Президентская кампания 1880 года

From the strap to the presidency. – Private candidates. - Presidential boom. - American Pythia. - Republican Party Convention in Chicago. - Desperate struggle and defeat of Grant. – “Dark horse” and soaring eagle. About thirty years ago, on one of the canals that make up their water system in the vicinity of the great lakes, among the motley mass of workers engaged in rafting and guiding ships, one could see a small fifteen-year-old boy working on a strap as a horse driver. The boy had an intelligent, open and energetic face, and was a favorite of the adult workers. His work was not easy, but he devoted himself to it with cheerfulness every day, and was infinitely happy when at the end of the week he received the usual pay of a few dollars. Tens of years have passed since that time and many of the adult workers are now old, but they still work on the canal as they did thirty years ago. And what happened to the little strap-maker? Oh, he went through a lot of changes during this time and last year he was popularly elected president of the greatest republic in the world. But is he equally happy now as he was then on the channel? – This can only be learned from President Garfield himself, who, thanks to the presidency, is now powerlessly struggling with death... The political movement which, fortunately or unfortunately, has elevated the canal strapper to the presidency is called a presidential campaign, and the outline of it may serve as an interesting characterization of the political mores of our transatlantic friends. The first signs of it emerged from the beginning of the presidential year. Each of the main political parties (and there are two of them - Republican and Democratic) had to nominate its candidate for popular election. The parties, in turn, are divided into different factions, and now the first struggle began between the factions. Each of them, in accordance with their private interests, tried to present their candidate as the best representative of their interests. The fight between these private candidates presents a vivid picture. Politicians resort to all sorts of means just to elevate and popularize their candidate and humiliate their opponent. They hold open noisy demonstrations and secret meetings; conduct open and underground campaigning; publish pamphlets and dithyrambs; they put the candidate on the theater stage, exposing the vices of others and the virtues of their candidate. On shop signs you can now and then see candidates appearing in one position or another, depending on the political views of the owner; on speculative advertisements, theater posters and wrapping paper you will find an invitation to vote for this candidate and not another. In short, wherever you turn, you will meet candidates everywhere and in everything. The most important role in agitation, however, is played by noisy demonstrations. Man in general, and the American in particular, is designed in such a way that he pays most attention to where there is more noise and thunder - there, they say, there is more power. Taking advantage of this weakness, the parties actually “make noise”, producing the so-called “boom”. Every now and then you could read in the newspapers that in such and such a state there was a “boom” for such and such a candidate, and in another for another. This characteristic name for a noisy demonstration in a presidential campaign is taken from the trading bazaar world. A foreigner, upon arrival, for example, in New York, will encounter a boom in the very first days. Arriving on one of the first days of my stay here in the dining room for a regular breakfast, I was amazed by a terrible scream, which in several voices echoed as usual on a quiet street. I rushed to the window and saw about five or six people running like mad along the street, running from one entrance to another and from one sidewalk to another, desperately shouting some incomprehensible words. -What is this, what is this? – I asked my companions almost in fear; but those who were accustomed to this phenomenon only laughed at my bewilderment and did not explain what was the matter. Then I turned to the hostess, an American old-timer, asking her for clarification; but she also answered me vaguely that these are crazy people screaming. - How crazy? Why are they shouting? What words are they shouting? - I asked with impatience and annoyance. “We know what they scream, but not a single person in the world knows what they shout,” the American old-timer finally answered. Seeing my serious bewilderment, my American companions explained to me that these people were simply making a “boom” or noise. Whoever becomes interested in their cry and asks what is the matter, they will say that in such and such an oyster palace the freshest oysters in the world were obtained, or that in such and such a theater three of the greatest luminaries of the world in women's skirts are engaged, and they will also slip in a card. Parties are making exactly the same boom for their candidates. The most enormous boom in the Republican pariah, which will now only be discussed, was produced by the adherents of General Grant. Campaigning for him began from the very moment he entered American soil after his trip around the world. Up to 80 thousand people gathered to meet him. Then began a series of brilliant demonstrations, organized in all the cities where the general visited. The Grant boom thundered throughout the country and made it clear, if not about strength, then about the development of political tactics in the ranks of the general’s friends. The great Times newspaper, the second most influential in America, was the spokesman for Grantism, as the Grant movement came to be called, which soon threatened to drown out all other movements in the Republican Party. The reason for such success of grantism is explained both by the influence of his friends and especially by the political and social state of the country. Recently, in the political and social life of our transatlantic friends, symptoms have begun to appear that cause fear to the friends of the republic. In government spheres, bureaucracy with job seeking and bribery is developing to a terrifying extent, and in the economic sphere, dangerous conditions are quickly being prepared for a clash between labor and capital. As a result of all this, people for whom the interests of the republic are dear, not seeing any other outcome from the threatening dangers, begin to lose faith in common public sense and see salvation only in such a “strong man” who would be able and able to suppress the dangerous symptoms. Their eyes focused on General Grant, who during the war had established himself as an energetic fighter for the unity of the union, and during his two-term presidency - as an energetic ruler. But as everywhere else, so in politics – what is great for one is death for another. What the Grantites considered the salvation of the republic, their opponents proclaimed the greatest disaster, inevitably entailing the death of the republic. When the views of the Grantites became more or less clear, their opponents saw in them nothing more or less than usurper aspirations aimed at a great political revolution, like the one with which the late Napoleon III surprised the world in his time. This thought, like lightning, swept across the country and found expression even in the Herald, the largest and most widespread American newspaper. The newspaper published a number of articles where they seriously attacked both the general and his party for the Caesarism with which they threaten the country. What especially confused the politicians of the anti-Grant camp was that Grant was seeking the presidency for a “third term,” which had never happened during the entire existence of the republic and what was feared was bequeathed by the great liberator of the country, Washington, who himself refused the presidency for a third term. If General Grant is now seeking the presidency for a third term - contrary to the republican traditions of the country and the will of its liberator and founder of the republic, then it is clear that behind this lies usurpation, Caesarism, the anti-Grantists argued. Thus, Grant's party met with a serious opponent, who relied on the living republican feeling of the people and acted in the name of this feeling. The press turned against Grant, humorous and satirical newspapers depicted him wearing a crown, and comic operettas appeared on the stages of popular theaters depicting the accession of General Grant to the imperial throne under the name of Ulysses I. At a colossal ball, which was attended by 15,000 people, in the midst of dancing and pleasure, a horseman with a crown on his head suddenly appeared from a side door, and a horse rushed after him. a whole mass of courtiers with banners, trumpets, kettledrums and shouts: “Long live the emperor.” The horseman's face depicted General Grant with amazing accuracy, and the banners bore coats of arms with the name of Ulysses I. This joke on Grant's party was very successful and popular. The friends of the American Emperor, however, did not lose heart and with full confidence went to the Republican Convention in Chicago. In the central part of New York, where the fashionable element begins to take precedence over the industrial one, the two most important and richest streets of the city - Broadway and Fifth Avenue - converge at an acute angle, forming a thin arrow facing a shady square, a favorite place for evening festivities of citizens. The arrow commands the entire vast square, usually crowded with people, and all that crowded space that the connected streets form until they separate. Such a lively and prominent place could not remain here without special use. One clever Yankee built something like a magic lantern over the switch, which, using a machine, magnifying glasses and electric light, every evening gives the spectacle of huge pictures visible from the entire square and the surrounding area. The pictures change after five to six minutes, or generally enough time to read the text on them. The text tells you where you can eat the freshest oysters in the world, get the cheapest and yet the most elegant suit, rent the most comfortable apartment in the world, marry the most beautiful and yet the most modest woman in the world, etc. In a word, here you see a pre-original application of the magic lantern to the field of speculative advertisements. The pictures only serve as bait. This form of advertising is very popular here, and the happy inventor of the lantern is simply inundated with orders and collects large profits. But he is at the same time an ardent politician, and at times his magic lantern reports important political bulletins before anyone else. During presidential elections, the lantern plays a primary role and in front of it, in the square and in all available places, countless masses of people gather, waiting for important news from the lantern. The square was filled with such masses of politicking people in early June 1880. At this time in The Republican Party convention was taking place in Chicago to nominate a Republican candidate for the presidency, and in New York everyone was eagerly catching the news coming from there. When on the 7th the lantern began to show the numbers representing the count of votes for one or another candidate, depending on one or another of their inclination, the square was filled with either triumphant cheers or an angry hiss, and a crowd of many thousands of passionately bickering politicians presented an interesting spectacle in the darkness, under the twinkling of only the stars in the dark sky. Those politicians who for some reason could not appear on the square themselves sent boys who, like demons, darted through the crowds and, having coped with the testimony of the American Pythia, rushed like an arrow to their mysterious senders. So worried were politicians a thousand miles away from the scene of the event; what happened in Chicago itself at the convention is difficult to describe. The Chicago Republican Convention will forever remain a memorable event in the history of the American people. She clearly discovered aspects of his political life that had not been noticed until then. From the outside, it attracted attention by the fact that the strongest candidate was General Grant, whose choice for a “third term” simply infuriated a good half of the Republican Party, who saw in this a blatant violation and insult to republican traditions, obvious Caesarism and usurpation. As a result, the struggle between Grant's supporters and opponents was expected to be fierce, and more than 100,000 people gathered in Chicago to observe its vicissitudes. Already crowded, the city in the first days of June represented a whole sea of ​​people, and all the more stormy because political blood was hot and seething in everyone. The parties made their last booms for their candidates here before the start of the meetings, organized noisy processions around the city with banners and music, and clever commission agents met deputies with unambiguous courtesy at railway stations and offered free rooms in hotels - of course, at the expense of famous strangers. Each state sent its representatives to the national republican convention under the leadership of skilled politicians. There were 756 deputies, of which 379 were needed for election. Several candidates appeared, but there were three main ones: General Grant, who had the strongest party behind him; Senator Blanc, a skilled politician, and Secretary of State Sherman, who openly used his important financial post in favor of his candidacy. There were several other candidates, but completely insignificant ones, supported only by their individual states. The center of the struggle was to be between the three main candidates. And the fight began. The strongest party was represented by the Grantites, but however, not everyone in their ranks was equally devoted to Grant, and many of them were inclined to prefer the golden calf to the most valiant general. The opponents, of course, realized this and opened a real auction. The colored deputies, who generally stand for Grant as their liberator from slavery, turned out to be the most pliable and many of them went at a price at which they were not sold during slavery. In relation to other, less corrupt deputies, the disputing parties used other means; The agitation in the assembly hall, which accommodated more than ten thousand people, often reached such an extent that the entire meeting seemed engulfed in the magic of madness and shouting, and it was difficult to think that any of the deputies was not deaf or with torn lungs. Each pariah was afraid to proceed directly to the ballot, and therefore for six whole days they were engaged in a preliminary struggle, snatching votes from each other. Finally the voting began and the result was the following sign: This result showed that Grant still had a majority of votes for himself, but, however, not one that could deliver an indisputable victory. Supporters of other candidates were all against the “third term”, and therefore, if they joined forces on any one candidate, they could easily beat the Grantites. But, be that as it may, the first submission did not give anyone the number of votes required for election - 379. Therefore, the second vote began. The result was the same. The parties were so shuffled during the preliminary fierce struggle that a better shuffling of deputies could not have been expected. During the second vote there were only very slight changes in the distribution of votes and, incidentally, one vote was cast for General Garfield, of whom there was no mention at the first cast. Nobody paid attention to this voice, but it was destined to become fatal for the convention. Since the number of votes necessary for the choice was again not available, a third vote was started - and again with the same result. And so the whole day passed, twenty votes were taken, and the twentieth, in general, did not differ at all in the distribution of votes from the first. Sweat poured down from the deputies and the thousands of spectators crowded in the stuffy hall; many of them were ready to vote for the first candidate they came across, just to get this matter over with as quickly as possible; but others declared that they were ready to vote the whole summer in order to keep the field of battle for their candidate. The meeting ended at 11 o'clock at night, the parties dispersed with a feeling of disappointment and uncertainty; Only the Grantites brightened up some of their facial features: the twentieth inning gave Grant 308 votes, 4 more against the first. Garfield with his one voice appeared and then disappeared again. In view of the unshakable steadfastness of the supporters of the major candidates, it is most natural to expect that victory will remain with one of them, since the adherents of the minor candidates must inevitably cast their votes for one or another of the major ones. In fact, political tactics, based on inflamed passions, have developed a completely different outcome for such cases. The President in the United States has very few rights as a state; he simply represents only the executive power in relation to the definitions of Congress. But it is very important administratively; under his direct control is a vast area of ​​public administration, with a whole army of officials or functionaries. In this connection between officials and the president lies the whole secret of both the fierce struggle for candidates and the valiant perseverance of their supporters. Practice has developed such a form of electing deputies to the convention that the majority of them include either officials or those still looking for good jobs. So they make a noise at the convention, trying in every possible way to defend their candidate - in full confidence that their diligence will be rewarded according to their merits if they are successful. This bureaucratic attitude towards the presidential elections has now received a terrible development and threatens the country with serious danger, introducing damage and corruption into the republican government of the state. It also explains the unexpected outcome with which conventions are increasingly beginning