3. New Directions
The 1st National Party Convention 1868
The approach of the 1868 Presidential Election filled the press with a mixture of excitement and apathy. The New York Times summed up the mood claiming “no one wants [Seymour]; the problem is there is no one else”. Indeed Seymour was doomed, it was an open secret he would receive virtually no support from the Democratic Party if he attempted to run once again and by February, with increasing pressure from his rivals in Tammany Hall, he accepted the inevitable. By July, efforts to rebrand the ‘dove’ alliance of Democrats and disillusioned Republicans saw the first official convention of the National Party. A balancing act, attempting to avoid both the hawkishness of Lincoln and the seemingly spineless of Seymour led to a reversal in the fortunes of the previously abandoned ‘War Democrats’ and brought ex-Republicans into the limelight. This saw Vice-President George Pendleton, an ardent dove in 1864, lose the ‘right of succession’ he deemed his. Two other candidates, former Republican and General, Francis Blair, and the Governor of Ohio, John Brough offered themselves up as strong competition. Blair had fought in West Virginia, holding off the machinations of General Lee to wide acclaim. Meanwhile Brough had been an outspoken critic of Lincoln and the failures of the Western Theatre, which saw his home state occupied. He gained national acclaim in leading a band of volunteer cavalry behind Confederate lines, earning the nickname ‘Rough Brough’. Pendleton quickly lost ground after an underwhelming first ballot, losing much of his support to various dove candidates, including John Q. Adams II a virtual unknown excluding his grandfather and namesakes’ notoriety. Blair and Brough fought into a twentieth ballot, however Brough’s Mid-West appeal, fame and Party connections dashed the outsider Blair’s chances.
Despite the confusion of the new National Party, the opposition proved even less impressive. The Republican Party had splintered following the Treaty of Liverpool and Lincoln cast into the abyss. General Sherman had taken a sizeable chunk of Republican support when he had joined, and by doing so legitimised, the Union Party, effectively identical to the Party of Lincoln but with a strong interest in reclaiming the “rebel south”. More rural elements, mainly in the Mid-West looked towards the Greenbacks and Popular Party, which supported farmers’ rights and the reintroduction of ‘greenback’ money to aid the depressed economy. Meanwhile in New England the radical Salmon Chase controlled the rump Republican Party. Stringent abolitionists and strongly opposed to the Confederacy, the rump party shared many similarities with the Unionists, and indeed it has been argued that their division had more to do with a clash of personalities between Sherman and Chase than policies. Beyond the Republicans, other groups were growing in popularity. Alongside the rural populists, a growing trade union movement and labour politics saw the rise of urban alternatives. The Workingmen’s Party of the United States was perhaps the most widespread in 1868, holding a degree influence in New York and amongst rail workers. In Chicago, a growing German population since the failed 1848 Revolutions led to the creation of the semi-secret Communist League in March 1866, with branches spreading to St. Louis and Indianapolis over the following decade. This growth in working-class politics although at first small, combined with the collapse of the Republicans saw an increasing number of independent candidates at local, state and federal level running under the broad banners of ‘Labour’, ‘Union Labour’, ‘United Labour’ and ‘Farmer-Labour’, to increasing success.
As the election approached, efforts were made to unite anti-government support. In July Sherman and Chase met in Providence to discuss a possible alliance between their two factions. However arguments over Chase’s radical social policies and over which of them would be their Presidential candidate doomed the talks. In the Mid-West the motley collection of populist groups and newspapers were poorly organised with some backing John Brough and others Chase. The newly formed Popular Party presented noted inventor and philanthropist Peter Cooper as their candidate, due to his history with the Free Soil Party of the 1850’s. As such Brough and the National Party faced three opponents in the 1868 election, all of them either personally or politically partisan. Calls for unity, even the suggestion of bringing Lincoln back, from the press and anti-National sections of the public were to no avail. As the election campaign got underway, Brough campaigned on a pro-business platform claiming only the Nationals could provide a united and stable administration, and promised to restore national prestige. In contrast to these vague aims, Sherman called for a total embargo on the Confederacy, the return of Kentucky and New Mexico, and a massive military build-up. Chase and the Republicans called for tariffs against the Confederacy, electoral reform and securing a US link to the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile Cooper focused Popular policy on a return to bimetallism and the printing of greenbacks. Ultimately, despite the unusual number of parties, the 1868 election was relatively uneventful and the result never truly in doubt. The Republican vote was split in the East by Sherman and in the West by Cooper. The divisions saw Republican strongholds like Ohio and Minnesota fall to the Nationals with comfortable pluralities, while Massachusetts and its twelve electoral votes went to the Union Party by a margin of only two hundred ballots. Despite these disadvantages, Brough still gained over 50% of the popular vote, a clear indication of continued public unease towards the Republicans and their successor parties.
National 117 votes Republican 56 votes Union 28 votes Popular 14 votes
Brough began his term in March 1869 in a bullish fashion. His first two acts as President were punitive tariffs against Confederate cotton (a symbolic as much as economic measure) and increasing the Union’s grip over the Arizona Territory. The loss of New Mexico, Utah and California had left Arizona extremely isolated from the rest of the United States, with only a thin strip of land retained from Deseret connecting the region to Colorado. Despite this it was of great value to Brough strategically, economically and as a matter of personal and national prestige. The region’s speculated mineral wealth and proximity to the sea made it not only valuable to the US but also to the Confederacy and the Pacific Republic, which in the eyes of the President only made it doubly so. As such by the end of April some 10,000 troops were either already stationed or en route to Arizona and the Colorado corridor. Similarly efforts were made to secure the nation’s remaining Pacific coastline in Washington Territory and by 1871 the area would be admitted to the Union as the state of Columbia despite an extremely sparse population. Although popular initiatives, the garrisoning of two isolated frontier territories without a regional communication hub like San Francisco and the new trade barriers would prove a drain on US coffers, with the Union’s textile industry in particular suffering while rivals in Britain, France and the Confederacy itself, surged ahead. Regardless the economy had begun to pick up, if slowly, at the beginning of 1869 thanks in part to inflation being suppressed by the gold standard, while a continued stream of immigrants into New York and Boston ensured employees an endless supply of labour. Brough was also maintaining a large standing army of almost 150,000 men along the nation’s borders, reducing unemployment and providing continuing orders to the munitions industry. Despite the move towards recovery, by September the first of several financial scandals to rock Brough’s presidency would strike.
:rofl:
