Franklin: "Chapter XXXIX. The Lincoln Victory.," by Alexander K. McClure, 1905
Summary: McClure describes his work as manager of Andrew Curtin's gubernatorial campaign in 1860. He also discusses the ways in which the split in the national Democratic party affected state politics.
There never was a party with abler leadership than had the Democrats of Pennsylvania when the campaign of 1860 was about to be opened. The Democratic leaders of that day were men of eminent ability and ripe experience in political management, and they acted with great fidelity to their party organization. There was no such thing as a party boss on either side, and if any man or factional combination had attempted to issue orders to the State conventions of either of the parties about to meet in battle it would not only have been resented, but such leadership would have been sent to the rear without ceremony.
Such men as J. Glancey Jones, of Berks; Judge Campbell and Chambers McKibben, of Philadelphia; Arnold Plummer, of Venango; John L. Dawson, of Fayette; George W. Cass and James P. Barr, of Pittsburg; State Chairman Ward, of Bradford; Senator Buckalew, of Columbia; Senator Bigler, of Clearfield; James Burns, of Mifflin; A. Porter Wilson, of Huntingdon, and many others who had attained distinction in the Democratic counsels, came to the front, not to battle for individual mastery but to consider calmly how Democratic supremacy could be regained in Pennsylvania.
Their convention met at Reading before the Democratic National convention had split, and presented two candidates for the Presidency, and all were hopeful that, notwithstanding the clouds which hung over party harmony, the party North and South would be thoroughly united and would win in both State and nation. There were a number of candidates for the Democratic nomination for Governor, and several of them men who would have made creditable leaders in the contest, but it was decided after most careful consideration of existing political conditions that Henry D. Foster, of Westmoreland, was altogether the strongest man who could be presented against Curtin, and he was nominated amidst the wildest enthusiasm.
While the Democrats had many able men, there was no one of them so well equipped for the great battle of 1860 as was Henry D. Foster. He was confessedly the ablest and best trial lawyer in western Pennsylvania, and a gentleman as genial in his personal qualities as he was blameless in reputation. He was one of the most amiable men I have ever met in public life, and if Henry D. Foster had a personal enemy it was not because any intentional affront had ever been given.
He had been active in politics for many years. As early as 1842 he had been elected to Congress without opposition when not yet thirty years of age, and was re-elected in 1844. Before his term had expired in Congress he was elected to the popular branch of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1846, was re-elected the following year, and was again elected to the House in 1856. After his defeat for Governor in 1860, he retired from active participation in politics until 1870, when he was again elected to Congress, and in 1872 he was defeated in a contest for re-election.
The friends of Curtin well appreciated the fact that in Foster they had altogether the strongest candidate that could be presented against him, and if the Democratic National convention had not broken up and presented two National tickets, the contest for Governor in Pennsylvania would certainly have been doubtful, with chances rather in favor of Foster. His nomination inspired the Democratic party with a degree of confidence its people had not felt for several years, and on every side the indications were that the Democrats were in a position to make a desperately close if not a successful battle.
Senator William Henry Welsh, of York, who was then the Democratic leader of the Senate, presided over the convention, and after the nomination of Foster the convention departed from the customary method of choosing a State chairman by unanimously electing Senator Welsh as field marshal of their great battle. The Legislature was then in session, and on his return to the senate I congratulated my fellow senator on the distinction he had achieved with probably quite as much sincerity as he had previously congratulated me when my appointment as chairman of the Curtin com-mittee was announced. I think it quite likely that either of us would have been glad to congratulate some other person as his immediate foeman in the struggle.
Welsh was an accomplished and skillful politician with all the sagacity and tact necessary to make him a master leader. He was then serving his second term in the senate, and as I had served two previous sessions in the house, and had intimate fellowship with him, the closest ties of personal friendship had grown up between us. We were both among the youngest members of the body, engaged in the same profession, and I at times protected him from drastic partisan legislation aimed at him personally as the Democratic leader. During my first year in the senate the Democrats had but twelve members to twenty-one Republicans, and in the session of 1861 the Democrats were reduced to six, with twenty-seven Republicans.
The Democratic National convention first met at Charleston on the 23d of April, and after wrangling for ten days adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th of June. The bolters from the Charleston convention adjourned to meet in Richmond on the 11th of June, but on meeting they adjourned until the 21st, being three days after the meeting of the regular convention in Baltimore, with the view of harmonizing on a ticket if possible. The Baltimore convention declared Douglas the Democratic nominee, and the Richmond convention then rejected both Douglas and the platform and nominated Breckinridge and Lane.
