Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/308

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��Chester Alan ArtJnir.

��[May,

��of heads of departments. All the appointments, excepting two, to the one hundred positions paying two thousand dollars salary a year, and over, were made on this method.

Senator George F. Edmunds, at a ratification meeting, held in Burlington, Vermont, on the twenty-second of June, 1880, said : —

" I have long known General Arthur. The only serious difficulty I have had with the present administration was when it proposed to remove him from the coUectorship of New York. No one questioned his personal honor and integrity. I resisted the attempt to the utmost. Since that time it has turned out that all the reforms suggested had long before been recommended by General Arthur himself, and pigeon- holded at Washington."

Meanwhile General Arthur had rendered great services as a member, and subsequently a chairman, of the Republican State Committee, and had united his party from one success to another through all the mazes and intricacies which characterize the pohtics of New York City. Vice- President Wheeler said of him : —

" It is my good fortune to know well General Arthur, the nominee for Vice- President. In unsullied character and in devotion to the principles of the Republican party no man in the organ- ization surpasses him. No man has contributed more of time and means to advance the just interests of the Republican party."

The National Republican Convention, which assembled at Chicago, in June, 1880, was an exemplification of the popular will. The respective friends of General Grant and of Mr. Blaine, equally confident of success, indulged during a night's session in prolonged

��demonstrations of applause when the candidates were presented that were unprecedented and that will not prob- ably ever be repeated. Neither side was successful until the thirty-sixth ballot, when the nomination of Presi- dent was finally bestowed on General Garfield, who had, as a delegate from Ohi'o, eloquently presented the name of John Sherman as a candidate.

The convention then adjourned for dinner and for consultation. When it reassembled in the evening, the roll of States was called for the nomination for Vice-President. California presented E. B. Washburne ; Connecticut, ex- Governor Jewell ; Florida, Judge Settle ; Tennessee, Horace Maynard. These successive names attracted little atten- tion, but when ex-Lieutenant-Governor Woodford, of New York, rose, and, after a brief reference to the loyal sup- port which New York had given to General Grant, presented the name of General Chester A. Arthur for the second place on the ticket, it was re- ceived with applause and enthusiasm. The nomination was seconded by ex- Governor Denison, of Ohio, Emory A. Storrs, of IlUnois, and John Cessna, of Pennsylvania. A vote was then taken with the following result : Arthur, 468 ; Washburne, 19; Maynard, 30 ; Jewell, 44 ; Bruce, 8 ; Davis, 2 ; and Wood- ford, I. The nomination of General Arthur was then made unanimous, and a committee of one from each State, with the presiding officer of the con- vention, Senator Hoar, as chairman, was appointed to notify General Garfield and General Arthur of their nomination. The convention then adjourned sine die.

Returning to New York, General Arthur was welcomed by a large and influential gathering of Republicans,

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