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Chapter 39:
Grant's relations with
Blaine were always amicable, up to the time when the two became rivals for the Presidential nomination in 1880.
Blaine was
Speaker of the House of Representatives when
Gen. Grant was first elected
President, and as one of the leaders of the Republican party, he proposed the passage of a bill authorizing
Grant to take a leave of absence, as
General of the Army, for the term of his Presidency.
During both of
Grant's Administrations
Mr. Blaine gave him a loyal support; he was in favor of
Grant's renomination in 1872, and did not himself become an avowed aspirant for the succession until
Grant had formally announced that his own name was not to be presented to the
Convention in 1876.
In that Convention
Grant's influence was thrown for
Conkling, but he had still no hostility for
Blaine, and if
Blaine had received the nomination, the Administration would undoubtedly have done whatever it could, legitimately, for his election.
It was
Bristow whom
Grant especially opposed, and he and
Blaine were united in this opposition; for
Bristow's friends attacked
Blaine as fiercely as they did
Grant.
While the
Convention was in session,
Mr. Blaine and
Mr. Fish,
Grant's Secretary of State—were seen driving together in an open carriage, in the streets of
Washington, and
Fish was too loyal to his chief to afford this indication of friendship to any man with whom the
President under whom he served was at enmity.
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I had personal knowledge of the early relations of the two great men, who were destined afterwards to be so bitterly opposed.
In the first years of
Grant's Presidency I was offered the position of Minister to
Uruguay and
Paraguay, but learning that a change was to be made at the Consulate-General in
London, I asked the
President for the latter appointment instead.
He replied that he was pledged to nominate a friend of
Mr. Blaine for the
London Consulate, but added that I might consult the
Speaker, and if he was willing, I should be sent to
London.
Accordingly, I went to
Mr. Blaine, who was quite ready to oblige
General Grant through me. His friend was sent to
South America, and I was appointed
Consul-General at
London.
Of course, the courtesy was intended for the
President, although it gratified and benefited me.
In 1877 I accompanied
General Grant in his first visit to
Switzerland, and at
Geneva, a son of
Mr. Blaine was often in his company, and always welcome in his apartments or at his table.
The young man bore civil messages from his father to
General Grant, which were cordially reciprocated in my hearing.
It was not until the return of
Grant to this country, in 1879, that there was any ill feeling between the predestined rivals.
But the especial opposition to
General Grant's candidacy for a third term came from the friends of
Blaine; and in the preliminary canvass all the ordinary resources of political warfare were called into play.
Many things were said of
General Grant that were disagreeable to him, and personal accusations were made against his character that touched him keenly; perhaps he felt them more acutely after the lavish compliments that had been offered him abroad, and the demonstrations that had followed him around the world.
During the contest I did not perceive that he suffered from the sting of these assaults, and if he had succeeded, I doubt whether he would have remembered them; but as the arrows came home, and he was, for the first time in his career,
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flagrantly defeated, the wounds rankled for a long time.
He always held
Mr. Blaine responsible, not, indeed, avowedly for his discomfiture, but for the personal attacks to which he attributed it. I more than once asked him the cause of his especial bitterness toward
Blaine, and he invariably gave this reason.
Yet I thought at the time that he deceived himself, and that it was because
Blaine had been the instrument and agent of his overthrow, that
Grant maintained so persistent a resentment.
I could not see that
Blaine was more responsible for what his supporters said of
Grant, than
Grant was for many of the attacks his friends directed, without his knowledge, against
Blaine.
Still the sentiment was not unnatural.
But here comes in a singular phase of his anger.
Although
Grant had been extremely disgusted at
Blaine's introduction into the
Cabinet, and though he certainly attributed the subsequent course of
Garfield to the influence of
Blaine, I never thought his soreness so great toward the
Secretary of State as toward the
President.
He not only looked upon
Garfield as responsible, but he felt that it was
Garfield whom he had obliged, and who should have remembered the obligation.
Blaine was an avowed antagonist, and at liberty to fight with whatever weapons Fortune or his own ability had endowed him. Thus, though the action of
Garfield's Administration undoubtedly increased
Grant's hostility to
Blaine, I never heard him speak of the
Minister as bitterly as he did of the
President.
Grant's implacability, however, was in no way shared by
Blaine.
That statesman was very willing to come to terms with his great antagonist, and manifested this disposition frequently.
But of course, it was easier for him to be magnanimous, for it was he who had succeeded.
If not
President, he was
Secretary of State, and rightly or wrongly, he was credited with directing
Garfield's policy.