to puzzle the country. Parties fight to the last extreme, but when they finally see the impossibility of defending their candidate and securing the required number of votes for him, they transfer their votes not to the side of the strongest candidate in order to give him superiority - no, but to some very insignificant candidate who was not previously taken into account. The only consideration that guides this is that casting your votes in favor of the strongest candidate only means voluntarily ceding all positions with their fat salaries to his followers, leaving nothing for yourself. If an insignificant candidate is strengthened, there still remains, if he is elected, the hope that he, without special minions, will distribute positions impartially, equally for all parties. It is clear that instead of prominent and popular candidates from the conventions, in this state of affairs, only “dark horses”, as these unexpectedly jumping up candidates are called, can emerge. Twenty votes on June 7th did not decide the matter. The next day, with new hopes and fears, the boring voting machine was started again. The parties stood like stone pillars. One after another, the votes produced the same results. The thirty-third vote was almost identical to yesterday's first. It seemed that there would be no end to this Sisyphean work. But the patience of its participants finally ran out. At the thirty-fourth vote, the small parties gave in and tilted in favor of the dark horse. Garfield, instead of the usual one vote, suddenly received 17. This should have immediately caused demoralization in the convention, but it found a counterbalance in the fact that Grant at the same time won several more votes and received 312. The thirty-fifth inning, however, completely mixed the ranks of adherents of the major candidates. Garfield received 50 votes this time, and the fate of the convention was decided. Everyone immediately saw where the center of gravity was, and the thirty-sixth vote was the last. She abundantly endowed the “dark horse” with votes. Here's the table this latest submission produced: Garfield………………. …399 Blanc……………………… 42 The most severe defeats were suffered by the cunning Senator Blanc and the ambitious Secretary Sherman. Grant's column remained unshaken and emerged from this hellish struggle with honor. Grant himself received the first news of the result of the convention at the telegraph station. Having received this disappointing sign, the famous general looked at it intently, nodded his head and, saying: all right (well, okay), went home. All three of these candidates immediately disappeared from the political scene, and in their place the figure of a former canal strapman stood majestically, he became the leader of the republican half of the people. Obviously, he was nominated unexpectedly and emerged from the Republican conclave as a “dark horse”; but even this choice of his coincided with the political meaning of the people, and on the very day of Garfield’s election, many saw an eagle soaring and circling royally over the modest house of the current president. A gloomy island and its happy inhabitant. – Democratic Convention. – Democrats and their political program. – Candidates and Tilden’s cunning. – Democratic elected official and his state form. – Dark horse and gray soldier. The large island, on which the capital of the New World is located with its one and a half million population, is washed by two wide streams formed by the Hudson and the Eastern Rivers, separating New York from a whole galaxy of other cities. Having skirted the city, both rivers, just before entering the ocean, merge into one majestic round area of ​​water - more than ten square miles - called New York Bay. It is difficult to imagine anything more picturesque than this bay. Its granite embankment, with the adjacent park, serves as one of the favorite places for walks in the summer heat. Here you can take a break from the stifling heat of the city atmosphere under the shade of chestnut trees and the cool, healthy breath of the bay. The panorama of the bay is charming. Its mirror square is cut in all directions by countless ships and steamships, forming a kind of living bridge between cities, and in the distance one can see narrow gates to the ocean, through which giant ocean steamships enter and exit. In the middle of the bay area, but closer to the exit to the ocean than to the city, there is a small island. It is covered with dense foliage, through which gloomy, heavily built houses can barely shine through. But bolder than at home, the steel muzzles of cannons peek out from the green foliage. This is the main New York fort and together the main apartment of the head of the local troops, Major General Gencock. In a happy country, enjoying real and not armed peace, the seat of the god of war does not serve as a place of worship, and therefore the island among the life boiling around it looks like an abandoned orphan. Its inhabitants are as boring as their cannons, and carry out their official duties with the same mechanicalness as cannons, when on major historical holidays they spew hundreds of measured shots onto the bay. On Thursday, June 24, 1880, something extraordinary suddenly happened. The hitherto abandoned orphan island suddenly became a magnet to which countless steamships were drawn, usually passing by with cold indifference. Everything on the island came to life. The gloomy buildings were decorated with multi-colored flags, the banks were besieged by masses of visitors, the groves were filled with enthusiastic cries, and the steel cannons seemed to intensify their firing even without charges. The reason for such a magical change in the life of the gloomy island was that its main inhabitant, General Hencock, was on that day nominated by the democratic convention as a candidate for the presidency. Here, in this seat of the god of war, the Democratic Party found a leader who was to lead it against the hated Republicans, with their General Garfield, and win in the November elections. The democratic convention, in which the honorary ticket to the presidency fell on the happy inhabitant of the gloomy island, took place on the twentieth (22–24) of June, in the city of Cincinnati, or the so-called American Paris, although due to its dusty, suffocating atmosphere, the name of the American Saratov would have suited it better. It has been a long time since the Democratic Party had such an important convention. The convention had to resolve an almost Hamletian question: to be or not to be? The Democratic Party has not had a single president since the Civil War. The White House was constantly occupied by Republicans with their elected representatives. During the election before last, precisely in 1876, happiness smiled on the Democrats, and their chosen one, Tilden, was ready to put his foot across the sacred threshold of the White House, when suddenly the Republicans, through cunning political machinations, took away several votes from him and, with a majority of one vote, pulled the presidency to their side and installed their candidate Gayes in the White House. The blow was heavy for the already triumphant Democrats, and Tilden himself went to bed. Time, however, healed both the party and its candidate, and now they entered the political arena with new strength and renewed determination. Now they had to beat their opponents at all costs, avenge past defeats and maintain the honor of their banner. Otherwise, the party faced political death. To win, you must be strong and have at your head a leader who, embodying the principles of the party, could unite all the disparate factions of the party into one united force and, before the powerful influence of his banner, force the banner of the opponents to bow. During the elections before last, the party, by the way, lost because its leader could not attract certain factions that did not see in him a full exponent of democratic principles. What are these principles? – To answer this question, we need to look back a little. Before the war for the abolition of slavery there were two parties - the Democrats and the Whigs, the former of which were adherents of decentralization and expansion of the rights of local states, and the latter supporters of the principle of centralization and zealous guardians of the unity of the union. Just before the war, when agitation began in favor of the abolition of slavery, a new party was formed, which, supporting the principles of the Whigs, took upon itself mainly the task of freeing the slaves. It began to be called republican and soon merged with the Whigs, absorbing their very name. The south was completely democratic, the north republican. When the republican north began to persistently demand the emancipation of slaves and was ready to rely on state law in its demand, the democratic south, which was affected by this demand and which did not want to part with the slavery that was beneficial to it, put forward its principle of local independence against the northerners and was ready to completely separate from the union. The clash of these opposing principles led to an internecine war that ended in the defeat of the Democrats and the emancipation of the slaves. Thus, during the war, Democrats declared themselves slave owners, and Republicans declared themselves freers of slaves. When, after the abolition of slavery, the Democrats could no longer rely on the slave-owning principle, they remained with their political principle of local independence, and it is usually written in the largest letters on their banner. At the same time, in social terms, the Democrats have turned their front sharply. Despising and oppressing their former slaves - the blacks, they at the same time begin to play demagogic roles in relation to the white lower population; From ardent slave owners they turned into no less ardent demagogues, just as some of our serf owners almost fell into nihilism when they saw that the good old days had sunk into eternity. In particular, the principles of the Democratic Party, as defined by the convention, are as follows: “Opposition to centralization and that dangerous spirit which is increasing to concentrate the power of government in one department and thus create an actual despotism, under any form of government; separation of church and state; local government; subordination of military power to civil power and the right to free voting.” Then the Democratic Party declares that it is “a friend of labor and the working class and considers it its duty to patronize them and protect them from the claims of capitalists and communities”; demands the abolition of the Burlingam treaty with China, by virtue of which the American government gave complete freedom to the Chinese to move to America with the obligation to patronize them. The Democratic Party demands "a complete prohibition of the Chinese from coming to America except for travel, education and overseas trade - with close supervision." This is how the democrats themselves define their principles. That's not how Republicans look at them. In their opinion, the main principles of the party should be read not in the lines, but between them; and then between the lines they read such horrors that your hair stands on end. If a truly democratic party had adhered to the principles attributed to it, then the very first year of the transfer of government into democratic hands would have been the last year of the existence of the entire state. In fact, the Democrats do not go at all beyond the principles they have announced, and in the points stated there is already a lot that is simply said for the sake of words. At least under local rule, the Democrats actually show themselves to be not nearly as “labor and working class friendly” as their political platform says. Not to mention the southern states, where the black working population is simply oppressed by them no worse than the times of slavery, so that last year entire tens of thousands of black families fled from this oppression to the north; in the middle and northern states, their patronage of the working class manifests itself only through demagogic flattery during elections, and the elections themselves usually fall on persons who have nothing to do with labor, such as, for example, their beloved Tilden - a railroad lawyer, a shadowy capitalist and an ambitious politician. The membership of the party, besides the southern former slaveholders, contains little of the purely American population; but the emigrant population - especially the Irish - are almost exclusively Democrats. Being politically underdeveloped, this population serves as an obedient tool in the hands of demagogue politicians. Numerically, the parties are almost equal, and their advantage in elections is given only by that class of the so-called “independent” population, which, not belonging to any party, during elections casts its vote for one side or the other, depending on the candidate nominated by one or another party. The convention at Cincinnati was to elect a candidate who could be the ablest bearer of the banner of the Democratic party. The Democrats went to the convention in triumph. When the Republican Convention in Chicago proclaimed the “dark horse” - General Garfield - as its standard-bearer, there was no end to the popular rejoicing in the Democratic camp. They openly proclaimed this Republican choice as synonymous with the defeat of the party. As soon as you elect the first of the many political leaders of the party, his name is an undoubted victory, as the most ardent democrats put it. And in some respects they were right. While the Republican Party, spoiled by its long and almost undivided dominance in the country, allowed quest and intrigue to develop among itself, thanks to which it became almost impossible for the truly popular leaders of the party to achieve the presidency, the Democrats, taught by the experience of constant defeats, on the contrary, developed a more sound political sense and began to rely on their best and most popular leaders. This time, a good dozen statesmen were candidates for candidacy in their camp, each of whom could accept the presidential candidacy with dignity. Each of them, of course, was supported by its own special faction, but it is remarkable that between these factions there was not at all the fierce struggle for which the Republican Convention became famous. Each of these factions was voluntarily ready to sacrifice their votes in favor of any candidate to whom the majority would lean. The strongest candidate, of course, was the Democratic veteran Tilden, who had been so unexpectedly pushed away from the White House in 1876 by the unknown upstart Gayes. His "boom" was almost as enormous as Grant's boom in the Republican Party. Before the convention, all the Democrats had to talk about was Tilden, and he really was a giant compared to the Republican “dark horse.” The paramount state of New York unanimously voted for Tildep at the local democratic convention, and his appointment seemed undoubted to everyone. But just before the convention, when the pastor was ready to read a prayer for the opening of the meeting, a strange surprise suddenly happened: Tilden sent a letter to the convention in which he renounced the presidency. This letter came out of the blue to the zealous Tildenites; their ranks were mixed up, and they did not know what to do. But what is tears for some is laughter for others. While the Tildenites were seriously confused and did not know what to do, Tilden’s opponents only laughed at the “cunning sage” and saw in the letter only a political trick - to give themselves greater popularity. The letter was indeed drawn up in such a cunning manner that the refusal was connected by a strong bridge with consent and was similar to the formal refusal with which our Moscow tsars and patriarchs paved their way to the throne. The trick, however, did not succeed and, on the contrary, ruined the whole matter. Tilden's ardent supporters remained confused and indecisive, while less ardent supporters quietly switched to the side of other candidates. Therefore, when the voting began, Tilden suddenly found himself almost at the tail of the table. In the first vote, out of 738 delegates, only 38 voted for Tilden. The lion's share went to General Gencock; he immediately received 171 votes, the largest number of votes of all nineteen candidates who appeared in the first table. The first serve was so significant that it immediately decided the whole matter. Everyone saw where the center of gravity was, and the second cast of votes almost unanimously declared Gencock a democratic candidate for the presidency. The second serve gave Gencock 705 votes and Tilden only 1 vote... Doesn't fate often laugh so sarcastically? The chosen one turned out to be very popular. When his name was proclaimed, the entire assembly of ten thousand present at the vote seemed to be seized with a mania of shouting, and the entire huge hall of the fellow was, as it were, one monstrous mouth, from which deafening cheers thundered and shook the walls. The orchestra struck the national anthem, but not a single sound was heard from it, just as one cannot hear the squeak of a mosquito during the roar of a hurricane. Only by the desperate movements of the bows could one judge the joyful delight of the performers. The news of the result of the convention spread with the speed of lightning throughout the entire state, and wherever there was democratic blood, it produced delight and rejoicing. The happy general, who so excited the entire democratic world, is indeed a very nice and worthy person. He is one of the first-class American generals and occupies almost immediate position after Grant. By his origin, he belongs to an ancient honorable family, which acquired its name during the struggle for liberation. The general's great-grandfather was one of the active employees of the great Washington. The general himself rendered very important services to the state with his military abilities during the civil war, when he and Grant fought for the unity of the Union against the southerners. Throughout his life, he is one of the most honest patriots of the country and rightly deserves the title given to him “a knight without fear and reproach.” His reputation is so