lost. In
other words, that the first two of the four propositions above stated
will represent all that will have been accomplished as a result of the
war, and even they, for the lack of power of enforcement in the general
government, will be largely of a negative character. What you have just
passed through in the State of Mississippi is only the beginning of what
is sure to follow. I do not wish to create unnecessary alarm, nor to be
looked upon as a prophet of evil, but it is impossible for me to close
my eyes in the face of things that are as plain to me as the noonday
sun."

It is needless to say that I was deeply interested in the President's
eloquent and prophetic talk which subsequent events have more than fully
verified.

CHAPTER XV

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876 AND ITS RESULTS

The Presidential election was held in 1876. The Republicans had carried
the country in 1872 by such a decisive majority that it indicated many
years of continued Republican ascendency in the National Government. But
the severe reverses sustained by that party at the polls two years later
completely changed this situation and outlook. Democrats confidently
expected and Republicans seriously apprehended that the Presidential
election of 1876 would result in a substantial Democratic victory. Mr.
Blaine was the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, but he
had bitter opposition in the ranks of his own party. That opposition
came chiefly from friends and supporters of Senator Conkling at the
North and from Southern Republicans generally. The opposition of the
Conkling men to Mr. Blaine was largely personal; while southern
Republicans were opposed to him on account of his having caused the
defeat of the Federal Elections Bill. The great majority of southern
Republicans supported Senator Oliver P. Morton of Indiana.

After the National Convention had been organized, it looked for a while
as if Mr. Blaine's nomination was a foregone conclusion. Hon. Edward
McPherson, of Pennsylvania,--a strong Blaine man,--had been made
President of the Convention. In placing Mr. Blaine's name in nomination,
Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll of Illinois made such an eloquent and effective
speech that he came very near carrying the Convention by storm, and thus
securing the nomination of the statesman from Maine. But the opposition
to Mr. Blaine was too well organized to allow the Convention to be
stampeded, even by the power and eloquence of