USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 19
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The ratification of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States was effected on behalf of the people of Wisconsin by a joint resolution, adopted in the legislature on the 3d of March, 1869, by a vote of one hundred and two to twenty-nine.
CHAPTER XIX.
POLITICAL CHANGES OF A HISTORIC DECADE.
BY JOHN G. GREGORY.
T' HE congressional nominee of the Demo- crats in 1862 was James S. Brown. The Republicans nominated John F. Potter. A number of war Democrats had invited Matt H. Carpenter to run independently, but he declined. Brown had been mayor of Mil- waukee and was personally very popular in the city. Fifty prominent citizens signed a letter of inquiry publicly addressed to him, and calling for direct answers to the follow- ing questions : " Will you, if elected, warmly, strongly, and without reserve, urge every measure calculated to put a speedy termination to the rebellion ? Will you support all war measures of the government, the object of which shall be to suppress the rebellion and maintain the union, the constitution and the laws, and to bring to justice and punishment the traitors who have borne arms against the government ?" Mr. Brown published an answer citing his speeches as evi- dence of his principles, and concluding: "To both of your questions, my answer is unhesitatingly 'Yes.' No other answer could be given consis- tently with the resolutions of the convention which nominated me."
These pledges secured Mr. Brown some Re- publican support, and he was elected. His major- ity in the city of Milwaukee was three thousand two hundred and sixteen. There were Democratie majorities in every ward, ranging from one hun- dred and six in the Fourth to six hundred and ninety-three in the Ninth. The whole Milwaukee delegation to the Legislature this year was Demo- cratic.
In 1863 the Republican, or Union party, made heavy gains. The success of the Union arms gave the government more prestige than it had enjoyed during the dark days of 1862. On Au- gust 20th, a meeting of leading Democrats from all parts of the state, the object of which was to lend support to the government, was held at the Newhall House. The Milwaukee signers of the
call for this meeting were Matt H. Carpenter and Judge Arthur MeArthur. The Democratic state tieket was headed by a Milwaukee man, H. L. Palmer. His Republican opponent was James T. Lewis, of Columbus, who had been a Democrat before the war. Palmer's majority in the city was only one thousand six hundred and twelve, and the Union party elected three out of six assemblymen. One of the Union assemblymen who was elected was Judge Levi Hubbell, who ran against Moses Kneeland in the district com- posed of the First and Seventh wards.
In the campaign of 1864 the success or failure of the war continued to be the overshadowing issue. John W. Cary was the Democratic nomi- nee for Congress, the Republicans running General Halbert E. Paine. Cary carried Milwaukee county by three thousand six hundred and ninety- three, and his apparent majority in the home vote of the district was six hundred and sixteen; but the returns from the regiments in the field decided the contest in favor of General Paine. Only two wards-the Fifth and the Seventh-gave majori- ties for Lincoln. In the Second ward Lincoln re- ceived one-hundred and sixty-eight and Mcclellan seven hundred and eight votes. The city's majority for McClellan was two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine.
In 1865 the candidates for governor were Gen- eral Lucius Fairchild, on the Republican ticket, and General Harrison C. Hobart, on the Demo- cratic ticket. General Hobart's, vote in the city was three thousand eight hundred and ten, against one thousand nine hundred and twenty- two for Fairchild.
In 1866 the Republicans renominated General Paine for Congress, while the Democrats made James S. Brown their candidate. It was an off- year for the Democrats, their majority in the city being cut down to four hundred and six.
In 1867, when General Fairchild ran against J. J. Tallmadge of Milwaukee for governor,
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POLITICAL CHANGES OF A HISTORIC DECADE.
Milwaukee gave Tallmadge a majority of two thousand seven hundred and four.
In 1868 the Democrats brought out another of their strong men to run against General Paine for Congress-Alexander Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell was defeated in the district by a small majority, but in Milwaukee county his vote was nine thou- sand three hundred and eighty-five, while that of Paine was only five thousand seven hundred and eighty-five. On the presidential ticket the city gave a Democratic majority of one thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven, Seymour's vote being six thousand nine hundred and seventy-two and Grant's five thousand and five. This was the year when the Republicans of the state selected a Milwaukeean to represent Wisconsin in the United States Senate. Rock county, in the person of Charles G. Williams, made the nomination, the original suggestion having been made by A. M. Thomson of Janesville, then speaker of the as- sembly, afterward editor of the Milwaukee Sen- tinel. In his eloquent speech before the Repub- lican legislative caucus, Mr. Williaims said : "It seems to me the hour of destiny approaches; that one of those grand opportunities offered to a state but once in a century is upon us. Massa- chusetts named her Webster, Kentucky her Clay, Missouri her Benton and her Schurz, Illinois her Douglas, her Lincoln and her Grant. Shall we name our Carpenter?" Carpenter's election by the legislature, on the first ballot, without a single dissenting Republican vote, and the wild enthusi- asm which it aroused all over the state, as well as in Milwaukee, are vividly remembered by all who took part in politics at that time.
