III
THEtime and the man had met. Although Mr. Tilden had not before held executive office, he was ripe and ready for the work. His experience in the pursuit and overthrow of the Tweed Ring in New York, the great metropolis, had prepared and fitted him to deal with the Canal Ring at Albany, the State Capital. Administrative Reform was now uppermost in the public mind, and here in the Empire State of the Union had come to the head of affairs a Chief Magistrate at once exact and exacting, deeply versed not only in legal lore but in a knowledge of the methods by which political power was being turned to private profit, and of the men—Democrats as well as Republicans—who were preying upon the substance of the people.
The story of the two years that followed relates to investigations that investigated, to prosecutions that convicted, to the overhauling of the civil fabric, to the rehabilitation of popular censorship, to reduced estimates and lower taxes.
The campaign for the presidential nomination began as early as the autumn of 1875. The Southern end of it was easy enough. A committee of Southerners residing in New York was formed. Never a leading Southern man came to town who was not “seen.” If of enough importance, he was taken to No. 15 Gramercy Park. Mr. Tilden measured to the Southern standard of the gentleman in politics. He impressed the disfranchised Southern leaders as a statesman of the old order and altogether after their own idea of what a President ought to be. The South came to St. Louis, the seat of the National Convention, represented by its foremost citizens and almost a unit for the Governor of New York. The main opposition sprang from Tammany Hall, of which John Kelly was then the Chief. Its very extravagance proved an advantage to Tilden. Two days before the meeting of the Convention I sent this message to Mr. Tilden: “Tell Blackstone [his favorite riding horse] that he wins in a walk.” The anti-Tilden men put up the Hon. S. S. (“Sunset”) Cox, for Temporary Chairman. It was a clever move. Mr. Cox, though sure for Tammany, was popular everywhere and especially at the South. His backers thought that with him they could count upon a majority of the National Committee.
The night before the assembling, Mr. Tilden’s two or three leading friends on the Committee came to me and said: “We can elect you Chairman over Cox, but no one else.” I demurred at once. “I don’t know one rule of parliamentary law from another,” I said. “We will have the best parliamentarian on the continent right by you all the time,” they said. “I can’t see to recognize a man on the floor of the convention,” I said. “We’ll have a dozen men to tell you,” they replied. So it was arranged, and thus at the last moment I was chosen.
I had barely time to write the required “key-note” speech, but not to commit it to memory, nor sight to read it, even had I been willing to adopt that mode of delivery. It would not do to trust to extemporization. A friend, Colonel Stoddard Johnston, who was familiar with my penmanship, came to the rescue. Concealing my manuscript behind his hat, he lined the words out to me between the cheering, I having mastered a few opening sentences.
From a photograph owned by F. H. MeserveTHOMAS F. BAYARDof DelawareFrom a photograph by BradyFRANCIS KERNANof New YorkFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellALLEN G. THURMANof OhioFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellJOSEPH E. MCDONALDof IndianaFrom a photograph by BradyJOHN W. STEVENSONof KentuckySENATORS OF THE DEMOCRATIC “ADVISORY COMMITTEE” IN THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST❏LARGER IMAGE
From a photograph owned by F. H. MeserveTHOMAS F. BAYARDof DelawareFrom a photograph by BradyFRANCIS KERNANof New YorkFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellALLEN G. THURMANof OhioFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellJOSEPH E. MCDONALDof IndianaFrom a photograph by BradyJOHN W. STEVENSONof Kentucky
From a photograph owned by F. H. MeserveTHOMAS F. BAYARDof DelawareFrom a photograph by BradyFRANCIS KERNANof New YorkFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellALLEN G. THURMANof OhioFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellJOSEPH E. MCDONALDof IndianaFrom a photograph by BradyJOHN W. STEVENSONof Kentucky
From a photograph owned by F. H. MeserveTHOMAS F. BAYARDof DelawareFrom a photograph by BradyFRANCIS KERNANof New York
From a photograph owned by F. H. Meserve
THOMAS F. BAYARDof Delaware
From a photograph by Brady
FRANCIS KERNANof New York
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellALLEN G. THURMANof Ohio
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
ALLEN G. THURMANof Ohio
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellJOSEPH E. MCDONALDof IndianaFrom a photograph by BradyJOHN W. STEVENSONof Kentucky
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
JOSEPH E. MCDONALDof Indiana
From a photograph by Brady
JOHN W. STEVENSONof Kentucky
SENATORS OF THE DEMOCRATIC “ADVISORY COMMITTEE” IN THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST
❏LARGER IMAGE
Luck was with me. It went with a bang—not, however, wholly withoutdetection. The Indianians, devoted to Hendricks, were very wroth. “See that fat man behind the hat telling him what to say,” said one to his neighbor, who answered, “Yes, and wrote it for him, too, I’ll be bound.”
