NAVAL OFFICER. CHAPTER XXIV. BUSY POLITICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 1869-1877. ON the accession of General Grant to the presidency, Governor Harriman, who was soon to leave the gubernatorial chair, having no professional or other business to which to resort, and with means somewhat limited, concluded to make application for an appointment. Though he had been in positions where some men would have acquired gain, he had not. Not a dollar or a dime did he appropriate that was not morally and legally his own. He thought favorably of the consulships at London and Liverpool, and received a number of letters from prominent men recommending him for one of those positions. But President Grant had decided to make no removal at either of those places, and so informed him in March; offering, however, at the same time, to appoint him minister resident at either one of two places named, in South America, at an annual salary of $7,500 in gold. But the New Hampshire friends of the governor, and especially his own family, advised against his going abroad, and that advice prevailed. General Grant, who was his strong personal friend, and well knew his meritorious conduct in the war, and fully appreciated his ability and service as a political orator, then gladly appointed him naval officer at the port of Boston. 1 The letter of General Aaron F. Stevens, of Nashua, the gallant colonel of the New Hampshire Thirteenth in the late war, and that of the noble-hearted General Ambrose E. Burnside, then governor of Rhode Island, who had commanded the Ninth Corps, to which the New Hampshire Eleventh belonged, are printed at the end of the chapter, as also letters of Governor Claflin of Massachusetts and Hon. Henry Wilson. The appointment was made in March, but was not formally accepted until the expiration of the appointee's term as governor. On the 9th of June, 1869, Governor Harriman entered upon the duties of the office which he was to hold for nearly eight years, and through the two terms of President Grant's administration. The "Boston Traveller," in noticing his induction, said : "THE NAVAL OFFICE. This morning the new naval officer was inducted into the duties of office. He comes from a sister State into a situation which cannot properly be said to belong to Boston alone, nor to Massachusetts, nor entirely to New England, but rather to the United States, according to the liberal ideas we should entertain of our nationality. He comes favorably, too, as his first appointment signalizes. His deputy is a man well known here and in New Hampshire. He is an influential, able, exemplary, and experienced officer. . . . In appointing Hiram Smart, Esq., General Harriman has revived the old and successful policy of promotion, one in strict conformity with the measure proposed by Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, and once practiced in the collector's as well as in the naval officer's department. "We therefore pronounce it a good sign, and hope it is the re-inauguration of the old era or an inauguration of a new one. At any rate, General Harriman enters upon his official duties under promising auspices, and if he continue to base his subsequent movements upon this principle of merit, qualifications, and experience, his administration cannot but be satisfactory to the government, to the public, and to himself." With the duties of his office, which were performed with characteristic fidelity, other and numerous engagements, during those years, helped make his life a very busy one. Those engagements, classed as political and miscellaneous, may best be grouped separately - each class running through the whole period. POLITICAL ENGAGEMENTS. In September, 1869, Governor Harriman went to Ohio, and took part in the campaign of the state election. His efforts helped elect General Rutherford B. Hayes — afterwards president to the office of governor over George H. Pendleton. The Mount Vernon (Ohio) "Republican" noticed him and one of his efforts, as follows: "Governor Harriman of New Hampshire made a most favorable impression upon our people by his masterly speech on the 21st. He is a noble specimen of a man physically. Tall, well-proportioned, with a large, well-balanced head, and an agreeable face, he impresses favorably at the beginning. His speech was a most finished production. The logic was solid, while his rhetoric was most brilliant and effective. We have rarely listened to so finished and effective a speech." At Painesville, on the eve of election, having come from his own meeting into another, he was called up to close this, as he did in the following speech:1. