USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 12
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The importance of one vote has been strikingly illustrated in some of the senatorial contests in Wisconsin. For example. Charles Durkee was elected by a majority of one vote in the joint convention. Mr. Doolittle was nominated in the Repub- lican caucus by one vote, and twelve years later, in 1869, after Mr. Doolittle had served two terms in the Senate, his successor, Matt. H. Carpenter was nominated in the Republican caucus by a majority of one vote!
Note-One member of the firm of Madison printers and newspaper publishers wrote cheeringly to his absent partner about their prospects of getting the State printing contract. The bids were, under the statute. to be sent in to the Secretary of State, and opened and passed upon by that officer, the State Treasurer and the Attorney-General. The printer. who was a friend of the administration, assured his colleagues that he had made arrangements for inside knowledge of the bidding, adding: "We must get a good bid. * * # Even if we have to buy up Barstow and the balance"-meaning. by the ."balance." the other State officials engaged in the letting. It was among the things unknowable whether the Secretary was or was not rightly judged by the ambitious printer: but the indiscreet letter was found. and promptly published in a rival journal (The Madison Democrat. Oct. 5. 1850). so that ever after that the faction in power was derisively known as "Barstow and the . Balance"-a taking catch-phrase for the opposition .- Thwaite.' "Story of . Wisconsin."
CHAPTER XML.
MANEUVERING FOR THE GERMAN VOTE.
The Republican party had a serious set-back in the fall of 1857, when the splendid majority of 13.000 for Fremont in 1856 was cut down to less than 200 for Governor Randall, and the defeat of over half of the candidates for State officers on the ticket with him. Randall canvassed the State in his own behalf, while his Democratic competitor, James B. Cross, made no effort to secure votes by stump speaking. Cross settled in Milwaukee in 1841; he had no success at the bar but he made some headway as a candidate for office. He was elected a justice of the peace in 1846, and judge of probate for Milwaukee County in 1848. He served three terms in the State Legislature with credit to himself, and was City Attorney for Milwaukee in 1850. He was only 454 votes behind A. W. Randall in the race for Governor in the fall of 1857. "He had a fine personal appearance," says one of his admirers, "and possessed many elements of popularity, and was fitted to adorn with grace and credit any position in life."
At the conclusion of Governor Bashford's term nobody ex- pected and few desired that he would be renominated, and if he wished for a second term, he had no expectation of getting it. after all that had happened to his discredit.
And yet Mr. Bashiord was not entirely destitute of friends. He had asked the Legislature to make an investigation into the charges of corruption which had been made against him in the newspapers in the railroad land grant affair, and he declared that he stood ready to purge himself of each and every charge made against him. Accordingly, a committee of five was appointed by the Legislature, which reported in due season that they had made the investigation touching the disposition of said land grant and of the charges brought against Governor Bashford, "and that
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they were unanimously of the opinion that the evidence shows that the fifty bonds (of $1,000 cach) referred to in the report = were received by Governor Bashford, as a gratuity, from the La Crosse Company after the graut had been disposed of and without any previous understanding that he was to receive the same; but the conunittee strongly disapproved of the acceptance of the said gratuity!"
When the Republican State Convention met to nominate a successor to Bashford he had y votes for renomination, and the following complimentary resolution, introduced by Sherman M. Booth, was passed unanimously:
"Resolved, That the warmest thanks of the Republican party of Wisconsin are due to Gov. Coles Bashford for the zeal. energy, ability and perseverance with which he prosecuted, to a successful issue, before the Supreme Court of this State, his claim, as the legally elected Governor of Wisconsin; that by this he upheld jus- tice, law, and the constitution, and vindicated the rights of the people; that we honor him for his administration of the State gov- ernment: that wherever justice triumphs over fraud, and the rights of the people and the purity of the ballot box are held to be sacred, the name of Coles Bashford will be held in grateful and affectionate remembrance and respect."