Senator Carpenter came home and rendered the Wisconsin Republicans powerful service on the stump in the gubernatorial campaigns of 1869 and 1871, and the congressional campaigns of 1870 and 1872. In the latter year he did not confine his political speech-making to Wisconsin, but in Illi- nois and several other states made a strong pre- sentation of the claims of General Grant for re- election, and effectively attacked the claims which were made on behalf of the combination of Lib- eral Republicans and Democrats which supported Greeley. In 1873, when Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn was renominated and ran against William R. Taylor, Senator Carpenter took no part in the Republican canvass. In 1874 he made a number of speeches explaining his course in the
senate. When the legislature met in January, 1874, Senator Carpenter was the choice of two- thirds of the Republican members for re-election. But ex-Governor Washburn, who was a candidate for the senatorship, succeeded in getting his sup- porters to stay out of the Republican caucus, which nominated Carpenter. When the vote was taken in the legislature, Carpenter received fifty-nine votes on joint ballot. One of the members who had voted for Carpenter in caucus was absent. The remaining votes were scattered between C. C. Washburn, E. S. Bragg, Horace Rublee, Orsa- mus Cole, J. T. Lewis and Harlow S. Orton. For ten days a dead-lock prevailed, at the end of which time the Democrats, combining with the sixteen Republican bolters, cast sixty-eight ballots for Angus Cameron of La Crosse. This was one more than a majority, and elected Cameron. Mr. Cam- eron was a Republican, and generally acted with the Republicans during his six years in the senate.
On his return to Milwaukee from the scene of his defeat, Senator Carpenter was met at the de- pot by a multitude of his faithful friends, who had stood in a blinding snow-storm awaiting his de- layed train for more than an hour. The people cheered themselves hoarse in eagerness to do honor to their hero. They detached the horses from the sleigh, which was in waiting to convey him, and with a rope a thousand feet long tied to the vehicle dragged it through the streets, first to the Newhall House, and then to his home on Van Buren street. It was a popular ovation such as no citizen of Wisconsin had ever before re- ceived, and served to place in a strong light the fact that that legislature had not done the will of the people. In the gubernatorial campaign of 1875, Mr. Carpenter made several speeches for Harrison Ludington. He was active in the Hayes campaign in Wisconsin and other states. In August, 1878, several thousand citizens of Mil- waukee signed a call asking Mr. Carpenter to be- come a candidate for the seat in the United States Senate, held at that time by Timothy O. Howe, whose term would expire on the 4th of the fol- lowing March. He accepted the invitation. During the campaign of the fall of that year Mr. Carpenter made strenuous exertions in Milwaukee in behalf of the Republican ticket, speaking in every ward in the city. In 1877 Milwaukee had sent to the legislature a delegation consisting of nine Democrats, one Greenbacker, one Socialist and
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
only three Republicans. At the conclusion of the Carpenter campaign she elected a legislative dele- gation consisting of four Democrats and ten Re- publicans. These ten senators and assemblymen elect sent ont a card to Republican members elect of the legislature in the other districts throughout the state, declaring themselves for Carpenter for the United States Senate, and asking for co-opera- tion. When the legislature convened, it contained eighty-eight Republicans, twenty-five of whom were for Carpenter. The Republican caucus to nominate a United States Senator met at Madison on Thursday, January 17, 1879. The first formal ballot stood as follows: E. W. Keyes, twenty- eight ; Timothy O. Howe, twenty-five; Matt H. Carpenter, twenty-four; Philetus Sawyer, five ; Horace Rublee, five; John H. Tweedy, one. On the next ballot Carpenter received twenty- six votes. The caucus met daily. Late Saturday night, the highest vote which Carpenter had re-
ceived was twenty-eight. Before adjourning over Sunday, the Carpenter supporters, who have since been famous in the political history of the state as the "solid twenty-five," made an agreement that they would vote for no one but "Matt." On Monday the vote for Carpenter fluctuated be- tween twenty-six and twenty-nine. On Tuesday, on the nineteenth ballot, it mounted to thirty- five. Five more ballots were taken, and Carpen- ter held his own. Then the opposition forced an adjournment. The next morning Senator George B. Burrows of Madison, the leader of the Keyes forces, announced the withdrawal of Keyes, and moved that Carpenter be nominated by acclama- tion. Assemblyman David M. Kelly of Green Bay, withdrew the name of Senator Howe, and Carpenter was nominated without a dissenting vote. The most stubbornly contested political battle in the history of Wisconsin had been fought and won.
