General Dodge, of Iowa, who had been balancing his delegation between Fenton and Colfax, on the fifth ballot threw his solid vote of sixteen for Colfax. This acted as a match to oil. When the furore ceased the vote stood-Colfax 522, Fenton 75, and Wade 42.1 General Sickles, of New York, then made a motion that the nominations be made unanimous, which was seconded by Ohio and carried.

Although the platform was a compromise between the opposing elements in the party, the advantage lay with the Radicals. The provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment found place: "the guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men of the South was assured, but at the same time it was asserted that the question of suffrage in all the loyal states belonged to the people of those states alone. All forms of repudiation were denounced and it was declared that taxation should be" equalized and reduced " as rapidly as the national faith would permit. The national debt should be extended over a fair period of redemption. President Johnson and his policy were denounced in no uncertain terms but the Conservative element in the convention and the committee on resolutions was able to modify the stand taken on the impeachment, as has been stated above.

Table of vote on Vice-President:

The doc

trine of indefeasible allegiance,1 under which a State clothes with its nationality all citizens no matter where they reside or resident, as strictly followed by Great Britain and other European powers, was condemned "as a relic of feudal times." Rather different from the present idea, foreign emigration was approved and the United States was to be the asylum for the oppressed of all nations.

There were not many, who, under the enthusiasm of the Chicago Convention, stopped to realize that Grant's nomination as a "foregone conclusion" and as an act of the highest political wisdom, acknowledged by Republicans of whatever section, indicated a very marked and rapid change in the sentiment of the Republican party. A year previous he had been the candidate of only the moderate group of the Republican party. The mildness of his terms to Lee and his insistence that they be lived up to; his report to the President on the condition of the South which Sumner characterized in the senate as a "whitewashing document"; and his apparent wish to make no declaration of principles, which lead to the belief that he was opposed to universal negro suffrage; all these had tended to separate him from the Radicals. It was not until Grant's unfortunate quarrel with Johnson; and his position in the complications growing out of the action of certain district commanders,3

1 Westlake, pt. i, pp. 214-33. Scott, Cases on International Law, pp. 370-412. Jus sanguinis, i. e. rule of descent or parentage, is contrasted with Jus soli, i. e., rule of the soil.

2 As early as July 23, 1867 the Republican general committee of New York City nominated General Grant for President. That Republican opinion throughout the North was not uniform regarding Grant at that time is shown by the fact that on the same day which saw Grant nominated in New York City, the Republican State Convention of New Jersey voted down by a pronounced majority a similar mot on for the nomination of Grant. (New York World, July 25, 1867.) Greeley, also, was opposed to Grant at this time. (New York Tribune, Oct. 15, 1867, Nov. 17, 1867.)

3 Sheridan and Sickles especially.

together with the consciousness apparently dawning on the Radicals that they had about reached their limit in reconstruction, that the Radicals found in Grant available timber for the Presidency. Up to that point Chief Justice Chase had been the Radicals' favorite candidate.

Henry J. Raymond was open to conviction that the work of the convention was for the best. He was strongly in favor of Grant but with reference to the vice-presidency allowed that "it might not be hard to name other candidates, who would bring to the party, on grounds of locality as well as from personal ability, more of real strength" than Colfax, although he admitted that his nomination was eminently judicious". The platform was "as good as we were entitled to expect". However, it would have been better, thought Raymond, to have dropped the subject of impeachment entirely; and in relation to a rapid reduction of taxation and the strictest economy in the administration of the government "a Republican Convention in 1868 ought to have been able to present something more effective than promises". The Times, while still a loyal servant, had not forgotten its recent treatment at the hands of the Radicals. In spite of its realization that the financial plank of the Republicans fell short, the Times ably rallied to its support when the Democrats attacked it as meaning nothing." Horace Greeley observed that it was not necessary to hold a convention to nominate a Republican for President.3 As for Schuyler Colfax he considered him the best can

'New York Times, May 22, 1868. 'New York Times, May 25, 1868.

'New York Tribune, May 22, 1868.

* Schuyler Colfax was a native of New York City and at the time of election was 45 years of age. He had moved with his mother and stepfather to northern Indiana, where first as a clerk then as proprietor of the St. Joseph Valley Register at South Bend, he early entered politics. His sheet controlled the Republicans of St. Joseph County and resulted in his seventh renomination and election to Congress.

66

The plat

"Now let

didate, with regrets on grounds of amiability.1 form is fair, temperate and firm," said Greeley. our friends in Congress push on the work of reconstruction .. so that the votes of all the States, if possible, may be cast at the election." 2

3

The Evening Post subscribed editorially to all the results of the National Republican Convention in one of its clear, well-balanced, but bloodless statements. It predicted that the campaign would be waged over the matter of equal suffrage. Three days later the Evening Post, on a closer inspection, decided that the platform was less broad than might be desired on the matter of equal suffrage. It unmercifully suggested that the Republicans should have taken their own medicine by recommending a change of constitutions in the loyal states so that they would read for equal suffrage.*

Five months prior to the nominations, the World would have considered the personal availability of the Republicans' ticket a strong one, due to the successful military career of Grant. However, since then he had been convicted of demagogism and duplicity in his connection with the Radicals. Colfax, the World admitted, was a popular man with his party, but one who was a persistent popularity2 Ibid.

I New York Tribune, May 23, 1868.

'New York Evening Post, May 22, 1868.

4 New York Evening Post, May 23, 25, 1868. The Philadelphia Press undertook after the National Republican Convention to purify the party. It placed Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, Van Winkle, and Henderson on a Senatorial black-list." Also it read out of the party support the New York Evening Post; Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Commercial, Providence Journal, Springfield Republican, Bridgeport Standard, Buffalo Advertiser, Buffalo Express, and Hartford Courant. The Evening Post took occasion to declare itself an independent organ.

"New York World, May 22, 1868.

hunter and as such ready to change with the strongest wind. The World argued that the candidates and platform would be weakened by three things. First, the bloodshed and violence in the South resulting from the Radical policy had shocked the Conservative element of the country. Second, the fact that both candidates coming from the middle West would tend to alienate the East, especially, as the friends of Fenton, Wilson, Hamlin and of Curtin all had reason to complain.1

The Sun in its avowed capacity as an independent organ considered Grant's name a tower of strength to the Republicans. But in viewing the field from its independent standpoint the Sun did not regard Grant as a partisan, nor as the candidate of a political party. Colfax, "a gentleman of pure character, of popular manners", was wisely placed on the ticket as a Republican to balance Grant as a War Democrat.

James Gordon Bennett considered that Grant was far stronger than his party, which had been weakened by the Radical excess.* Old Ben Wade" as as a bigoted fanatic, Fenton as a failure and Curtin as a very respectable man were politically buried by the Herald. Bennett termed the Republican platform as conveniently evasive and withal as elastic as India rubber ".5 Nevertheless, the Herald was unqualified in its statement that in the platform the convention had stepped over the boggy places.

66

Thurlow Weed heartily endorsed Grant and Colfax, but

1 New York World, May 22, 1868.

'New York Sun, June 2, 1868.

3 See Credit Mobilier scandal in Dunning, Reconstruction, pp. 231-3. Rhodes, United States History, vol. vii, ch. xi passim.

'New York Herald, May 22, 1868.

Ibid., May 23, 1868.