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I rejoice that the Republicans of Ohio are not sleeping. In sleep is political death. The party to which we belong is made strong by discussion and examination. Ohio is an important State; an election here has great significance. The intelligent voter should keep his lamp constantly trimmed and burning. Watchman, what now do you say of the night? What tidings greet you from all over this broad State? I bring you messages of joy. I see light, and no darkness at all. I advocate the Republican organization and its candidates. In the strength of the Republican party I see the perpetuity of the American Union. What do the honor and the welfare of the country demand? Is the repudiation of the national debt demanded? Who demands it? What party? What individuals? As an American I declare before Heaven I am ashamed to dwell 1 It was imperfectly reported; but that report, as printed in the newspapers, at the time, is the only copy of the speech extant. on this theme. I blush for the dishonor which the discussion of this has already brought upon our country. We are rich and strong. By the blessing of God we conquered the rebellion in our strength. Ours was the blood it cost. Ours were the millions paid in its progress. Ours were the years of pain and sorrow, of doubt and desolation. We have risen from this ordeal stronger and richer than we entered it. What man or party is there mean enough to make our government a swindler and a cheat? Outside of prison walls no such man should be met. The Democratic cry of last fall that the country was financially ruined - has been fulfilled as all their prophecy during the war was fulfilled. A few months of the Grant administration has put these croakers to shame. Our debt is rapidly wearing away; at the present rate it will all be extinguished in the brief period of fifteen or twenty years. General Rosecrans (all honor to him for it) gives the repudiating Democracy a fearful stab under the fifth rib in his letter declining the Democratic nomination. Democratic voices should be silent as the tomb on this subject of the national debt. That debt was incurred in putting down a Democratic rebellion and saving the country. Had the Democratic party been faithful there would have been no rebellion, no war, no debt. Every syllable uttered by a Democrat or a rebel about the national indebtedness is a rendition of the plea of guilty to their own great crime. Taxation is laid heavily on incomes and luxuries. Congress has sought to relieve the poor, and has looked mainly to the rich for the revenues of the government. If taxation is not properly adjusted, let Democrats, or anybody else, point out wherein, and let it be changed. Republicans are wedded to no theory. Revenue for the government must be raised, and raised on something. What shall it be? I know it is a little hard on the Democratic party to raise so much on whiskey, but Republicans are not wholly free from that tax. It is easy to growl, and very natural to some men. The smaller a man's soul is the more fault he is always finding. Be manly, be heroic, bear your burdens cheerfully, and thus fulfill the law. My Democratic brother, let me not hear a word from your lips about taxing the bonds. Your own party, in the great National Convention in New York city, last July, stamped its heel of disapprobation upon that scheme, and you are estopped. I hold you there till your own party, in solemn convocation assembled, relieves you. Pendleton's theory of paying the bonds in greenbacks is a humbug of the first magnitude, and Pendleton may go into the next presidential campaign on that issue, if he desires to. He will not carry a single State that was not in the rebellion. Democrats of Ohio must feel cheap in talking about Republican extravagance! I commend to them the study of the present Democratic legislature. It will be an eyeopener. The Democracy have nothing to rely on. Their old rebel record stares them bravely in the face. There has been no war of races at the South as a consequence of negro suffrage-no military dictatorship set up by General Grant - no extravagant expenditure of the people's money. They say Grant is not at his post, but is traveling about over the country. Do you remember one Andrew Johnson and his travels? What dear Democrat was ever heard to complain of that? And the difference between Johnson and Grant in this particular is, that Johnson traveled and made a fool of himself and Grant does n't. On the contrary, General Grant is everywhere received with marks of the highest honor. He makes a good president, and future ages will fittingly honor the successful general and the no less successful chief magistrate. The Fifteenth Amendment will become a part of the Constitution. I support it cheerfully. Colored men have always voted in New Hampshire with the same freedom as white men vote. The black man was with us in the deathgrapple with treason. He was in our armies. I do not compare black troops with white; but those of you who have witnessed the colored troops rushing on against the rebel bayonets like the resistless tread of Heaven's black tornado will not pronounce them a failure. Let the poor man vote. Let the colored man vote. The ballot is an |