Governor Bashford removed to Arizona in 1863, where the next year he was elected to the territorial. council and president of that body. He was also elected attorney general of the territory, and later a delegate to Congress. . He died April 25. 1878, aged 63.
As to Bashford's successor there had been much discussion in the newspapers during the summer, and public sentiment seemed to be about evenly divided between two prominent gentlemen. with their own hearty approval and co-operation, as suitable persons to head the Republican ticket. These candidates were Edward D. Holton of Milwaukee and Walter D. MeIndoe of Wausau. They were both in the prime of life, both active Republicans in good standing, both men of considerable means, and both noted for com- mendable generosity and public spirit. Here the similarity ended. Holton was a refined and polished gentleman, a public speaker of
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no mean pretensions, well educated and prepossessing in his man- ners and personal appearance, a zealous Abolitionist, and a still more zealous Congregationalist, of New England origin, and had brought to the West with him many of the inflexible Puritanic habits characteristic of the intelligent and conscientious Yankee.
He had been identified with the anti-slavery movement from the start, had been a candidate for Congress on that ticket. and was the candidate for Governor against Barstow in IS53. He had always taken an active part in the temperance cause, and was well known to the people of the State. He was a man well qualified to fill with credit any office to which the partiality of his fellow citi- zens might call him, and a gentleman who showed to good advan- tage in any public assemblage. He had traveled much and had made the most of his superior advantages.
McIndoe was a man of coarser grain, of inferior mental endow- ment, as compared with his competitor, brought up in a different environment, was neither a church member nor a moralist, and was much more liberal in his views of life, duty, responsibility and conduct than Mr. Holton. He had acquired a handsome fortune in the lumbering business, and had spent many years in the north- ern portion of the State, surrounded by all the primitive condi- tions peculiar to frontier life. Still he was far above the level of his surroundings. He was of Scotch birth and had received an excellent commercial education. Ile was a solid practical man of affairs, had read much and was a genial, companionable gentleman. distinguished by natural kindness and affability, which made him popular with all who knew him. Like Mr. Hokon, he had been reared in the old Whig party, but when it was dissolved in 1852, he readily joined the Republican party and took a leading part in its affairs. He had an immense following in the northern portion of the State. His case in the convention was managed by Tim- othy O. Howe. He and Holton were both active candidates. It was generally supposed that one or the other would carry off the prize. In the convention the vote was about evenly divided between them, the informal ballot standing. Holton, 70; MeIndoc. 56; Randall, 24; Coles Bashford, y, and the rest scattering. The first formal ballot stood: Holton, 68; MeIndoe. 57; Randall, 40.
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On the seventh ballot Randall was nominated, both Holton and McIndoe having been withdrawn the vote standing. Randall. go: J. W. Boyd, 45: H. C. Bull, 11; J. P. McGregor, 16; L. P. Harvey, 6; J. H. Knowlton. 6; scattering. 5. Necessary to a choice, 95.
At first Randall was not considered in the race. He had, how- ever, acquired considerable of a reputation as a stump orator. had filled out an unexpired term as circuit judge, and had won some renown as a counsel in the celebrated case of Bashford vs. Barstow in the famous contest for the gubernatorial office. He entered the convention with only the Wankesha delegation at his back, and a few scattering votes from other parts of the State. He had one advantage. While his two popular opponents, Holton and McIndoe, had come into the new party from the Whigs, Randall had been brought up in the school of Democracy and it was thought his. nomination would draw heavily from that side. The balloting continued for many hours, the race for the nomination between Melndoe and Holton being neck and neck, but Randall's little handful of delegates stood as firmly by him as did the famous 306 stand by General Grant in the National Republican Conven- tion of 1880. Randall held the balance of power from the start, and he could have nominated either of the other candidates if he had chosen to do so. Thus it went on without a choice until the delegates got tired and they also got cross, while the Randall men kept good-natured with both sides; but never failed to vote for their favorite. Finally the Holton and MeIndoe forces began to disintegrate. Randall getting all the straggling votes. until he secured a majority and was declared to be the choice of the con- vention. Randall's running mate for Lieutenant-Governor was Carl Schurz, who was then a resident of Watertown, and who there made his first appearance in this country as a public man. The ticket then and there nominated was only partially successful, the three lucky candidates being Randall for Governor. S. D. Hast- . 'ings for State Treasurer and E. M. McGraw for State Prison Com- missioner.
