Our American Letter

Otago Witness, Issue 1500, 14 August 1880, Page 8

Our American Letter

San Fbancisco, July 3rd.

When my last letter was despatched balloting was in progress for the Republican nominee for the Presidency. You have long since heard the result. General James Garfield, of Ohio, is the choioe of the Republican party, not because he was before the country as a candidate, but because he was the most available man who did not occupy that position. In his case he illustrates the truth of Horatio Seymour's remark, that the snre way to get a party nomination is not to be a candidate. But although you know by this time all about the result, you cannot possibly know the feverish anxiety of the people until the choice was made known ; and then it produced a kind of deadening effect. It was so unexpected. The contest lay so evenly between Grant and Blame, that disappointment first, and then satisfaction, resulted from the discomfiture of both. There was a great principle, however, at stake, and those who have followed the political thought of my letters will not fail to understand it. Tbe third term which Grant's candidature represented, may or may not have portended Imperialism; it certainly Bought to break down the unwritten law of Presidential succession — and that once trampled on, the door was opened for other innovations. This was its significance. Men did not object to General Grant's election upon any other ground than this — that it set a dangerous precedent. They recognised in him a citizen worthy of t&e highest honours, but they would not sanction an infringement of the traditions surrounding the Executive; no, not for an hour, Upon the other hand, there were men who sought to elevate him because his election would open the floodgates of political possibilities, and enable them to consolidate their own power and influence through the support and influence of the President. They knew that Grant never desertad a friend in evil or good report ; and they speculated upon the loyalty of his character for their own ends. They failed utterly ; and their failure under the circumstances, brought down the man whom they professed to serve. And this brings me to a phase of American politics which is called THE BOSS SYSTEM. I am not quite certain that you have not something akin to it in your own political organisations ; but if not, I advise you to discourage it if it ever makes its appearance. In this country, owing to the modern device of primaries and conventions, the people have really little or nothing to say in the choice of rulers and representatives. Everything is cut and dried for them, and they are called upon to vote the party ticket, however obnoxious it may he, on pain of party disability. Everything is run by bosses. There is no freedom of opinion even in conventions, because only persons designated by the bosses are nominated to them, and they do what they are told without the formality of questioning. The boss runs the machine. Bosses make mayors, judges, county and State officials, governors, congressmen, and senators ; and they likewise try their hand at President-making. Grant was the boss candidate. He was brought forward by Senators Cameron, Conkling, and Logan, who respectively "boss" the States of Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois. These men are as arbitrary in their own way as haughty and as potential as a feudal chieftain. Their influence is wholly inconsistent with the theory of Republican institutions j and the check which they received at Chicago has given unbounded satisfaction. But it by no means follows that although they failed to cram Grant down the throaty of the American people they are therefore disposed, or that the system which they represent is likely to be broken up. I see no sign of any such thing. Grant is broken and dispirited j the bosses will gather up the tangled lines of authority, make new combinations, and try some other tack next election. Meanwhile, Bhould the Republican nominee be elected, they will control the patronage of their States and strengthen their position by its bestowal. To that end they will work strenuously. This ia why it happened, wht n the nomination of Garfield was assured, that it was made unanimous. This is why every Republican chief will work vigorously for the party ticket, and none more bo than the bosses. The spoils of office are at stake. The hungry army of expectants must be fed, and unless the public purse is available the organisation cannot be kept up. Defeat of the Republican party, after 18 years of uninterrupted plunder, would utterly demoralise it. Not that I think the Democrats would do any better in their position, but because the weak-kneed would crawl on all fours to the winning side, and so weaken the voting power of the Republicans. It is simply amazing the number of men who live by and out of politics in this country ; who "go for anything in Bight." And whereas the official pay is ridiculously small, office-holders somehow always are flush of money. There are 94,000 Federal officeholders in the United States to-day, and that is the bone of contention. JAMES A. GARFIELD. The Republican nominee is a self-made man, but, unlike men of his class, he is as modest and diffident as a girl. He is in his j 49fch year, in the full vigour of manhood, — tall, broad-chested, handsome ; a gentleman and a scholar. His career is by no means exceptional in the United States, because one may meet men any day who have attained to the highest positions by their industry and intelligence ; nevertheless it is worth telling. When quite a little boy, he was left fatherless, in a backwoods parish of Ohio, to the care of a widowed mother, who had two little girls and another boy to provide for. They Tvere very poor ; so poor that they all had to work, with very scanty clothing, and without shoes and stockings, They could get no schooling, for iv those days Ohio was nothing but a wild pioneer State ; but they came of a good New England stock, and they were honest and industrious. Frugal they had to be. At the age of 13 James got employment as a tow-boy on a canal-boat, and worked at that for Bomo years, his ambition being to get to sea. He had a desire to educate himself however, and obtained a situa-

