Part 18 (1/2)
VI
The reception by the country of the nomination of Horace Greeley was as inexplicable to the politicians as the nomination itself had been unexpected by the Quadrilateral The people rose to it The sentimental, the fantastic and the paradoxical in human nature had to do with this
At the South an ebullition of pleased surprise grew into positive enthusias of the Southern heart, and Greeley's had been the first hand stretched out to the South froned the bail bond of Jefferson Davis--and quick upon the news flashed the response fro upon a recognized debt of gratitude
Except for this spontaneous uprising, which continued unabated in July, the Democratic Party could not have been induced at Baltis at Cincinnati and formally to make Greeley its candidate The leaders dared not resist it Soreat body of them came to the front to head the procession
He was a queer old man; a very medley of contradictions; shrewd and si; a master penman of the school of Swift and Cobbett; even in his odd picturesque personality whimsically attractive; a man to be reckoned here he chose to put his powers forth, as Seward learned to his cost
What he would have done with the Presidency had he reached it is not easy to say or surether unsuited for official life, for which nevertheless he had a passion But he was not so readily deceived in men or ht him
His convictions were emotional, his philosophy was experimental; but there was a certain ave bountifully of his affection and his confidence to the feho enjoyed his fah not indiscri to those who appealed to his iht his help He had been a good party man and was by nature and tee of servitude; it was a decoration--prefernition He had always yearned for office as the legitimate destination of public life and the honorable award of party service During the greater part of his career the conditions of journalisreat as a journalist He was truly and highly fit for nothing else, but seeing less deserving and less capable men about him advanced from one post of distinction to another he wondered why his turn proved so tardy in co, and when it would come It did come with a rush
What more natural than that he should believe it real instead of the eeant of a vision?
It had taken ether after the first shock and surprise and to plunge into the swied factions ashore This was clearly indispensable to forcing the Deanization to come to the rescue of ould have been otherwise but a derelict upon a storruntled Before he could be appeased a bridge, found in as called the Fifth Avenue Hotel Conference, had to be constructed in order to carry him across the stream which flowed between his disappointed hopes and aiical and repulsive alternative He had taken to his tent and sulked like another Achilles
He was harder to deal with than any of the Democratic file leaders, but he finally yielded and did splendid work in the can
His was a stubborn spirit not readily adjustable He was a nobly gifted man, but from first to last an alien in an alien land He once said to me, ”If I should live a thousand years they would still call me a Dutchman” No man of his time spoke so well or wrote to better purpose
He was equally skillful in debate, an over and Morton, whom--especially in the French arms matter--he completely dominated and outshone As sincere and unselfish, as patriotic and as courageous as any of his contemporaries, he could never attain the fullits understanding directly and surely; within himself a man of sentiment as not the cause of sentiment in others He knew this and felt it
The Nast cartoons, which as to Greeley and Su Schurz with a kind of considerate qualifying hureatly offended him I do not think Greeley minded them much if at all They were very effective; notably the ”Pirate shi+p,” which represented Greeley leaning over the taffrail of a vessel carrying the Stars and Stripes and waving his handkerchief at the man-of-war Uncle Sam in the distance, the political leaders of the Confederacy dressed in true corsair costu did more to sectionalize Northern opinion and fire the Northern heart, and to lash the fury of the rank and file of those ere urged to vote as they had shot and who had hoisted above them the bloody shi+rt for a banner The first half of the canvass the bulge ith Greeley; the second half began in eclipse, to end in so and set out upon his own account for a tour of the country Right well he bore hi of results Greeley's speeches surely should have elected him They wereappeals to the better sense and the enerous irity; unanswerable froacious statesmanshi+p or true patriotism if the North had been in any mood to listen and to reason
I met him at Cincinnati and acted as his escort to Louisville and thence to Indianapolis, where others aiting to take hie He was in a state of querulous excitement Before the vast and noisy audiences which we faced he stood apparently pleased and coht have dictated therapher As soon as ere alone he would break out into a kind of laation He especially distrusted the Quadrilateral, ht, because however his no back to the years i the hen I ont to encounter hiton, which he preferred to using his floor privilege as an ex-ress
It was mid-October We had heard from Maine; Indiana and Ohio had voted
He was for the first ti the hopeless nature of the contest
The South in irons and under military rule and martial law sure for Grant, there had never been any real chance Noas obvious that there was to be no coround swell at the North That he should pour forth his chagrin to one whoarded as one of his boys was inevitable Much of what he said was founded on a basis of fact, some of it was mere suspicion and surmise, all of it came back to the lad and yet loath to part with hi friendly hand and heart to lean upon he did during those dark days--the end in darkest night nearer than anyone could divine He showed stronger mettle than had been allowed him: bore a manlier part than was commonly ascribed to the slovenly slipshod habilinancy and vacillation seele for the ascendancy Abroad the eleainst hiood gray head he still carried like a hero, but the worn and tender heart was beginning to break Overwhel affliction He never quitted his dear one's beside until the last pulsebeat, and then he sank beneath the load of grief
”The Tribune is gone and I aone,” he said, and spoke no more
The death of Greeley fell upon the country with a sudden shock It roused a universal sense of pity and sorrow and awe All hearts were hushed In an instant the bitterness of the cah the huzzas of the victors still rent the air The President, his late antagonist, with his cabinet and the leading ress, attended his funeral As he lay in his coffin he was no longer the arch rebel, leading a coents, which the Republican orators and newspapers had depicted him, but the brave old apostle of freedom who had done more than all others to make the issues upon which a militant and triumphant party had risen to power
The multitude remembered only the old white hat and the sweet old baby face beneath it, heart of gold, and hand wielding the wizard pen; the incarnation of probity and kindness, of steadfast devotion to his duty as he saw it, and to the needs of the whole huedy in truth it was; and yet as his body was lowered into its grave there rose above it, invisible, unnoted, a flower of matchless beauty--the flower of peace and love between the sections of the Union to which his life had been a sacrifice
The crank convention had builded wiser than it knew That the Deht to the support of Horace Greeley for President of the United States reads even now like a page out of a nonsense book That his warmest support should have come from the South seems incredible and was a priceless fact His martyrdom shortened the distance across the bloody chasm; his coffin very nearly filled it
The candidacy of Charles Francis Adams or of Lyman Trumbull meant a mathematical formula, with no solution of the problem and as certain defeat at the end of it His candidacy threw a flood of light and warmth into the arena of deadly strife; it made a more equal and reasonable division of parties possible; it put the Southern half of the country in a position to plead its own case by showing the Northern half that it was not wholly recalcitrant or reactionary; and itto the timents of bellicose passion and scraps of ante-bellum controversy