CHAPTER XX.
ASCENDANCY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
BY JOHN G. GREGORY.
F ROM the time of Wisconsin's admission to statehood until the fall election of 1880, the city of Milwaukee never failed to give a majority for the presidential electors on the Demo- cratic ticket. At presidential elections since that time she has twice given the Democrats a plurality of less than one thousand votes, and twice given a plurality of nearly three thousand in favor of the Republicans. It will be interesting to examine some of the circumstances which brought about this change.
The success of the war gained many votes for the Republican party in Milwaukee. This was in- dicated by the difference in the support which was accorded to James S. Brown as Democratic candidate for Congress in 1862 and in 1866. In the former year he was elected, and his majority in the city was upward of three thousand. Two years later the majority for the Democratic presi- dential ticket in the city was two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine. But in 1866, when Brown ran the second time for Congress, he was defeated in the district, and his majority in the city was only four hundred and six. The building up of the Milwaukee Herold, in the years immediately after the war, under the management of W. W. Coleman and the able editorship of Bernhard Domschke, resulted in the effective presentation of Republican doctrine to German-American voters. Since then the Herold has been ably reinforced by the Germania and the Abend-Post. The prestige of Carpenter's election to the senate was highly advantageons to the Republican party in the city. In 1872 Carl Schurz made a speech in Milwaukee in favor of Greeley, and a few prominent German- Americans followed his lead into the Democratic party. This was only a trifling matter, but a serious attack occurred in 1873. The chief engi- neers of the Taylor campaign were Milwaukee men, and the strong feeling against the Graham liquor law which had been passed by the Republican legislature, combined with the feeling against the
railroads to greatly help the Democrats. In the whole city only a single precinct-the second pre- cinct of the Fourth ward-gave a majority for Washburn, the Republican candidate for governor, and that was only a majority of fifteen. In the Second ward therej were sixty-eight ballots cast for the Republicans and one thousand three hundred and ninety-four for the Democrats. The vote in the city was two thousand two hundred and sev- enty-five for Washburn, and eight thousand six hundred and twenty-eight for Taylor, Taylor's majority being six thousand three hundred and fif- ty-three. Harrison Ludington's immense personal popularity contributed greatly toward strengthen- ing the rebound which occurred two years later, when the city's vote on the governorship was five thousand eight hundred and sixteen for Taylor, and five thousand and eighty six for Ludington. Mr. Ludington, was a man of large fortune, made by his own exertions, and possessed great force of character. His outspoken, hearty manner had gained him the sobriquet of "Bluff Old Hal." Thrice, in 1871, in 1873 and in the spring of 1875 -- he had run for the office of mayor of Milwaukee, and though he was a Republican and the city was strongly Democratic, every time he had been elected. If the Republicans had been governed entirely by precedent, they might have considered it an ill-omened thing to nominate a mayor of Milwaukee for the governorship of the state ; the Democrats had tried it in 1851 with Upham, in 1857 with Cross, and in 1867 with Tallmadge, but had always encountered failure. But Ludington made a new precedent, which set the others at defiance. He was elected over Taylor, though the remainder of the Republican state ticket was defeated.
