Q: What’s most
striking to you about the campaign on Grant’s behalf in 1880?
A: It is surprising that this episode has
been so forgotten specifically because, in fact, Grant came so achingly
close to succeeding -- closer than anyone else until Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1940. Grant defied tradition and fought the contest to a
draw after 35 ballots in one of the most hotly contested Republican
nominating conventions ever. Grant's block of 300-plus votes held firm
with him until the end. And, arguably, Grant's life experience by 1880
-- his world travels and his perspective at having weathered the
scandals of his second term -- could have made him a much better
president then than he was in 1869. Still, the tide turned against him,
and the rest, as they say, was history.
Had Grant in fact won the Republican nomination in 1880, it is
intriguing to imagine how he would have campaigned against the
Democratic candidate that year, General Winfield Scott Hancock. There is
no precedent for such a contest between two generals, a commander and
his subordinate officer. Given their mutual cold feelings, it could have
been a fascinating grudge-match. As it was, even after losing the
nomination, Grant became the first former president to stump actively
for his party's candidate.
Q: What were the big
trends and issues at play during the 1880 campaign?
A: The great issues of the Civil War
generation had been settled by 1880: the North won the war, slavery was
abolished, and reconstruction had failed. Still, appeals to the great
principles and lingering passions of the conflict continued to echo in
campaign speeches, almost overshadowing the more concrete (and more
mundane) issues of the day: whether to strengthen the protective tariff,
restrict Chinese immigration, reform the civil service, and so on.
Washington still played no role in providing a social safety net for the
poor or unemployed, had no interest in women's suffrage, nor in
addressing the rising conflict between capital and labor, other than
Rutherford Hayes's calling out federal troops to crush the railroad
strikes of 1877.
Partly as a result, much of the politics of the era had the feel of a
sporting event -- our team versus their team. Politics was exciting
entertainment, a shared, community experience with wonderful speeches
parades, and spectacles -- not to mention the widespread cheating
(vote-rigging and bribery up north; lynchings and intimidation against
freed blacks down South). Some 80 percent of eligible adults voted, a
level of participation we can only envy in looking back on it from
today.
Q: James G. Blaine
was a leading national politician whose appeal is little remembered
today. How would you characterize him?
A: Blaine in many ways was perhaps the most
talented politician of his age. But for his scandal involving suspicious
dealings in railroad bonds (he was never indicted nor convicted of any
wrongdoing, but the stain persisted nevertheless), he probably would
have made a good president.
He was smart, articulate, personable, and manipulative, had cut a strong
profile as Speaker of the House (1869-1876) promoting sound finance,
national expansion, and civil rights. He presented himself as leader of
the rising generation of post-war Republicans, with particular support
among younger and western voters. He was the dashing "plumed
knight" for Republican causes, in the words of orator and political
leader Robert Ingersoll.
Despite all the hoopla in 1880 over the conflict between Stalwarts
(Grant's backers) and the Half Breeds (Blaine's supporters), there were
actually very few policy differences dividing the two sides. In 1884,
when Blaine himself finally won the nomination, he would choose as his
vice-presidential candidate John Logan, one of Grant's closest backers
in 1880.
Q: Tell us about the
relationship between Grant and James A. Garfield.
A: Grant and James Garfield were never
close personally. As a congressman in the 1870s, Garfield loyally
supported Grant as his president, but always kept a cool distance. In
one often-quoted incident, when Garfield was visiting the White House in
March 1876 and happened to witness Grant's calm reaction on hearing the
news that his Secretary of War, William Belknap, had resigned in
disgrace, Garfield remarked: "[Grant's] imperturbability is
amazing. I am in doubt whether to call it greatness or stupidity."
Later, when Garfield became president in 1881, Grant came to visit him
at the White House. Instead of giving the younger man fatherly advice as
a former president, however, Grant used the occasion primarily to lobby
for a special government job for Adam Badeau, his wartime aide and
post-war biographer. Then, when Garfield got into a serious fight with
Senator Roscoe Conkling (R-NY) over control of patronage at the New York
Customs House, Grant took Conkling's side. Grant would never enjoy easy
access to the White House again. He died in July 1885, in what likely
would have been the first year of his fourth term as president had
things gone slightly different for him in 1880.
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