“In the settlement of these questions the Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of glorious existence, and it has sent us here to prepare it for another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we do this great work? We can not do it, my friends, by assailing our Republicanbrethren. God forbid that I should say one word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of our heroes. This coming fight is our Thermopylæ. We are standing upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united we can withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can bring against us.
“Let us hold our ground this one year, for the stars in their courses fight for us in the future. The census to be taken this year will bring reinforcements and continued power. But, in order to win this victory now, we want the vote of every Republican, of every Grant Republican in America, of every Blaine man and every anti-Blaine man. The vote of every follower of every candidate is needed to make our success certain; therefore I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are here to calmly counsel together, and inquire what we shall do. [A voice: ‘Nominate Garfield.’—Great applause.]
“We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, standing on a mountain height, sees all the achievements of our past history, and carries in his heart the memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want one who will act in no spirit of unkindness toward those we lately met in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of the South the olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return to brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that it shall be admitted, forever and for evermore, that, in the war for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and no other. We ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of this great Republic.
“Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a name for your consideration—the name of a man who was the comrade, and associate, and friend of nearly all those noble dead whose faces look down upon us from these walls to-night; a man who began his career of public service twenty-five years ago, whose first duty was courageously done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when the first red drops of that bloody shower began to fall which finally swelled into the deluge of war. He bravely stood by young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the national legislature, through all subsequent time his pathway has been marked by labors performed in every department of legislation.
“You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty-five years of thenational statutes. Not one great beneficent statute has been placed on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided these men to formulate the laws that raised our great armies and carried us through the war. His hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that restored and brought back the unity and married calm of the States. His hand was in all that great legislation that created the war currency, and in a greater work that redeemed the promises of the Government, and made the currency equal to gold. And when, at last, called from the halls of legislation into a high executive office, he displayed that experience, intelligence, firmness, and poise of character which has carried us through a stormy period of three years. With one-half the public press crying ‘Crucify him!’ and a hostile Congress seeking to prevent success—in all this he remained unmoved until victory crowned him.
“The great fiscal affairs of the nation and the great business interests of the country he has guarded and preserved, while executing the law of resumption and effecting its object without a jar, and against the false prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of this continent. He has shown himself able to meet with calmness the great emergencies of the Government for twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous heights of public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of ‘that fierce light that beats against the throne,’ but its fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain on his shield.
“I do not present him as a better Republican, or as a better man than thousands of others we honor, but I present him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate John Sherman, of Ohio.”
The addresses of Conkling and Garfield are given here, that the reader may contrast these two great leaders at their best. Garfield’s speech made a profound impression, not only on the Convention, but on the country,—and strengthened the already powerful sentiment in favor of making himself the nominee.
Edmunds and Washburne were the only other nominations proposed. They, with Sherman, were minor candidates, whose only hope lay in the enmity of the Grant and Blaine factions, whose evenly-balanced powers would prevent the success of either.
At twelve o’clock the Convention adjourned over till Monday,—butnot for a Sabbath of repose! On Sunday very few of the delegates found time for church, but devoted the day to mustering forces, polishing arms, and a general preparation for the battle of the ballots on Monday. Of the group of great men who led these hosts of enthusiasts, Garfield was one of the very, very few, who attended religious worship. Bound by the good habit of Sabbath observance, he went his solitary way to a little congregation of Disciples, where the tumult and turmoil of the time was smoothed away in peaceful contemplation of the eternal.
A bright, cool, and delightful morning made the Convention open pleasantly on Monday, and at half-past ten the Hall was filled with an immense crowd, made up largely of ladies, come to see the climax of this great battle, and to be in at the finish. The Blaine men were confident. Grant’s followers were not so confident, but still determined. All were hopeful, as the uncertain always may possibly favor us, and most men believe in the luck of their own stars.
On motion, when called to order, the roll of States was called for the first ballot, which appears in full on the opposite page.
After this vote it became evident that there would be no immediate choice, and with a long breath of resignation to its fate, the multitude settled down to a prospectively long siege. There were twenty-eight successive ballots taken, when the day’s work ended, and still no choice.
On Tuesday, June 8, the sixth and last day of the Convention, the great work of nomination was completed. “It was done, and well done.” We give the work of the day somewhat in detail:
On the twenty-ninth ballot Sherman’s vote suddenly went up from 91 on the previous ballot to 116. This resulted from a change in Massachusetts, which broke for him to the extent of twenty-one votes. On the thirtieth he reached his best vote, 120, and then steadily sank to 99 on the thirty-fifth ballot.
Finally that wonderful Grant column of three hundred and five, which had stood so nobly by their great candidate for many hours, began to gain. Pennsylvania gave him an increase, and on the thirty-fourth ballot he had 312 votes. It then became evident that the anti-Grant factions must combine at once, or be beaten.