eral Republican candidates and platform. A more inconsistent step was probably never taken by a political party. The Liberal Democrats Indorse Republican platform solemnly declared: "We pledge ourselves to maintain the Union of these States, emancipation and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments." By accepting this pledge the Democrats turned their backs on their platform of four years before, and openly confessed defeat on the war and reconstruction issues. Their indorsement of Greeley was no less remarkable, for there was no public man in the country who had said more bitter things about Democrats and the South. For years, in fact, he had been saying in effect that, while not all Democrats were horse-thieves, all horse-thieves were Democrats. Little wonder, therefore, that the New York Nation declared that he appeared to be "boiled crow' to more of his fellow citizens than any other candidate for office in this or any other age❞—and thus was the political vocabulary enlarged by the expression, "to eat crow." One fact that helped Southerners to accept Greeley was that he had signed Jefferson Davis's bail-bond. Some Democrats, however, found the dose too strong and considered the party's action "a cowardly surrender of principles for the sake of possible victory." A convention was held at Louisville by Democrats who felt thus, and Charles O'Conor of New York was put forward for the presidency, but he declined to accept. In the election about 30,000 voters, nevertheless, voted for him. Absurdities Greeley had not only been bitterly anti-Democratic and anti-Southern, but he did not favor either tariff reform or civilservice reform-two of the main tenets of many of the Liberal Republicans. His political judgment was notoriof Greeley's ously bad, while his record, personal characteristics, Candidacy. and childlike naïveté, which is discernible even in his portraits and statues, lent themselves to ridicule and caricature. To Harper's Weekly Thomas Nast, then at the height of his fame, contributed numerous striking cartoons that did much to bring Greeley's characteristics into high relief. One cartoon represented the old Abolitionist editor eating with a wry face from a bowl of uncomfortably hot porridge that was labelled, "My own words and deeds." Another pictured Greeley at his country home at Chappaqua, sitting well out on a limb, which he was solemnly sawing off-between himself and the tree! Ultimately some of the very men who had promoted the Cincinnati movement declared for Grant, while others gave Greeley only half-hearted support. Grant's hold on the great mass of the Republican party remained unshaken. To millions his administration had proven satisfactory, and even those who realized that he had made some mistakes could not forget the thrills with which, in days when patriots despaired of the republic, they had heard the news of his victories. The criticisms uttered by Democrats and Liberal Republicans received scant consideration from men who had marched where "Ulysses led the van.” Grant Still In the campaign Republican orators brought the Southern issue to the front and made effective use of stories of Ku Klux outrages and of the cry "Grant beat Davis, Greeley bailed The him." In September Greeley caused Republican managers some uneasiness by making a tour through the "October States," for his name had long been a household word in the North and vast crowds assembled to see and hear him, but the results of the early elections in these States showed that many people were drawn by curiosity rather than political sympathy. Grant When the returns from the November election came in it was found that Greeley was one of the worst-beaten Re-elected. men who had ever been a candidate of a great party for the presidency. He did not carry a single Northern State, and only six Southern States, while Grant received a popular plurality of over three-quarters of a million and a vast majority of the electoral votes. The canvass had been a comedy; it was followed by a tragedy. Chagrin over the result, financial troubles, and the death of his wife proved more than the old journalist could bear, and Greeley died within the month (November 29, 1872). In that tragic hour men forgot his failings, and over his grave honored him for the good deeds that lived after him. In this campaign opponents of the use of intoxicating liquors had met at Columbus, Ohio, and had nominated a ticket and framed a platform declaring for prohibition, woman's suffrage, Formation of Prohibition and other reforms. They polled less than 6,000 votes in the election, and their voting strength in later years never rose to 300,000, yet in every presidential campaign thereafter they took the field and made their moral protest against "John Barleycorn." Like the Liberty and Free Soil parties, the Prohibitionists were destined never to win as a party, yet their cause ultimately triumphed. Tweed CHAPTER VII THE END OF AN ERA THE Southern States suffered severely from corruption under Carpet-Bag rule, but they were equalled, if not surpassed, in this respect by the metropolis of the country under the notorious Tweed Ring. William Marcy Tweed, better known as "Boss" Tweed, was an accomplished rascal who won friends by his liberal giving and coarse joviality, held numerous offices, and built up a band of political crooks who controlled Tammany Hall and ruthlessly plundered the city. The ring was greatly aided by the fact that a large part of the voters were ignorant foreigners, destitute of any standards of civic virtue, nor did the ring hesitate to use bribery, fraud, and all the other nefarious tricks common to corrupt politics. The ring included in its membership mayors and even judges, and in 1868, and again in 1870, Tweed managed to place one of his creatures, John T. Hoffman, in the governor's chair at Albany and even groomed him for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Estimates of the amount of money stolen by Tweed and his associates vary from $45,000,000 to $200,000,000. For years many New Yorkers realized that they were being robbed, but the ring was so powerful that it long retained control of the city. Finally the New York Times, which was con The Ring ducted by two courageous, public-spirited men— George Jones and Louis J. Jennings-began a crusade against Tweed and his copartners; and Harper's Weekly, which worked effectively through the powerful cartoons of Thomas Nast, presently joined in the hue and cry. Tweed brazenly asked: "What are you going to do about it?" But the end of his power was at hand. Some prominent Demo crats, among them Samuel J. Tilden and Charles O'Conor, joined in the battle against the ring. Some of the members fled to other countries; others were arrested; a few were convicted and punished. Tweed himself was sentenced (1873) to twelve years' imprisonment and to pay a heavy fine, but was soon released on a technicality. He was arrested again, managed to escape to Spain but was recaptured and brought back, and finally died in the Ludlow Street jail (April 12, 1878). Thus ended the Tweed Ring, but unluckily it was not the end of corruption in New York City politics. Tweed and his associates were not the only politicians who preyed upon America in this period, but fortunately a young country, like a rhinoceros, can thrive and grow fat and lusty Census of 1870. even when fed upon by a multitude of parasites. Nor had the ravages of a great war sufficed to keep the United States at a standstill. The census of 1870 showed that in a decade the population had increased over 7,000,000, or from 31,443,321 to 38,558,371. Only three States had lost in population, and, curiously enough, two of these New Hampshire and Maine-were in the North, while the decrease of the third-Virginia-was largely due to her western counties having been set apart as a separate State. Every year thousands of settlers were pouring into the transMississippi region, and the centre of population in a decade had shifted forty-two miles westward, to a point forty-eight miles east by north of Cincinnati. Railroad It was a period of almost unparalleled business expansion, especially in the development of transportation facilities. Cities, counties, States, and the nation lavishly voted loans and subsidies to encourage the construction of railConstruction. roads. The land grants given by Congress to such enterprises exceeded a hundred million acres. In the period 1869-72 more than 24,000 miles of new railroad were built, largely in the West and Northwest, while old lines were improved. This activity in railroad construction enormously expanded the iron-and-steel industry, and greatly stimulated other lines of business, so that labor was kept busy, |