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CHAPTER XLIV.

ROM the assembling of Congress, in December, 1859,

it became more and more apparent every day that the division in the Democratic party was irreconcilable. This led the wisest and most experienced men in public affairs in all parties to consider the grave situation in the threatened disruption and, next, their most prudent course when it was done. In such an event it was plain enough that the success of the Republican party was probable. There were many of the more conservative in the Middle and border States who feared that Seward was "too ultra" on the slavery disputes, and that many of his supporters and advisers were even more so than himself. Then there were others, to whom Weed was more objectionable than Seward.

Greeley's break with both of them created widespread objection, more distinct and positive against Weed and his Albany management. In this dissolving, where parties were breaking and tearing to pieces on every hand, the Republican party became the beneficiary and received most of the discontented voters.

As the Republican party was forming and gathering its strength from so many breaking-up and discordant factions, it was a matter of the utmost delicacy to unite them in harmonious party accord as to declarations and candidates on such general terms of agreement and conceding spirit, that the bitterness and disputes of the breaking parties would not be carried into the new one. Hence it was common for men to come into the Republican party every day who had been political contestants all their lives. In

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this topsy-turvy tumbling of parties it was possible for two such influential members of Congress as Washburn and Lovejoy were to do much to advance the interests of Mr. Lincoln, which they accomplished so well and discreetly that there was neither jar nor backset in their well-wrought plans.

That they did all that was accomplished at Washington is not and should not be claimed; but that they did much, and contributed more than any others there to Lincoln's success, is certain. They were in constant communication with him, doing what seemed best to all of them. Seward was on the ground in the same sort of campaigning for himself. Whether others realized the fact or not, neither one of them ever misunderstood that they were the rivals-in-chief for the Republican nomination from the close of the Douglas-Lincoln debates.

A lot of irrelevant and immaterial story-weaving has been done concerning Lincoln's candidacy and nomination, much of it to the effect that both came to him in an unexpected, accidental, or unusual way. If this were true, all we know of him would be to little purpose. He was talked to and written to and of by hundreds, perhaps thousands of zealous friends and correspondents, too many of whom came to believe that in some unusual or may be startling manner they could nominate him. Some of them were even so confident as to state that they were first in the movement. To all of these, kind-hearted and wise man that he was, he could do no less than decline and be friendly and patient with them; for he was sober-minded and so well grounded in common sense that he was not inclined to folly when, of course, he could not be a candidate under any such bringing out.

He was, however, a leader, always a capable and foreseeing one, who, as he grew in strength, capacity, wisdom, and experience, made himself a candidate by making him

self capable and worthy the distinction. As one seeking place or office, he was never a candidate; but from 1858 he was as conscious and well-informed as any man that, in approval of his principles and conduct, a growing political force among his fellow-citizens was making him a candidate in the way that fitted the cause and the time. In furtherance of this end he answered and fulfilled the wishes and expectations of wise and influential friends, when he, the growing leader, without a rival, waxed and strengthened with the rising party to a nomination as honorably earned as it was cordially given.

As movements progressed, he had no lack of information about them. His campaign was not managed by one man, as Weed was doing for Seward apparently. There were, as we have seen, several skilled and experienced men at the helm. Who were the men and what they were doing was as familiar and well known to him as to them. He was the people's choice; but under his own advisement and the lead of the best skilled among his friends his nomination came about in care and direction that prepared the way for it.

Among these friends none were more forceful than Frank P. Blair, Jr., of St. Louis, and Henry S. Lane, of Indiana. Blair was young, ambitious, and one of the most capable politicians of the time in his own strength, and stronger by reason of his family's influential career. He was a member of Congress from Missouri, as much Republican as his mixed constituency permitted. The Republicans and some zealous friends were supporting Edward Bates, of that State, as a candidate at Chicago. The younger Blair had grown from childhood under the care, education, and training of his father, F. P. Blair, Sr., who was one of the clearest-headed and most experienced politicians of the land from the time of President Jackson.

The elder Blair established a newspaper in Washington about 1824. He was an ardent adviser and supporter, as

well as a resolute defender, of the hero of New Orleans and his party through his Administration and for a whole generation. The Blair newspaper and the family became a power in the land. In 1860, in advanced age, the elder Blair retired, but his sons-Montgomery, in Baltimore, and Frank, in St. Louis-were succeeding in political affairs and business as well under the assistance and counsel of the experienced father.

The elder Blair predicted Abraham Lincoln the coming leader from 1858. Long before this he predicted the overthrow of Douglas and the party separation. No man then living was better qualified to forecast what extremities the hot-tempered Southern disunionists would venture. He had sustained Jackson, and was familiar with every political movement, and knew every party leader from Calhoun's premeditated rebellion in 1831.

The Blairs came to the support of Lincoln in a qualified sense, it is true, but in a very effective sort of preparation for the undertaking which passed contingency as the plans matured. The old man, who had been cognizant of and participated in political movements for more than thirty years, and the two vigorous young men entering earnestly into the cause of our prairie leader, were no small accession. Henry S. Lane was an able and distinguished man. He was the Republican leader in his State of Indiana, and, with Oliver P. Morton, then a young man of well-known ability, took charge of the Lincoln movement in their State. This was a pleasant and in no sense a difficult task; for the people of that State were as heartily and about as unanimously for him as our own State. The Democratic leaders of the State-Jesse D. Bright and G. N. Fitch-followed the South. In doing so they drove thousands of loyal Democrats from their party. In this condition the Republicans had more than equal chances of carrying the State. Lane was one of the most prudent leading men of the time.

He was a personal friend and fellow-pleader of Lincoln's for years. No one who supported Lincoln through the getting ready and the real trial of the Convention did so more effectively, if indeed any one did as much, as he in achieving the great success.

Buchanan's puerile and treacherous Administration had alienated a full quarter million of loyal Pennsylvania Democrats-permanently, too; for the Quaker-German people of that colony and State were anti-slavery as well as loyal. The wonder is not that the State had left the Democratic party almost unanimously, but that, in an enlightened age, it had produced and grown to leadership palsied images like Black and Buchanan.

Simon Cameron, clear-headed and canny as any descendant of his clan or kingdom, and John W. Forney, both Democrats, saw these Quakers and Germans, thoroughly disgusted, leaving the disloyal pro-slavery faction in swarms. They prepared to lead these loyal Democrats into the Republican party, whither they were drifting without leadership. Cameron had won distinction much as Lincoln did. had come up with the people, and knew that they were right. In turn they respected him so much for leaving and denouncing so many faithless leaders that his State of Pennsylvania declared him their candidate for President.

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About the first of March the very important meeting of the delegates to the conference from the doubtful States was held in Chicago. There were present Lane, of Indiana, with a friend. Lane was a candidate for governor of Indiana, and elected to that office, and afterwards a United States senator. The following winter, O. P. Morton, who was elected with him, succeeded Lane, and held the office of governor through the war in faithful discharge of every duty. With Lane, who was leader of this movement as far as he saw fit and thought prudent, there were F. P. Blair, of St. Louis, and an accredited representative of

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