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Show 'iiiMMiMiiMnmiMimiiminm'nmiMmiiJimii''" HmiH.Hmnnii.imirrrT, LITTLE BAND -WAGON JOURNEYS """""":ui:l:ilMSiBY L. T. MERRILLSittSS!!::"''""""""' , 1G2S, Western Newspaper Union.) The Hayes-Tilden Contest O lOSlDES geueruciuy a great deal of sectional lieat and leading to un precedented means of finally deciding the contest, the close Hayes Tilden campaign of lt76 rfist saw use in a I'resideniial canvass of tlie elephant as symliol of the Uepuhlican party. Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly car toonist, nas the artist who evolved the conceptions of the elephant and the donkey to designate the major parties, hesides cunlrihuting. the Tammany Huer to the political menagerie. He brought out the donkey somewhat before be-fore the elephant. In I he congressional campaign of 1ST-J the elephant first lent itselt to caricature as the "Republican vote' dashing through the jungle perilously close to a pitfall sparsely covered by .itisound money planks and other In M'cure platlonn lumber. In this car loon N'ast represented the Hemocrath party as a fox. But by 1STG the ele pliant and donkey symbolism had be i-ome standardized and was destined io be nuiversally accepted thereafter by other cartoonists. With Democrats flaying corruption in the Grant administration, with James G. Klaine, unsuccessful Itepuh licau aspirant for his party's notnina tlou, "waving the bloody shirr" auo driving to divert attention from fail ures of the Uraut regime by renewing sectional bitterness between North an South, the contest betweei Rather ford B. Hayes of Ohio and Samuel J Tilden of New York. uieD about even ly matched in personal abilities, de veloped considerable bitterness. Partisan and sectional bard feelim; created an atmosphere that encour aged crooked work and a determina (ion. In certain quarters, to win by fair means or foul. The bull loziuv of masse? of voters to prevent them from casting their ballots, and offers of election officials to sell out returns in at least one southern state where the results were crucially important, were among the manifestations of serious irregularities in this unusual and indecisive election. On the face of the original returns Tilden's success seemed assured. Most Republican newspapers conceded nun t lie victory the morning after the election. elec-tion. But a telegram from a member of the Democratic national committee to a New York Republican Inijuirini: about the returns from Oregon. Louisi ane, Florida and South Carolina in ppired the ediiors, noting his doubts, boldly to claim the election for Hayes. Republican party managers quickly seized upon tin's audacious line of attack. at-tack. "Claim everything," wired Zachariah Chandler', chairman of the Republican national committee. And it was done, setting up the supposl tion that Hayes had a lead of one electoral vote over his Democratic op ponenL The result ultimately came to hinge upon disputed returns from South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Til den, without these states, had IS-4 electoral votes. The vote of any one of the three would elect aim. Hayes had an undisputed 1G0. He needed South Carolina's seven, Florida's four and Louisiana's eight to have a margin mar-gin of one over Tilden's acknowledged total. Feeling that had mounted high dur ing the campaign -an higher when canvassing boards began passing upon the popular vote in the three disputed S'tates where, especially in Louisiana, it was charged fraud and intimidation had upset the true results, 'resident Grant sent down extra troops. Dele gallons of leading politicians hurried to New Orleans lo watch the Louisiana canvassing hoard, wholly made up o) Republicans, cond jet its count. There were ugly rumors of an al tempted sell-otii of the vote. Finally the hoard, by throwing out l.VJ.-.U Democratic votes, rever.-x-d an apparent Louisiana Democratic ma jority and gave the state victory to Hayes. In Florida and South Carolina Caro-lina Republicans aUo declared he had won. Hut Democratic electors in the three states would not accept these verdicts. They returned rival sets of electoral votes for Tilden. Thus it was a grave unprecedented dilemma that faced congress, In which one hoii.-e was Democratic, the other Republican. Partisan bitterness throughout the country was Intensified. Henry Wat-terson, Wat-terson, Louisville editor, proposed marching to Washington with a hun died thousand persons to see that the Democrats had fair play. Congressmen racked their brains to lind a way out of the Impasse. Finally the question of which sets ol returns should be accepted was put up lo a spwially appointed electoral com mission, composed of ten congressmen (liie from each party) and five Su preme court Judg-s. In the commit Klou Ihe result ultimately was decided favorably to llaye-- by tin vote of one man. Justice .1. V. Rradley of the Supreme court, whose election to the couiiui.s.siiai gave It eight Republicans and Hevf n I 'oino'-rats 'I'll- decision giving Hayes the victory vic-tory was