The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1916-06-03
The Republican National Convention at Chicaqo

WAS cdnO1uale Tor third term, and
James G. Blaine, who had been a lead
Ing candidate in 1875. The two forces
were completely organized and ably
led, Roscoe Conkling being in charge
of the Grant forces, while Senator
Hale marshaled the Blaine cohorts
Grants opponents were fully realiz-
Ing that in view of the remarkable
manifestation Of popularity which had
been accorded him since his return in
the previous fall from q tour of the
world, their best ground Of attack was
the opposition. to a third term. All at
tempts to get him to commit himself
early in 1880 had been answered by
the terse declaration, II will neither
accept nor decline an imaginary thing"
His supporters took heart, however,
and when the convention met it was
evident that his followers were conf
dent of winning. ~.- T..
Conkling adopted a truculent and ar
rogant attitude in the convention pro-
ceedings from the very start that stung
the Blaine leaders to anger and de-
stroyed all possibility of compromise.
His first act in the convention was a
play to the galleries and at the same
time studied insult of the Blaine fac
t1on. He moved resolution binding
the delegates to support the nominee of
the convention, whoever he might be,
thus showing pretended distrust of
the Blaine following. The resolution
was adopted, but the debate upon it
made him so unpopular with the sup
porters of all the other candidates that
1t really made the, hope of obtaining re-
cruits for Grant in other directions i'm.
possible.
Garfield Picked Out.
Conklng's next move was to attempt
to force the unit rule on the convention
by which he would have been able to
cast New York's entire vote for Grant
AS it then stood the delegation was d.
vided 81 for Grant, II for Blaine and 2
for Sherman. James A. Garfield, chair
man Of the committee on rules, report
ed adversely on this proposal and de-
tended his position so ably and elo-
quently as not only to defeat Conk-
nng's move, but to make Garfield him.
self marked man, to whom the con-
vention could enthusiastically and
gratefully turn when tired out with the
hopeless struggle. Garfelds closing
words in defining his position in oppo-
sition to the unit rule, that he stood his
ground because he believed it ITO be
everlastingly right" not only carried
the convention with him in the ensuing
vote, but required to them with new
force when his name came before them
as candidate later on.
Conkling's nominating speech was q
mastery example Of convention ora
tory, ranking almost on a plane with
1ngersoll's speech Of four years earlier.
Its opening phrase, "When asked
whence comes our candidate, our sole
responue will be, he halls from Apo
mattox and its famous apple tree"
caught the fancy Of the galleries and
aroused enthusiasm, but it was very
ACoA uO6SCACA' AZ Ouc u Luc evening
sessions demonstration in Grants
behalf was started that precipitated
full half hour of ear breaking enthusi-
asm, during which the audience broke
into song, bands played, and Conkling,
standing on chair in the center of the
New York delegation, slowly waved
the state banner back and forth.
Scarcely had this tumult died down
when a handsomely dressed woman
leaped to the pedestal of a statue of
Liberty on the platform and waved a
red parasol wildly. Then she caught up
the flag and, winding it about her,
called for cheers for Blaine. They
were given with spirit and vim that
matched that for Grant few minutes
earlier. When the watches recorded
the fact that the Blaine demonstration
had lasted five minutes longer than
that for Grant it subsidized suddenly.
Grant led on the first ballot with 3O4
votes to 284 for Blaine, SO for Sher-
man, 81 for Washburne and 30 for Ed
minds flor thirfv.f3vo hol1ots hod