tion where ho could study a little. Still ia* creasing his stock of learning he toiled on, helping his widowed mother and pinching himself. Splitting wood and carpentering in the early morning and night, he made enough to pay his school fee 3 during the day ; and in winter, when work could not be had, he taught school for his board. In his eighteenth year it is related of him that he was so employed, his entire outfit consisting of a full suit of Kentucky jean, without underclothing, and that his pants had worn so thin that they tore across at the knee on one occasion when stooping. The young teacher, deeply mortified, complained to the lady with whom he boarded, and spoke bitterly of hla poverty. "Never mind," Baid the good woman ; "you go to bed and I will darn them aB good as new. When you come to be President you will forget all these little troubles." Time wore on, and with it James A. Garfield's growth in manly independence, industry, and knowledge. He attended college, and paid his college debts by honest labour the following winter. Having graduated at Williams' College, Ohio, with honours, he studied law and began practice ; but the civil war breaking out he volunteered his services, and was mustered in as colonel of an Ohio regiment. He waa assigned to Kentucky, and there did good service, defeating at the head of his brigade the Confederate general Marshall, and driving him out of Kentucky. For this Garfield was made brigadier-general, and appointed chief of staff to General Rosencrans, who commanded the Army of the Cumberland. In that capacity he served with distinction at the battle of Ohickamaunga, between Rosencrans and the Confederate army, under Bragg and Longstreet, September 19bh, 1863. Through a blunder Rosencrann lost the battle, and fled to Chattanooga, telegraphing that his whole army was beaten. This was not so, however, as General Thomas, who commanded on the Union left, repulsed all the attacks of the Confederates during the day, although Orittenden and M 'Cook's corps had been driven off the field. At this juncture Gar. field was elected to Congress for his own State, and he retired from the army. He had previonsly served in the Ohio Senate, having early gone into publio life. Slnoe then he has been in CongreßS, and is now Senator- elect from Ohio. In the House he has been the Republican leader since Blame went into the Senate. Garfield is a poor man, although he has been in positions— at the head of important committees — where he might have winked himself rich. He was charged with participating in the Credit Mobilier fraud, and Oak Ame3 did smirch him somewhat badly. At the time he was Baid to have taken bribes from the great corruptionist of the Union Pacific railroad, he was as poor aa a church mouse, and was known to be per. plexed how to raise 300dol to pay his board bill. Of course, all this has been raked up against him by the Democratic papers, but the charges won't stick. He is one of the most popular speakers in America. Garfield put Sherman in nomination at the Convention, of which he was a member, and when the break took place on the thirty-sixth ballot and he saw that he was nominated, he turned to Governor Foster, of Ohio, and, deadly pale, exclaimed, " My God, oan it be possible that Sherman will believe that I have been false to him 1" But no one accuses Garfield of betraying his friends. When it appeared evident that neither Grant nor Blame could get the nomination, the delegates looked to Garfield, who had. charmed them with his manners and had claims upon them for party services. He waa the man to reconcile all parties, and the anti-third men took him up, and made him the choioe of the Convention. Grant's phalanx stood firm, casting 306 votes in the last ballot, so much influence had the machine. I should mention here that Garfield is a Christian man of pure and spotless life. His aged mother lives with his family in their home in Ohio.

THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION met at Cincinnati, and got through its work much more expeditiously than the Republicans. Moreover, there was little publio interest attaching to it. Grant's nomination centred all eyes upon Chicago, and as Tilden and Horatio Seymour declined to stand for the Democratic nomination, there was really nothing in it to be interested about. Seymour ran on the Democratic ticket in 1868 against Grant, and was defeated by a plurality of 305,458. He was regarded as the most available candidate, but his age and infirmity kept him out of the fight. Tilden, who claims to have been lawfully elected in 1876 (and I have no doubt that he was) declined the nomination on the ground that his health was unequal to the contest and subsequent reform of the Civil Service. He therefore bequeathed his claim to a younger man, pointing out the line of polioy to be followed. To an unitiated person the letters of Seymour and Tilden would have been aocepted as final, but Republicans and Demo, crats alike regarded them as mere feelers for the nomination, No one ever credits another with sincerity in politics here, so the anticipatory oampaign was fought on the supposition that either the great decllner, Seymour, or the great claimant, Tilden, would secure their nomination. To their credit be it said, they were sincere; although admirers put them before the Convention the first day, and they each received a complimentary vote. To the last moment, however, " Sammy" was the favourite in the pools. The faith in his shiftiness was unbounded and unbroken, and one delegate even voted for him on the last ballot when it was evident that General Hancock would receive the nomination. The nomination of General Hancock took the country by surprise. He is major-general oommandiag the district of the Atlantic, with headquarters in New York Hancook is a consistent Democrat, aud but for the jealousy of Grant would to-day be Lieutenant-general of the American A^my instead Phil Sheridan, who was his junior, and certainly not his superior in service. He was born in Pennsylvania, 14th February, 1824, and graduated from West Point 20 years afterwards. He was In the Mexican War, and was promoted for gallant conduct at the battles of Contreras and Oherubusoo. For 10 years he served on the frontier, and oa the breaking out of the Civil War was quartermaster of the Southern diutrict, utationed at Itw Angeles in this State, TW

was the centre of Secession intrigue on the Pacific Coast at that time, and still is strongly Democratic and " secesh." Captain Hancock aßked to be reoalled, returned to Washington, and waß gazetted brigadiergeneral of Volunteers, 1861. He displayed conspicuous gallantry In the Peninsula cam* paign, and at the battleß of South Mountain and Antiatam in Maryland. Having attained the rant? of Major-general he commanded a subdivision at Frederioksburg and Chancellorßville. Meade, who was appointed to the supreme command after the disaster at Ohancellorflville, left Hancoek to deoide where battle should again be given to the Victorious Confederates, who, under Lee, had invaded the North. Hancock's fine military eye decided upon the lines of Gettysburg, and he took command until Meade's arrival. This Confederate army was the finest and best-equipped the South ever had in the field. About 80,000 men on each side were engaged in the three days' battle that followed. The first two days were favourable to the Confederates j the tide of battle the third day was turned by Hancock's personal gallantry. He was severely wounded, but while on sick leave was employed recruiting and organising an army corps, which was placed under his command. He was engaged in the famous battles of the Wilderness, and in several other general engagements. As a general hia record is as good as Grant's, but he never attained to the supreme oommand by reason of his pronounoed Democratic politics, despite his devotion to the Union cause. He is of superb physique, standing over 6 feet 3 inches, well-proportioned, and handsome. After the war he was sent to command the division of the Missouri, where he issued the famous order calling upon the civil authorities to administer affairs, although he had absolute authority, as military commander of the district, which included Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas. For this order, which voluntarily subordinated the military for the civil power, he was formally thanked by Congress, as indeed he had previouely been for bis services in the field. Grant, when he became President, appointed him to the western district of Dakota, where he remained isolated for years in petty wars with the Indians. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination 12 years ago against Grant, but the party connubiators put Seymour up, and lost. The only thing against Hancock is that he obeyed the orders of the President, when commandant at Washing, ton, and carried out the sentenoe of the Military Conrt against the conspirators adjudged guilty of procuring the assassination of President Lincoln. Mrs Surratt, at whose house they met, was hanged, although it transpired that she had no knowledge of the plot. She was a Catholic lady of good family, and already appeals are made in the Republican papers to Catholic prejudice against Hancock. But it is clear that he had no option in the matter. Martial law had been proclaimed, and in refusing to obey the writ of habeas corpus sued out on the woman's behalf, he presented »nd put on file the order of exeoution and warrant of the Exeoutive. To have disobeyed in those troublous times would have been certain death to General Hancock as a traitor, and his saorifice would not have saved the wretched woman. But this incident just now shows how illogical partisan politics may become. The Republicans demanded the exeoution of Mrs Surratt, partly because she waß a Catholic and a Southerner, and partly because they were blinded with rage to the merits of the case They required a blood atonement. General Hancock, who had command of the district, was charged with the execution of the sentenoe of the Court-martial, approved and commanded by President Johnson; and yet, for obeying orders which the Eepubli* cans then clamorously applauded in him, he 1b now branded by them as an inhuman murderer of a helpless and innocent woman. General Grant says that Hancock 1b the strongest candidate the Democrats could nominate, that his military career is stainless, and that in his opinion he will be elected. Jacob Terry.