In 1876 the Republicans gained another decided advantage. Much dissatisfaction had been found with the Democratic incumbent of the office of clerk of the courts, on account of his seeming in- disposition to turn into the public treasury certain
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
fees of his office, which it was declared were not rightfully retainable by him as perquisites. There was also popular exasperation over the loose system of computing the per diem compensation of deputy sheriffs and over other matters con- nected with the sheriff's office. It was formally reported by a committee of the Board of Super- visors that the Democratic sheriff had been collect- ing bills for seven hundred and twenty days' service per annum, and that his deputies had been doing the same thing. One deputy had been ab- sent two months in the old country, but had, nevertheless, put in bills for seven hundred and twenty days' pay in the same year in which he made his trip. The Republicans went before the people on the issue of making the sheriff's compen- sation a stated salary instead of fees, and paying stated salaries to his deputies. They furthermore laid stress on the unsatisfactory administration of the office of clerk of the courts. The popularity of their course was demonstrated by the election of the Republican candidates for sheriff and clerk of the courts .- Caspar M. Sanger and Julius Wechselberg. The Republicans also elected a state senator and five assemblymen.
Meantime another issue, that subsequently re- dounded to the advantage of the Republican party, was slowly taking form-the issue between the specie resumptionists and the friends of fiat money. In the beginning the cleavage created by differences on the financial question did not take place along party lines. The Democrats, it is true, had in 1868 supported candidates for the presi- dency and vice-presidency standing on a platform which called for the payment of the national debt in greenbacks. But in 1874 the Democratic representative in Congress from the Milwaukee district-Alexander Mitchell-had made upon the floor of the house one of the most noteworthy of all the strong arguments which were offered against the proposition to add to the volume of paper currency-a proposition, by the way, which at first found favor with a Republican Congress, but which was wisely vetoed by President Grant. When, in the last effort to defeat re- sumption, a Greenback club was formed in Mil. waukee, Republicans as well as Democrats were among those who signed their names to its list of members. An honest-money league was organ- ized to counteract the effect of the Greenback club.
In 1877 there were three candidates for the governorship, all Milwaukee men. The Sherman resumption act, passed in 1875, was to be carried into effect on the 1st of January, 1879. Doubts and fears were rife as to the influence which ad- herence to this policy would exert upon the busi- ness of the country. The financial issue was supreme, notwithstanding its impertinency in a campaign having for its object the election of state officers. The candidate of the newly organ- ized Greenback party was Edward P. Allis, a for- mer Republican. The Democrats placed at the head of their ticket the name of Judge James A. Mal- lory. The platform upon which he was nominated declared hostility to the financial policy of the Republican party as announced in its national plat_ form of the preceding year. It averred that the Republican party was increasing the burden of the public debt by "declaring currency bonds paya- ble in gold, demonetizing silver in the interest of the creditor at the expense of the debtor, and at- tempting to force resumption when it will bring ruin upon the general business interests of the country." It proposed "that silver be remone- tized, and the present resumption act be repealed, and resumption postponed until the condition of the country will permit it." The financial plank of the platform adopted by the Republican state convention was regarded by many Republicans in Milwaukee as insufficient. It set forth that :
" We rejoice that the fidelity of the Republican party in upholding the national credit has brought our currency so near the point of resumption of specie payment. We hold that the silver dollar should be restored to its former place as money, and made legal tender for the payment of debts, ex- cept where otherwise distinctly provided by law, with coin- age so regulated as to maintain equality of value, and preserve the harmonious circulation of gold, silver and legal tender notes as money."
A mass meeting of Republicans was held in Mil- waukee, at which Governor Ludington presided, while the candidates on the state ticket were pres- ent. It endorsed the Republican nominees and adopted a series of strong resolutions on the politi- cal issues of the day. The one referring to the money question was especially clear-cut and vig- orous, denouncing as "dangerous, delusive and dis- reputable," all schemes and devices affecting the financial policy of the government that do not contemplate the honest payment of the public debt, and the speedy attainment of a currency on a gold basis."
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ASCENDANCY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The people of Milwaukee cast four thousand eight hundred and sixteen votes for William E. Smith, Republican candidate for governor, five thousand and twenty-seven for Mallory, and one thousand and fifty for Allis. Smith's vote in the state was seventy-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, while the vote for Mallory was seventy thousand four hundred and eighty-six, and for Allis twenty-six thousand two hundred and sixteen.
The more the financial question was argued, the stronger became the Republicans. The discussions greatly helped the candidacy of L. F. Frisby against P. V. Deuster, in 1878, though Deuster was not a " soft money " man. The vote of the city on congressman, was : Frisby, Republican, six thousand nine hundred and thirty-five; Deuster, Democrat, five thousand seven hundred and twenty- nine; Judd, Greenbacker, eight hundred and twenty-three. Deuster scraped in by a plurality of one hundred and thirty-five in the district, Ozaukee and Washington counties helping him to offset and overcome the plurality against him in Milwaukee county.
