Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/672

640 The Greeley campaign. [1372 Missourians of a Liberal National Convention, to meet at Cincinnati in May, 1872. At first the movement seemed extremely promising, owing to the character of the leaders, men like Trumbull of Illinois, Brown of Missouri, Julian of Indiana, Sumner and C. F. Adams of Massachusetts; but, owing to a series of blunders, the Convention nominated Horace Greeley, the eccentric, impulsive editor of the New York Tribune. The candidate and the platform, which demanded acquiescence in the results of Reconstruction while throwing its principal emphasis upon the cry of reform, were both adopted by the Democrats on July 9, 1872 ; but the coalition was hopeless from the start. The country was at the height of prosperity; Grant's popularity with the masses was unshaken; and Greeley's personal peculiarities rendered him almost absurd as a rival for the war hero. He not only could not draw more than a handful from the Republicans, but could not even command full Democratic support ; and the election resulted in an overwhelming Republican victory, Grant carrying all the States but six, and receiving 286 electoral votes out of 360. The only result of the Liberal secession seemed to be the political ruin of a dozen of the ablest Republicans, and the firmer rivetting of the hold of a particular party upon the country. But meanwhile the Republican power was being undermined in a more effective way in the Southern States, the Reconstruction policy being now subjected to a decisive trial in all of these except Virginia, which in its first election was carried by the whites. It is not easy to say precisely what result was expected by the Republicans who bestowed the suffrage upon the negro. The extreme Radicals like Sumner maintained that the mere possession of the vote would raise the negro in all respects to the level of his late master ; many others, who agreed with Sumner that the ballot belonged to the freedman by right, were less optimistic, and hoped at the most for a process of gradual political education ; but the majority, while willing for party reasons as well as for justice's sake to create a negro electorate, recognised that it was a hazardous experiment, and entertained grave doubts as to its success. None, it may safely be said, foresaw the actual results. Judging from the experience of the twelve States where the experiment was tried, it is not too much to say that the Southern Republican party showed neither the ability nor the will to govern well. The negroes formed the voting body, and the more intelligent among their number commonly held office ; but the real control was in the hands of white residents of Northern origin, the " carpet-baggers," and of a few Southern whites or " scalawags." Some of these were men of character and honest intentions, but few were of a high order of ability, and very many were adventurers pure and simple. One and all were imbued with an intense partisanship which shrank from nothing that would advance the cause of the Republican or Radical organisation. It was impossible for such a party to provide competent officials ; there were not enough educated