pure and impeccable that the Republicans could not bring anything more reproachful against his personality, except that he commanded a detachment during the execution of one woman, sentenced by the court to death. For all his honesty and likability, General Gencock is nothing more or less than “the son of the god of war”; he was never a statesman, and his “form” in this regard cannot be compared with that of General Garfield, who declared himself to be engaged in important state activities, which are most needed by a country not doomed by fate to the horrors of war. The Democrats made a curious turn of the front here. Against Grant’s candidacy, by the way, they put forward as the main argument that the country does not need a “gray soldier”, that it only needs a statesman; now they themselves elected as their candidate precisely the “gray soldier of the gray”, without a drop of state experience. Thus, the country had to make a choice between the “gray soldier” of the Democrats and the “dark horse” of the Republicans. The first had personal impeccability and honesty for himself, the second had state experience and a good fate. The choice was obviously not easy. Small political parties. – Greenbackers or greenbacks. -Paper money. – Greenback Convention. - Combination with the socialists. – Ladies in politics and the history of their unsuccessful adventures. – Women's issue among our transatlantic friends. -Opponents and defenders of women's rights to vote. In addition to parties that, due to their importance in the country, have a certain or probable chance of electing a president from among themselves, in America there are also parties that have no chance of such an honor. And yet, during the elections, these parties are fuming and worried no less than the main ones. They also campaign, meet at local and national conventions, and nominate their candidates for the presidency. Between them, in first place is the party of the so-called greenbackers. The main principle of the party is determined by its name from green back - green back, as ordinary people call paper money, based on the green color of its reverse side. These greenbacks have a tender passion for paper money, are dissatisfied with their current limited circulation in the country and demand their unlimited issue in order to lower the price of the paper dollar compared to the gold one. Strange people! What unhypocritical liberals here in Russia hysterically lament, they, these American nihilists, consider their ideal and strive for its implementation in every possible way. The matter is explained very easily, however, and then it is not to the credit of the economic insight of our newspaper mourners about the fall of the paper ruble. Greenbacks are mostly small farmers who live by working the land. As producers, they naturally try to raise the price of the products of their labor as high as possible and consider the unlimited circulation of paper money to be the main means for this. This is undoubtedly beneficial for them. The fall of paper money has a heavy impact only on non-producers and, moreover, those who are accustomed to exquisite comfort, requiring the highest products of foreign industry for their satisfaction; for producers, and, moreover, their needs are limited to the products of their own labor, it affects only the accumulation in their hands of a mass of banknotes, which for their everyday economy have a very large, positively enriching significance. If the party remained true to its basic principle, it would be the most modest and harmless party, and moreover, more economic than political. But inexorable fate, which constantly acted in spite of her and finally dealt her the most cruel blow by the complete equalization of paper money with gold, plunged her into the abyss of anarchy and almost threw her into the friendly arms of socialism. At least, this is how the party has declared itself lately, and all sorts of dissatisfied people have begun to gather under its banner. When the time came for the nomination of candidates for the presidency and the main parties drew up their conventions, the Greenbacks did not lag behind the others and convened their own convention for the same purpose. Their convention took place on June 10th in Chicago, and its meeting presents a pretty good picture of the life and morals of American nihilists. The Greenback Convention took place on the heels of the Republican Convention and in the same vast hall of the "Exhibition Building" in Chicago. But what a difference there was between these two conventions. While during the meeting of the Republicans the entire huge hall was crowded to the point of suffocation and was still besieged from the outside by tens of thousands of people trying to catch even the insignificant echoes of the meeting, now in this same hall sat only greenbacks: emptiness reigned in the galleries and in the rows of numerous chairs. Now this hall represented, in the words of one local newspaper, the biblical cave of Adullam, for to this cave, according to the saying of the holy scripture, everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was dissatisfied, came running. There were indeed representatives of all these classes, but the diversity of the members of the convention turned into chaos when pure local socialists were admitted to the meeting and when they solemnly entered the hall with their banner proclaiming “freedom, equality and fraternity.” Finally, there they sat, tall, wiry ladies, representatives of the party of female voters, dissatisfied with the management of the bearded sex and seeking the right to vote for the fair sex. Such a variety of representatives of discontent in all its forms was the reason that the meeting promised to be extremely stormy. Fortunately, the convention found a wonderful moderator in the famous agitator Denis Kerner. This man had just been released from prison, to which he had been sent for indignation among the working population in California against the Chinese and the capitalists. Violent and restless himself, he now appeared as a guardian of order at his convention. Upon taking up his post, he, according to custom, threw off his frock coat and rolled up his sleeves, shouted so menacingly at those who declared their oratory skills with immoderate zeal that the chairman seriously warned the members of the convention to take better care of the safety of their faces. Soon, however, it was found necessary to reinforce the guard of order with several assistants, and each assistant was given a policeman as an allowance with strict orders to arrest anyone who dared to address the meeting with a speech without the permission of the chairman. The Convention indeed finally came to its senses and began to discuss its case, fully enjoying the “freedom of speech.” The discussion of the matter, of course, was carried out on a grand scale, as befits a meeting where everyone is dissatisfied with something. As representatives of liberty, the members of the convention first expressed their contempt for those politicians who expressed the desire for "strong government" and sought its implementation in the person of General Grant. But then, with nihilistic consistency, they formulated the demand that Congress should take charge of all railroads and waterways, abolish private land ownership, regulate industrial establishments, and seize into the hands of the government many other things which the most zealous adherent of the most “strong government” and the most despotic government trusteeship did not dare to think about placing under the control of the government. Then the socialists put forward their resolution, according to which “light, earth, air and water are free gifts of nature,” and anyone who dares to seize them as their own is the worst enemy of humanity, a robber, a predator. To the Greenbacks, who formed the majority in the convention and owned property in the form of landed farms, such a resolution of political friends was worse than a disservice, but in the name of solidarity they passed it in silence, knowing that the resolution would never affect them. In a similar way, a convention resolved all state and public issues, and, due to the heterogeneity of the assembly, the resolution, which satisfied some, ran counter to the interests of others. Quite unanimous, it seems, was the resolution against the Chinese, formulated as follows: “Since slavery is simply cheap labor, and cheap labor is simply slavery, and since the resettlement of the Chinese to America contributes, of necessity, to a decrease in the value of labor, then measures must certainly be taken to repeal the Burlingham Treaty,” obliging the United States to provide protection to Chinese settlers. But this resolution, put forward by deputies from the landless working population, was not particularly to the taste of the greenbacks, who, as landowners, are not disadvantaged by having the cheapest possible workers on their farms. The poor ladies got the worst of the convention. When one of them just hinted at a request to the venerable meeting to promote the cause of women's voting, the inexorable and rudely straightforward agitator Denis Kernei interrupted her with the remark that his wife ordered him, when leaving for the convention, not to have anything to do with the issue of women's voting, otherwise, when returning, she would greet him with an iron poker instead of a marital kiss. The poor lady was completely embarrassed by such a passage on the part of the all-powerful ruler of the convention and responded to the obnoxious agitator only with a modest remark that she was very pleased with Kerney’s confession regarding who the true head of his family was. Kernei was severely angry at this remark, but was reassured and satisfied that the entire meeting sided with his wife’s “instruction” and put the question of women’s right to vote aside. After lengthy discussions and debates on various radical questions, the convention was finally resolved by the appointment of its candidate for the presidency, a certain Weaver, who, along with the candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties, was to be subject to a popular vote the following November. But, of course, the Greenback candidate was just a caricatured hero of an insignificant episode in the political life of the country, and no one paid attention to him. The Republican and Democratic candidates were even the subject of speculation, and the probable election of one of them to the presidency gave rise to bets of tens of thousands of dollars on the part of some political speculators; there was no mention of the greenback candidate. The convention ended with a brilliant celebration, and the Chicago whiskey and beer merchants will not remember such a glorious and profitable time for them. Kervey went home with the bright hope that his wife would greet him not with a poker, but with a tender kiss. But the poor ladies drove home with their heads bowed, cursing in their souls the whole breed of gentlemen, these tyrants and the worst enemies of the fair sex. Americans are indeed very inattentive, if not cruel, to their fair half. For a long time now, poor ladies have been seeking equal rights with them, asking and begging to extend the right to vote in elections to the fair sex, but the tyrants don’t even want to hear and only maliciously laugh at them. But American ladies are not the type to back down from their work, and adamantly go towards their goal. In New York there is a special society for women's voting, which constantly conducts propaganda in favor of its cause: publishes a magazine, sends deputies to large political rallies, etc. Those poor ladies who sat at the convention of greenbacks and whom the nasty Kerpei treated so indelicately were deputies from this society. This was not the first time they attended the convention; they were at both the republican and then the democratic conventions, everywhere advocating for their holy cause. The story of their adventures at these conventions is very edifying. At one solemn meeting in the society of female voters, deputies made interesting reports about the result of their mission. The large hall was filled with a beautiful floor, and the leaders of society occupied places on the front platform. All of these were tall, skinny figures with energetic faces, on which the determination to overthrow the tyranny of men was clearly inscribed at any cost. The Japanese fans moved impetuously in their hands, obviously producing little cooling in their faces inflamed with indignation. The meeting opened with a hymn on the theme of “deceit and love,” and then the chairman introduced the meeting to a party of ladies who were to report on their activities in favor of the sacred cause of women at various political conventions. Miss Anna Six entered first. This is a wonderful type of American lady. She is so tall that she seems to be standing on stilts, and at the same time so thin that for proportionality only half her height would be enough. Her motley dress, whose variety of colors rivaled the motley of tropical birds, closely followed the English fashion around her neck, decorated with a heavy gold medallion. On the head, pinned to the side of the massive chignon, was a newfangled hat, the main decoration of which was an owl's head, with its terrible fiery eyes and curved nose. The intelligent, energetic face of the politician shone with a gentle smile, successfully hiding some features in which shameless rude people would not mind recognizing signs of decay. In general, the lady is still in her prime, and only the worst enemies of the fair sex, with their characteristic impudence, would call her an old maid. Having taken leave of the assembly, which greeted her with animated applause, Miss Six opened her speech with a general overview of the state of the women's issue and then proceeded to report on the adventures that she and other deputies had to meet at political conventions. The Women's Vote Society sent eight lawmakers to the Republican Convention in Chicago. Arriving there, the deputies, as Miss Six put it, were struck by the “rude Saturnalia of men.” When they arrived there, the whole city was an unprecedented crowd of men in whom political passions had drowned out all the noble impulses of the heart. All the hotels were occupied by them, and the poor ladies did not even have a place to lay their heads. Finally, the place was somehow found; but when they then went to the box office for tickets for the right to enter the hall of their brother, then suddenly - oh horror! - it turned out that the daring men grabbed all 10,000 tickets, leaving them with none. Under such bitter circumstances, the deputies turned to the leader of the Grant party, asking for his assistance in allowing them to attend the convention. But his head was spinning from the political struggle, and with truly masculine insolence he answered them: “Oh, please ask someone else!” The ladies turned to the leader of Sherman's party, but he also replied: “Sorry, please ask someone else!” The ladies turned to the third, but from him they heard again: “Ask someone else.” So what is this finally? the deputies exclaimed in noble indignation, and were so angry that they abandoned the republican convention, leaving it with only rude men, without a drop of female influence ennobling and softening morals. With the best hope they went to the convention of the venerable greenbacks. There was now a lot of space and whole rows of chairs were allocated for them. But then the obnoxious agitator Denis Kerney destroyed all their hopes, sacrificing their holy cause as a sacrifice to his marital love. On the twentieth of June, a democratic convention took place in Cincinnati. The deputies went there to try their luck. There also turned out to be plenty of room for them, and they were honorably led into the meeting hall by the kind democrats. There they followed the debate with interest and greeted with jubilation the appointment of General Gencock, this “knight without fear or reproach,” to the presidential candidacy. Having appointed a candidate, they cheerfully wanted to come forward with their own cause, but the Democrats suddenly declared their convention closed. The poor ladies remained irrelevant - even at the convention of noble democrats. This sad story of the venerable politician was filled with humor and involuntarily aroused sympathy. Other ladies spoke in the same way, and each of them gave the “tyrannical sex” a hard time. In the end, the chairman of the meeting herself made a brilliant speech in favor of women’s voting and concluded it with an invitation to subscribe to the magazine published by the society. “It’s only one dollar,” she said, “and yet the magazine is brilliant!” Yes, no matter how famous America is for freedom, women there are still far from complete equality with bearded gentlemen. The greatest social right, the right to vote in elections, is almost completely inaccessible to women and is making tentative steps only in some of the most progressive states. In addition to practical opponents, women's right to vote also encounters theoretical opponents who, through literary means, on the basis of philosophical and political considerations, deny their legal capacity in this regard. In one of the issues of the North American Review, a certain Parkmoney published an article of this kind, in which he philosophically came to deny the rights of women to vote. In his opinion, the right to vote is fundamentally rooted in the ability to take up arms in defense of the subject of the vote. Popular government, in essence, is based on the truth that the majority can always, with arms in its hands, force a minority that disagrees with it to submit to itself. From this it is obvious that only those who can fight can participate in the vote. By classifying women, of course, as unable to fight, Parkman paints a dire picture of what would follow an election in which a majority of women triumphed over a minority of men. The men would take up arms and, with two or three unloaded cannons, would put the triumphant women to flight, pursuing them to their very bedrooms, and in such a shockingly illegal manner would take over the government. – The article, as one would expect, met with a refutation. First of all, says one defender of the fair sex in this regard, an exception must be made to the general position that women cannot fight. Parkman is obviously an unmarried man and therefore has little acquaintance with the other sex. Had he never heard of the king of the Dahomey Amazons? Or have you never brought an uninvited guest into your house and been greeted by the stern, merciless gaze of your wife, poorly hiding a formidable poker in the folds of her dress? 