In 1880 the Republican candidate for Congress against Mr. Deuster was Casper M. Sanger, who was defeated, while almost every other man on the republican ticket was elected. The county gave a majority for Garfield over Hancock of three thousand and ninety-one, and elected Repub- licans to all the county offices, besides choosing for the legislature a solid Republican delegation, with one exception, that of assemblyman from the Third ward. The plurality for Garfield in the city was two thousand nine hundred and fifty- four, while Weaver, the Greenback candidate re- ceived only fifty-four votes. In 1881 the city gave Rusk, as Republican candidate for governor, a plurality of nine hundred and ninety-eight over Fratt, the candidate of the Democrats.
The year 1882 was remarkable for the first appearance in Milwaukee of the Labor party as a controlling element in politics. Previous to the spring election of that year, the trades assembly, an organization composed of delegations from the various labor unions of the city, put in nomina- tion candidates for all the city offices as follows : For mayor, John M. Stowell; for comptroller, Henry Smith; for city treasurer, August Kieck- hefer; for city attorney, P. J. Somers. It was known that two of these gentlemen-Stowell and
Somers-were Democrats, while it was generally supposed that the two others were Republicans. The Democratic City Convention endorsed all but Kieckhefer, and in his place nominated Mr. Stamm. The Republicans ignored the Labor party nomi- nees, and chose as their candidates Harrison Lud- ington for mayor, George Paschen for comptrol- ler, A. B. Geilfuss for city treasurer, and J. R. Brigham for city attorney. Two opposing can- didates divided the opposition to Mr. Geilfuss, and he was elected, but the other Republican can- didates were defeated. The majority for Stowell was two thousand three hundred and twenty-six. In the fall of the same year Henry B. Goodwin, running as the Labor candidate for congress,against General F. C. Winkler, Republican, and P. V. Deuster, Democrat, received in all Milwaukee county only one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two votes. Deuster received nine thou- sand, six hundred and eighty-eight votes in the county, his plurality over Winkler being one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight.
In 1884, the city gave a plurality of nearly two thousand for General Rusk, the Republican candi- date for governor. I. W. Van Schaick, Republican, was elected to Congress, defeating P. V. Deuster, and the Republicans carried in all the candidates on their county ticket; yet the city and the county gave small pluralties in favor of Grover Cleveland for president, and against James G. Blaine. Mr. Blaine had visited Milwaukee during the canvass, and had been given a rousing recep- tion. General B. F. Butler, who ran for the presidency on the Labor ticket that year, also made a campaign speech in Milwaukee, but received only eight hundred and sixty-seven votes. The melting away of the political force that placed the Stowell ticket in nomination had been as swift as its generation. But after the May disturbances of 1886, the Labor party once more nominated a successful ticket, sweeping the county by pluralities of from one thousand to two thousand five hundred, and electing a congressman, sheriff, clerk of the courts, district attorney, county treasurer, county clerk, surveyor and register of deeds. The congressman was Henry Smith, who received three thousand seven hundred and ten more votes than the Repub- lican candidate, Thomas H. Brown, and five thousand one hundred and twenty-two more votes than the Democratic candidate, John Black. The Labor party at this election also carried in one
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
State Senator and six members of the Assembly. It polled in Milwaukee county twelve thousand nine hundred and fourteen votes for Cochrane, its candidate for governor, while Rusk, the Republican candidate, received ten thousand nine hundred and thirty-six votes, and Woodward, the Democratic candidate, seven thousand four hundred and seventy-two. The following spring there was a judicial election, the candidates of the Labor party, Messrs. N. S. Murphey and Peter Rupp, being opposed by D. H. Johnson and George H. Noyes, nominated by a fusion of Democrats and Republi- eans. The Labor candidates ran ahead about one thousand five hundred votes in the city but the heavy vote for the fusionists in the towns more than counterbalanced this, and carried in the fusion candidates by majorities of one thousand five hundred. The vote at this election was nnusually light. In the spring of 1888 the Labor party nominated a city ticket with Herman Kroeger for mayor, which was confronted by a citizens' ticket headed by Thomas H. Brown, made up of Repub- licans and Democrats, and supported by a fusion of the two old parties. The fusion ticket was elected by two thousand majority.
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