USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. V > Part 6
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This formidable amendment, comprising these four topics, was purely of Republican authorship and advocacy. Proposed to the States in June, 1866, it was naturally the foremost political issue before the people in the Congressional campaign of that summer and fall, and was very widely debated upon the stump and in the press. The President, having broken with the Republican party, threw all the influence of his administration against that party, and in consequence of that circumstance the Republicans that year organ-
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ized for the first time the Congressional campaign committee, which has in every second year since then played an important part in national politics. The contest was between the "Congressional party" and the "Presidential party," the former consisting of the great mass of the Republican party and a few "War Demo- crats," and the latter of the mass of the Democratic party and a few Republicans who followed the President. The result was an overwhelming Republi- can victory, that party securing a more than two-thirds majority of the new Congress. Obviously, the nation repudiated the President and his policy and approved the Republican party and its plans for reorganization.
The rejection of the Fourteenth amendment by the ten southern States temporarily prevented the ratifica- tion of that measure. It also indicated the revival of the sectional spirit which had in the past been so prolific of evil. The Republican leaders therefore determined to adopt more rigorous measures for the reconstruction of the south and the settlement of the issues of the war. Thus far the lately seceded States had been under governments and Constitutions approved by the President but never sanctioned by Congress, and they were implacably hostile to the pro- posed establishment of universal citizenship and equal rights. Congress accordingly set aside those govern- ments and substituted a temporary military adminis- tration, which made it clear that the restoration of the States to their normal place in the Union was dependent upon their acceptance of the results of the war as set forth in the Fourteenth amendment. They must
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establish equal manhood suffrage, without regard to race. This they presently did, and of course under such suffrage the Fourteenth amendment was promptly rati- fied by them. By 1870, five years after the end of the war, the last of the formerly seceding States was fully reestablished in its place in the Federal Union.
Meantime, another constitutional amendment was deemed needful to complete the work of reconstruction. The States had granted the suffrage to the former slaves, but there was lacking sufficient guarantee that they would not at some future time withdraw it. Accord- ingly the Fifteenth amendment was drafted by the Republican leaders, adopted by the Republican majority in Congress, and proposed to the States on February 27, 1869, and was proclaimed as ratified on March 30, 1870. It was brief and to the point, pro- viding that "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The southern States being then generally under Republican control, the amendment was ratified by nearly all of them. Tennessee did not act upon it at all. Kentucky, Mary- land, Delaware, California, and Oregon rejected it. New Jersey at first rejected but afterward accepted it. New York ratified it and then rescinded its ratification. With the secure embodiment of this amendment in the Constitution, the legislative work of the Republican party for confirming the results of the war and for adapting the nation to the new conditions which fol- lowed the war seemed to be complete.
MATERIAL INTERESTS CHAPTER VIII
FINANCIAL INTEGRITY
D URING the period of political reconstruction occurred in 1868 the fourth Presidential cam- paign of the Republican party, with new issues before the nation. The vagaries of President Johnson had completely alienated him from the party that four years before had elected him to the Vice-Presidency and had so discredited him that the Democratic party did not regard him as an available candidate. He received a few votes in the Democratic convention, but that body, after a long contest, finally nominated Horatio Seymour, who had been Governor of New York during the latter part of the Civil War and had won unenviable notoriety by regarding the war as a failure and by cringing and catering to the criminal mobs which in New York City sought by rioting and arson to hamper the national government in its prose- cution of the war. The platform was largely devoted to railing against the Republican party for its reconstruc- tion measures in the south, declaring them to be "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void," and demanded the taxation of government bonds in viola- tion of the terms on which they were issued and the
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regulation of the elective franchise by the States so that the former slave States would be able perpetually to exclude the negroes from the polls.
The Republican convention met at Chicago on May 20 and, on the first roll-call for the purpose, unani- mously nominated for the Presidency General Ulysses S. Grant. For Vice-President, on the fifth ballot, it named Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, Speaker of the House of Representatives and one of the original members of the Republican party. The platform approved the reconstruction policy of Congress and the constitutional amendments, condemned the Johnson administration, and congratulated the south upon the readiness and loyalty with which its leaders were accepting the verdict of the war and were resuming their places in the life of the republic. It then spe- cially emphasized the need of keeping scrupulously all national obligations and paying all national indebted- ness in good faith, in the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. It urged the gradual discharge of the great war debt to be extended over a considerable period of time, with such reductions of interest from time to time as might be made possible by the willing- ness of capitalists, in an era of increasing prosperity, to lend money at lower rates. Another important plank declared that the doctrine of some European powers that a person once a subject must always remain so "must be resisted at every hazard by the United States as a relic of feudal times" and that our naturalized citizens must be as fully protected in their rights as the native citizens. The assertion and maintenance of this
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great principle by the Republican party effected a most salutary change in international law under which all powers were constrained to recognize the right of expatriation.