While a large majority of the Democrats of Pennsylvania were in sympathy with Douglas as against Breckinridge, the entire patronage of the Buchanan administration was thrown into the breach against Douglas, and the factional conflict became extremely bitter and greatly chilled the hopes of Democratic victory.
After much tribulation and many vexatious conferences, the opposing wings of the party agreed upon an electoral ticket that was pledged to vote unitedly for either of the Democratic candidates for President if thereby he could be elected, but was at liberty to vote individual preferences, if elected, in case the united vote of the electors of the State would not give success to either. No such fusion would have been attempted but for the hope that thereby Foster might be elected, and the unanimity in favor of Foster was shown in a very hiatic way by the fact that, while he was on the stump almost continuously for several months, no one ever asked him to define his position on the Presidency. He was a man of fine presence, of charming manners, a most adroit and able political disputant, and both wings of the party supported him.
An interesting incident occurred some time after the campaign was fairly under way, and Curtin and Foster were speaking daily in different sections of the State, showing how things have sometimes to be done under cover in great political struggles. While Foster was one of the coolest and most unimpassioned of popular speakers, Curtin was nothing if not impulsive and enthusiastic. In one of his speeches in the western part of the State he was criticising Foster's straddling attitude on the Presidency, and thoughtlessly stated that he would be glad to meet him and have him discuss the issue of the contest face to face. It was a passing thought with Curtin, and he never intended it to be accepted as a challenge to Foster, but it was so proclaimed by the papers supporting Curtin, and Foster was called upon by the Democratic organs to respond by meeting Curtin in joint debate.
Foster addressed a letter to Chairman Welsh, who had his headquarters at the Merchants' Hotel, stating that as Curtin had challenged him to a joint discussion, he could do no less than accept it, and instructed him to meet me and complete the necessary arrangements.
There was only one way for Welsh to meet the emergency, and that was to address a defiant letter to me stating that, as Curtin had challenged Foster to a joint discussion, Foster was quite willing to accept it, and asking me to meet him and arrange the details. I could do no less than answer as defiantly as Welsh had written, without intimating that Curtin had not intended his remarks to be accepted as a challenge, and declared my willingness to meet Chairman Welsh at any time and place he might name, to fix an acceptable programme for the two candidates for Governor.
Welsh replied expressing his gratification in the strongest terms that his candidate would have the opportunity of meeting Curtin, and named the next day at one o'clock for me to meet him at his headquarters at the Merchants' Hotel.
I was there promptly on time, and, of course, received a very cordial greeting from my warm personal friend, the Democratic chairman. He had cigars and a rather dark-hued bottle on the table, with glasses and ice water, and immediately proposed that we take a drink.
After refreshment we took our cigars, sat down and chatted for half an hour or more without referring to the campaign, and finally Welsh inquired whether it would be agreeable to me to adjourn the meeting to a time several days distant, as he had an important appointment out of the city, and he wished to have ample time to arrange for the discussion. He did not intend that I should misunderstand his willingness to avoid a joint discussion if it could be accomplished, and without assuming that I understood him, we adjourned.
We met again promptly on time several days there-after, and Welsh opened the conference with the bottle, ice water, glasses and cigars as before. After refreshments, while enjoying the cigars, we chatted for nearly an hour about legislation and many other things of personal interest, without once alluding to the business which we had met ostensibly to consider. The fact that I did not introduce the subject satisfied Welsh that I was not hungry for a joint debate, and without a word having been said on the subject both well understood that neither desired to consummate the arrangement for a joint discussion.
Finally Welsh took an extra whiff from his cigar, and coming up in front of me, said : "Aleck, you don't want this joint debate, do you?"
To which I answered : "Harry, I don't want it any more than you do."
At this there was a mutual laugh, but we were both soon sobered by the reflection that the public had been assured of this joint discussion, and it would be very difficult for either of us to explain why we had not brought it about when it was known, and had been published all over the State, that the matter was in the hands of Chairman Welsh and myself to arrange the details. We were both in the position that an explanation to the public was an absolute necessity, and to publish the letters which really passed between us would have made it impossible for us to offer any plausible explanation of failure to complete the arrangement.
We finally agreed to destroy all the letters which had passed between us, and to rewrite several letters on each side embracing certain embarrassing conditions, and the letters to be so carefully worded that each side could plausibly claim that the other had refused to have the joint debate. It was quite a serious task and required the most careful political diplomacy, but we finally got it accomplished to the satisfaction of both, and the next morning the Curtin papers published the correspondence with immense scare-head lines declaring that Foster had declined to meet Curtin, and the Democratic papers published the correspondence with equally flaming headlines declaring that Curtin had refused to meet Foster.
