1880 Republican National Convention - The Convention

The Convention

At noon on Wednesday, June 2, J. Donald Cameron banged his gavel to commence the beginning of the seventh Republican National Convention. As instructed, Cameron placed the nomination for Senator Hoar as the temporary convention chairman. The nomination was passed unanimously. Later, delegates John H. Roberts of Illinois and Christopher L. Magee of Pennsylvania were made temporary convention secretaries. Senator Eugene Hale of Maine submitted a resolution for a roll call, in which the chairman of each delegation would announce the people from their delegation serving on the convention's three committees. The committees were formed, and the convention was adjourned at five minutes past three in the afternoon.

The convention reconvened at 11:00 A.M. on June 3. Roscoe Conkling submitted a motion for a recess, but the motion was rejected. Another New York delegate, Henry R. Pierson from the Committee on Permanent Organization, submitted a proposal to make the temporary convention assignments permanent. The motion was adopted, and the convention took a four-hour recess until 5:00 P.M. After the recess, a motion was made for the Committee on Rules to be directed to report, but a substitute motion from George H. Sharpe of New York called for the Committee on Credentials to report. The substitute motion was rejected by a vote of 406 to 318, and the original resolution was laid on the table. At 7:30 P.M., the convention was adjourned until 10:00 A.M. the following morning.

The next morning, Conkling then submitted a resolution that bound every delegate in the hall to support the party's nominee. Conkling said that "no man should hold his seat here who is not ready so to agree." A voice vote was called, and the resolution received nearly unanimous delegate support. However, about a dozen or so delegates answered "no". Conkling was shocked. He asked, " at a Republican convention would vote 'no' on such a resolution?" He then demanded a roll call to identify the dissenters. Most of the dissenters chose not to declare their disagreement in front of the thousands of spectators at the "Glass Palace". Only three delegates, all from West Virginia, voted "no" to the resolution, and were showered with a "storm of hisses." Conkling then issued another resolution to strip the three West Virginians of their votes and squash their voices at the convention. The West Virginians revolted against Conkling's resolution, and heavily criticized him for his motion. James Garfield, who was sitting at the Ohio delegation, stood up and tried to settle the matter. He stated that the convention would be making a big mistake if they approved Conkling's motion, and he asked the delegates for their time in order to state his case. Garfield argued that the three West Virginians should not "be disenfranchised because they thought it was not the time to make such an expression ." He stated that "there never can be a convention...that shall bind my vote against my will on any question whatever." Garfield had won the crowd over with his speech. Conkling did not particularly enjoy the situation. He scribbled a note to Garfield which read, "New York requests that Ohio's real candidate and dark horse come forward...R.C." Conkling subsequently withdrew the resolution.

Afterwards, the fight over credentials erupted into a free-for-all. After John A. Logan had barred anti-Grant delegates from the state convention earlier in the year, they had decided to file credential reports. At the meeting between Arthur and Chandler, both men had agreed that the credentials issue could be discussed at the convention. A Chicago lawyer who supported Grant, Emery Storrs interrupted the legal argument over credentials by mocking the Blaine campaigners. His remarks set off a barrage of comments from both the Blaine and Grant sides. The convention went out of control, as people started shouting and jumping throughout the convention hall. As Garfield commented, the convention "seemed it could not be in America, but in the Sections of Paris in the ecstasy of the Revolution." The fracas continued until 2:00 A.M. when acting chairman Green B. Raum, the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue, banged the gavel to end the demonstration.