approved by congress early In the tnornini of .March 8 (lie closest America i-vt Iris come to being with out any l're.'idcnl on an Inauguration (Jala The Anti-Third Term Tradition Tradi-tion Upheld ONLY twice in our history has the anti-third term tradition, established estab-lished In the precedent set by I'resi dent George Washington, been seriously seri-ously challenged. Both times, though the challengers Ulysses S. Granl and Theodore Roosevelt were Immensely popular figures, the force of the precedent prec-edent overbore them. In 1SSU President Hayes was unavailable un-available for reuominatiou by the Re- 1 publican party. His stand for civil J service reform sneeringly called ; "snivel service reform" by the spoils i men had alienated certain strong j party leaders. The time was ripe for a third term Doom for former President Grant. Foi four years he had been out ol office. The unfortunate srundals that came lo light during his administration nan been partly forgotten. He was com ing into his own again In grateful re uiemhrance o: the North as t lie gen eral who hud saved, the Union. Upon his return from a trip around the world in 1ST! his journey across the United States was little short of a triumphant progress. Grant's reasons for wanting a third term were variously attributed lo the desire ol his family for social prestige pres-tige and to Ids own belief that his iravels had given him a wider knowl edge of the world thai would Hi him m he a more capable executive. His triumvirate of managers. Sena tors J. D. Cameron of Pennsylvania I who was chairman of me parly na t ion ii I committee). John A. Logan of Illinois and Koscoe Conkling of New York, went to the convention in Chi ago with slightly more than fix) dele gates out of 37S necessary to nom inate. If able to enforce the unit rule I whereby the big delegations of I 'en n I sylvania. New York and Illinois could I be voted solhllv f :r the general in ac oio'd ni'h the wishes of rhe majority of ii ose delegations, the Grant managers mana-gers were assnied of some sixty more votes, that would save brought their favorite almost within reach ot the prize. Put their plan to have the unit rule maintained went to smash in the convention and the oratory ; and floor leadership of James A. Gar field of Ohio t lie orphan canal boy who became a college president, a . general In Ihe Civil war. and a mem i her of congress from his slate were I largely what defeated the unit rule strategy of the Grant Stalwarls, as they came to be called Grant was put In nomination by Conkling in one of the most famous ( speeches of convention history, beginning be-ginning with the stanza of verse: "And when asked what state he hails from. Our sole reply shall be He comes from Appomattox, And its famous apple tree." As the storm ot applause for Grant's nomination died away, it was Garfield's Gar-field's task skillfully to present the nomination of Secretary of the Treasury Treas-ury John Sherman as Ohio's favorite son, which he did in masterly fashion though the actual effect of the speecn was to heighten appreciation of Garfield's own availability as a possible dark horse. He got only one or two votes In the early balloting, however. Then on the thirty-fourth ballot Garfield's total took a spurt when Wisconsin threw her entire 10. votes to him, and they were recorded de spite his own strenuous protestations that he was not a candidate. On the thirty-sixth ballot. -although the Grant total of S'lfi held firm. :!!!!! voles went to Garfield in a general sranipede Apparently stunned with surprise, hp was acclaimed the winner To placate the defeated Grant fac tion. Chester A. Arthur of New York by no means a conspicuous figure na tionnlly, was named for the vice presl dency. from which position he wan destined to ascend to the Presidency upon Garfield's assassination by n dis appointed olhce-seeker. When the Democratic convention met at Cincinnati the contest was a wide open one among a score ot aspirants. as-pirants. But the pre eminence ol (Jen Wlnfield Scott Hancock soon asserted Itself. As the Wisconsin Republican delegation had started the stampede to Garfield, so It was the Wisconsin Democratic delegation that loosened a convention landslide to Hancock Numerous other state deleg.it ions changed their votes after the second ballot and he was declared the nominee. nom-inee. Charles A. Dana of the New York Sun cynically dismissed Hancock as "a good man weighing 2."U pounds." Ills worth was welghable in more than avoirdupois. however. Hancock's Han-cock's generalship in toe Civil war made lilui as one historian has put It, 'the knlghtllest figure of all Ihe hosts which the North sent forth In hall In," and Granl hailed him as his ii'dest corps commander. The contest had an extremely close finish. Out of a total popular vote I of IIJXHMHK), the division was so nearly equal that fewer than IO.iidk votes separated Garllcid and Hancock ; In the popular count. These votes ' weie ho distributed among the slates, however, hat Girllohl had 211 and Hancock 1!i.r In the electoral ;olege. |