The ensuing campaign was an animated one, but the result was never in doubt. The immense popularity of General Grant, the equivocal attitude of Mr. Seymour on issues of supreme importance, and the protection afforded by the Federal government to the negro voters of the south assured a sweeping Republican victory. In the closing weeks of the campaign there was a note- worthy movement by business men, without regard to party, in support of the Republican ticket because of the sound declarations of the Republican platform concerning national finance. The result of the election was, with the three States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas not yet qualified to vote and with Florida choosing Presidential Electors through her Legislature, that Grant carried 26 States, with 214 Electoral and 3,015,068 popular votes, while Seymour carried only 8 States with 80 Electoral and 2,709,633 popular votes.
Apart from the political problems of southern recon- struction, already described, the foremost issue in national life now became that of finance. This was a complicated question. There was an enormous public debt, on much of which interest must be paid, and for the ultimate payment of which provision must be made. A part of this debt was, however, in the form of treasury notes or "greenbacks" which had been made legal tender for most purposes, and which must be made and kept at par with gold and be redeemed in gold upon
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demand, and perhaps ultimately be thus retired from circulation. Then there was the task of "resuming specie payments," or of bringing the value of depre- ciated treasury notes and banknotes back to par with gold.
To these tasks the Republican party in Congress and in the administration after the inauguration of Presi- dent Grant addressed itself with courage, efficiency, and consummate skill. It had to do so in the face of Demo- cratic opposition. During the war Democrats had inveighed against the issuing of bonds, saying that they never could or would be paid. They had denounced the "greenbacks" as illegal and fraudulent. Now after the war they demanded that the bonds be taxed, which obviously would have been equivalent to reducing arbitrarily the rate of interest on them; and also that the principal of the bonds be paid at once with a fresh issue of "greenbacks" which, with "greenbacks" at a discount of ten or twenty per cent. or more, would obviously have been equivalent to partial repudiation of the bonds.
Against all such forms and degrees of repudiation the Republicans set their faces as a flint, insisting that the faith of the nation must be kept sacred at no matter what cost. The bonds must remain untaxed according to the understanding at their issuance; they must be paid, interest and principal, in gold or money at par with gold; and all currency must be brought back to par with gold. On March 18, 1869, a law was enacted pledging the payment of all government indebtedness in specie. In the achievement of this herculean task
WILLIAM ALMON WHEELER
William Almon Wheeler, vice-president; born in Malone, N. Y., June 19, 1819; attended the university of Vermont; admitted to the bar, 1845; for several years district attorney of Franklin county; member of the state assembly, 1850-1851; member of the state senate, 1858-1860; delegate to the state con- stitutional convention, 1867-1868; served in congress from March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1863, and from March 4, 1869 to March 3, 1877; elected vice-president of the U. S. on the Hayes ticket in 1876; died at Malone, N. Y., June 4, 1887.
JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN
James Schoolcraft Sherman, vice-president; born in Utica, N. Y., October 24, 1855 ; graduated from Hamilton college, 1878; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1880; mayor of Utica in 1884; delegate to the republican national convention of 1892; chairman of New York state republican convention in 1895 and again in 1900; elected to the 50th, 51st, 53rd, 54th, 56th, 57th, 58th and 59th congresses; elected vice-president of the United States in 1908 and served from March 4, 1909 until his death in Utica, N. Y., October 30, 1912.
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the Republican government was greatly aided by other features of the policies which it had adopted. The protective tariff system, which it had adopted before the war for the sake of American industry and the rates of which had been increased during the war to provide needed revenue, proved immensely successful. It caused the establishment of great new industries and the expansion of others ; the maintenance of good wages for American workingmen; the supplying of the American market with American-made goods in place of foreign, often of better quality and at lower prices than the foreign; and at the same time an abundant revenue to be applied not only to the current expenses of government but also to the extinguishment of the public debt. Another copious source of governmental income was found in the internal revenue, especially the tax upon alcoholic liquors and tobacco. This had originated as a war measure, but it was generally recog- nized as highly desirable for continuance in time of peace. And although it was not until 1875 that a law was enacted providing for the resumption of specie payments, making "greenbacks" and national bank- notes as good as gold on January 1, 1879, such action was long before anticipated and the fiscal policy of the government was early directed to that end.
