CHAPTER XX

Effect of Vallandigham's New Departure Beneficial to Democracy— Prejudice Against Democrats Began to Wane-Victory of 1874 The Democratic State Convention of 1875-The Party Divided On the Money Question-The Contest Between Allen G. Thurman and William Allen-The Democratic National Convention of 1876-Nomination of Samuel J. Tilden-The Tilden Campaign-Tilden Elected But Counted Out By the Electoral Commission-The Stultification of Hayes and Resentment of Democrats All Over the Country.

The culmination of the renaissance of the Democratic Party in Ohio after the War of the Rebellion was the election of Allen in 1873 when the Republican majority of 20,000 in 1871 was more than wiped out. It cannot be doubted that Vallandigham's New Departure had no little effect in producing this result. The party had ceased to pull against the current of public opinion and rehabilitated itself with popular sentiment. Some of the tenets for which it had been contending are still latent principles in the minds of many men, but expediency dictated the New Departure and expediency is ninety per cent of politics as well as of the whole system of civilization. The public did not accuse Democracy with abandoning some of its principles to gain popularity, but, very generously, gave it credit for an inclination to carry out the will of the majority. It had many able men in Ohio; in ability some of its leaders towered above the tallest Republican and in numbers exceeded the notable leaders of the Republican Party. This, to a large extent, offset the long standing prejudice against the Democrats which had been engendered by the war, for the people always have respect for ability and worth. This change of front was not confined to the Democrats of Ohio but to the Democracy all over the country and the result was a diminution of the bitterness between the two great parties that had prevailed for more than a decade. Regarding this phase of the situation Horace Greeley wrote, "The virtual sur