ded then as afterward absolute truthfulness,
shrewdness of judgment, high-minded patriotism, and consciousness of
moral obligation.[1704]

[Footnote 1703: After the nomination John Sherman wrote to a personal
friend: "The nomination of Arthur is a ridiculous burlesque, inspired,
I fear, by a desire to defeat the ticket. His nomination attaches to
the ticket all the odium of machine politics, and will greatly
endanger the success of Garfield. I cannot but wonder how a
convention, even in the heat and hurry of closing scenes, could make
such a blunder."--Burton, _Life of Sherman_, p. 296.]

[Footnote 1704: "I do not think he [Arthur] knows anything. He can
quote a verse of poetry, or a page from Dickens and Thackeray, but
these are only leaves springing from a root out of dry ground. His
vital forces are not fed, and very soon he has given out his all."
Mrs. James G. Blaine, _Letters_ (February 21, 1882), Vol. 1, p. 309.]

CHAPTER XXXIV

TILDEN, KELLY, AND DEFEAT

1880

The defeat of Governor Robinson did not apparently change party
sentiment respecting Tilden's renomination for the Presidency. No
other candidate was seriously discussed. Indeed, the Democratic press
continued to treat it as a matter of course, coupling with it the
alleged subversion of an election, transcending in importance all
questions of administration, and involving the vital principle of
self-government through elections by the people. This new issue,
dwarfing all other policies, had been for three years the cornerstone
of every Democratic platform in state, county, or congressional
convention. No argument seemed to weaken it, no event could destroy
it. The Republican claim that the vote of three Southern States, as
declared at the polls, was the result of terrorism and did not in any
sense represent an honest expression of the popular will, made no
impression upon it. The well-known fact that Congress, because of the
confusion of the situation, had wisely sought a remedy in the
Electoral Commission, which was passed by Democratic rather than
Republican votes, in nowise weakened the force of its appeal. Not even
did the disclosure that Tilden's house had become the headquarter of
confidential agents, who sought to corrupt the electors, produce any
change in it. The one declaration, patiently and persistently kept
before the people, was that Tilden had been elected by the popular
vote and defrauded by a false count of the electoral vo