It was not all easy going. Back in President John- son's administration an attempt had been made to reduce the volume of treasury notes in circulation. This meant contraction of currency, and that had an unfavorable effect upon business; wherefore Congress enacted a law forbidding any further such attempts.
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Later, under President Grant, the contrary course was essayed. It was thought that business depression was due to lack of circulating medium, and a bill was passed providing for a considerable increase in the issue of "greenbacks." This was done in April, 1874, by the Republican Congress, many of whose Republi- can members joined with the Democrats in yielding to the clamor against "contraction of the currency." But President Grant rightly perceived that such fur- ther inflation of the currency would make more diffi- cult, if not impossible, the ultimate resumption of specie payments and would really aggravate the trouble which it purported to be meant to relieve. He vetoed the bill, to the unmeasured gratification of business men throughout the country and of all believers in sound national finance.
Others raged against him, and there arose a so-called "Greenback party" or "Fiat Money party" whose members held that money could be created with the printing press and that the government, instead of seeking resumption of specie payments, which they insisted could never be effected, should print and issue vast quantities of treasury notes which were not to be redeemable in gold or silver and which were to be made compulsorily legal tender for all purposes. With these, they insisted, the government bonds should be paid off and the national debt extinguished. Some members of the Republican party became afflicted with this lunacy, but the overwhelming mass of the party remained steadfast for sound money, for resumption of specie payments, and for honest payment of the national debt
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in gold. In this policy the Republican government was successful, and at the appointed time, without the slightest appreciable disturbance of the money market or of business, specie payments were resumed. "Green- backs" and national notes everywhere throughout the United States became automatically worth their face value in standard gold coin and exchangeable for it upon demand. The superior convenience of paper money for ordinary uses made people, however, prefer it to gold and silver, and save in a few cases out of curiosity there was no inclination to make the exchange. Meantime the principal of the debt was being reduced rapidly, and was being refunded at much lower rates of interest, until its ultimate extinction seemed sure to occur in the near future. The fiscal reorganization of the country was complete, and the Republican party added to its credit a record of efficiency and public beneficence comparable with that made in the saving of the Union and the freeing of a race of slaves.
CHAPTER IX PROGRESS AND REFORM
E ARLY in President Grant's first term the Republican party had the opportunity presented for initiating the beginning of a most advanced and beneficent era in the international relations of the world. This was the recognition of the right of expatriation. Down to that time European nations had denied the right of their subjects to renounce their allegiance and to become citizens of the United States. When such naturalized citizens of the United States revisited their former homes they were often seized as deserters and subjected to penalties, or were subjected to the laws of those countries as though they had never left them. The Republican party, standing supremely for the rights of man, insisted from the outset that every man in the world had a right to choose for himself to what nation he would belong and to what government he would give allegiance. Both parties had made that demand conspicuous by unequivocal planks in their platforms. At an opportune time, in 1868, Congress enacted a law asserting that right and indicating the purpose of this government to enforce and to vindicate that right in behalf of all its naturalized citizens. The matter was one of high importance, for at that time the volume of immigration from various European lands
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was great and was increasing, and nearly all of the im- migrants purposed to become naturalized.
It was of course desirable to have that principle recognized by the nations which had theretofore denied it, by means of treaties or otherwise. In 1868 several such treaties were made with various German states and with Belgium, and in 1869 with Sweden and Nor- way. The German treaties were of little significance, however, since the German empire in 1871 practically repudiated them with respect to all male emigrants who could by any jugglery be charged with having evaded or failed to perform their full quota of com- pulsory military service. The really important estab- lishment of the principle occurred in 1870, when there was promulgated a treaty which had been made in 1869 between the United States and Great Britain, in which the British government unequivocally recog- nized the right of its subjects or citizens to renounce their allegiance and become Americans, and to enjoy thereafter the same protection from the American government and the same consideration and respect from the British government that native American citizens enjoyed. After that it was only a question of time when every nation in the world was compelled to give the same recognition to that great Republican doctrine of the right of the individual man to self- determination.
It was in Grant's first year, too, on May 10, 1869, that another great work was achieved through the wis- dom of Republican statesmanship and the energy of Republican enterprise. This was the completion of
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the first Pacific railroad. On the day named the two roads which for several years had been pushed, the one from the Mississippi valley westward, the other from the Pacific coast eastward, met at Promontory Point, and the last spike was driven "with a silver hammer and a golden nail." The line was 1,914 miles long from Omaha to San Francisco, and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts were thus connected by a highway of steel and steam. There followed other comparable undertakings. It was in 1869 that the government began the gigantic work of removing the dangerous obstructions at Hell Gate in New York harbor, and in the following year it committed itself to the project of a trans-Isthmian canal at Darien or Panama.