Curtin had no knowledge of these conferences on the subject of a joint discussion until he saw the letters in public print. Welsh had very good reasons for wanting to avoid a joint discussion for the reason that Curtin would have crucified Foster on the altar of his two Presidential candidates, but even with that advantage on Curtin's side Foster would have maintained himself creditably.
My reason for very willingly assenting to the rejection of the proposed joint discussion was that I regarded it as most important to Curtin to cover the entire State in his campaign, and the joint discussions would have brought him away from the rural districts where his presence and speeches accomplished so much, as the joint discussions would necessarily have been in the important centers of population throughout the State, in many of which Cumin had already spoken. His personality was altogether the most important factor in the contest, and it was specially important that he should meet the masses in every section of the Commonwealth.
Welsh and I often met during the progress of the fight, and within a week after our correspondence had been published we each had the pleasure of informing the other that our principals were highly delighted with our disposition of the joint debate proposition.
After the two Democratic National tickets had been formally placed in the field without the hope of adjustment, the popular tide was steadily against the Democrats in Pennsylvania, but their leaders made the most heroic struggle to save Foster. Our opposition elements were naturally more cordially united and greatly inspired by the prospect of success, and the result was the election of Curtin by a majority of 32,164.
Henry S. Lane, the Republican candidate for Governor in Indiana, carried his State on the same day by 9,757 majority. The only other States holding elections in October were Ohio and Iowa, and both of them gave large Republican majorities, but Pennsylvania and Indiana were the pivotal States of the battle, and the election of Curtin and Lane in those States irrevocably decided the election of Lincoln in November.
With the sweeping majority for Curtin the Republicans carried 18 of the 25 Congressmen, and the Legislature elected made the Senate stand 27 Republicans to 6 Democrats, and the House 71 Republicans to 29 Democrats. The great contest in Pennsylvania that had practically decided the judgment of the nation in favor of the great political revolution of 1860, was honestly fought and fairly won, and the only reproach upon our cause that was attempted was in the city of Philadelphia, where, on election night, a sum of money was raised and some Democratic election officers were corrupted to make a false return in favor of the election of Mr. Butler, Republican, over Lehman, Democrat, for Congress. It was a palpable and flagrant fraud, and I learned of it before I went to bed in the early morning hours of election night. I at once went to Colonel Mann, then district attorney, and demanded the immediate prosecution of the corrupt election officers. Mann was a very earnest friend of Butler, but I informed him that no such stain would be permitted to cloud the great victory we had won. He prosecuted William Bierly and others, convicted them and had them sentenced before the Governor had issued his proclamation declaring who were elected members of Congress. On the strength of those convictions Governor Packer gave the certificate to Lehman, and proclaimed him elected. Butler contested, and I appeared before the Republican committee of Congress, stated the facts and the contest was then ended.
The October elections having practically settled the National contest, the labors of the State organization were greatly diminished. All we had to do was to keep our forces in line by a succession of mass meetings demanded by the enthused conditions of our people. The hopeless condition of the Democracy greatly lessened the interest of the rank and file, but the Democrats of that day were natural voters. Notwithstanding nearly 10,000 Democrats in the city of Philadelphia alone voted for the distinctive Douglas ticket and against the fusion Democratic electoral ticket, they polled 178,871 votes for their regular electoral ticket, while the straight Douglas ticket received 16,765 votes. Bell, the Constitutional Union candidate, received a total of 12,776 in the State, most of which was cast in the city of Philadelphia. Lincoln had 89,159 plurality over the fusion Democratic ticket, and 59,618 majority of the entire vote.
The election of Lincoln almost frenzied the Democrats of Philadelphia, as up to that time they had always treated Republicanism with the utmost contempt, and the kindest term they ever applied was that of "Black Republicans," always associating them with abolitionism and negro equality. The streets of the city were crowded with parading Republican banners which were greeted with hissing scorn, and at times with volleys of stones from the Democratic gangs of the wharf wards. They could not understand how it was possible that a Black Republican could be elected President of the United States, and they openly predicted that the end of the Republic had come, as the country had taken a desperate plunge into anarchy. Many riots occurred during the night in different parts of the city, but the next morning the sun arose with its accustomed splendor, and Philadelphia was as quiet as if no political convulsion had occurred.
Such is the story of the battle in Pennsylvania for Lincoln in 1860.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Alexander K. McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, 1905, pages 424-434.
