CHAPTER XVIII

DEFECTIONS FROM THE PARTY—THE Liberals, muGWUMPS, AND ANTIS-PARTY POLITICS

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T is not strange that a great political party, polling over a million votes in its first struggle and in less than fifty years increasing this vote to over 7,000,000 should, from time to time, have dissension within its own ranks, dissension sometimes temporary, sometimes leading to a permanent defection. It is rather a matter to be noted that there have been so few differences among Republicans, and that so few have left the party, some to return later, some to join the opposition or stand aloof from all parties.

It would seem at first, perhaps, as if the comparatively inconsiderable number of voters concerned would not warrant more than a mere mention or allusion to the several secessions, and yet the principles involved, and the character of the movements and of the men themselves appear to justify a more or less extended analysis. The loss of a hundred or a thousand votes out of a total of six or seven millions is in general not worth considering; and yet Presidents have been made and unmade by the casting of less than a thousand votes. Further, when men of character and standing, those who have been among the leaders of the party, join the opposition, the reasons should be sought and either justified or condemned.

The first defection from the party occurred in 1864, when we find the Republican candidate for President in 1856 accepting only eight years later a nomination as the candidate of an opposing faction. It is a matter for wonderment, indeed, that General Fremont and his followers felt as they did in 1864.

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The lack of principle shown by Fremont intensified the feeling of thankfulness among loyal men everywhere that he had not been successful in 1856. Many citizens and soldiers of the North had become impatient over the outcome of the war, and some had given voice to this impatience by private letters to the President and through the columns of the press. Mr. Greeley was such a person, and yet it was not necessary for him to abandon his loyalty or his faith in the ultimate outcome. General Fremont had personal grounds of revenge upon which to base his action, and he was encouraged by certain so-called "Radical Republicans," headed by B. Gratz Brown of Missouri, who eight years afterwards was found heading another movement and calling himself a Liberal Republican.

It is a pleasure to record the fact that such men as William Cullen Bryant, George P. Putnam, William K. Strong, George Opdyke, and others foresaw and forestalled the first dissension headed by Brown and his followers. They advocated postponing the Republican convention to the latest possible date in order that the canvass might be of as short duration as possible. It need only be recorded that Fremont and John Cochrane, the latter being on the ticket as a candidate for Vice-President, withdrew before the end of the campaign, General Fremont making the following statement in a public letter:

The Presidential question has, in effect, been entered upon in such a way, that the union of the Republican party has become a paramount necessity. The policy of the Democratic party signifies. either separation or establishment with Slavery. The Chicago platform is simply separation. Gen. McClellan's letter of acceptance is re-establishment with Slavery. The Republican candidate is, on the contrary, pledged to the re-establishment of the Union without Slavery; and, however hesitating his policy may be, the pressure of his policy will, we may hope, force him to it. Between these issues, I think that no man of the liberal party can remain in doubt, and I believe I am consistent with my antecedents and my principles in withdrawing-not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election of the Democratic

candidate. In respect to Mr. Lincoln I continue to hold exactly the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider that his administration has been politically, militarily, and financially a failure, and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret for the country.

The Republican party, with the exception of a few malcontents, was united by election day, and Mr. Lincoln received about 350,000 more votes than in 1860, or, counting the soldier vote, over 450,000 more.

General Grant, at his first election, polled practically the entire vote of a harmonious Republican party. The problem he was at once called upon to face was indeed a most difficult one, made more so by the acts of his predecessor, President Johnson. It was not to be expected that he could satisfy the wishes of all the prominent men of the North, who held various opinions as to the best way in which the Confederate States should be readmitted and governed. Although reconstruction was for the most part completed before Grant entered upon his term, there being only three States which had not complied with the conditions established, the Southern question was by no means settled. The secret organization known as the Ku-Klux-Klan inaugurated a system of intimidation and terrorism, which it was indeed difficult to combat.

