defeated, I should still thank God most humbly and heartily, that He allowed me to live in an age and to be a part of the generation that witnessed the downfall and destruction of American Slavery. [Prolonged applause.]

Fellow-citizens, I trust the day is not distant wherein, putting behind us the things that concern the past, we shall remember that grand old injunction of the Bible: "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." I am weary of fighting over the issues that ought to be dead,— that legally were dead years ago. When slavery died I thought that we ought speedily to have ended all that grew out of it, by universal amnesty and impartial suffrage. [Applause.] I think so still; and, if the Democratic party concede Impartial Suffrage, the Republican party will concede universal amnesty; if not, it will have but a very short lease of power. So, then, friends, I summon you all, Republicans and Democrats, to prepare for the new issues, and new struggles that visibly open before us. In the times not far distant we shall consider questions mainly of industrial policy-questions of national advancement-questions involving the best means whereby our different parties may through coöperation, or through rivalry, endeavour to promote the prosperity, the happiness, and the true glory of the American people. To that contest I invite you. For that contest I would prepare you. And so, trusting that the blood shed in the past will be a sufficient atonement for the sins of the past; and that we are entering on a New Departure, not for one party, but for the whole country-a departure from strife to harmony, from destruction to construction, from desolation to peace and plenty, I bid you, friends and fellow citizens, an affectionate good-night. [Prolonged cheers and applause.]

It is apparent from these utterances that Mr. Greeley's Southern tour had had a marked effect upon his political opinions. He had acquired no new faith in the Democratic party; he had lost confidence in the Republican organization; he had begun to see in the "new party movement" a New Departure of men of all parties in the interest of harmony, peace, happiness for the whole country.

He was assailed in many quarters for his views upon the carpet-baggers, but this only caused him to reiterate them with still greater emphasis and to adduce new facts showing their baneful influence upon the South, and, by necessary conse quence, upon the whole nation. Believing that the practica! exclusion of the best men of the South from public affairs was wrong, unjust, anti-republican in principle; perceiving that the rule of the carpet-baggers was ruinous, impoverishing, tending to constant local strife, a constant menace to the peace

.

ON THE NEW DEPARTURE.

529

of the republic, dangerous to the welfare of the whole people; judging that the party in power was committed to sustain the carpet-baggers, and seeing that it constantly apologized for their misgovernment and crimes, the line of duty with him clearly lay in the New Departure. Having without compunction given up the Whig party when it had outlived its usefulness, he now for similar reason stepped from a narrow on to a broad platform, and as before with the triumph of just principles and the progress of the republic to impel him forward on his chosen course.

It is worthy of observation that Mr. Greeley would, no doubt, sooner have expressed sympathy with the movement for a new party but that, as we have seen, its most eminent representative men were noted advocates of free trade as he was a noted advocate of the opposing doctrine. Upon those other great questions of pacification and governmental reform which came to form the platform of the party he had been unequivocally committed, both by word and deed, in advance of almost any of his cotemporaries.

34

CHAPTER XXIX.

A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Organization of the Liberal Republican Party-Preliminary Tactics— Debates in the Senate-Eminent Republicans Join in the Movement -The Cincinnati Convention- Candidates for Nomination - Mr. Greeley Successful-The National Democratic Convention at Baltimore-Notices of Some of Its Eminent Men-The Cincinnati Ticket Endorsed - Mr. Greeley's Letters of Acceptance-His Reception at Chappaqua, of the Democratic Committee, Notifying Him of Nomination-The Canvass - His Tour of New England and of The West Death of Mrs. Greeley - Defeat-At Work Again on The Tribune.

THE "new-party movement" did not result in the formation of any regular political organization until the year 1872, early in May of which year the Liberal Republicans held a National Convention in the city of Cincinnati and formally placed platform and ticket before the country for support.

It has already appeared that the first movements made by those who proposed to themselves to institute a radical reform of parties were mainly conducted by free-traders and in the interest of revenue reform. There were several meetings of noted writers and journalists who came together even so early as the first year of President Grant's administration, with the object of informally discussing the question of revenue reform, and these at length resulted in a quite general agitation of the subject by the press and the intelligent public. The arguments in behalf of the reform advocated by those here spoken of were heartily accepted by large numbers of Republicans and by members of the Democratic party generally. The former were not yet ready, however, to abandon a political organization whose history, as they believed, had been mainly honourable, and had conferred great benefit upon the republic and the cause of human progress.

The reform movement gradually gained popular strength, however, and, advocated by some of the most thoughtful polit

SENATORS SUMNER AND SCHURZ.

521 ical economists of the nation and a number of our most influential, independent public journals, it was entitled to the considerate examination of statesmen and especially of public men in control of affairs. But it was not brought into any notable discussion in the halls of Congress until the long session of 1871-72, and then only, in such way as to receive general attention, in the Senate. As a rule, the House of Representatives proceeded with routine business, providing for the coming campaign, printing many speeches never delivered, and skipping the questions a settlement of which upon some policy or other was demanded by justice, statesmanship, and a decent respect for the national will.

But the debates in the Senate made that chamber the scene of greatest attraction at the National Capital during many months. The administration was attacked for certain alleged abuses, corruptions, the exercise of unwarranted powers, for postponing the era of peace and harmony throughout the country. Of Republican Senators who assailed the administration of President Grant, Charles Sumner was the most distinguished. He had ever been a leading and potential Republican not only, but may be truthfully said, I think, to have been for many years the most illustrious of American statesmen, the most faithful friend and the most powerful champion of human freedom. He assailed the administration, or rather the President, with even unusual eloquence and unwonted indignation. Senator Schurz was the great debater of the period in review. Not since the elder time have there been so many and so great manifestations of forensic powers as were here and now shown by this remarkable man. genius as a statesman is, if I may so speak, both of telescopic and microscopic power. It comprehends great truths, general systems of polity, with clearness and ease, and also observes all details and all technicalities without being thereby either at all beclouded or annoyed. There are few minds more comprehensive than his, few so subtle; and Ben Johnson somewhere says, "He that cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as dilate and disperse it, wanteth a great faculty." In all the debates arising upon the various investigations about

His

this time made of the conduct of officials, Mr. Schurz appeared to be perfectly at home as to all the facts and perfectly familiar with all the principles and laws, whether national or international, bearing upon them. In these intellectual combats he was often opposed by all the eminent men of the administration side of the Senate: by Mr. Morton, the undoubted leader of the Republicans, a man of vast mental powers, whose ponderous mind, the only one on his side of the Senate resembling that of Daniel Webster, though it may not be easily aroused, is, when set in active motion, apt to make wide room for its almost resistless course; by Senator Conkling, of New York, a man not only of chivalric bearing but of great and brilliant powers of debate, whose clear and strong argumentation and keen invective are set forth in most magnificent diction, springing up, rich and fresh, from the well of English undefiled; by Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, a highly skilful and very ready disputant, especially in questions of law; by Senator Carpenter, of Wisconsin, who was happily stated by Mr. Benjamin F. Butler to be worth to a powerful corporation a large annual retainer because "he had a tongue in his head;" by Senator Harlan, of Iowa, whose strong argumentation was ever accompanied by the most pleasing suavity of manner; by Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, who in the Senate often undertook to enact the role of peace-maker, and frequently made himself ridiculous by advocating both sides of the question at issue, and with the most enjoyable ignorance of his preposterous attitudes, or, perhaps I should say, altitudes; by other Senators no less distinguished than some of these;-but out of the grand mélée, the Senator from Missouri came triumphant, like Ivanhoe at the gentle and joyous Passage of Arms of Ashby. If there were answer to many of Mr. Schurz's arguments, it was not then delivered, and has yet to be uttered.

Other eminent Republican Senators besides Messrs. Sumner and Schurz approved the movement for a reform party. Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, was among the first to take this stand. The ablest constitutional lawyer in the Senate, the closest, and, perhaps, the strongest reasoner, in abstract logic,