One might as well attempt to drive six horses by proxy as preside over a National Convention by hearsay. I lost my parliamentarian at once. I just made my parliamentary law as we went. Never before nor since did any deliberative body proceed under manual so startling and original. But I delivered each ruling with a resonance—it were better called an impudence—which had an air of authority. There was a good deal of quiet laughter on the floor among the knowing ones, though I knew the mass was as ignorant as I was myself; but, realizing that I meant to be just and was expediting business, the Convention soon warmed to me, and, feeling this, I began to be perfectly at home. I never had a better day’s sport in all my life.
One incident was particularly amusing. Much against my will and over my protest, I was brought to promise that Miss Phœbe Couzins, who bore a Woman’s Rights Memorial, should at some opportune moment be given the floor to present it. I foresaw what a row it was bound to occasion. Toward noon, when there was a lull in the proceedings, I said with an emphasis meant to carry conviction, “Gentlemen of the Convention, Miss Phœbe Couzins, a representative of the Woman’s Association of America, has a Memorial from that body and, in the absence of other business, the chair will now recognize her.”
Instantly, and from every part of the hall, arose cries of “No!” These put some heart into me. Many a time as a school-boy I had proudly declaimed the passage from John Home’s tragedy, “My name is Norval.” Again I stood upon “the Grampian hills.” The Committee was escorting Miss Couzins down the aisle. When she came within the radius of my poor vision I saw that she was a beauty and dressed to kill! That was reassurance. Gaining a little time while the hall fairly rocked with its thunder of negation, I laid the gavel down and stepped to the edge of the platform and gave Miss Couzins my hand. As she appeared above the throng there was a momentary “Ah!” and then a lull broken by a single voice: “Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order.” Leading Miss Couzins to the front of the stage, I took up the gavel and gave a gentle rap, saying, “The gentleman will take his seat.”
“But, Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order,” he vociferated.
“The gentleman will take his seat instantly,” I answered in a tone of one about to throw the gavel at his head. “No point of order is in order when a lady has the floor.”
After that Miss Couzins received a positive ovation, and having delivered her message retired in a blaze of glory.
Mr. Tilden was nominated on the second ballot. The campaign that followed proved one of the most memorable in our history. When it came to an end the result showed on the face of the returns 196 in the Electoral College, 11 more than a majority, and in the popular vote 4,300,316, a majority of 264,300 over Hayes.
How this came to be first contested and then complicated so as ultimately to be set aside has been minutely related by its authors. The newspapers, both Republican and Democratic, of November 8, 1876, the morning after the election, conceded an overwhelming victory for Tilden and Hendricks. There was, however, a single exception. “The New York Times” had gone to press with its first edition, leaving the result in doubt but inclining toward the success of the Democrats. In its later editions this tentative attitude was changed to the statement that Mr. Hayes lacked the vote only of Florida—“claimed by the Republicans”—to be sure of the required 185 votes in the Electoral College.
The story of this surprising discrepancy between midnight and daylight reads like a chapter of fiction.