I have said that Carl Schurz made his first appearance in this country as a public man. at the Republican State Convention in
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Madison in the fall of 1857. The delegates who composed that convention are nearly all dead now, and so are the gentlemen who were nominated on the Republican ticket that year, except Mi. Schurz. who was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor and defeated, and the venerable Samuel D. Hastings, who was elected State Treasurer. Mr. Schurz had only recently arrived in this country, and was then a resident of Watertown in this State. That locality at that time was overwhelmingly Democratic, and it was an easy matter for any one to get appointed as a delegate to represent the handful of Republicans who made their abode there. Very few personally knew Mr. Schurz, while the great majority had never heard his name before. He was a stranger in a strange land. If he had not been nominated for Lieutenant-Governor at that time and given an opportunity to stump the State in defense of Repub- lican principles, and thus come into prominence where his superior natural and acquired accomplishments could be appreciated, it is easy to conjecture what might have been. Great men often owe their popularity and success to accident; at least in order to suc- ceed one must have opportunity. When Ulysses S. Grant was tan- ning hides at Galena, none of his associates imagined he would become one of the most famous soldiers of modern times, and the president of one of the greatest nations on earth.
The circumstances under which the Republican State Conven- tion of 1857 met were peculiar. Up to that date the German Americans in Wisconsin took little stock in the Republican party. In fact, they were, for the most part, very strongly prejudiced against it. They judged it by the character of its leading advocates and supporters, rather than by its principles. Mr. Holton, for example, had been a candidate of the extreme temperance men for · office, and the Germans looked upon that movement as an assault upon personal liberty and they would have none of it. That was before the war, and an anti-slavery man in those days was regarded with suspicion, so that when the leading men in a party stood for both abolition and prohibition they were not popular with the class referred to. To enlist the Germans in support of the Repub- lican party was carly seen to be a prime necessity in order to insure success, and one or more places on the State ticket must
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be assigned to that nationality. After Randall was nominated it was deemed to be imperative that a German should be nominated for second place, but who should it be? That was the question. All the more prominent leading influential Germans had already joined the Democratic party, which had with rare wisdom and sound partisan policy given some of them good places at the public crib, and the Good Book asks a question that any fool would answer in the negative-"Doth the ox low that hath fodder?" Sev- eral nominations of Germans were made in the convention for Lieutenant-Governor, but none of them was well received. At length Sherman M. Booth took 'the floor and made a thrilling speech in favor of Carl Schurz. He gave some account of his antecedents, how as a student at the German university he had been mixed up with the rebellion of 1848 and had to flee his coun- try in order to save his neck. As Booth and his State rights dis- ciples-the writer among the rest -- had sustained a mild form of revolution in supporting our Supreme Court in defying and nulli- fying an act of Congress, and all of us had repudiated a decision of the United States Supreme Court. the idea of Schurz being a revolutionist rather pleased us, and we thought if he was a red Republican, and we had all been stigmatized as black Republicans, he would answer our purpose very well! Others followed Booth. and Sehurz was soon nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. Only a few had seen Schurz up to this time, but when he had been nom- inated and there was a call for him he came reluctantly forward and took the platform to return his thanks for the honor con- ferred. As he advanced the impression was not favorable. His tall, lank form and long legs were heightened by his dress, which was seedy, threadbare and ill-fitting. His coat sleeves and his trousers' legs were much too short, and his Emersonian nose. adorned with the ever-present gold-bowed spectacles, gave him a novel and picturesque appearance. A delegate sitting next to me whispered in my ear: . "I guess we have done it now for certain"- meaning. of course, that we had nominated the wrong man. But first impressions are often misleading, and they were in this case. He had spoken but a few words before he had the attention of the convention riveted upon himself. If the delegates were astonished
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at his uncouth appearance. they were amazed at his eloquence and the charm and power of his masterly oratory. When he left the platform he also leit the impression upon the mind of every one present that a man of splendid intelk cmal abilities had appeared among them, challenging their criticism and winning their admira- tion. This was the beginning of the political career of Carl Schurz, and it was the first step toward drawing a large class of his fellow Germans into the Republican party without whose support the party would have forever remained in the minority in Wisconsin. I do not think I give General Schurz too much credit when I say he made a thorough canvass of the State, and although he was beaten at the polls by a few hundred majority, he made converts to the Republican cause wherever he spoke, and thousands of his nativity were converted to the true politcal faith by his eloquent speech, and flocked to our standard.