25 Or did he not fall into the hands of his mother-in-law and try to contradict her in her religious subtleties? A woman, according to the philosopher, is a gentle, fearful creature; Perhaps this is so, but for all that, she is also the main culprit in the premature formation of bald spots that characterizes married gentlemen. Parkman obviously does not share the concept of battle and victory with guns and bayonets. But there are other ways to fight. Isn't the tongue of a wicked woman more dangerous than a double-edged sword, and isn't a stubborn wife more powerful than a loaded cannon? And beauty, and the affection of a woman, and love - what can resist this weapon that a woman has? And here is an illustration. Elections in one liberal state that allowed women to vote were carried out at full speed. The struggle of the parties was in full swing for life and death. The leader of the Democratic Party was a handsome young man, whose fiery speeches and devilish energy the Republicans were afraid of. After one significant victory, the happy democrat rushed with delight to his “sweet heart” to share his triumph with her. He comes and talks with delight about his victory, but, to his surprise, the sweet heart pouts its pretty lips more and more as the story goes on. “What’s wrong with you, my sweet heart? - the surprised and embarrassed winner finally asks, “do you want anything from me?” Ask everything: I will fulfill everything for you!” – The sweet heart flashed with sly eyes. “Well, well, ask: I’ll do everything!” confirms democrat. “My dear, I only wish for one thing: vote for our Republican candidate!” The invincible democrat was struck by thunder, but the crafty Delilah took his hair from Samson and the democratic party lost its strong leader. “From all this it is clear that the thoughtful opponent of women's rights to vote still has a lot to learn both about the way to fight and about the power of women. First of all, he needs to get married without delay. This will be the best practical refutation of his theory that a woman, as a weak creature, cannot force men to do her will. Presidential campaign and weapons of struggle. - Democratic Square. – Indignant Bourbons. - Republican fortress. – Torchlight Procession of Africa. —The position of the colored race in politics. - Gross violence. - Fluctuating odds. - Merits of the Republican Party to the country. – Picture of well-being. After the nomination of the candidates, that political movement, which is characteristically called the “presidential campaign,” appeared on the scene in its entirety. This is truly a campaign and is being conducted according to all the rules and the developed strategy. The parties stand against each other like two hostile camps with their leaders at the head and are waging a fierce struggle, and all sorts of permitted and unauthorized means are being used, just to capture prisoners in the opposite camp and triumphantly bark that, they say, “our regiment has arrived.” First of all, the entire campaign literature acts as a weapon of struggle. A whole mass of candidates appears, and one’s own candidate is portrayed as the embodiment of all seven virtues, and the other’s as such a monster of vice, before which the genius of the dark kingdom himself would shudder. Sensational pamphlets and pamphlets rain down from all sides, and politicking composers compose special battle anthems that are sung and played by orchestras at rallies. Portraits of candidates are carried by the millions throughout the country and distributed as advertisements, and huge grids are hung over all the main streets, on which are emblazoned the figures, names and various sayings of the heroes of the campaign. In the “main apartments” the doors are constantly open for rallies and amateur speakers, and grandiose processes with torches and banners are carried out through the streets. Speculators open special stores for the presidential campaign and advertise with lavish advertisements the richest selection of “campaign implements” - banners, flags, torches, portraits and special campaign costumes - “brilliant and impressive, and yet the cheapest in the world.” The parties are even separated spatially, and in relation to different areas of New York one can say with certainty which of them is Republican and which is Democratic. In the very center of the city there is a fairly extensive “Union Square”. In the middle of the square there is a strong fountain, in the corners there are copper statues of the “fathers” of the republic, and on the sides there are the richest streets of the city, led by Broadway or New York Nevsky. This is the main seat of state democracy. Hotels, restaurants and public halls here are in the exclusive possession of the Democrats, and across all exits from the streets to the square there are nets with portraits of their candidate, General Gencock. Their rallies take place here, and here is the main mechanism that runs the entire presidential campaign of the democratic party. In the large hotel, the Democrats occupied eighteen rooms in which telegraph machines were constantly working, constantly feeling the pulse of the country in all its parts and directions. Walking through the square one evening, I was struck by a strange sight. One house was a continuous mass of light, and among it a gigantic shadow of a human figure ran and grimaced along the wall. As I got closer, I looked at the portraits of the democratic candidates (for the presidency and vice-presidency), and I realized what was going on. It was a democratic rally. To attract attention to it, the Democrats covered the entire front part of the house with canvas, behind which they lit many candles and bowls along the wall, merging for the viewer from the outside into one continuous mass of fire, so that the whole house seemed like one huge lantern. The shadow running across it was nothing more than the shadow of the speakers who took turns occupying the pulpit, artificially enlarged to gigantic proportions. The closer the fateful November approached, the more often this monstrous lantern was lit and the more energetically the shadows grimaced on it. The movement of shadows, however, does not mean a real rally everywhere. Sometimes, when you come into the hall at the direction of a shadow, you will only find some jester who, either for hire or of his own accord, performs oratorical techniques completely in front of empty chairs, only letting you know that “the campaign is not standing, the agitation is not dormant.” Meeting halls are scattered throughout the city and it is interesting to attend them to see with what energy the politicking speakers advocate for their candidates and with what elegant epithets they attribute to their hated opponents. At these private meetings, however, already ordinary speakers develop and chew for the gray people what was said by the main leaders of the party at some general meeting, and therefore these latter are of more interest to the observer of political life. Not far from the square there is a vast building of the “Academy of Music,” as the Americans call their opera house. In the first days of August last year, the “academy” was a place of enthusiastic rejoicing: the “Bourbons,” as the Republicans for some reason call their opponents, held a solemn meeting for the final ratification of the “Cincinnat ticket” or General Hencock as a democratic candidate for the presidency. The hero of the evening was the famous democratic veteran Tilden. The Democrats still insist that the victory in the presidential campaign before last belongs to them and that their candidate Tilden is the duly elected President of the United States, and President Gayes was an impostor installed in the White House through a base deception on the part of the Republican Party. Tilden himself fully shared this opinion and considered himself the legitimate president of the country, as he expressed this directly in his speech at this rally. If the democratic candidate Gencock were elected president, Tilden, according to rumors, intended to organize an original demonstration: he would go with the newly elected president to Washington and, as the actual president, would begin to hand over the White House to him, as its rightful owner and master. If this was not an invention of the Republicans who made fun of the old man, then it would be a characteristic fact testifying to the extent to which party rivalry is inflamed and to what extent the presidency is dear to Tilden, to secure which, according to the Democrats themselves, he spent about 25 million dollars from his untold wealth. Having made enough noise and cheers, the Democrats did not fail to solemnly draw up and present to the Republicans a bitter pill in the form of the following resolution, which is not uninteresting in the sense of characterizing the political relations between the main guys. “The Democratic Party, at its solemn meeting, determined: that the Republican Party, by its long abuse of power; its political licentiousness and bureaucratic corruption; its special legislation in the interests of huge monopolies; its waste of public money in the form of subsidies to giant corporations; by the criminal distribution of 296,000,000 acres of the people's land, constituting nearly a fourth of the total public domain, and covering twice the area now under cultivation in all the States and Territories; its ruinous and suicidal policy towards the country’s trade; by its malicious incitement of passions and hatred generated by the past civil war; by its constant and increasing efforts to concentrate the powers vested in the individual States in the hands of the Federal Government, thus encouraging the "third term" faction and its leaders in their conspiracy to seize absolute power; in a word, the Republican Party, through its abuses in all branches of government, has lost the trust of the people, and therefore must transfer its power to the Democratic Party, as the true exponent of the people’s will.” This, according to the Democrats, is the party that has held the government of the country in its hands for 20 years. The certification, it must be said, is not flattering for the ruling party. How else, under such a government, will the sky not collapse and the foundations of the earth not shake? While the Democrats pronounced the death sentence on their opponents, these latter, in turn, indulged in rejoicing in another square in the city, Madison Square. There, at the confluence of Broadway with the capital's most fashionable street, Fifth Avenue, is located the largest and richest hotel in the city, the Fifth Avenue Hotel. This hotel is a real fortress of republicanism. Its vast corridors are constantly filled with politicking republicans. Republican telegraph machines worked here, listening to the echoes of the simmering campaign; Meetings of party leaders take place here, campaigning is conducted throughout the country from here, and here the Republicans gave a ceremonial reception to their chosen one, General Garfield. The reception was brilliant, speeches were given by selected speakers, and General Garfield himself made several brilliant speeches. One of his speeches concerned the political situation of the “colored race” or simply blacks. The Negroes, having been freed from slavery by the Republicans, remain loyal to the Republican party; they always vote their liberators for the candidate. Since their numbers are quite large, and they constitute an extremely strong support for the Republican Party. Perhaps the Republican Party even owes its long dominance in the country to this black legion. Democrats understand this, and therefore they wholeheartedly despise and oppress blacks, and the Republicans themselves call “black monkeys” because of the blackness of their allies. Republicans, for their part, do everything to maintain their influence over the black race and sometimes even sacrifice justice for this. Some time ago in New York a negro was sentenced to hang for the murder of a woman for the purpose of robbery. The Republican government of the state was ready to pardon the criminal, but public opinion opposed the pardon with such energy that the government did not dare act against him, and the black man was hanged. Following this, the court also sentenced a young Italian to hanging for the murder of his wife, who was captured with her lover. Here public opinion sided with the criminal, and a petition for his pardon was signed by tens of thousands of city residents. American law is extremely harsh towards murderers and always requires death for death - the excuse of “abnormal state of brain function” is not allowed. But in this case, justice required leniency to be shown to a young man who had the misfortune of marrying a depraved woman whose behavior led him to commit a crime. The Italian consul also argued for the convict, and the press loudly spoke out for his pardon. But it was all in vain and the Italian was also hanged. The only consideration that guided the republican government with this stubbornness was that, without pardoning the Negro, it could no longer pardon the Italian: otherwise, what would its Negro allies have said? So the poor Italian fell victim to political intrigue. That evening the black sons of Africa held a magnificent torchlight procession in honor of General Garfield. Despite their title of American citizens, the Negroes are still not far behind their African counterparts in their external practices and in their development. Some kind of naive savagery is completely visible from under their American suits. You should have seen with what naive importance they now marched through the streets, carrying lighted torches and singing warlike Negro songs. The curious “campaign uniform” in which they were now all dressed filled them, apparently, with immeasurable pride, and with unfeigned seriousness they peacefully beat back the military step, grinning widely on their African faces when the street boys shouted “bravo” to them. “You constantly claim that blacks are incapable of free political life and that they are just a herd of sheep, driven by the Republican whip,” I turned to my Yankee friend, a zealous Democrat. – Look what a harmonious organization they represent, with what proud self-awareness they glorify their candidate. And the purchase of these uniforms and, in general, the organization of the procession costs something... And where the expenditure is for a specific purpose, there, then, there is an idea, a general animation. The Democrat grinned somewhat angrily and nervously. “If you’re not joking, then you’re sorely mistaken,” he said. “This procession, more than anything else, shows that they are a senseless herd of sheep, and confirms the truth that slaves forcibly freed remain slaves even in freedom. Do not think that the arrangement and organization of this procession belongs to their own initiative. Nothing happened. These are soulless puppets, wound up by the hand of republican intrigue. Costumes, torches, musicians - all this was given to them by the Republicans. They themselves only have this stupid bravado: and it, naturally, is explained by the fact that the Republicans pay the participants in the procession two dollars a day. The black race is the curse of our country, and will remain upon us as long as the negroes serve as a dead weapon in the hands of the Republican pariah. “It’s just like the Irish serving in the hands of the Democratic Party,” I wanted to remark to the Democrat, but refrained from being immodest. At present, however, blacks no longer constitute such a loyal legion for the Republican Party as before, and some of them proudly call themselves Democrats. – Ах ты, черная обезьяна – негр! - a restaurant visitor of color once scolded a colored man who cheated him by a few cents. – Я не негр! - the colored gentleman cried furiously. -Who are you, black dog? - I am a democrat! – he shouted even more energetically, and the terrible whites of his eyes flashed on his black face. In relation to the “black beasts,” the democrats, however, do not stand on ceremony much, and quickly turn them into democrats. Once a characteristic incident occurred that terribly worried the entire republican world. Votes were being cast in the southern state of Alabama. The large colored population there, of course, stood for the Republican candidate. But the Democrats managed to quickly turn him to their side. Under the pretext that blacks were “intimidating” white voters and thereby forcing them to vote for the Republican candidate against their will, the Democrats (in one district) deployed white militia to protect the latter. Based on it, they then immediately turned blacks into whites. During the actual voting, suddenly someone turned on the gas jet, and darkness reigned. The leader of the colored population, who was watching the voting, rushed to the table with horror, trying to grab the ballot box, but in vain he moved his hands along the surface of the table: there was no trace of the box. While in the terrible confusion they managed to light the fire again, the box appeared again, but already filled with democratic tickets. The majority, of course, turned out to be behind the Democrats, and they enthusiastically rang out their battle anthem: “Ring the bells for Gencock!” - and drowned out the cry of the “colored leader”, who brought down on the heads of the democrats all the curses that exist in human language in Africa and America. This is how the presidential campaign went. Politicians have already tried to weigh the relative chances of the candidates in advance. Most of them, of course, depending on their affiliation with one or another party, enthusiastically proclaimed the victory of their candidate and the undoubted defeat of the enemy. Politicians from the Republican Club of “Railway Employees” displayed a curious picture at their