared from New York City and were all excluded, each faction preferring this course to the admission of its rivals to any share in the proceedings. The platform demanded that greenbacks be made full legal tender for all debts, that all bonds be paid in paper money, that the National Banking act be repealed, and that treasury notes should be substituted for the banknotes. It
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demanded a Railroad commission to study the cost of transportation with a view to the reduction of rates, a protective tariff, and the prohibition of imports of man- ufactured articles made from raw materials that were produced in this country. It declared for an income tax on all incomes above $1,000, for the reduction of official salaries, and for the exclusion of the Chinese. The convention nominated for Judge of the Court of Appeals, the only State office to be filled, Gideon J. Tucker, former Democratic Secretary of State and former Surrogate of New York.
This issue brought the Republicans up with a round turn. They had been in the main for hard money, but many of their leaders had lacked the courage to face the financial delusions that were widespread among their own followers. Even Conkling, whose own convictions on the subject were clear, had been inclined to avoid the controversy, and the Utica Republican, which had been established as his organ under the editorship of Lewis Lawrence after his break with Roberts of the Utica Herald and maintained an unprofitable existence until he had been reëlected to the Senate, held that it was a "mistake to array the Republican party, which origi- nated the greenback, as an exclusively hard money party."4 When, however, the Maine election showed that the Republicans, though winning, had cast less than 45 per cent. of the vote, instead of nearly 53 as in 1877 or 57 as in 1876, while the Greenbackers polled about 34 per cent. of the vote and cut the Democratic strength almost in two, the Republicans awoke to the
4October 1, 1878.
1878]
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THE GREENBACK REVIVAL
situation and Conkling sought harmony with his old opponents.
At the State convention in Saratoga on September 26, Conkling, in his speech as chairman, put aside his accustomed bitterness toward the President and adopted his position against fiat money. George William Curtis, who was conspicuous for his applause of his old enemy, likewise made a speech whose keynote was harmony and financial honesty. The platform declared: "We insist that the greenback, instead of being dishonored and depreciated, shall be made as good as honest coin." It still expressed adherence to the Conkling theory of civil service reform, with protection of public officers from removal except for incompetence or unfaithfulness, but did so without
any offensive expressions. Three candidates were presented for Judge of the Court of Appeals, George F. Danforth of Monroe, who had twice borne the party standard in years of defeat; Joshua M. Van Cott of Kings, a Republican who had already been nominated for the office at the Prohibition convention in Albany on April 24, and G. W. Parsons of Westchester. Dan- forth was nominated, receiving 225 votes to 99 for Van Cott and 79 for Parsons.
The Democratic convention in Syracuse on Septem- ber 25 was one of the most turbulent in the party's his- tory. The control of Tilden and Robinson depended on obtaining command of the temporary organization and seating their own contestants. Kelly, who dominated the State committee as the result of his victory in the last convention, forced the nomination of Albert P.
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Laning of Buffalo for temporary chairman. Tam- many's 63 votes in the convention were contested. So were the seats of the 27 Mclaughlin delegates from Kings, who supported Tilden. On the first roll-call a resolution was offered allowing Tammany and the McLaughlin delegation to vote pending the determina- tion of the contests, and the previous question was moved. On this motion the vote of Albany was chal- lenged because there was a contest there, but Laning ruled that, as Albany was not concerned in the question pending, it might properly vote. This implied that New York and Kings, being concerned, would not vote, and the decision was accepted by the Tilden men. The chair also announced that New York and Kings would be passed on the roll-call. But as the progress of the call indicated a Tilden majority, Laning suddenly ordered the calling of New York and Kings, despite the protest of Thomas Kinsella that the Kings delegates did not wish to vote on a question involving their own seats. Tammany, being counted while Kings refused to vote, carried the convention for Kelly by 195 to 154.
Kelly's hold was too precarious for him to risk any attack on Robinson, or any approach to the Green- backers in the platform, which declared for "gold and silver coin and paper convertible into coin at the will of the holder," indorsed the Governor's administration, and demanded reapportionment. When it came to nominating for Judge of the Court of Appeals the Tilden faction scored an empty victory. They attrib- uted Kelly's seizure of the convention to a deal of the St. Lawrence and Franklin delegations for Tammany
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support of William H. Sawyer of St. Lawrence. On the first ballot Sawyer received 150 votes to 54 for George B. Bradley of Steuben, 106 for Samuel Hand of Albany, 18 for George Camp of Tioga, 38 for Calvin Frost of Westchester, and 1 for Gideon J. Tucker of New York. Bradley was not known as a Tilden man, but he was unobjectionable, and in their determination to punish Kelly's rural assistants the Tilden forces con- centrated on him and nominated him on the second ballot by 194 votes to 189 for Sawyer.
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