throughout; and, Woollen, he was right in his abolition views, and we were wrong." Then after a moment's thought, he continued: "But if I had my life to go, over I could not do otherwise than I did. At each step I did what I thought right, by the light I then had.”

A little incident related by an accomplished and well known newspaper correspondent, shows well Mr. Hendricks's magnanimity, and the effect of that quality of his character upon those who came in contact with him. Said Mr. George Alfred Townsend (Gath):

"Mr. Hendricks, after he lost the Vice Presidency, said about Mr. Hayes: 'I have always stood up for Hayes. We have no business to abuse him for abiding the issue of a trial we proposed.' Mr. Hendricks said this, or nearly this, to me, and at that moment I felt a certain exultation to be in his society which I had never before appreciated, so much does a manly concession establish one's true dignity."

CHAPTER XIX.

THE LAST BATTLE.

The year 1884 opened with bright prospects for the National Democracy. The Republican party had for a quarter of a century devoted itself to the manufacture of prosperity. It had fostered this industry, stimulated that and protected the other; it had voted subsidies by the millions; it had built up a tariff system under which the wage worker was to get high wages, the manufacturer large profits, and the general consumer cheap commodities; it had developed the home market-for in the words of a leading Republican Senator, "What have we to do with Abroad?" Tax had been piled upon tax, until it became the boast of the Republican statesmen that the revenue collected from the people was millions in excess of the needs of the Government. No effort had been spared to make us rich and happy; and yet the country went through two financial panics in ten years. The statesmen had failed, as they sometimes do.

The people therefore were inclined to hold the Republican party responsible for its failure to make good its promises, and to charge-and rightly-to its unwise fiscal system a large portion of the industrial distress from which they had suffered. The party in power always receives credit for good times, and blame for bad timesusually without deserving either. But when it goes into the business of making prosperity, it is liable, in case of failure, to the fate of the African rain-makers. The failure of the Republican party was complete. It

had developed two things-a wild spirit of speculation, and a brood of industries, so-called, dependent for their existence upon political action.

The year 1883 was a bad one for the business world. The crops were good, but we had no place to sell them. Our home market, for which we had sacrificed a world market, could not consume our agricultural products by millions of bushels. Indiana farmers were using their corn for fuel and their wheat for hog feed. The wise men told us that we had overproduced, which of course meant that we must stop producing for a while, and that is what we did. Factories were closed, furnaces banked up, mines shut. Thousands upon thousands of men were thrown out of employment; men, women and children were starving; there were strikes and lockouts and failures on every hand, and there was pretty steady work for the militia in shooting down protected workingmen. Things were at a standstill. We were too wealthy, so we had to stop accumulating. The country was devoting itself with all its energy to the task of catching up with its supplies. Naturally the people felt that they had had quite enough of Republican prosperty.

There was another thing which pointed to Democratic success, and that was the certainty, almost, of Mr. Blaine's nomination as the Republican candidate for President. It became clear early in 1884 that Mr. Blaine would be the strongest man before the convention, notwithstanding the vigorous protests of a very large portion of his own party.

The Convention met in Chicago on the 3d day of June. It was not in any sense a great Convention. None of the old leaders were delegates, and the men who occupied their places were hardly worthy to wear their shoes. Garfield was dead-a sacrifice to the spoils system; Conkling was sulking; Ingersoll had lost interest in ac

tive politics; while Blaine, Logan, Sherman and Edmunds were all candidates. The reform element was led by George William Curtis, Andrew D. White and Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, and John D. Long and Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts; it was these gentlemen who headed the opposition to Mr. Blaine. Their candidate was Senator Edmunds, of Vermont.

The preliminary battle was won by the anti-Blaine men, when John R. Lynch, of Mississippi was chosen temporary chairman over Powell Clayton, of Arkansas; but this was the only occasion upon which the friends of the various candidates acted together against Blaine.

The Convention lasted three days; and despite the most bitter opposition, over every protest, and in contempt of every warning-Illinois having thrown her forty votes from Logan to Blaine-the latter gentleman was nominated on the fourth ballot, receiving 544 votes out of a total vote of 816. Mr. Arthur was his most formidable competitor. General Logan was, of course, given the second place on the ticket, and the Republican party was fairly on the way to defeat.

At once came the revolt. From one end of the country to the other, Republicans vowed that they would not support the ticket. The Mugwump was born. The fight was a personal one against Mr. Blaine, the charges of his opponents relating to an old legislative scandal— which charges, being unwisely ignored by his friends, obtained wide credence and, whether true or false, secured his ultimate defeat. Whether the Independent Republicans should nominate a candidate of their own, or vote the Democratic ticket, was a question which the Democratic Convention alone could settle.

When the Convention met in Chicago on the 8th day of July, it was recognized that the man of all others whom the Independents would most enthusiastically supportperhaps the only one whom they would support at all—

was Grover Cleveland, the Reform Governor of New York.

Mr. Hendricks was not a candidate before the Convention. His life-long friend, ex-Senator Joseph E. McDonald, had, while laboring hard for Mr. Hendricks's nomination in 1880, himself been favorably mentioned for the Presidency, and some persons had said that he might have been nominated by the Cincinnati Convention, had he permitted his name to be used. Since that event he had entertained Presidential aspirations, and Mr. Hendricks had magnanimously stood aside for him and encouraged the Indiana Democracy to support him. Mr. Hendricks had been sent at the head of the Indiana delegation, charged with the important duty of presenting Mr. McDonald's name to the Convention as Indiana's candidate for the Presidency. The delegation was instructed to cast its vote as a unit for Mr. McDonald.

The Convention was large and enthusiastic. It seemed to feel that it was to name the winning ticket. Governor Hubbard, of Texas, was chosen temporary, and Colonel Vilas, of Wisconsin, Permanent President. The platform declared in favor of Civil Service Reform, economy in the administration of the Government, and tariff for revenue exclusively.

Mr. Hendricks did his work well, but it soon became evident that Mr. Cleveland, with his seventy votes from New York (which Mr. Manning cast solid for his friend), could not be beaten. Unlike the situation in the Republican Convention, it was not necessary for any one man to be defeated to prevent a split in the party. It was thought, however, by many that there was but one man with whom success would be certain, and that was Mr. Cleveland. It was doubtless for this reason, as well as for his excellent record, that he was able to bear off the prize over such competitors as Hoadley, Bayard, McDonald, Carlisle, Thurman, Morrison and Randall. Kelly