doors. Two trains are rushing with terrible speed towards a magnificent building, above which one can see the inscription: “White House”. One train is already slowing down on the tracks right in front of the door of the house, and General Garfield and his vice-president Arthur look out smugly from the carriage. The other, on the contrary, has jumped off the rails and is jumping on the bumpy ground, and the figures of the democratic candidates Gencock and English, twisted with horror and despair, lean out of the carriage. Democratic politicians, of course, had a different kind of picture in their clubs. But there are also “independent politicians” who judge impartially. Under the first impression of the Democrats' nomination of General Hancock for the presidency, public opinion reacted with such sympathy to this "knight without fear or reproach" that the odds seemed to be strongly and irrevocably tilted in his favor. There was no end to the rejoicings in the democratic camp; numerous bets were announced for tens of thousands of dollars that Gencock would be elected president, and the idea began to grow in society that it was time to change the government, take it from the hands of the Republicans and hand it over to the Democrats. But little by little his chances diminished. The fact is that the Democratic Party, quite confident in its success, began to indulge more in jubilation than in action, and important omissions were made in the organization of the campaign. Meanwhile, the Republicans began and conducted the campaign with increased energy and managed to turn the odds in their favor from the first months of the campaign. And the idea of ​​the need for a change in the government began to blur and fade. At present, the country has reached an unprecedented degree of prosperity, and the people do not like to change the government under which they prosper. The country indeed owes a great deal to republican rule. At the end of the civil war it was in a terribly poor condition. Finances were completely exhausted and paper money was not worth half its face value; now, through a skillful operation, they are completely equalized with gold, and there is even a surplus of gold coins of 130 million. dollars. “We have jumped straight from extreme need to great contentment,” Secretary of State Sherman said at one large rally. Our exports during the last fiscal year amounted to the enormous sum of $835,000,000, an increase of $320,000,000 over 1875. Our imports for the last fiscal year were 668,000,000, 135,000,000 more than in 1875, which together for our foreign trade amounted to $1,500,000,000 for the last year. Every nation brings us tribute with its works. Our manufactures have increased in all branches, so that we export enormous quantities of them to satisfy the needs of other nations. We now feed Europe not only with bread, but also with meat, butter, lard, fruits and other products of the country. In the great branches of industry - agriculture, manufacturing and mining - we now stand at the head of the nations. With an abundance of money, valuable as gold, with an abundance of work for everyone willing to work, with cheap capital, we now have the richest harvests with which only Providence has ever blessed the earth. We have 450,000,000 bushels a year of wheat alone, and 1,800,000,000 bushels of maize a year. Democrats argue that we owe all this prosperity to Providence, not to republican rule. It is true that Providence blessed us with rich harvests, but the harvest itself came only after the government put the finances of the state in order, gave the country valuable money, expanded industry, giving the people the opportunity to actively participate in the blessings of Providence. What is certain is that we do not owe a single part of this prosperity to the Democratic Party.” In boarding houses. - Democratic attack. - Hellish cannonade of rockets and speeches. – Attitude of the parties. - Republican extremes. – Seventy thousand, and maybe less, in the ranks of the fiery army. - Bickering over numbers. - Cost of the procession. Poor and especially single people who earn $100–200 a month live here mostly in boarding houses. These are houses where separate rooms with a common table are rented. Life in them is relatively inexpensive, but at the same time it has a lot of interesting diversity. Here at the table people of all nations, ranks, occupations, characters and beliefs merge into one family, usually 10–15 people. With such diversity, everyone has something to say, and therefore chatter is the most characteristic feature of this table gathering. The author of these lines lived in one of these houses, on 17th Street, some hundred fathoms from the Democratic Union Square. The gathering here is the most diverse one imaginable. Here lives a German actress who knows how to christen herself in Russian, and a city teacher who has a vague idea of ​​which part of the world Russia is in, a Cuban insurgent who makes Havana cigars, and a Prussian German who curses Bismarck; a humorous Scot who mercilessly distorts the English language, and a pure London Englishman who reverently pronounces the name of Her Majesty the English Empress; a novice and therefore constantly failing lawyer and an experienced engineer whose index finger was torn off by a machine; a laughing Republican and a constantly heated Democrat, etc. One autumn evening, this company sat in the dining room and smoothed over the just finished dinner with choral chatter. It was 7 o'clock in the evening and the stars were already sparkling in the sky. “B-boom!” – suddenly a cannon roared, and the windows of the dining room began to tremble feverishly. -What is this? – asked the Scot. “And it was the Democrats who loaded Gencock’s cannon and fired it at the moon: he will be elected president there,” the Republican said slyly, glancing sideways at the Democrat. “No, sir, sorry,” the Democrat retorted, “this is the first signal to drive the Republicans out of the White House with whips!” And there are also other signals: look, look at the sky? – the democrat added with visible self-satisfaction. The whole company rushed to the windows, and some went out onto the street porch. The sky presented an interesting sight. In all directions, fiery arcs of rockets rose high, high, which cut the air with a hissing whistle and, as if under the very stars, burst with a crash and scattered in a multi-colored fiery rain. The entire Union Square is surrounded by democratic halls, and from all of them now, as well as from the square itself, rockets were thrown with insane luxury. The whistling, crackling and flash of rockets, with the intermediate boom of a cannon placed in the square, killed the silence of a pleasant evening. With such a cannonade, the Democrats opened their attack on the hated Republicans on the memorable day for them, September 23. The misfortune of the Democratic Party has long been the division that has constantly existed in it since the last war. Demagogic politicians, disagreeing with each other more on personal accounts than on principle, little by little formed separate factions that began to quarrel with each other more than with their common enemy - the Republican Party. This division was even expressed spatially. Each faction created a special “hall” for itself, in which its members gather for rallies and by which the factions themselves began to be called. Thus, currently the most famous factions are “Tammany Hall” and “Irving Hall” (Tammany Hall, Irving Hall). Until recently they were bitter enemies, and to this circumstance the Democratic Party mainly owed its defeat in the elections before last. Last year, the appointment of General Gencock as a presidential candidate contributed in part to the reconciliation between these factions, and they actually unanimously declared themselves supporters of this candidate; but at the same time, the spark of the old enmity continued to smolder, and in September last year almost ignited again into open enmity. At this time, meetings were taking place regarding the selection of a new mayor for New York. The government of the city is in the hands of the Democrats, and at these meetings rivalry arose between the factions; each wanted to choose a mayor from among themselves. The rivalry threatened to break the newly established truce. Fortunately, among the members of the factions there were people who sacrificed their personal interests in favor of the general interests of the party and ensured that a formal treaty of alliance was finally concluded between the warring factions and signed by their representatives. This event was very important for the Democratic Party, and the Democrats decided to celebrate it to the fullest. Cannon fire and rockets were the beginning of this celebration. The rockets continued to whistle and crackle through the dark blue haze of the night atmosphere, and the cannon roared periodically, shaking the windows of the houses, when I went to the scene of action - Union Square. The square was already swarming with people who occupied the sidewalks in dense masses and watched the fiery arcs. The statues of the “fathers” of the republic standing in the corners of the square were decorated with multi-colored lights and flags. Only one statue stood as if a forgotten orphan: there was no light or shred on it, and it embarrassedly hid from prying eyes in the darkness of the night. This is a statue of Lincoln: Democrats don't like it. On all the free places in the square stood stages, again decorated with flags, electric suns and policemen with their inseparable batons. From these stages, democratic speakers were supposed to open the cannonade with speeches. One stage was distinguished by a special luxury of decorations; it was, so to speak, the moon among the stars, an armchair among chairs. It was appointed for Genkok himself, who was supposed to review the fiery army of the Democrats from it. To the great grief of the democrats, their leader, just before the celebration, caught a malignant runny nose, and doctors advised him not to go out into the open air. Exactly at 8 o'clock, when the rockets had sufficiently prepared the ground for a general battle, speakers spoke and opened a hellish cannonade with speeches that thundered from all stages and, together with the rockets, burst into the night darkness. In New York I first became acquainted with open-air speaking, and I must say that it is difficult to indicate a more pitiful condition of a person than when he speaks to a huge crowd in the open air. First of all, this crowd, which, of course, consisted not only of Democrats, but also of Republicans who came to see the triumph of their opponents, was not attentive enough and listened more to the whistle of the rockets than to the crackling of the speakers. Then she is not respectful enough. I was unpleasantly struck by the case of one stage where all the vocal transitions and exclamations of the speaker were answered by a rough, mimicking echo of several voices from the crowd. This incident explained to me why the Democrats, while decorating their stages with lights and flags, found it necessary to decorate them with entire patrols of policemen, who stood on the sides of the speakers. Finally, the lack of resonance made all the efforts of the speakers to make themselves heard by a more or less significant number of people futile. American speakers are generally distinguished by their strong voices, and nowhere have I met such loud loudmouths as here. Often in a huge hall, the speaker in pathetic places roars like an angry buffalo - until the unaccustomed listeners are deafened. The development of such iron lungs here was undoubtedly influenced by the long-standing practice of public oratory, on the efforts of which very much depends in the political life of the people. And now, in the open air, the speakers thundered with incredible force, but for all that, the dull talk of a crowd of thousands and the whistling of rockets took away the distinctness of sounds from the speeches and therefore, for the majority, they were just strange cries that disappeared without a trace in the air. However, there is no need to regret their fate. Holiday speeches usually have little meaning, and they consist exclusively of crackling phrases designed for a momentary effect like rockets, and therefore burst in the air as completely as rockets. Amidst the hubbub of these speeches, all that was heard was that the Democratic Party is a true people's party, that the Republicans are keeping power in their hands through deception and bribery, that now the time has come for the Democrats to take power into their own hands, etc. of that sort. To become better acquainted with the principles and aspirations of the democratic party, one must turn to such speeches as are spoken in calmer moments, when the head is not carried away by passion. I will give here some reasons why Democrats especially dislike Republicans and want to take power from them. After the war, the Republican Party, as the winner, completely seized power into its own hands and, relying on it, began to treat the opposing party on the basis of the principle of vae victis - woe to the vanquished. The South had to endure many troubles for its secessionist aspirations; Republicans were generous in applying various emergency measures to him - to the direct detriment of the rights guaranteed by the constitution. In one case, the victorious north ordered military measures to eradicate the remnants of sedition among the southerners, and for this purpose, General Genkok was given dictatorial powers. But the valiant general, who at the same time knew how to be a true son of his republic, was not carried away by such omnipotence and, upon taking office as dictator, announced that he completely subordinated his dictatorship to the constitution of the country, and, indeed, instead of extreme repressive measures, he began to restore a sense of law and order in the troubled south, establishing civil peace and trust in the law there. This was a truly valiant civic act of General Hencock and on this act the democratic sympathies for him are mainly based; He also owes his appointment to the Democratic presidential nomination to him. Trust and loyalty to the Union in the South was soon restored after the war, but Republicans still suspected a smoldering spark of secession there. They are particularly disturbed by the fact that the South is too close-knit a democratic organization. They see sedition in this organization. The “Solid South,” as they call the south because of its democratic cohesion, serves as a constant bogeyman of the “bloody shirt” for them. In fact, the “unity of the south” does not depend at all on its separatist aspirations, but was produced by the Republicans themselves. First of all, according to the explanation of one Democrat, the unity of the south was caused by the oppression to which the Republicans were generous in relation to the south, which, for its own self-defense against such oppression, had to rally into one friendly force. But now this unity is supported by the order of things that the Republicans established there, freeing the blacks from slavery and giving them the right to vote on an equal basis with their former masters. “You, Messrs. Northerners,” wrote the Democratic Southern Senator Stewart recently, “are missing one important fact about Southern politics. You forget that in the Southern States nine-tenths of the Republican party consists of the colored race. This race has only recently been freed from slavery. She had not yet had sufficient time to rise in education to the level of the great responsibilities that were imposed on her. To give the power and control of public bodies in the South now to the Republicans is to give it to the most ignorant and uneducated classes, or, what is still worse, to the immoral and unprincipled demagogues who, for personal ends, deceive and excite them. It is these black voters who force the south to be united. If the right of suffrage had been withheld from them until they had risen sufficiently in education to understand their duty, the united South would have long since disintegrated. But I ask candid Northerners to say, would it be wise and beneficial to the intelligentsia, progress and property of the South to surrender all these precious interests to the government of the ignorant and propertyless classes, who in the majority do not own property, are incapable of understanding the meaning of legislation, or even know how to read the tickets which they put into the ballot box? – In this defense, the Democrats undoubtedly have a significant amount of truth on their side. They also have some truth in their offensive arguments. They accuse the Republicans of despotic tendencies, and in this they are partly right. The distinctive principle of the Republican Party has always been the strengthening of centralization in the government of the country, and for this purpose it took every opportunity to curtail the independence of individual states. Thanks to its long dominance in the country, it has recently become so persistent in pursuing this principle that it does not even stop at violating popular traditions, as, for example, in the last campaign for Grant for a “third” presidential term, which directly ran counter to the great will of the founder of the Republic, Washington. Finally, the long-term undivided domination in the country was the reason for the development of bureaucracy and the so-called “machine politics” in its midst to a terrible extent, according to which officials began to operate the state without paying special attention to the actual demands of the people. All this together has given rise to a desire in the country for “change in government,” which Democrats now tirelessly trumpet, and the word “change” in the mouths of oratorical Democrats is subjected to the most frequent and merciless torture. On the other hand, the Republicans have their own solid reasons not to give power to the Democrats, and they persistently point out to the people the prosperity that the country has achieved under their leadership. This, undoubtedly, is now their main strength, especially since the Democrats, straining all their oratorical forces, still cannot find anything other than a reference