The committee's report was read about three o'clock in the afternoon of March 2, 1876.In the forenoon of the same day Belknap had sent his resignation to the President, who had accepted it immediately.The President and Belknap were personal friends.But the certainty of Belknap's perfidy was not removed by the attitude of the President, nor by the vote of the Senate on the article of impeachment--37 guilty, 25 not guilty-for the evidence was too convincing.The public knew by this time Grant's childlike failing in sticking to his friends; and 93 of the 25Senators who voted not guilty had publicly declared they did so, not because they believed him innocent, but because they believed they had no jurisdiction over an official who had resigned.
There were many minor indications of the harvest which gross materialism was reaping in the political field.State and city governments were surrendered to political brigands.In 1871 the Governor of Nebraska was removed for embezzlement.Kansas was startled by revelations of brazen bribery in her senatorial elections (1872-1873).General Schenck, representing the United States at the Court of St.James, humiliated his country by dabbling in a fraudulent mining scheme.
In a speech before the Senate, then trying General Belknap, Senator George F.Hoar, on May 6, 1876, summed up the greater abominations:
"My own public life has been a very brief and insignificant one, extending little beyond the duration of a single term of senatorial office.But in that brief period I have seen five judges of a high court of the United States driven from office by threats of impeachment for corruption or maladministration.Ihave heard the taunt from friendliest lips, that when the United States presented herself in the East to take part with the civilized world in generous competition in the arts of life, the only products of her institutions in which she surpassed all others beyond question was her corruption.I have seen in the State in the Union foremost in power and wealth four judges of her courts impeached for corruption, and the political administration of her chief city become a disgrace and a byword throughout the world.I have seen the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in the House rise in his place and demand the expulsion of four of his associates for making sale of their official privilege of selecting the youths to be educated at our great military schools.When the greatest railroad of the world, binding together the continent and uniting the two great seas which wash our shores, was finished, I have seen our national triumph and exaltation turned to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of three committees of Congress--two in the House and one here--that every step of that mighty enterprise had been taken in fraud.I have heard in highest places the shameless doctrine avowed by men grown old in public office that the true way by which power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their service, and the true end for which it should be used when gained is the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratification of personal revenge.Ihave heard that suspicions haunt the footsteps of the trusted companions of the President."These startling facts did not shatter the prestige of the Republicans, the "Saviors of the Union," nor humble their leaders.One of them, Senator Foraker, says*: "The campaign (1876) on the part of the Democrats gave emphasis to the reform idea and exploited Tilden as the great reform governor of New York and the best fitted man in the country to bring about reforms in the Government of the United States.No reforms were needed: but a fact like that never interfered with a reform campaign." The orthodoxy of the politician remained unshaken.
Foraker's reasons were the creed of thousands: "The Republican party had prosecuted the war successfully; had reconstructed the States; had rehabilitated our finances, and brought on specie redemption." The memoirs of politicians and statesmen of this period, such as Cullom, Foraker, Platt, even Hoar, are imbued with an inflexible faith in the party and colored by the conviction that it is a function of Government to aid business.
Platt, for instance, alluding to Blaine's attitude as Speaker, in the seventies, said: "What I liked about him was his frank and persistent contention that the citizen who best loved his party and was loyal to it, was loyal to and best loved his country."And many years afterwards, when a new type of leader appeared representing a new era of conviction, Platt was deeply concerned.
His famous letter to Roosevelt, when the Rough Rider was being mentioned for Governor of New York (1899), shows the reluctance of the old man to see the signs of the times: "The thing that really did bother me was this: I had heard from a great many sources that you were a little loose on the relations of capital and labor, on trusts and combinations, and indeed on the numerous questions which have recently arisen in politics affecting the security of earnings and the right of a man to run his own business in his own way, with due respect of course to the Ten Commandments and the Penal Code."* "Notes from a Busy Life", vol.I., 98.
The leaders of both the great parties firmly and honestly believed that it was the duty of the Government to aid private enterprise, and that by stimulating business everybody is helped.
This article of faith, with the doctrine of the sanctity of the party, was a natural product of the conditions outlined in the beginning of this chapter--the war and the remarkable economic expansion following the war.It was the cause of the alliance between business and politics.It made the machine and the boss the sinister and ever present shadows of legitimate organization and leadership.