The year 1870 saw all the southern States fully restored to participation in the national government, with the political rights of most of the former Confed- erates also restored, while the enfranchisement of the negro race was emphasized by the election of some of its members to both houses of Congress. Many of the stamp taxes and other domestic imposts of war times were abolished or reduced, and there were also sub- stantial reductions of the tariff on imports, particularly on tea, coffee, sugar, and other articles of popular use. The army was reduced to a peace footing of only 30,000 men.
One of the greatest administrative reforms in the history of the government was begun in March, 1871, in the establishment of the merit system in the civil service. More than forty years before the Democratic party, under Andrew Jackson, had established the
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spoils system under which there was a "clean sweep" at every change of administration and loyalty and useful- ness to the party, rather than efficiency for public ser- vice, was made the requirement for office-holding from the highest places down to the most humble. The abuses which thus crept into the government were widespread and scandalous, but no serious and efficient attempt to correct them was made until the first Grant ad- ministration and the Forty-first Congress, both Republican. Then a law was made empowering the President to make rules for admission to the civil ser- vice of the nation. Under that law there was appointed the first United States Civil Service com- mission, consisting of George William Curtis, Alexan- der G. Cattell, Joseph Medill, D. A. Walker, E. B. Ellicott, Joseph, H. Blackfan, and David C. Cox. The keynote of the movement was that fitness for the place was to supersede political "pull." It was reserved for a later Republican administration and Congress to develop the system fully, but this first act was an irre- vocable step toward the great reform.
In 1872 the great postal reform of issuing so-called postal cards was established; internal taxes on food were abolished, together with the import duties on tea and coffee; the income tax and most of the stamp taxes were repealed; the Geneva arbitration resulted in the award of $15,500,000 indemnity to the United States for the damage done by Confederate cruisers through British negligence or connivance; and the San Juan boundary at the extreme northwest was established in favor of the United States through international arbi-
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tration. Despite these great achievements of the Republican party for the profit and honor of the nation, however, there arose within its own ranks a certain dissatisfaction which increased to actual hostility. This was in part aroused because of the necessity of enacting and executing some strenuous laws for the enforcement of the new constitutional amendments and for the vindication of the equal civil rights of citizens in the south. A widespread and murderous conspiracy against such rights was organized, known as the KuKlux Klan, against which the national government was compelled to use much force. These disturbances made it inevitable that there should be further delay in removing all the political disabilities of some former Confederates. In addition to these things, the compar- ative inexperience of President Grant in civil adminis- tration and the too great trust which he, in his own transparent honesty, sometimes reposed in other men, led to some more or less serious acts of maladministra- tion and even of corruption in the government, such as had been suffered by almost every preceding admin- istration; and these were exploited and magnified for political purposes by the enemies of the President and his party.
As early as 1870 a number of disaffected Republicans in Missouri, calling themselves "Liberals," united with the Democrats and defeated the Republicans in the State election. The movement was extended to other States, and in consequence the Republican majority in Congress was somewhat reduced by that fall's elections. In 1872 various "Liberal Republican" conventions
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were held, and finally in May a national convention of that faction was held at Cincinnati, at which, after much dispute and uncertainty, Horace Greeley of New York and B. Gratz Brown of Missouri were nominated for President and Vice-President. Mr. Greeley was one of the most eminent newspaper editors of the coun- try and had been one of the founders of the Republican party. But his course had generally been eccentric. He had opposed his one-time political partner, Seward, for the Presidency in 1860 because of personal pique at Seward's having declined to advance his political and office-seeking ambitions; he had raised the untimely cry of "Forward to Richmond!" in 1861, which led to the disaster of Bull Run; he had bitterly opposed Lincoln's administration because Lincoln would not issue the Emancipation proclamation as soon as he wished; he had advocated the severest possible punishment for all the participants in secession; and vet, soon after the close of the war, he had gone upon the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis. Despite his great abilities as a political writer and the purity and benevo- lence of his character and motives he was obviously not a man of sound leadership. The platform of this convention was devoted chiefly to denunciation of President Grant and his administration. It expressed adherence to most of the principles of the Republican party, though in a somewhat equivocal manner, and was obviously intended to be so vague and neutral as to be acceptable, or at least not unacceptable, to all who were for any reason dissatisfied with or opposed to the
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Republican party. Indeed, the prevailing cry at the convention was, "Anything to beat Grant!"
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