to Providence to counter this argument of the Republicans. While the chatter of rockets and speeches continued tirelessly, the evening had already advanced to 9 o'clock, and the first column of the fiery army appeared from Broadway in the square. People poured out to greet her, and there was such a crush that only iron-sided Americans can easily endure. The first column represented a brilliant squad of “red guys,” as the Democrats call themselves, as opposed to the Republican “blue guys.” The letter H (Hancock) was emblazoned on its red uniforms, and on its banner was the inscription: “Gibraltar Democrats.” Then followed one after another countless troops and legions of every possible name and color. The Democrats organized their procession very cleverly. Each detachment represented not only a difference in uniform, but also a difference in class, craft, nation, etc. Here the lanky Irish legion was swinging, followed by the German legion, then the French, Italian and finally the Indian legion in their national costume and with tomahawks in their hands. Craftsmen followed the national legions. A legion of blacksmiths walked ahead of the others and carried behind them a mobile forge, in which, in the light of a sparkler, hammers rattled on an anvil. Then a legion of sailors moved and pulled a ship with spectacular inscriptions on ropes; then a fire legion with a fire engine, butchers with huge bulls, tailors with scary scissors, etc., and, finally, a whole squad of ladies with a huge fireball, on which were emblazoned the words: “Women’s vote.” The procession was endless. Starting at 9 o'clock, the procession moved continuously until 2 am and could not end. A circular space around the city was designated for the procession, about ten miles away, and the procession could not fit on it. The advanced column, having bypassed this space, returned again to the place of its exit, and there still whole thousands did not move, waiting for their turn. On average, the procession consisted of at least 30,000 people. But warring parties usually have different arithmetic. Democratic newspapers announced that the fiery army consisted of 70,000 people, while the Republican newspaper counted only 20,000. Moreover, the next days letters from zealous republicans appeared in the republican newspapers, who allegedly deliberately counted the torchbearers and assured that there were not even twenty thousand, but only some 13,500 people. To such an extent do warring parties value the size of their legions. Despite their significant numbers, the democratic legions were not distinguished by their harmonious organization, and some units simply represented a disorderly crowd. The Americans extremely highly value the poise and harmony of the organization and now, instead of greetings, many legions were greeted with a general hiss. For three whole days after, the newspapers were engaged in bickering regarding this procession, and the general impression remained that the procession was a failure and, in any case, did not make the impression that the Democrats had hoped for. Meanwhile, the organization also discovered oddities of a not entirely plausible nature. Thus, one club allocated $1,000 for the uniform of its legion and entrusted its organization to its member general, as an experienced person in this regard. But this general probably served in the commissariat department and with the allocated amount he managed to make such an organization that, according to the largest estimate, it cost no more than 200 dollars. For this, other Democrats did not spare their own dollars, just to avoid losing face in the dirt. One merchant donated $6,000 to organize a legion in his name, and it was the best decoration of the procession. How much did all this comedy cost? – a curious reader will ask. The average estimate is $100,000. Yes, one hundred thousand dollars, at our rate 200,000 rubles!! And all this was destroyed in the air in one evening by smoke and soot - by the morning there were no longer even these visible traces of these hundred thousand! But this procession greatly incited the Republicans: they decided to surpass the Democrats at all costs and allocated twice the amount for their procession. Homo, tuum nomen stultitia est! 26 Curiosities of the presidential campaign Republican demonstration. - Grant's meeting. - Legion of millionaires. – Pocket politicians. - A commotion among officials. - Ways of fighting. -Despised metal in the campaign. - Antichrist number. - Chinese letter. - Fishing in muddy water. Man proposes, but fate disposes. To suppress and obscure the grandiose demonstration of the Democrats, the Republicans expected to get away with $200,000, but they had to spend exactly half a million! Yes, literally half a million dollars, or in our opinion one million rubles. But the Democrats were truly defeated—utterly. According to old-timers, this was the most grandiose demonstration that the new secular capital had ever seen. It was organized in honor of General Grant, who made New York happy with his arrival, and irrefutably made it clear how popular this “silent soldier”, a contender for the “third term” of the presidency and the future emperor of America, was among the Republicans. A magnificent stage was built for him in Madison Square, from which he had to review the fiery army of Republicans passing by. The army consisted of 55,000 people, in brilliant and rich uniforms. Like fiery lava, it moved for six hours in front of the clear eyes of the “silent soldier”, beating a military step, with the thunder of music and shouts, with the crackling and whistling of rockets. A remarkable feature of this procession was that it consisted of the richest and highest classes of the city. There were legions: the “invincible knights” of the Philadelphia Republican Club, who deliberately arrived from Philadelphia in the number of a thousand people to take part in the procession; legion of lawyers, legion of bankers, legion of students, Grant's legion, etc. I was most interested in the legion of bankers. It was in the full sense a legion of millionaires, since there was not a single knight in it who, in American expression, was not “worth” a million dollars. He was one of the first to move in the fiery army and was sharply distinguished by the fact that he was without a uniform, in simple black frock coats and tall silk hats, with a cane “on his shoulder.” The author himself had to be an involuntary knight of this legion, thanks to one thing done by his quick-witted Yankee companion. I wanted to see General Grant, but the masses of the people blocked access to him with such an impenetrable wall that there was no way to get to him. Then the Yankees helped me out and in a way that was completely unexpected for me. Rows upon rows of uniformed legions passed us, and then a uniformless legion of millionaires appeared. Before us, all the legions made a stop so that, having recovered, they could march more bravely before Grant, whose headquarters were located fifty fathoms from here. As soon as the millionaire legion caught up with us, my companion, without saying a word, grabbed me by the hand and forcibly joined one of the rear ranks, himself standing in the front. I guessed what was going on and suppressed involuntary embarrassment. “Keep time!” the leader shouted, noticing some confusion, and the author of these lines, together with the American bankers, putting a stick on his shoulder, began to dance in one place a military beat, left-right, left-right. Soon the music started and the command “forward!” was heard. and the legion of millionaires, together with the penniless author, moved before the clear eyes of the future American emperor, waving their hats and shouting “urre” at the welcoming bow of the hero of the occasion. General Grant, a healthy, fresh-faced man of middle age, was dressed in a simple black dress and, with a beaming face, constantly took off and put on his hat as he greeted the passing legions. The endurance of American millionaires is remarkable. From the starting point of the procession, they had to march about six miles through the city to get to Grant’s headquarters, and all this with an orderly military step, otherwise the masses would greet them with a shameful hiss, which boastful and ambitious Americans fear worse than fire. But even more remarkable is the endurance of the hero of the occasion himself. The procession began to move before him at 10 o'clock in the evening, and his tired hand waved his hat to the last legions already at 4 o'clock in the morning. The “Invincible Knights” from Philadelphia, having passed before the general at 12 o’clock at night, boarded the train and at 2 1/2 o’clock in the morning were already home - 200 miles from New York, and the last New York legions moved for another hour and a half towards Grant’s headquarters. The east was already white, and half a million dollars were still smoking in the dying torches, and only an hour after sunrise a fresh breeze dissipated the smoke and soot - this was the only remnant of the said half a million dollars. During the procession, it was estimated that more than five hundred thousand residents poured into the streets. This boundless sea of ​​onlookers provided a vast field for the activities of the party of pocket politicians. There is hardly a city in the world, except London, where pocket politics has reached such a high development, such perfection of organization and courage, as in New York. When going out in broad daylight, you are constantly advised to button up your coat so that your watch chain is completely invisible. Otherwise, remember what their names were. There are, according to a smaller estimate, twenty-five thousand professional pickpockets, besides many random knights of the same order. They have a strict organization, they have their own executive committee, which runs all the machinations of politics and directs the entire course of the campaign - picking other people's pockets. This time the committee sent out a division of pocket knights to attack the pockets, and the result of their valiant exploits were entire newspaper columns presenting an endless list of vanished watches, earrings, money, handkerchiefs, etc. The police, as far as their forces allowed, repulsed the attack and captured up to a hundred prisoners, of whom one turned out to be a very important prisoner. A whole pile of official correspondence from the venerable order was found with him, giving Ariadne’s police a lead into the very depths of the organization. But the legion nevertheless carried out its task brilliantly, and the total acquisition of the pocket order for that evening was estimated at fifty thousand dollars. The court chronicle has also been replenished with cases of all kinds. Americans, for all their liveliness, are distinguished by a remarkable love of order and behave calmly even in such meetings where we can have nothing but wild chaos. But with a gathering of half a million street onlookers, even here it could not do without various cases of violation of order and subsequent arrests. So, at the very headquarters of General Grant, an uncontrollably zealous Democrat settled down and greeted all his legions passing by - sticking out his tongue and shouting various anti-Republican sayings. When asked by the police to behave more decently, he replied that he was an American citizen and could do whatever he pleased; and when the policeman raised his strait baton, the citizen not only was not afraid of it, but knocked the policeman’s hat off and threw it with his foot into the ranks of the legions, for which he suffered a month’s imprisonment in prison. One cab driver fired a revolver during the procession. When asked why he had a revolver with him, the driver replied that he was carrying sausages, and he took the revolver with him to protect them from hungry Republicans. The court ordered him to be fined $1 for shooting and $10 for carrying a weapon. To carry a weapon, here you have to ask for permission, as we have in Russia lately; For unauthorized carrying of a revolver, a fine of 10 dollars is imposed. There were several other cases of this kind, but completely insignificant, which did not disturb the general impression of decency with which the half-million-strong crowd behaved. Where does this enormous money come from, which with such generosity turns into smoke and soot of processions? They are usually made up of voluntary contributions from members of various political clubs. When there are private processions of individual clubs - and they take place every day - the club allocates money for torches, and for uniforms, and for rockets. But with such general and luxurious processions as the Grant procession was, ordinary club funds are not enough, and then politicians resort to methods of collecting money that only make an inexperienced foreigner gasp. The country is in Republican hands, and all the numerous government offices are filled with Republican officials, numbering about 100,000. This entire huge army lives solely on government salaries and by the mercy of the republican government. As soon as the Republican Party loses its power and is taken over by the Democrats, this entire army will have to clear all the tables and all the positions where the hungry Democrats will sit. Thus, for the entire bureaucratic army, the presidential campaign is not idle fun, but a fight for their bellies, and so it works with all its might in favor of the dominant party. The government, for its part, knowing the complete dependence of officials on its existence, offers them signature sheets for “voluntary” donations for the costs of running the company and deducts the signed amount from their salaries. Last year, when the presidential campaign reached unprecedented tensions that required extraordinary expenses, these voluntary lists turned into mandatory ones and even specified how much and which rank should donate. This turn of affairs terribly alarmed the entire bureaucratic world. The police and fire departments, which until now had been free from taxes, were especially alarmed, and now, to their horror, they saw these nasty signature sheets appear in their homes and with a decisive designation of the amount that everyone must sign. And this amount is very substantial. Thus, police officers, divided into four ranks, had to subscribe: policeman 12 dollars, sergeant 25, lieutenant 50 and captain 100 dollars. Firefighters are like that. And everyone signed. – Please tell me, this is wild violence, how do officials tolerate it? – I turned to one American. - Yes, they can’t do anything! - he answered, - if you don’t want to pay, then get out of office. It is better to pay a small sum and retain your position than not to pay and lose it completely. “But, in any case, the republican government is making enemies, not friends, through this practice, and many officials, perhaps, will vote for a democratic candidate as a result of this.” - Oh, not at all. To do this for officials would mean cutting off the branch on which they are sitting. They will withstand even a double tax, and everyone will be ardent Republicans, because they sit in warm places,” the American joked. In addition to bureaucratic fees, there are others, which in appearance are more appropriately called voluntary. From the main apartments of the parties, signature sheets are sent to all private institutions - shops, bank offices, railway boards, etc., wherever there are party adherents, and significant sums are collected everywhere. First of all, of course, the owners of these institutions themselves sign, but the main fee is made up of contributions from employees, clerks and clerks, of whom there are whole legions in other shops and offices. Here again, too, there are often cases of gross violence. Having signed himself, the owner sends the signature sheet to his employees, and they all sign - under pain of being deprived of their positions. There were cases when a zealously political owner dismissed all his employees for refusing to contribute to his party. Such omnipotence of the owners over their employees here has degenerated into some kind of ugly tyranny, and the owners have full control not only of their clerks’ money, but - worst of all - even their votes during elections, forcing them to vote for their candidate and their party, again under the fear of a rude turn out of office, expulsion from office. The American bourgeoisie is the crudest and most soulless tyranny imaginable. In these ways, huge amounts of money are collected, which are turned into smoke and soot by a generous hand during brilliant processions. Only one part of them is used in the procession; the other part goes to other methods of presidential struggle. The despicable metal plays an extremely important role in the presidential campaign, and especially in the so-called "suspense" states. These are states in which the rival parties are equal, and which therefore vote for one party or another, due to various random reasons. Given the general equality of parties, these states mainly give predominance to the party to which they lean. As a result, both parties make every effort to win them over to their side, and one of the most powerful ways of this inclination is the almighty dollar. Bribery of voters is the most common thing here and huge amounts of money are spent on it. The importance attached to the dollar in a presidential campaign can even be seen from the fact that parties openly boast of the capital stock of their headquarters. New York State is one of the dubious states, and the leader of the Republican Party there once said with self-satisfaction that “headquarters” was quite secure financially and had several million dollars at its disposal for campaign needs. In war, all means are permissible. This rule finds full application in a presidential campaign. Parties resort to all sorts of means just to tarnish the candidate of the opposing party in the eyes of the people. Here intrigues are set in motion, fables in persons, all the shortcomings of the candidates are analyzed down to the ins and outs and in an exaggerated form they are exposed to public ridicule, fictitious documents, forged letters are put into circulation, supposedly once written by the candidates and compromising their moral physiognomy or political convictions, etc. Most of all, this is distinguished by the democratic party, which knows no limits of decency in this regard. From the very appointment of Garfield, the Democratic press embarked on some kind of wild orgy of exposing the unfortunate general in various tricks. Day after day, she found and printed more and more documents, allegedly testifying to his immorality, bureaucratic corruption, corruption, and there was not a spot left on poor Garfield that was not covered in dirt. Seeing this, the foreigner’s hair stood on end with the thought - well, how will this disgraced, polluted candidate be elected president? How will a whole half of the people look at such a ruler of the country? The Democrats accused Garfield most of all of speculative tricks. Several years ago an extensive speculative society, the Land Credit Society, was founded here, and in order to strengthen its activities it recruited some members of Congress into its membership - contrary to the express law prohibiting members of Congress from participating in any speculative institutions. Garfield seemed to be between them. The Democrats dug up a document somewhere that shows that he received $329 from this society. This discovery was enough for them to declare the Republican candidate corrupt and corrupt. In vain Garfield swore that he received this sum not as a member of society, but as a lawyer for some purely legal service; Democrats carried his name throughout the country as a man who, while a member of Congress, contrary to direct legislation, was a criminal participant in a speculative society and therefore deserves not the presidency, but criminal prosecution; that this figure shows the interest income from the shares of this company, and that the remuneration for legal services could only be a round figure - 330, 350, but in no case 329. The fatal figure began to appear every day in the headlines of democratic newspapers, and the document in which it was found was printed in millions of copies and circulated throughout the country with appropriate comments. Little by little, this figure became a real curse for the Republican candidate and began to haunt his heels. Letters began to be sent to him in large numbers, the entire content of which consisted of the number 329 with an icon representing dollars; some invisible hand began to inscribe this number in all places wherever the general appeared. She appeared on the chair in which he sat in Congress and on the table that belonged to him. The entrance to his house was decorated with the monogram 329; the nasty figure entered his private office and decorated all the walls in it, and even made its way into the bedroom and hung like a sword of Damocles over his resting place. That's not enough. Getting up in the morning and taking up his boots, he, to his horror, saw 329 on them. Having gone on his usual morning walk with his beloved dog, he noticed the same Antichrist number 329 on her collar. Arriving home and taking off his coat, in despair he saw the Antichrist number on his back. Going to his wife's department for morning congratulations, Garfield only gasped when he saw the cursed number 329 on her cap. In a word, wherever he turns, everywhere he meets the Antichrist number 329. From him, the damned figure began to spread throughout the country with the speed of electricity, and soon all the main leaders of the Republican Party became its victims. Meanwhile, entire poems appeared in democratic newspapers in honor of the mysterious number 329, and many considerations aimed at the poor general. By the way, it turned out that the sum of 3+2+9 equals 14, and this is exactly the number of letters in the name Garfield (James A. Garfield). From the Republican leaders, the Antichrist number attacked all Republicans in general, so that very often one could see a whole party of gentlemen who had the number 329 on their backs. Finally, it even made its way into the church of science - the university. The venerable mathematics professor, having drawn a geometric theorem on the blackboard, addressed the students with a preliminary explanation of it. Having finished the introduction, he turned to the board for a practical demonstration of the theorem on the drawing and suddenly was dumbfounded with amazement: on the board, instead of a drawing, there was a gigantic number 329. The Republicans were so alarmed by this unprecedented execution that they appointed special detectives to catch the mysterious hand writing the Antichrist number everywhere. But the mysterious hand turned out to be elusive and continued to put the Antichrist seal on the doors of republican houses. Then a terrible skirmish began on the battlefield over the so-called “Chinese letter”. Americans terribly dislike the Chinese, and the working people consider them their mortal enemies, since they, arriving in large numbers in America, in extreme need, are hired to work at low prices, thereby contributing to a general decrease in wages. Recently, the Chinese question has become so important that the government was forced to equip a special expedition to revise the treaty with China regarding Chinese emigration with a view to possibly limiting it. In view of the importance of the Chinese question, the question of what views the current presidential candidates hold on it has become very important. To satisfy the public and popular demand, in their official letters, outlining the political program of their future actions if elected to the presidency, they both spoke out on the Chinese question, and both pointed out the abnormalities of the Chinese resettlement, causing a radical revision of legislation regarding it. Garfield put it this way: “The newest movement of the Chinese to our Pacific coast is too much like an importation of Chinese to be welcomed without restraint; too much like an invasion to look at with indifference. We cannot allow any form of slave labor to be introduced among us under the guise of emigration.” These expressions clearly define Garfield's views on the Chinese question. But this doesn't matter to politicians. An insignificant Democratic newspaper published a private letter from Garfield addressed to a certain Moray, a member of the "employers' union" in the city of Lynn. The letter states: “The China problem is moving forward. In my opinion, the labor question is a question of private and corporate economy, and individuals or companies have the right to buy labor wherever it can be obtained cheaper,” and then it is said that the treaty with China must be sacredly preserved and its repeal would be harmful to American industry by depriving it of cheap labor. Obviously, this is completely opposite to the official statement. The Democrats seized upon this letter with extraordinary delight; facsimiles appeared in all newspapers, making it known that this was Garfield's handwriting. The question became very important. The Republicans were embarrassed, and the Democrats printed the letter in millions of copies and circulated it among the working people, for whom the Chinese question is of especially great importance. Independent newspapers asked Garfield himself whether this letter really belonged to him, but he hesitated in answering, further increasing the embarrassment of his friends and the gloating of his enemies. There has already been so much slander against the poor general that if he wrote answers to all of them, then the world itself would not be able to contain the books written. He decided not to answer this letter either, but then the matter took such a serious turn that he could not do without an answer and wrote an official letter in which he announced that he had never written such a letter, did not know the person to whom it was addressed, that the entire letter was a shameless forgery of his handwriting, and asked to immediately send detectives into the case to discover the “scoundrel” who had pulled such a thing. Further investigation indeed showed that the letter was a shameless forgery, and was addressed to a person whom no one knew in his own city. Terrible indignation arose in the republican camp. A whole legion of detectives was sent into action, and one Republican offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could find the forger of the letter. Meanwhile, the Democrats had the imprudence to go too far with this letter, and the full disclosure of this vile trick became a dead loop for them. And the newspaper that first published this letter took advantage of this trick for its own purposes. She began to rant and rant hysterically, declaring that Republican detectives with revolvers were invading her office and printing house, destroying the printed forms, fearing further exposure of the “criminal policies of Garfield,” and threatening the publishers and editors themselves with death - and thus quietly sold three times as many copies. VII. The decision of the people's will End of the presidential campaign. - Waiting for the decision of the people's will. - Popular vote. - A happy strapman and an unhappy general. – Campaign overview. – Reasons for the Republican victory. – North and South. - Republican elected. – The Personality of President Garfield and His Cabinet. It's finally done! The presidential campaign, one of the most fierce in the history of the country, has ended. There is no more feverish agitation of ambitious politicians, no more fears and hopes, no more clownish costumes and mad smoking of torches, no more cries of deception and bribery, and finally, no more free drinking bouts. The people themselves stepped into the field and, by the decision of their imperious will, threw away from the stage all the confusion of petty passions and bickering, and elected as their ruler - an Ohio strapman, who, by his own will and mind, withered from a strap on a canal to the highest position in the country. The popular vote took place on November 2nd according to the new style. This was on Tuesday. On the Saturday before, the Democrats made their last demonstration - with the crackling of rockets and matches. Sunday was a day of external peace and spiritual anxiety for the leaders of the parties. Monday, the last day of the campaign, was a day of agonizing fears and hopes. In the main apartments the final calculations were made regarding the chances of the elections. The telegraph machines worked tirelessly, and the party leaders were headache-inducingly busy with mathematical considerations about possible results. The general mood was as if before the day of a great decisive battle. For the candidates themselves, the decision of that day could be more important than victory or defeat for the commanders in chief. If recognition by the people as the ruler of a country is a great honor, then rejection by them is moral death. It can therefore be understood that on the night of November 2nd, two people in the United States were completely abandoned by the merciless god Morpheus, and they greeted the magnificent dawn of the fateful day with exhausted, sick faces. “We will await the popular decision with philosophical calm,” General Garfield’s wife said the day before; but the anxiety of the tone itself refuted the philosophy, and the shrewd reporter hastened to reinforce it with assurances of the election of her husband. Mrs. Garfield is a highly educated lady, but it was painful for her to endure the abomination of personal attacks on her husband in which the Democratic press inflicted during the five months since his appointment to the presidency. It was with greater anxiety that she now awaited the fateful day, since the non-election of her husband would have been the popular sanction of all these base insinuations. Mrs. Gencock was more confident in the election of her husband and only said that she would be sorry to part with the present island when they needed to move to the White House. The day of the people's election opened with a magnificent sunrise. The sun rose brightly over the country and tenderly beckoned the people to fulfill their great duty. Autumn in New York is the best season of the year. The air is dry, fresh and healthy. But from November the so-called Indian summer begins and the delights of early spring are added to the good autumn. The sun on November 2nd warmed with spring rays and gave a lot of liveliness to the colorful movement of the city population. Election Day is a national holiday, work stops and shops close. Already from early morning, masses of people poured into the streets, and crowds of voters lined up at the polling station offices, patiently waiting for their turn. It is curious to look at this motley crowd of deciders of the country's fate. They go to the fateful box with ready-made tickets in their hands. Ripe determination shines on all faces. Silently they move, rows by rows, to the great urn of the people's will, and write down small tickets expressing their matured will. What a diversity of clothes, faces and conditions in these legions of voters! Here is a brilliant gentleman in a silk hat and kid gloves with gold buttons; behind them stands a burly worker in a shabby frock coat and with calloused hands. Millionaire and homeless poor man; high public figure and street shoe cleaner; railroad tycoon and carriage attendant; writer and newspaper carrier; a pastor and a church watchman, a lawyer, a teacher, a wine merchant, an organ grinder, a Chinese, a Negro, a Jew, a Pole - everyone who had just lived five years without leaving the United States was now moving towards the ballot box to express their will, to elect the ruler of the country. A few days before, the registration of voters took place, and New York gave 216,000 voters this time, 50,000 more than the election before last. This increase is explained not so much by the increase in population as by the fierceness of the struggle between parties. Voting is not compulsory, and many citizens do not vote during their entire lives. Meanwhile, last year, the noise of the presidential campaign so excited the country that it brought out of indifference many citizens who had never voted before. Votes are not cast directly for presidential candidates, but for known voters, of whom there are 369 throughout the country. Only one day is assigned for voting - from sunrise to sunset. When the last rays of the sun were burning behind the coastal heights of Hudson, people were putting in their last tickets, and at 4 1/2 o'clock the ballot boxes were already closed. The work of election had already been done, the people had made their decision, the president had already been elected - although no one yet knew who the people's election fell to. Only the count of votes could definitely say to whom the people entrusted the representation of their will. And then the telegraph machines began to crackle in all the main apartments, and figures from all over the country flew along the iron nerves of the earth to the main centers and from here were instantly transferred to the streets and shown to the people through electric bulletins. And the people in dense masses occupied all the squares in front of these ballots, and the night air in all parts of the city trembled with the cries of the people. Either the people marveled at their own will, and the parties, depending on one or another inclination of the numbers, either selflessly rejoiced, or were angrily indignant, and the hearts of the candidates and their wives either trembled joyfully, or shrank painfully and froze. The counting of votes took place all night, and until the morning the numbers kept fluctuating. Only by sunrise the scales of the people's will were finally established. The Republican cup sank heavily, and the Democratic one rose hopelessly upward, and General Hencock sat there in despair. The Republicans won and there was no end to their jubilation, while the Democrats hung their heads in despair. Garfield and his family greeted the rising luminary of the day with prayerful thanksgiving, and Gencock angrily ran from corner to corner in his office, cursing the day of his appointment as a candidate for the presidency. Having learned the final result of the election, Gencock put on his coat and went to the nearest barber to get a haircut. The Negro barber, a great politician and talkative as a rattle, met the amazed general with an unambiguously beaming face and with simple-minded venom began to tyranny his great client with his chatter. - How are you feeling, General? – asked the polite “gentleman of color”. “Okay,” the general answered sharply. - Pleasant weather, General! – the colored gentleman changed the topic of conversation. “Fine weather,” the general answered gloomily. - How do you order the haircut? asked the colored gentleman, embarrassed. - Silence as much as possible! - the general shouted quite angrily, so the colored gentleman became afraid and, muttering an apology, silently clicked his scissors. Upon returning home, the general found a lot of friends and acquaintances who came to express their regret to him. – What do you think, General, about the result of the election? – asked one of his friends. – I can only repeat what I said before, that I fully recognize the decision of the people’s will. Our country is a republic and the majority must rule. - So you don’t regret being amazed? “It’s useless to feel sorry,” answered the general. “But there is one great consolation here, General: with this defeat you have been freed from the troubles and complex worries associated with the presidency ahead of you.” The unsuccessful candidate looked at everyone suspiciously, smiled strainedly at such consolation and, without saying a word more, bowed and went to the usual morning review of his troops. Such small oddities ended the great efforts of the Democratic Party in the last presidential campaign. The present defeat of the Democratic Party is all the more cruel because it was completely unexpected for it. Never since the war had she launched a presidential campaign with such hopes and such confidence as this time. Already during the elections of 1876, the Democratic Party deployed such fighting force that the Republicans were threatened with complete defeat. Yes, it was already done by them, according to the Democrats, and only republican intrigue deprived them of the fruits of victory. If four