The Blaine men were discouraged and the anti-Blaine men were jubilant.
It was claimed by the latter, and apprehended by the former, that it was
indicative of Mr. Blaine's defeat for the nomination. It certainly
looked that way, but the result of the election for the temporary
chairmanship proved to be misleading. Mr. Hanna's poll was not to find
out how many delegates would vote for the nomination of Mr. Blaine, but
how many would vote for Lynch for temporary chairman. On that point his
poll was substantially accurate. It was assumed that every Blaine man
would vote for Mr. Clayton. This is where the mistake was made. It
turned out that there were some Blaine men, especially from the South,
that voted for Lynch. The result, therefore, was not, as it was hoped it
would be, an accurate test of the strength of the Blaine and
anti-Blaine forces in the Convention.
Since my election had not been anticipated,--at least, by me,--my speech
of acceptance was necessarily brief. I presided over the deliberations
of the Convention the greater part of two days, when Hon. John B.
Henderson, of Missouri, was introduced as the permanent chairman. This
is the same Henderson, who, as a Republican United States Senator from
Missouri, voted against the conviction of President Andrew Johnson, who
had been impeached by the House of Representatives for high crimes and
misdemeanors in office. The Democratic Senators needed but seven votes
from the Republican side of the chamber to prevent conviction. They
succeeded in getting the exact number, Senator Henderson being one. He
appears to have been the only one of that number that politically
survived that act. All others soon passed into political oblivion;
although several of them subsequently identified themselves with the
Democratic party. While it may be said that Senator Henderson survived
the act, it is true that his election as a delegate to the National
Republican Convention of 1884 and his selection as the permanent
chairman thereof are the only prominent illustrations of that fact.
During the deliberations of the Convention Mr. Bishop, one of the
delegates from Massachusetts, introduced a resolution to change the
basis of representation in future National Conventions of the party. His
plan was to make the number of Republican votes cast, counted, certified
and returned at the last preceding National election, the basis of
representation in succeeding National Conventions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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