CONGRESSMEN OF THE DEMOCRATIC “ADVISORYCOMMITTEE” IN THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTESTFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellR. L. GIBSONof LouisianaFrom a photographWILLIAM S. HOLMANof IndianaFrom a photograph by SaronyHENRY WATTERSONof KentuckyFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellSAMUEL J. RANDALLof Pennsylvania (Speaker)From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellEPPA HUNTONof VirginiaFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellL. Q. C. LAMARof MississippiFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellHENRY B. PAYNEof Ohio❏LARGER IMAGE
CONGRESSMEN OF THE DEMOCRATIC “ADVISORYCOMMITTEE” IN THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellR. L. GIBSONof LouisianaFrom a photographWILLIAM S. HOLMANof IndianaFrom a photograph by SaronyHENRY WATTERSONof KentuckyFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellSAMUEL J. RANDALLof Pennsylvania (Speaker)From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellEPPA HUNTONof VirginiaFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellL. Q. C. LAMARof MississippiFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellHENRY B. PAYNEof Ohio
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellR. L. GIBSONof LouisianaFrom a photographWILLIAM S. HOLMANof IndianaFrom a photograph by SaronyHENRY WATTERSONof KentuckyFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellSAMUEL J. RANDALLof Pennsylvania (Speaker)From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellEPPA HUNTONof VirginiaFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellL. Q. C. LAMARof MississippiFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellHENRY B. PAYNEof Ohio
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellR. L. GIBSONof LouisianaFrom a photographWILLIAM S. HOLMANof Indiana
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
R. L. GIBSONof Louisiana
From a photograph
WILLIAM S. HOLMANof Indiana
From a photograph by SaronyHENRY WATTERSONof KentuckyFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellSAMUEL J. RANDALLof Pennsylvania (Speaker)From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellEPPA HUNTONof Virginia
From a photograph by Sarony
HENRY WATTERSONof Kentucky
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
SAMUEL J. RANDALLof Pennsylvania (Speaker)
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
EPPA HUNTONof Virginia
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellL. Q. C. LAMARof MississippiFrom a photograph, copyright by C. M. BellHENRY B. PAYNEof Ohio
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
L. Q. C. LAMARof Mississippi
From a photograph, copyright by C. M. Bell
HENRY B. PAYNEof Ohio
❏LARGER IMAGE
After the early edition of the “Times” had gone to press certain members of the editorial staff were at supper, very much cast down by the returns, when a messenger brought a telegram from Senator Barnum of Connecticut, financial head of the Democratic National Committee, asking for the “Times’s” latest news from Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina. But for that unlucky telegramTilden would probably have been inaugurated President of the United States.
FIRE AND WATER MAKE VAPOR.WHAT A COOLING OFF WILL BE THERE, MY COUNTRYMEN!From “Harper’s Weekly” of February 3, 1877THOMAS NAST’S CARTOON ON COLONEL WATTERSON’SSUGGESTION OF A GATHERING OF ONE HUNDREDTHOUSAND DEMOCRATS IN WASHINGTONThe ice-water is being applied by Murat Halstead, editor of theCincinnati “Commercial,” which was opposed to Tilden; but inthe Greeley campaign of 1872 Halstead had worked with Watterson.(See THECENTURYfor November, 1912.)
FIRE AND WATER MAKE VAPOR.WHAT A COOLING OFF WILL BE THERE, MY COUNTRYMEN!
From “Harper’s Weekly” of February 3, 1877
THOMAS NAST’S CARTOON ON COLONEL WATTERSON’SSUGGESTION OF A GATHERING OF ONE HUNDREDTHOUSAND DEMOCRATS IN WASHINGTON
The ice-water is being applied by Murat Halstead, editor of theCincinnati “Commercial,” which was opposed to Tilden; but inthe Greeley campaign of 1872 Halstead had worked with Watterson.(See THECENTURYfor November, 1912.)
The “Times” people, intense Republican partizans, at once saw an opportunity. If Barnum did not know, why might not a doubt be raised? At once the editorial in the first edition was revised to take a decisive tone and declare the election of Hayes. One of the editorial council, Mr. John C. Reid, hurried to RepublicanHeadquarters in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, which he found deserted, the triumph of Tilden having long before sent everybody to bed. Mr. Reid then sought the room of Senator Zachariah Chandler, Chairman of the National Republican Committee. While upon this errand he encountered in the hotel corridor “a small man wearing an enormous pair of goggles, his hat drawn over his ears, a greatcoat with a heavy military cloak, and carrying a gripsack and newspaper in his hand. The newspaper was the ‘New-York Tribune,’” announcing the election of Tilden and the defeat of Hayes. The new-comer was Mr. William E. Chandler, even then a very prominent Republican politician, just arrived from New Hampshire and very much exasperated by what he had read.
Mr. Reid had another tale to tell. The two found Mr. Zachariah Chandler, who bade them leave him alone and do whatever they thought best. They did so consumingly, sending telegrams to Columbia, Tallahassee, and New Orleans, stating to each of the parties addressed that the result of the election depended upon his State. To these were appended the signature of Zachariah Chandler. Later in the day Senator Chandler, advised of what had been set on foot and its possibilities, issued from National Republican Headquarters this laconic message: “Hayes has 185 electoral votes and is elected.” Thus began and was put in motion the scheme to confuse the returns and make a disputed count of the vote.