Fifty years in Wall Street
considering that he had done so much to terminate the struggle for
national existence, and had been the chief force in suppressing the
Rebellion. His genius and courage had been chiefly instrumental in
preserving to the country the blessing of a Republican form of
Government. For this boon no people could ever be too profuse in the
manifestations of their gratitude.
This was the patriotic feeling deep in the hearts of the people at
large, but there was a secret movement engineered by “sore-head”
politicians, behind whom were even more dangerous enemies, to thwart
patriotic purposes. Some of these conspirators had been brooding over
latent schemes of anarchy for a long period, and had been attempting to
put them in organic shape before half the first term of General Grant
had expired. They were hard at work training public opinion, by every
means in their power, to prevent Grant’s renomination.
This hostile element was sedulously hatching scandals and ventilating
them in subsidized newspapers, and through various other disreputable
channels.
This opposition increased in violence and intensity, and as the time
approached when the country was to choose its next President, the
renomination of General Grant became a matter of serious doubt, even to
some of his most enthusiastic supporters. It had become a foregone
conclusion that the Democrats would draw largely from the Republican
ranks, and the anxiety on this point was intensified by the hostility of
the _Tribune_, and the prospect of Horace Greeley’s candidacy. It was
absolutely necessary, therefore, that an energetic effort should be
made, and the requisite steps taken to ensure General Grant’s success at
the Convention.
I entered into this feeling with a great deal of personal enthusiasm.
What was my motive? some one reading this may ask.
Because I believed the sacredness of contracts, the stability of wealth,
the success of business enterprise, and the prosperity of the whole
country depended on the election of Grant for President.
If the reader wants to get at the selfish motive, as all readers do, I
shall be perfectly candid with him in that respect also. Of course I
knew that Wall Street business would boom in the wake of this general
prosperity. That was the selfish motive, from which no man is free. Of
course, I expected to share in Wall Street’s consequent prosperity.
I did not want office, as several of the highest were offered me which I
respectfully declined; and no office in the gift of the people would
have compensated me financially; and moreover, my highest ambition has
been satisfied in my own line of business.
I went to work then in the interest of Grant for the second term. I
employed numerous canvassers at my own expense, to find out the minds of
the representative business men on the subject, and to talk the matter
up with those interested in Republican success. These men reported to me
daily, and in a short time I had sounded the minds of that part of the
business community who had the greatest stake in the country, and whose
influence is always most felt when any important achievement is to be
compassed. I sent out a petition, and obtained the names of a splendid
array of merchants and business men of all shades of opinion and
politics in favor of Grant. Following is the heading of the petition:
“A PUBLIC MEETING.
“To the merchants, bankers, manufacturers and other business men
in favor of the re-election of General Grant:
“The undersigned, desiring publicly to express their earnest
confidence in the sagacity, fidelity, energy and unfaltering
patriotism, so signally displayed by Ulysses S. Grant in
securing the restoration of peace at home, upholding national
rights abroad, and in maintaining throughout the world the honor
of the American name, do hereby invite their fellow citizens to
assemble in mass meeting at the Cooper Institute, on Wednesday
evening, the 17th of April, 1872.”
This call was chiefly the result of the personal canvass which I had
instituted a few weeks previously. I selected the names of the persons
to be called on from day to day, and kept these men working the matter
up, until I had secured almost all the reputable business firms in the
city of New York. The following, whose original signatures I have still
in my possession, were prominent in the list:
WILLIAM E. DODGE,
JOHN C. GREEN,
HENRY F. VAIL,
GEORGE T. ADEE,
REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD,
WILLIAM H. FOGG,
BENJAMIN B. SHERMAN,
ROBERT L. STEWART,
WILLIAM HENRY ANTHON,
E. D. MORGAN,
JAMES BUELL,
H. B. CLAFLIN,
W. R. VERMILYE,
WM. M. VERMILYE,
CHARLES L. FROST,
NATHANIEL HAYDEN,
JESSE HOYT,
WILLIAM BARTON PEAKE,
EMIL SAUER,
JACOB OTTO,
JOSEPH STUART,
J. STUART,
THOS. GARNER ANTHONY,
FREDERICK S. WINSTON,
MORRIS FRANKLIN,
WM. C. BRYANT,
R. H. McCURDY,
JOSEPH SELIGMAN,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
WILLIAM ORTON,
CHARLES P. KIRKLAND,
PETER COOPER,
HUGH J. HASTINGS,
SAMUEL B. RUGGLES,
CORTLANDT PALMER,
JONATHAN EDWARDS,
CHARLES KNEELAND,
S. R. COMSTOCK,
PITT COOK,
THOMAS J. OWEN,
OTIS D. SWAN,
GEORGE OPDYKE,
HARPER & BROS.,
JOHN C. HAMILTON,
GEO. W. T. LORD,
SAMUEL T. SKIDMORE,
JONATHAN STURGES,
WM. H. VANDERBILT,
SHEPARD KNAPP,
WM. H. ASPINWALL,
J. S. ROCKWELL.
It is sad to reflect that these are all now numbered with the mighty
dead.
