l to give Mr. Sumner his old
position.]

CHAPTER XXII.

The Presidential canvass of 1872 was anomalous in its character. Never
before or since has a great party adopted as its candidate a
conspicuous public man, who was not merely outside its own ranks, but
who, in the thick of every political battle for a third of a century,
had been one of its most relentless and implacable foes. In the
shifting scenes of our varied partisan contests, the demands of
supposed expediency had often produced curious results. Sometimes the
natural leaders of parties had been set aside; men without experience
and without attainments had been brought forward; the settled currents
of years had been suddenly changed by the eddy and whirl of the moment;
but never before had any eccentricity of political caprice gone so far
as to suggest the bitterest antagonist of a party for its anointed
chief. It was the irony of logic, and yet it came to pass by the
progress of events which were irresistibly logical.

The course of affairs had been threatening a formidable division in the
Republican party. It was in some degree a difference of policy, but
more largely a clashing of personal interests and ambitions. The
Liberal Republican movement, as the effort of dissatisfied partisans
was termed, had its nominal origin, though not its exciting cause, in
the State of Missouri in 1870. Missouri had presented the
complications and conflicts which embarrassed all the Border States.
The State had not seceded, but tens of thousands of her people had
joined the rebel ranks. To prevent them from sharing in the
government while fighting to overthrow it, these allies of the
Rebellion had by an amendment to the State constitution been
disqualified from exercising the rights of citizenship. The demand was
now made that these disabilities imposed during the war should be
removed. The Republicans, holding control of the Legislature, divided
upon this question. The minority, calling themselves Liberals,
under the leadership of Benjamin Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz,
combined with the Democrats, and passed amendments which removed the
disqualifications. The same combination, as a part of the same
movement, elected Brown governor. An alliance, offensive and
defensive, between Brown and General Frank Blair, as the chiefs of
the Liberal and Democratic wings, cemented the coalition, and gave
Missouri over to Democratic control.

The question which divided M