After 1880 there was no intercourse between
Grant and
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Blaine, until the time approached when another nomination for the Presidency was to be made, and then the friends of
Blaine became extremely anxious for an accommodation.
But
Grant was still unwilling to be propitiated.
He certainly preferred
Blaine to
Arthur, as a candidate, but he refused to take any step, or make any public utterance in
Blaine's favor, in the months preceding the nomination.
In October, 1883, he wrote to me as follows:
dear Badeau,—I have your letter of yesterday.
I write because of your allusion to hearing a rumor that Blaine and I had formed a combination politically.
You may deny the statement most peremptorily.
I have not seen Blaine to speak to him since a long time before the Convention of 1880.
We have had no communication in writing through other parties nor in any direct or indirect way. The Republican party cannot be saved, if it is to be saved at all, by tricks and combinations of politics.
I read yesterday a circumstantial account of Blaine and I spending a week together recently, when without doubt we had fixed up matters for 1884, Blaine to be President and I to be Senator from this State.
The Republican party, to be saved, must have a decisive declared policy.
It has now no observable policy except to peddle out patronage to sore-heads, in order to bring them back into the fold, and avoid any positive declarations upon all leading questions.
This declaration was probably stronger because
Grant knew that I was anxious for him to take ground in favor of
Blaine.
General Beale, who was an intimate friend,
Senator Chaffee, the father-in-law of one of
Grant's sons, and
Stephen B. Elkins, all desired the same result, but were unable to bring it about at this time.
In the late winter or early spring, after the accident which compelled him to make use of crutches for months,
General Grant was in
Washington, and
Mr. Blaine called on him at the house of
General Beale, where
Grant was a visitor.
The opponents of
Mr. Blaine declared that the visit was not returned; but
Grant authorized a
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denial of the statement.
He explained to me that he had left his cards himself at
Mr. Blaine's house, but being a cripple, had not alighted from his carriage.
He said, indeed, that he paid only one or two personal visits during his stay in
Washington, because of his infirmity.
At the same time he told me that though he would not sanction any formal dinner made to bring himself and
Mr. Blaine together, he certainly would not refuse to meet him socially.
In fact time had undoubtedly somewhat mellowed or modified his feeling, and as it became evident that the choice of the party had almost narrowed down to
Blaine or
Arthur,
Grant admitted that he desired the success of
Blaine as an alternative.
After the nomination he often said to me that he had no doubt
Mr. Blaine would make an excellent
President; and on the first occasion when the candidate was in New York,
General Grant called on him at his hotel.
I was out of town at the time, and wrote to say how glad I was that he had taken this step, for his own sake as well as for the effect it might have upon the election; for it seemed to me that one who had received so much from the Republican party was bound to sink his personal feeling and to do all in his power for its success.
After I went to stay at his house, in the early autumn, I talked in this vein whenever I thought it advisable.
He never disputed the suggestion, but said that he had thought it proper for him as ex-President to call on the nominee of his party for the place he had himself once held.
I thought for awhile that he would make some more explicit declaration of his views, but there were influences persistently and incessantly at work to induce him to withhold his support from
Blaine.
No opportunity was omitted to revive bitterness or to recall the events which he had attributed to the hostility of
Mr. Blaine, and though
Chaffee,
Elkins,
Beale, and others did their best, the counter current was too strong.
I very much hoped that at the last he would cast his vote for
Blaine, but the wily enemies of Republicanism were awake
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at the critical moment, and
General Grant did not vote for the
Republican candidate.
During the winter
Mr. Elkins ascertained that
Grant would not refuse to accept a copy of the first volume of
Blaine's history, and accordingly one was presented to him, with an autograph inscription from the author; and
Grant acknowledged the compliment in a note of more than his ordinary suavity.
I read to him the few pages in which there was occasion for the political writer to discuss
General Grant's military career.
They were acceptable to their subject, but the account of
Grant's civil administration did not appear until he who was judged was beyond the influence of criticism.
Blaine, however, had been a faithful supporter of
Grant's Presidential policy, and his comments over the tomb of his great rival contained nothing at which that rival could himself have caviled.
General Grant left a list of the names of those to whom he wished his own memoirs presented, and
Mr. Blaine's name was among them.
The exchange of courtesies upon the presentation of
Blaine's book took place only a few months before the death of the soldier, and was the concluding incident in the intercourse of
Grant and
Blaine.
In those last hours, when the hero declared, as he did to me on Easter Sunday, 1885, ‘I would rather have the good — will of even those whom I have not hitherto accounted friends’; when he forgave
Rosecrans and
Jefferson Davis—he did not include
Blaine among his enemies.