years ago the popular will spoke out in favor of the democratic party with such force that the republicans had to keep the government in their hands through intrigue and deceit, then during these four years the democrats confidently expected to acquire such a force that intrigue would no longer dare to stand before them. With such confidence, the Democrats began the presidential campaign. Circumstances at first were such that they could only support and strengthen the self-confidence of the party. The Republicans were split. The strongest faction of the Republicans supported General Grant for a “third term,” arousing against themselves strong popular discontent and open suspicion of secret attacks on the free institutions of the country. By doing this, the Republicans significantly weakened themselves, while at the same time strengthening their opponents. If Grant had survived the Chicago convention and been nominated as the Republican candidate for the presidency, the party's cause would have been completely lost, its supposed strength would have turned into weakness, since all the independent voters were against the "third term" and would therefore have cast their vote for the Democratic candidate. The Democrats were fully aware of this dilemma and, for their part, did everything to set such a trap for the Republicans. But General Grant could not withstand the opposition and was not appointed. Instead, the “dark horse”, General Garfield, left the convention, which again was not in favor of the Republican Party and could not have been more beneficial to the Democrats. General Garfield as a "dark horse" was the unexpected product of the bureaucratic demoralization of the Republican party and, besides his personal merits, was a living whistleblower of the degeneration of statesmanship in the ruling party. The country was embarrassed by this outcome of the republican conclave, and the idea of ​​a change of government involuntarily arose. The attention of the people turned to the Democratic Party, and they waited with great interest to see who this party would appoint as its candidate. When the valiant General Hencock, popular for his military services to the country and impeccable in his private life, emerged from the democratic convention, public attention apparently irrevocably focused on the democratic candidate and thereby promised him popular election. The Democrats rejoiced, anticipating all the benefits of power, and the Republicans held the reins of power with a trembling hand, anticipating their defeat. The first months of appointing candidates passed in this mood. Meanwhile, the summer heat subsided, the people reaped the richest harvest they had ever had to reap, and the country's autumn industry expanded to unprecedented proportions. Democratic politicians had a fun time at their dachas and returned to the political field with full confidence that they just had to come, see, and victory was certain. And so they really came, saw and just gasped. The people turned out to be so satisfied with their condition, their harvests and their industry that they devoted themselves entirely to their household affairs and were not at all interested in politics. In vain the Democrats thundered curses on the ruling party, predicted the inevitable destruction of the country from its further rule, argued for the need for a change in government, threatened Caesarism, which was gradually growing in the Republican Party - it was all in vain. The people were full and satisfied, but a full belly was deaf to politics. The people were well-fed and wanted to be so, and as a result of this they did not want the change that the democrats promised them. In view of this state of affairs, it is clear on whose side the power was. The Republicans quickly realized where their main fortress was, and they made popular satisfaction the main argument in favor of their party. And this argument turned out to be so conclusive and convincing for the people that they overwhelmingly rejected the Party of Change. This, in my opinion, is the main reason for the Republican victory. But here, in addition to those opinions, there were private reasons that also contributed to the success of the ruling party. First of all, the Republican Party was already strong in that it held the government of the country in its hands. During the 20 years of her reign, she managed to take down such deep roots in the country that only some general convulsive movement of the people could tear them out. In its hands is the entire vast area of ​​state administration with a whole army of officials for whom the dominance of the party has become a matter of life and death. Over the course of 20 years, several generations of officials have changed who were brought up in this environment and owe their entire being to it. All of them therefore stand up for the ruling party, and their influence, as representatives of the administration, is very strong and important. Then twenty years of government practice developed in the leaders of the party a remarkable tact in the ability to understand the conditions and needs of the country and use them for their own purposes. During the last campaign, the party fielded so many statesmen with strong oratorical and political talents that the Democrats had to put forward all their reserves just to even slightly oppose them. In addition, the Republicans had more material for self-defense. Many years of governing experience gave them an inexhaustible supply of arguments in their favor, so that they could always rely on certain merits to which the country owed them. Democrats had no such benefits. They had to rely only on negative arguments; to expose the shortcomings of the ruling party and to promise the benefits that will flow to the people as soon as they entrust their power to the democrats. But if the denunciations made some impression, then the promises were empty words in the present state of affairs. The people were satisfied, and therefore democratic promises, in essence, could only arouse their distrust and ridicule. This is how the masses generally viewed the arguments of the Democratic Party. But among them there is one class that cannot treat her differently. This is a large class of business people - the manufacturing industry. One of the distinctive principles of the Republican Party has always been a high protective tariff. It existed invariably throughout the twenty years of the party's rule, and under its influence the above-mentioned class of businessmen was formed. Thanks to this tariff, the manufacturing industry achieved a high development, provided income to millions of people and accumulated considerable wealth in the hands of numerous manufacturers. Owing their wealth to this principle of the Republican party, this strong class naturally clings tightly to the party which has given them not only wealth, but very life, and in every possible way opposes the Democratic party, which adheres to precisely the opposite principle in trade. This class is growing stronger in the country year by year, and the current four years of Republican rule will, of course, only have the consequence of further strengthening it and a proportional decrease in the chances of the Democratic Party ever achieving the position of the ruling party. In addition to social reasons, one political reason for the defeat of the Democrats has now emerged with remarkable force. Politically, the parties differ in that the Republican Party constantly works in favor of centralization, and is an active guardian of the integrity and unity of the Union of States. It constantly asserts that the United States is not a mere political or geographical union, but one, undivided nation, having one common supreme government, to which all the several states must be subject. Democrats, on the contrary, are intensifying their defense of individual states' rights, and insist that the United States is not a nation at all, but a simple voluntary union of independent states and can exist only as long as these individual states desire it and find such a union beneficial for themselves. This idea is especially tenacious in the South, and once it led to a fratricidal war. From the time of the war to the present, this idea has constantly asserted itself in the southern states and was expressed especially in the irreconcilable opposition of the “united South” to the North. Meanwhile, the North, having once saved the Union from disintegration, went further and further due to reaction in this regard, finally even giving birth to the idea of ​​Caesarism. This Caesarism, of course, is of a problematic nature and is rather an inflated invention of the democrats, but what is certain, however, is that the idea of ​​national unity of the states is firmly entrenched in the minds of the people, and in this regard they prefer the principle of the republican banner. This explains the still unprecedented fact that in the present election the whole North unanimously cast its vote for the Republican candidate, and all the so-called doubtful states voted for Garfield, giving him an overwhelming majority. In doing so, the North was making a grand demonstration in favor of national unity against the separatist south. The Democratic press understood this demonstration in this way, and one of the more outspoken newspapers thus welcomed the election of the Republican candidate: “Ave Caesar Imperator! Garfield - President, King, Emperor! The people of the United States, by their own act, voluntarily and freely, have chosen for their ruler a man who is the embodiment of intrigue, deception and crime. We must accept the people's decision. But let's not close our eyes. From here on, the country must enter a new era. We are done with the republic. Let's welcome the empire. People's rights have been trampled underfoot. They are trampled and trampled into the mud. From the ruins of the republic will rise an oligarchy of officials, an aristocracy of the bourgeoisie, an empire of self-elected ambitious people. Are we exaggerating the situation? Oh, no”... etc. This tirade sounds like the cries of a madman, maddened by impotent anger, but it reflects to a certain extent the general mood of the Democratic Party. This party, it should be noted, consisting mainly of former slaveholders of the Southern States, still bears the marks of demoralizing slavery. Democrats are incorrigible aristocrats, ardent, ambitious and frivolous. They do not like slow, diligent and persistent work and want everything to be done according to the magical movement of their imperious eyebrows. They are ambitious demagogues and love to keep the masses in complete submission. To this end they keep the people in the darkest ignorance, and the democratic South is mentally at least 50 years behind the republican North. With a little success they lose their heads in a whirlwind of rejoicing, with the slightest failure they indulge in despair and pour out their impotent anger in frantic cries. It is clear that it is not difficult for a sensible, practical, prudent, intellectual North to fight and defeat such a South. Thanks to their passionate impetus and impracticality, the Democrats made many mistakes during the campaign itself. When they saw that on the basis of principle it was impossible for them to resist the Republicans, they madly threw themselves into personal politics and opened a real orgy of personal attacks, slander and insinuations against the Republican candidate. During the five months of the campaign the Democrats did not issue a leaflet in which Garfield was not accused of bribery, speculative tricks, official corruption, perjury, and similar terrible crimes, and finally they valiantly concluded this campaign of gossip and antics with the invention of a false "Chinese letter", calculated to incite the working people against the Republican candidate. At first, this personal bacchanalia, apparently, produced some effect, but then, with its immoderation and too transparent tendentiousness, it exposed itself, and with the unfortunate “Chinese letter” it finally disgraced itself in the eyes of the entire people. The author of this letter was soon arrested, turned out to be an employee of a democratic newspaper, and the court proved the malicious forgery of the letter. Garfield's contemptuous silence, filled with unshakable dignity, amid all this frantic orgy of personal attacks on him only gave him greater greatness, won public and popular sympathy and made him invulnerable. The hot coals of denunciation and slander turned on the heads of the accusers themselves. People said that the Democrats attacked Garfield too much because they had nothing more to say for themselves. Thus, the Democratic Party itself undermined the ground, and its defeat would probably have been even greater if it had not found some support in the personal merits of its candidate. All these general and particular reasons led to the fact that out of 369 electoral votes, only 150 fell on Gencock, and 219 on Garfield, 34 more than the number 185 required for election. The elect of the Republican Party, the current President James Garfield, is a very likable person in his personal qualities. He attracts attention already by his very romantic fate, which propelled him from dark poverty to his current primary role in the state. The son of a poor farmer, after the death of his father he was left in the care of a capricious fate, and she, apparently, did not have any special concern for him. The poor boy was forced beyond his strength to work together with his brothers on the small farm left by his father and did not see any affectionate greetings from harsh fate. Overwhelming physical labor could easily suppress mental talents, but this boy, gifted by nature with a strong will and intelligence, paved the way for himself. He noticed that the canal workers were making more money than they could earn from farming or carpentry, which he did in the winter. Without thinking twice, he entered the strap and soon rose to the position of helmsman. After such success, he decided to become a sailor on a ship on his native Lake Erie, but a severe fever upset his plans, and he lay in bed for three months. Upon recovery, he went to a nearby school with his insignificant cash reserves and two tortillas in his pocket. After completing the course here, he moved to the so-called “eclectic institute.” During the day he listened to lectures, and in the mornings and evenings he worked as a carpenter, earning money for his maintenance; he occupied a wretched little room and prepared food for himself. The combination of physical labor and mental labor only strengthened the gifted young man. He left the institute with a brilliant diploma, a good real and classical education, and 450 dollars in debt, which he borrowed to pay for listening to lectures. Having married an intelligent and modest girl who studied with him at school, he built himself a small hut and began a poor but happy life, being a teacher in one college. This was before the Civil War. The then agitation for the abolition of slavery gave him the opportunity to enter the political arena; he made several brilliant speeches against slavery, which made such an impression that he attracted the attention of the Republican Party, which took upon itself the task of abolishing slavery. When the war broke out, he took an active part in organizing the local militia of his native Ohio and in 1861 was elected commander of a local regiment. During the war, he established himself as an efficient commander and achieved the highest military ranks. Without being a particularly brilliant warrior and without making a great name for himself here, he was, however, known as an intelligent and cautious commander who contributed greatly to the success of the northern army. This fame gave him the opportunity to later be elected to Congress. If during the war his caution somewhat hampered his glory, then in the peaceful field of state activity it promoted him. Being a member of Congress, he was not an idle servitor of his post, but took the trouble to study in detail the archives of the Congress and every day, like a tireless and persistent scientist, he worked in the dust of papers, for which he even received the nickname of a pedant from his fellows. This gave him such a practical knowledge of state office work, which was the envy of his brothers and which served as a terrible weapon in his hands for any ignorance, frivolity or routine. As President, Garfield is undoubtedly one of the worthiest and most experienced statesmen in the country. He clearly and deeply understands the needs of the state and has a strong enough will to persistently apply his enlightened views to reality. He proved this from the first steps of his government activity, boldly and courageously coming out to fight the administrative ulcer of bureaucracy, which over the last decade has developed into a vile social evil. Dark evil, of course, could not immediately give in, and even sent out a scoundrel who raised a villainous hand against the people's choice, who decided to act honestly and openly for the good of his country. But Guiteau’s villainous shot was a signal of the awakening of formidable public indignation, and in the energetic support of society, President Garfield, if only he recovered from the assassination attempt, would find the right support for inflicting a mortal blow on evil. At the same time, the election of Garfield as president again introduced into the federal government of the American republic that truly popular atmosphere, which had recently begun to give way to the emerging atmosphere of aristocracy and plutocracy. President Garfield's cabinet is now the most democratic in the world. Both the wife of the president himself and the wives of his two most important ministers, who are now leaders of high American society, were not yet in the distant past simple rural teachers. Americans can proudly point to this office as proof that the traditions of their fathers, who bequeathed to them the great principles of true democracy, are still alive in them. Poker is a short fireplace poker, a terrible weapon in the hands of beautiful ladies. Man, your name is stupid! (Lat.) – Approx. Ed. Wo man singt, da lass dich rubig nieder: Bose Menschen haben keine Lieder.