These names will serve to show the great number of prominent people
gradually departing from us every few years.
The name of the number of those yet alive who signed that petition is
legion. In fact those who did not sign it were those whose names were
not worth having. To put it mildly, I secured through their own
signatures, by this method, all whose names were desirable. Our forces
having been mustered in this way, the next thing was to disconcert the
enemy, and inspire our own party by showing our available strength, and
the power and enthusiasm behind the movement. This we proceeded to do by
calling a mass meeting at the Cooper Institute for April 17, 1872.
The meeting was an immense success, in numbers, brains and
respectability. The hall was crowded and the outside meeting was several
times larger.
Mr. A. T. Stewart had been invited to preside. He had been a warm friend
of General Grant, but had then become lukewarm and indifferent, owing to
the fact that he had failed to obtain a Custom House promotion for one
of his wife’s near relations. I had endeavored for several days to
soften Stewart’s heart and get him to consent to be chairman of the
meeting, but he was incorrigible. Finally, I succeeded in extorting a
promise from him that if he did not vote for General Grant he would not
vote against him, but beyond this it was impossible to mollify him. He
was a paragon of obduracy when he had once resolved upon any course.
Even the recollection that he, though an alien born, had been offered
the second highest position of trust in the nation, Secretary of the
Treasury, which he could not accept on account of being in business,
failed to draw out his feelings of gratitude sufficiently to forget the
fancied slight of refusing his wife’s relative promotion.
Failing to secure Mr. Stewart, I invited Mr. William E. Dodge to
preside. He graciously accepted the invitation and made a very good
chairman indeed.
The array of Vice-Presidents was said to excel anything that had ever
appeared in a similar list of the proceedings of any meeting in this
city.
I had invited Fred. Douglas and P. B. S. Pinchback, the eminent colored
orators, to the meeting, but they could not attend, as they were at a
New Orleans convention of their own people. Mr. Rainey, a colored
gentleman, spoke most eloquently and with telling effect. This was the
first time since the war that a colored orator had addressed a meeting
of whites on politics in New York, or probably in the North. Prior to
this the colored vote for Grant had been in doubt, as Horace Greeley,
whose name was a word to conjure with among these people, had recently
been swinging around the circle down South, with a view of capturing
alike the vote of the colored people, who loved him, and that of the
Democrats, who hated him. By a curious fatality he failed to capture
either. As Blaine has truly said of him: “No other candidate could have
presented such an antithesis of strength and weakness.”
There had been no meeting for a long time previous to this that had been
the cause of such an enthusiastic awakening in the party and among
politicians generally over the whole country, as this great
demonstration of the people at the Cooper Union. It crushed the
aspirations of the so-called Independents and smothered the lingering
hopes of the Democratic party.
In order to show the influence of this mass meeting upon the destiny of
political parties in the Presidential election of 1872, it will be
necessary to take a retrospect of the impression it made on parties most
deeply interested in the result, and to make known their private
opinions on the subject. Inside history of this nature is always
instructive, and time has clothed with the attribute of public property,
what at one time was a very precious political secret.
Among the striking incidents of the night of that meeting I distinctly
recollect one that was truly prophetic, in regard to Senator Henry
Wilson, of Massachusetts. A number of the speakers and other prominent
men took supper with me at the Union League Club after the meeting, and
in proposing the health of Senator Wilson, who had spoken so eloquently,
I nominated him for the Vice-Presidency, and sure enough he was
afterwards elected to that position.
I shall take the liberty in this place of introducing to the reader a
few letters hitherto unpublished, which throw considerable light on the
value of the political work done by myself and friends at that time, and
how it was appreciated by those most deeply interested in its outcome.
The following from the White House shows how anxiously the current of
events was being watched from that great centre:
“EXECUTIVE MANSION, }
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 17, 1872 }
MY DEAR CLEWS:
I have received your several interesting letters in regard to
the great meeting in New York, and have shown them to the
President, who read them with deep interest. I have not
written any suggestions, because I know you, being on the
ground, could judge so much better of the situation, and the
temper of the New York people. You have done a great work, and
this evening’s success will, I have no doubt, be the reward of
your efforts. We shall look anxiously for the reports. What
you say is curious about the use of Dix’s name and others. Our
people are at work in Congress getting up telegrams signed by
the Republican members of all the State delegations endorsing
the administration of General Grant. I wish we had thought of
these sooner, but still we can get them all in time, I hope. I
have just come from the House, where I was looking after this
matter. Wishing you every success,
I remain yours very sincerely,
HORACE PORTER,
(Sec’y to President
Grant.)
After the meeting the President’s Secretary writes as follows:
EXECUTIVE MANSION, }
WASHINGTON, D. C., }