Two years later he was a candidate for the nomination for Gov- ernor himself, against Governor Randall, much to Randall's disgust, and he went into the convention with considerable of a following. A feeling of rivalry had sprung up between him and . Governor Randall, which was also slightly tinged with animosity. and the State Convention in 1859 that had to decide between them was a stormy one. Mr. Schurz was offered the nomination again for Lieutenant Governor, but as he had made the race once and been beaten, and as he had now attracted.national attention to himself by his eloquent advocacy of Republican principles, he per- emptorily declined the honor. He came to this city and opened a law office in company with Gen. Halbert E. Paine, but before they got settled down to practice law the civil war broke out and they closed up their law office and went into the military service of their country. Both won distinction in the U'uion army. After AAppomattox. General Paine represented the Milwaukee district in Congress for two terms, defeating James S. Brown in the first race and Alexander Mitchell the second time. General Schorz settled in St. Louis after the war, and as brains were always in great demand in Missouri, he soon got elected to the Senate of the United States from that State. It is needless to say that his career in the Senate was creditable to him in the highest degree,
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although he felt it to be his duty at times to assail the policy of the party with which he at first won distinction and which first brought him into public notice. He did not wander far enough from the fold of Republicanism, however, to prevent President Hayes from giving General Schurz a seat in his cabinet, he being the first German-American who has ever been elevated to a similar position. He was as efficient in councils of the cabinet as he had proved himself to be in every other public position with which he had been intrusted.
General Schurz formally withdrew from the Republican party in 1884, when James G. Blaine was nominated for the presidency. and he stoutly supported Mr. Cleveland in all his campaigns. He gave his services to the cause of sound money during the last campaign, and the speech he delivered in Chicago on financial subjects was one of the ablest, clearest. most exhaustive, most complete and satisfactory that was uttered by any man anywhere during the exciting and important contest. The masterly address will forever remain a classic on the money question.
While General Schurz remained in this State he was greatly aided in getting to the front and staying there by Horace Rublee. ' who was his faithful, steadfast friend from first to last. No one knows better than Carl Schurz how a public man is helped to climb the ladder of fame by the constant support, counsel and advice of a wise and discreet editor .of a widely circulated and reliable daily paper. During their warm and intimate friendship which lasted over forty years, they never disagreed upon any public question of vital importance but once, and that was upon the subject of State rights, after our Supreme Court had nullified the Fugitive Slave Law. in the Booth case, the opinion of Chief Justice Taney to the contrary notwithstanding. General Schurz took sides with Sherman M. Booth, James H. Paine, Byron Paine. Judge A. D. Smith, et al., while Mr. Rublee stood firmly with Timothy O. Howe, and contended for the supreme federal authority in construing the acts of Congress. Schurz saw his mistake also. afterwards, and abandoned his untenable posi- tion: but it was not until his pathway had been illuminated by the fierce glare of the rebels' cannon as they shot down the national flag that waved over Fort Sumter.
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CHAPTER XIL.
THE STORMY TIME BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR.
