and carpet-bag rule. Sumner, toward whom Grant had behaved with what most people considered inexcusable injustice, was nowhere more beloved than in the Middle West, where he had long been a popular hero. And the best men everywhere were dissatisfied with the position of the party leaders upon the civil service question.

Carl Schurz was the guiding spirit of the Liberal Republican movement of 1872, and its strongest adherents were in those states where his influence, and that of his friends, was strong. His election to the senate in 1869 was the first sign of the triumph of a new set of ideas in the Republican party. Tariffreform Republicans joined hands with the reconstruction-reform men, but as tariff-reform men were comparatively few in most of the states where the insurgents hoped to gain a following, this issue was kept in the background. The passage of the Ku-Klux bill in 1871 was so actively opposed by Schurz and Trumbull as to cause these two leaders to draw together and to gather around them the more liberal elements in the party; and this group was further unified by the New York Custom House affair. Nevertheless, as late as in December of 1871 neither Trumbull nor Schurz had openly planned to oppose Grant's reëlection."

Early in January the movement, which as yet had appeared only as a division in Congress, began to take on a more popular aspect. In Missouri and in Southern Illinois, where the Southern element was strong, there was a great deal of fighting among the people in support of Schurz, Trumbull, and Sumner. The Missouri Liberal Republicans held a convention in January, and issued a call for a national mass convention in May. Preconvention speculation as to the presidential candidate of this seceding Republican gathering centered at that time about two men, Lyman Trumbull and Charles Francis Adams. The people of the southern third of Illinois, as well as many throughout the state who remembered Trumbull's service, were very hopeful concerning his chances. Governor Palmer and the influential Jesse K. Dubois were his leading supporters. Adams was probably better known in the nation than Trumbull, and had proved his ability in

Horace White, Life of Lyman Trumbull, 269-271, quoting an interview published in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Dec. 3, 1871, and New York Times, Dec. 6. A letter from Trumbull to W. C. Flagg, among the Flagg MSS, dated Jan. 10, 1872, however, shows that at that date Trumbull was contemplating open opposition to Grant in the Republican party. Flagg was, according to his own statement, Trumbull's only confidant at this time.

the difficult position of minister to England during the Civil War.

Just when Trumbull's prospects were brightest, Judge David Davis decided that he would be a candidate for the nomination. Leonard Swett, the famous criminal lawyer, long an associate and close personal friend of Judge Davis, became his manager, and enlisted the services of Fell in arousing the people of McLean County and Central Illinois to the support of a citizen of their own community for the nomination. Fell, from the first an advocate of a milder reconstruction policy and for that reason thoroly in sympathy with the Liberals, had been a Trumbull adherent until Davis made his decision, when he changed to support an old and dear friend. By the first of April, then, he was being consulted as to the plans for the Davis campaign at Cincinnati. Swett, ingenious and indefatigable, estimated the strength of the Trumbull faction, and proposed that to counteract it a train load of Davis supporters should go to Cincinnati, that they might influence the nomination there as the Illinois delegations had in 1860. McLean, Tazewell, Livingston, Logan, DeWitt, Champaign, Ford, Iroquois and Vermillion counties were strongly in favor of Davis, and from these counties Swett drew the delegations upon which he mainly depended." Peoria County, and especially the German population (the strength of

Fell to Lyman Trumbull, Mar. 4, Apr. 11, 1872. (Trumbull MSS, Library of Congress.) Trumbull to Fell, Mar. 9, 1872. Mr. Fell's sympathy for the once oppressed black man did not blind him to the shame of the existing oppression of white men in the South. A letter to James G. Blaine, written Mar. 3, 1885, but possibly never sent, shows plainly his ideas upon the subject, and contains some very entertaining comments. After referring to the failure of Republican reconstruction, he says: "Unfortunately the Democracy of this country neither learns nor forgets much, and without outside aid, I have slender hopes in that direction." He thinks reform must come through some liberal leader. “As possibly you may know, I was quite intimately acquainted with Abm. Lincoln, & in a feeble way did something in 1858, 9 and 60 in bringing him before the people as a presidential candidate. In the enclosed I have ventured to say what were some of his views touching the matter in hand-reconstruction. Had he lived doubtless they would have been modified. . . . Whilst you are not where many of us would have you, are you not in a position where you can be almost as influential? Your 2nd vol., in which you will discuss this very question, is yet to be published. Why not give this matter your patient, very best thought?” "Swett to Fell, Apr. 1, 1872.

the Republican party there), would accept any man who might be nominated, in the opinion of Robert Ingersoll.

Early in April a number of disaffected Republicans met at the home of Horace White in Chicago, and agreed to issue a call for the Cincinnati meeting, signed by as many influential men as might be induced to join the movement. As this followed the one already issued by Missouri (and was copied from the one issued in New York), it was called a "Response." It appeared first in the Chicago Times, April 17, 1872. Thirty-eight men, including Gustav Korner and Horace White, Dubois, Miner, Jayne, and Fell, signed the call as first published, and within a few days a longer list appeared, comprising the names of hundreds of Illinois Republicans. Palmer, at first inclined to favor the Regulars, decided in March to espouse the new cause, and declined the Regular Republican nomination for the governorship,, which was accepted by Oglesby.10

9

Trumbull kept Fell informed of the trend of affairs in Washington, while Fell wrote him of the local situation.11 Trumbull

The letter from Robert Ingersoll to Mr. Fell, dated Peoria, Apr. 6, 1872, expresses with remarkable frankness that would-be statesman's resentment of his rejection by the people of Illinois. "You must not expect me to make a speech at Cincinnati," he says. "I am done. I can conceive of no circumstances under which I would make a political speech. If ever in this world a man was thoroughly sick of political speaking, I am that man. Understand me, I am an admirer and a friend of Judge Davis. I want to see him president of the United States and I believe he will be. And what little I do will be done for him. I am going to take no active part for anybody. For some reason, the leaders in politics are not my friends, and never have been. My only ambition is to get a living and to take good care of my family. The American people have lost the power to confer honor. . . . Leonard Swett wrote me upon the subject of going to Cincinnati. I wrote him that I was sick of politics. By the way, if his letter had been about one-tenth as long, it would have been infinitely better. His letter is good; but too much of it. All his points could have been made in one column. A letter never should be so long as to require an index."

