The Republic, Or, A History of the United States of America in the Administrations

CHAPTER XVIII.

PARTY CONVENTIONS-NOMINATIONS AND PLATFORMSPRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1868-GENERAL GRANTLAST ANNUAL MESSAGE-CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIVE - THE PRESIDENT'S PLAN - THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

FRO

ROM "The Cincinnati Enquirer," June 20, 1880, is taken the following readable account of the nominating conventions of 1868:

"The Tenth National Democratic Convention met in the city of New York on the 5th of July, at Tammany Hall, on Fourteenth Street. August Belmont called the convention to order, nominating Henry S. Palmer, of Wisconsin, for temporary chairman. Committees on Resolutions, Credentials, and Organization were appointed. Hon. Horatio Seymour was chosen permanent president; and, on report of Mr. Hiester Clymer, of Pennsylvania, a secretary and vice-presidents were appointed, one from each State. Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, offered a resolution that the delegates in the convention proceed to ballot for President, to which Stilson Hutchins, of 'The St. Louis Times,' the bold, bad man who wrote the virtuous Samuel T. Glover that he would elect him to the United States Senate if he would give him $10,000, added an amendment that no steps be taken toward the nomination of a candidate until after the platform shall have been presented. The ⚫amendment was adopted by 189 to 89. Next came a reception of a delegation from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention, armed with a long memorial. Sergeant Bates carried the flag. Then came the soldiers, Generals Franklin, Slocum, Granger, Kilby Smith, Denver and Tom Ewing, Jun., and the sailors,

who were probaly half-seas over, as none appeared. General Ewing made a lively speech, though cautious, for it was not then known whether the Democratic party would accept Chase and negro suffrage or not. Susan B. Anthony addressed a letter to the convention, pleading for the enfranchisement of women the same justice to fifteen million white women that had been accorded to two million black men.

"Many were the men of prominence who attended the convention that nominated Seymour and Blair. South Carolina sent General Wade Hampton, the well-known leader of the Hampton Legion, a brigade of cavalry styled the 'Black Horse,' organized exclusively from the Palmetto State, the first rebel to acknowledge the right of a freedman to speak on the stage in public, and did actually, in 1865, deliver an eloquent address in continuation of remarks made by a dusky orator, formerly a chattel, who spoke from the same platform, to a mixed audience of whites and blacks; Ex-Senator James Chestnut, an original secessionist, who resigned his seat November 10, 1860, on the same day that the South Carolina Legislature authorized the banks to suspend specie payment, and appointed November 21st as a day of prayer; A. P. Aldrich, who, while a member of the South Carolina Legislature in 1860, offered a resolution to expel all free colored men from the State, and who first suggested the idea of holding a convention in his State in reference to secession; Congressman R. B. Rhett; and G. D. Trenholm, rebel Secretary of the Treasury. Alabama sent two ex-governors, Lewis Parsons and John A. Winston; C. C. Langdon, editor and proprietor of The Mobile Advertiser.' From Arkansas came General A. H. Garland and J. S. Dunham. Connecticut sent W. W. Eaton, afterward United States Senator; and from California came Ex-Governor John Bigler, a staunch Democrat, and a brother to that other ex-governor of the same name from Pennsylvania. Hon. James A. Bayard headed, as usual, the delegation from little Delaware. Florida sent Major W. G. Poole and Major W. W. Van Ness, formerly of the rebel army. Benj. H. Hill, who was said to have killed Yancey during a quarrel in the halls of the Confederate Congress, and General John B. Gordon, afterward United States Senator,

came from Georgia. General Wm. H. Richardson, a military hero, came from Illinois. The eloquent Dan W. Voorhees, the Tall Sycamore of the Wabash, and Hon. W. E. Niblack, both favorites with the Hoosier Democracy, came from Indiana. Kentucky sent B. F. Buckner, a near relative of General S. B. Buckner, who surrendered Fort Donelson. Missouri sent General Thomas L. Price, of Jefferson City, one of the best officers in the western department of the rebel army, and brother to old 'Pappy,' or Sterling Price, as his devoted soldiers called him. New York sent an array of Democratic talent. Foremost was Horatio Seymour, against whose fair name no blur was ever found; Samuel J. Tilden, who wrote a famous letter in October, 1860; Sandford E. Church, called the Perpetual Candidate;' George W. McLean and Henry C. Murphy; the once notorious George Law, and Erastus Brooks, of 'The New York Express,' whom the Credit Mobilier scandal killed; Justice Dowling, of the Tombs; Boss Tweed; Hon. John Morrissey, of pugilistic credit and renown; A. Oakey Hall, once mayor of New York, promoted to be city editor of The New York World;' Judge Cardozo, and the unfortunate Peter B. Sweeney, and John A. Green, of 'The Interior,' who once at a State Democratic Convention made a motion that the convention sing the hymn:

'Great God! and are we yet alive,

And do we yet rebel?

"Tis wondrous, 't is amazing grace,
That we are out of hell.'

"Ohio sent Wash McLean, Esq., and General George W. McCook. North Carolina sent Ex-Governor Zebulon B. Vance, and Ex-General John W. Hoke, and M. W. Ransom. Pennsylvania was worthily represented in Samuel J. Randall, the warlike; Asa Packer, the modest Ex-Governor; William Bigler, the weighty but unassuming leader of the Democracy in days gone by; Judge George W. Woodward, who would have governed the Keystone State but for McClellan's indiscreet partisanship; William F. Packer, another Ex-Governor; Jerry Black, once Attorney-General of the United States; Alderman Bill McMullen, once a soldier of fortune in Mexico, commander of Patterson's body-guard at the time when John

son's re-enforcements were allowed to slip by and gain the battle of Bull Run, referee in sundry cuffs between man and man, when striking arguments brought blood and money, and possible, at least then talked-of, umpire in the friendly encounter that was never to be between the doughty Benicia Boy, one of the few survivors of King Faro's hosts, and Michael McCool, Esq., the big lubber of St. Louis. Tennessee sent General N. B. Forrest, immortalized by Fort Pillow; and Ed Cooper, Johnson's private secretary. The Old Dominion, the mother of statesmen, and birthplace of Presidents, sent United States Representative Bocock, late of the Confederate army and Congress; J. R. Tucker, a relative of the noted Beverly Tucker; and Robert Ould, formerly Commissioner of Exchange on behalf of the rebel government. Massachusetts sent delegates from the Hub and neighboring hamlets; Judge Abbott, a Superior Court Judge from 1855 to 1858. West Virginia, the offspring of the political rape of the Old Dominion, sent Henry S. Walker, an eloquent editor from the Kanawha; I. N. Camden, of the Standard Oil monopoly, and present owner of the White Sulphur Springs; H. G. Davis, afterward a United States Senator.

"On the second day General Thomas L. Price presided, Seymour being indisposed. A series of resolutions prepared by Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, were read; and Richardson, of Illinois, moved to refer all resolutions to the committee without reading. Henry C. Murphy, of New York, read the piatform. Governor Bigler wanted to proceed to the nominations, and the president explained the effects of the two-thirds rule. Connecticut made the first nomination, that of James E. English, whom the old-timer, Eaton, styled 'a star in the East;' but in this case he did n't shine with particular brilliancy. Maine, through General Anderson, nominated General W. S. Hancock; New Jersey, through Mr. Little, Ex-Governor Joel Parker; Tilden, of New York, nominated Sanford E. Church; Ohio, through General McCook, nominated George H. Pendleton; Pennsylvania, through Judge Woodward, nominated Asa Packer; Tennessee, through Thomas A. R. Nelson, nominated Andrew Johnson; and Wisconsin, Mr. Doolittle. The first ballot was: Pendleton, 105; Hancock, 333; Church, 34;

English, 26; Parker, 13; Packer, 36; Johnson, 65; Doolittle, 13; Hendricks, 23; Blair, ; Reverdy Johnson, 81. Johnson's vote on the first ballot astonished everybody. Many of the Northern delegates voted for him, so that he stood next to Pendleton. Frank Blair passed through the ordeal of a ballot and got one-half a vote, though on the second ballot Virginia gave him ten ballots as a sort of consolation. The Pennsylvania delegation retired on the third ballot, but their return showed no new move, and they voted for Packer as they had done before. North Carolina voted for Seymour on the fourth ballot. The