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The 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago: The Setting |
| The 1880 Republican Convention, which culminated the unprecedented effort to nominate U.S. Grant for a third term, was an event of high drama. A photograph of the proceedings inside the Interstate Exposition Building during the convention provides a look of the setting and some of the participants. A speaker addresses the delegates and a packed gallery of spectators. The convention floor is jammed. |
| Formal attire is juxtaposed with the informality of men sitting on the edge of the stage. Reporters sitting at six tables are busily writing. The Arizona delegation sits in front, placed there by alphabetical order. A few women dot the spectators’ gallery; none can be seen among the delegates, 40 years before American women gained the right to vote in national elections. Incidentally, the Women’s Suffrage Association met concurrently with the Republican convention in Chicag |
Although none seem to be visible in this view, African-Americans were elected as delegates in various states, including South Carolina and Florida (whose delegations voted unanimously for Grant). The setting and action were described vividly in two letters written by eyewitnesses, who shared their memories with Chicago journalist Herma Clark in 1932. Excerpts follow The Interstate Exposition Building “was a barn-like structure on Michigan Avenue, about a block long and 75 feet high. Part of its site is now covered by the Art Institute. The south half of this building was arranged for the convention. The speakers’ platform faced north. The delegates’ chairs on the level floor faced south. The public sat in the galleries on both sides… |
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“The Chairman of the Convention was a Senator from Massachusetts (Senator George Frisbie Hoar), who presided with dignity and was the personification of alertness. The one outstanding nomination speech I heard was by Roscoe Conkling of New York. He was then at the height of his fame and no man was ever more sure of himself or made so striking a figure as did this forceful man on that occasion. He faced his audience, dressed with…great care…and (with) the little curl right down the middle of his forehead was there for all to see....” –Theodore Jessup. Letter to Herma Clark, June 8, 1932, Herma Clark Collection, Chicago Historical Society. |
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“I was in attendance at several sessions of that memorable convention and as a young man was greatly impressed. It was iridescent by many noted men…of heroic fame, such as General Logan, Imperial U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling, General Sheridan, James A. Garfield…. (The) great effort to promote General Grant’s cause occurred at midnight when a severe electric storm was prevailing….”
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