"White to Fell, Apr. 10, 1872. Fell to Trumbull, Apr. 8. Chicago Times, Apr. 17, and Pantagraph, Apr. 19, 20.

10Carlinville Democrat, Apr. 17. Pantagraph, Apr. 18. On the 23d of April, Palmer delivered a very influential anti-Grant speech at Springfield, which, served greatly to strengthen the forces of the Liberals.

11 Fell to Trumbull, Apr. 8, 11, 1872. (Trumbull MSS, Library of Congress.) Trumbull to Fell, Apr. 11, 16, 1872. Trumbull's letter of April 11 spoke of the Cooper Union meeting, at which Trumbull and

would give no formal consent to the use of his name before the convention until late in April, apparently with an unselfish desire not to hamper the success of the reform wave by introducing personal factions. Indeed, he tried to impose on other leaders an entirely impracticable policy of entire silence with regard to candidates until the meeting at Cincinnati.

Meantime the Davis group was vigorously pushing its candidate in the only region in which he could command much support; for, being a jurist and not a political leader, and being but little known throughout the country, his strongest claim to recognition lay in his having been the personal friend and appointee of Lincoln, a claim that amounted to little except in Illinois. Since men with even less fame have succeeded in winning nominations from the lottery of convention chance, Swett and Fell had lively hopes that with a good delegation of local supporters they might carry the day in Cincinnati. The Democrats, strong in Illinois, were rallying to his support. Among these was Adlai Stevenson, a man of considerable influence and a neighbor of Judge Davis, who with his adherents formed part of the Davis party at the convention. Swett was a skilful manager, and by convention time had gained half the Illinois forces for Davis. The Labor Reform party had already nominated him for president in February.1

12

Returning from a tree-planting expedition to his Iowa lands just before the convention, Fell preceded by a few days the delegation which started from Bloomington at five o'clock on April 29. Judge Davis' generosity in providing facilities for the attendance of his supporters made the following a large one; contemporary accounts say it was also a very noisy and confident one. About 550 men from Bloomington and vicinity went to Cincinnati; the entire Illinois contingent numbered over a thousand.13

The Davis party, ensconcing itself early at headquarters and marshalling its forces in well-organized companies which gave a strong impression of confidence and success, seemed to lead all others before the convention opened.1 There was an underSchurz both spoke to an immense audience, and said that the movement had attained such proportions that no one faction could then control it. 12 Stanwood, History of the Presidency, 336.

13 Pantagraph, Apr. 10, 13, 17, 19, 27, 30, and later issues.

14"It is obvious that the Davis crowd is the calmest, the most confident, and the best organized and disciplined. They pitched their tents

standing-in which it is natural to suspect the old combination of Lewis and Fell-that Davis should have first place, and Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania second; an arrangement which Curtin's own ambition to head the ticket brought to naught. Adams, by far the most able and best prepared of all possible candidates, was unpopular in the West because of the very qualities which made his strength-his distinguished ancestry, his long and successful diplomatic service, his thoro education and statesmanlike qualities. His opponents reviled him as an "aristocrat;" to which his friends answered by inquiring with asperity if it were in the Constitution that the president had to come from Illinois?

The "hordes" from that state had but a fictitious strength, for they were divided into three factions, supporting Palmer, Trumbull and Davis respectively. On the twenty-ninth of April there was waged an all-day fight among the Illinois leaders, who could arrive at no kind of agreement. Swett and Fell found themselves pitted against White and Bryant, the capable Trumbull managers. On the thirtieth-Tuesday-the leaders decided to divide the Illinois vote among the three candidates. They called a meeting at three o'clock in Greenwood Hall. Dr. Jayne of Springfield, a Trumbull supporter, issued the call. Fell presided, and the secretary was a Palmer man. About a thousand

the earliest, and have worked up in detail all the strong points of their candidate and all the weak points of his rivals.

"It is claimed that Davis is the only man in the crowd who is personally popular. Adams is aristocratic, Brown belongs to the 'hurrah' school, but has few warm friends; Trumbull is cold as a fish; Cox is phlegmatic and Greeley is pudgy and eccentric. 'But Davis,' says Jesse Fell, is a man who is beloved by those who know him. I have known him personally and intimately for thirty years, as I knew Lincoln, and he is just such an honest, faithful, straightforward, incorruptible man; and he possesses the same personal magnetism. He would give us the same enthusiastic campaign and the same overwhelming victory. All of those who were old Abe's associates before 1860 are now asking Davis' nomination. He now lives in Central Illinois, and has made two million dollars in fair dealing, and he hasn't an enemy in all that region, nor in the world. The last two times he was elected Judge without a single dissenting vote from either party. ['] This is the way his friends talk; and Fell is one of the sincerest of men, and his moderation gives weight to his words. Davis seems ahead at this hour. Curtin is to get the second place, in consideration of giving Pennsylvania's vote to Davis for the first."-Chicago Post of Apr. 28, quoted in Pantagraph.