in
the party stood out clearly. The Administration group had sounded the
public on a third term for Grant, and receiving scanty support had
brought forward Conkling, a shrewd New York leader, and Morton, war
Governor of Indiana. The out-and-out reformers were for Bristow, who had
made a striking reputation as Secretary of the Treasury, over the frauds
of the Whiskey Ring. Between the two groups was the largest single
faction, which stood for James G. Blaine from first to last.

The political fortunes of James G. Blaine prove the difficulty with
which a politician brought up in the Civil War period retained his
leadership in the next era. Blaine had been a loyal and radical
Republican through the war. Gifted with personal charms of high order,
he had built up a political following which his unswerving orthodoxy and
his service as Speaker of the House of Representatives served to widen.
Never a rich man, he had felt forced to add to his salary by
speculations and earnings on the side. In these he had come into contact
with railroad promoters and had not seen the line beyond which a public
man must not go, even in the sixties. His indiscretions had imperiled
his reputation at the time of the Credit Mobilier scandal. They became
common property when an old associate forced him to the defensive on the
eve of the convention of 1876. In the dramatic scene in the House of
Representatives when Blaine read the humiliating "Mulligan" letters that
he had written years before, tried to explain them, and denounced his
enemies, he convinced his friends of his innocence, and evidenced to all
his courage and assurance. But his critics, reading the letters in
detail, were confirmed in their belief that if his official conduct was
not criminal, it was at least improper, and that no man with a blunted
sense of propriety ought to be President.

Despite all opposition, Blaine might have won the nomination had not a
sunstroke raised a question as to his physical availability. He led for
six ballots in the convention, and only on the seventh could his
opponents agree upon the favorite son of Ohio, General Rutherford B.
Hayes, who added to military distinction a good record as Governor of
his State.

Neither Hayes nor Tilden represented a political issue. Each had been
nominated because of availability, and each party contained many voters
on each side of every question before the public. Even the appeal to
loyalty and Union, which had worke