President Grant by his adherence to the scheme of annexing Santo Domingo alienated many of his former admirers, among others Senator Sumner and Horace Greeley. But it was in his distribution of offices that Grant made the most enemies, as has been the case with every President since, and probably always will be. The matter of distribution of patronage, whereby the Senators and Representatives shall control the appointments in their own States, was brought very clearly to the front early in General Grant's first term. It was natural that a popular General like Grant should have a host of friends, but the friendship of many depended to a large degree upon what they could succeed in getting in return for their devotion. It will be remembered that in the Republican National Convention of 1864, Missouri was the only State whose delegates did not on the first ballot cast their vote for Mr. Lincoln, and

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although the vote was afterwards changed, it was for Grant that Missouri cast her entire vote. In less than six years thereafter the Republicans of Missouri were plotting for the overthrow of Grant, and calling themselves Liberal Republicans, first joining the Democrats in a movement confined to State politics, and then branching out into a national movement which drew many Republicans from their party, and which went even to the point of holding a national convention and nominating candidates for the Presidency and VicePresidency.

It was in Missouri early in 1872 that a mass-meeting of Liberal Republicans was held, when it was voted to call a national convention of the Liberal Republicans on the 1st of May at Cincinnati,

Mr. Vallandigham of Ohio, the leader of the Northern Democrats who had assailed the administration during the war, was now ready to accept the results of the conflict, and advo cated and worked for a conservative platform on which all the elements opposed to President Grant and the Republican party could unite. Whether Carl Schurz, who, with B. Gratz Brown, was a leader in the Missouri movement, had any secret understanding with Vallandigham or not, there is no doubt that so-called Liberal Republicans knew that there was at least a probability of their action being supported by the Democratic convention. B. Gratz Brown was a very fit man to be associated with the movement, but Carl Schurz, who had to this time been a loyal supporter of Northern sentiment, who had risen from the ranks to an honored position in the army, and who had been the temporary chairman of the convention which nominated Grant in 1868, would seem at first to be a strange associate for Vallandigham and Brown.

President Grant realized at once that he would be hampered severely by the Tenure-of-office act, and naturally emphasized to Republican Senators and Representatives his inability to make removals except for misconduct as provided under the law.

The Republican members of both Houses who had tied the hands of President Johnson were now anxious that more

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freedom be secured for a friendly executive. A bill was quickly framed for repealing the Tenure-of-office act, which passed the House by a vote of 138 to 16, the negative votes all being those of Republicans. Upon reaching the Senate the bill was sent to the Judiciary Committee, and at once reported to the Senate, but with an amendment in the form of a substitute, providing that, instead of an absolute repeal, the Tenure-of-office act should be suspended until the next session of Congress. This make-shift, however, was not welcomed by the Senators, although among those who defended the suspension amendment were Trumbull, Edmunds, and Schurz. Mr. Blaine in his Twenty Years of Congress says of the situation:

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Mr. Schurz was as anxious as Mr. Edmunds to give the President full power to remove the office-holders. He declared that he 'would be the last man to hamper the President in the good work of cleaning out the Augean stable, which he is now about to undertake." He was sure that "the rings must be broken up," that the thieves must be driven out of the public service.' He eulogized President Grant as especially fit for the work. "We have," said he, "a President who is willing to do what we and the country desire him to do." Mr. Schurz expressed at the same time his "heartfelt concern regarding a rumor that the President was very sensitive touching the proposition reported by the Judiciary Committee, and that "he will make no removals unless the civil-tenure bill be repealed instead of being suspended." Mr. Schurz was sure that "on all the great questions of policy the President and Congress heartily agree," and he condemned "the attempts made to sow the seeds of distrust and discord." It is somewhat amusing as well as instructive to recall that in a little more than two years from that time, when nearly all the appointees of President Johnson had been turned out of office, Mr. Schurz began work again at "the Augean stable," now locating it in the Grant administration, and demanding that it should be cleansed, that "the rings" should be broken up, that "the thieves must be driven out of the public service." He imputed to President Grant's administration even greater corruption than he had charged upon the administration of his predecessor, and from his ever-teeming storehouse lavished abuse with even a more generous hand upon the one than he had upon the other.