The Ship of State under the command of Capt. Alexander W. Randall encountered some rough weather during her first voyage of two years' duration, the Governor disagreeing with the Repub- lican majority in the Senate about the confirmation of a gentleman whom Randall had nominated for State Auditor. The Senate refused to confirm the appointee. whereupon the Governor got into an unseemly rage and made a threat that he would resign if the Senate did not give in. It did not give in, nor did the Governor resign. When the Republican State Convention met in the fall of 1859 to nominate State officers, there was serious opposition to the renomination of Governor Randall. A strong feeling of jealousy, if not positive dislike, had sprung up between Carl Schurz and the Governor, growing out of a suspicion on the part of Schurz that Randall did not set forth his qualifications for the office of Lieutenant Governor in his campaign speeches, as Schurz thought he might have done, and Randall entertained the belief that if Schurz had stayed in the State and looked after his own fences the whole Republican ticket might have been elected.
Mr. Schurz felt very sore over his defeat and allying himself with the disaffected portion of the Republican party he went industriously about getting support for the nomination for Gov- ernor himself in opposition to Randall. When the convention . assembled the circumstances that surrounded it were not favor- able to promote harmony and brotherly love in the Republican camp. Schurz had a very respectable following, especially among . his German-American fellow citizens, with whom he was abiays : a great favorite, and the late John P. McGregor was also in the field, backed by many resolute friends. Randall thought he was
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entitled to a renomination at the hands of the convention, and the opposition that was developed made him exceedingly angry. Gen. James H. Paine of Milwaukee, who never liked Randall, was a vigorous supporter of Mr. Schutz, and he led the Schurz forces on the floor of the convention with signal ability. The contest was a hot one. and when Randall was finally renominated he was in a very bad humor. In this frame of mind he appeared before the convention with the committee sent out to inform him of his nomination, and he made about the hottest speech ever listened to on a similar occasion. It was anything else than a speech of thanks for the honor conferred. He roundly abused the delegates who had opposed him, and the opinion was general, and openly expressed, even by those who had supported him, that if he had made it before his nomination, the nomination never would have been made at all. He pretended that he could not remember the names of all of his opponents, so obscure and unknown were they, and he alluded to Mr. McGregor, one of the prominent candidates for the nomination, as "the man from Portage city."
The Democratic candidate for Governor that year against Randall was Gen. Harrison C. Hobart, the representative of the younger men of his party, and a gentleman who had already taken an active part in the direction of its affairs. He had made an unsuccessful race for Congress against James Duane Doty in 1850, ran again in 1856 against Charles Billinghurst, and he had been a member of the State Senate and Speaker of the Assembly. At that time he was quite as well known to the people of the State as Randall. The two Central Committees soon arranged for joint debates between the heads of the tickets "on the political issues of the day," to be held at the principal cities of the State. Personally, the two intellectual gladiators were very evenly matched. both having had much experience in public affairs, and both being ready and logical debaters. General Hobart was heavily handicapped by the misdeeds of "Barstow and the Balance," the heavy defalcation of Edward H. Janssen. the last Democratic State Treasurer. and Barstow's unsuccessful contest for Governor. Added to this was the rising tide of anti-slavery (13)
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sentiment among the people of the North, and the settled con- viction that the national Democratic party was under the dictation and control of the slave oligarchy. Hobart himself had always been an anti-slavery man at heart and had quarreled with Sen- ator Isaac I'. Walker because he did not obey the instructions of the Legislature and vote for the Wilmot proviso prohibiting slavery in the territories. In the joint debate at Horicon, Randall pressed Hobart so hard on the subject of the misdeeds of the last Democratic State adminstration that the latter repudiated the whole business and refused to defend or apologize for any of Barstow's crookedness. Matters got so hot between the two dis- putants that the joint debates ended then and there, and each candidate held his own meetings after that date. As General Hobart had not only declined to have his party held responsible for Barstow's official mistakes, but had said some uncomplimentary. things himself of Barstow's administration, the ex-Governor and his ex-Secretary of State, Alexander T. Gray, came out in a card publicly denouncing General Hobart's course, and refusing to give him their support.
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