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Chapter 19: Progressivism and Reaction [Includes Image Plates]
- The University Press of Kentucky
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Progressivismand Reaction Disarray in the Republican Party. Following the Democratic victories in 1870, the Republican organization in West Virginia rapidly fell apart. The constitution of 1872 ended procedures which had enabled the Republicans to maintain control of the state during the Reconstruction era. In 1872the party did not nominate a candidate for governor, but supported John J. Jacob, the Democratic incumbent, who ran as an Independent. Although Republicans took some comfort in the victory of President Ulysses S. Grant in West Virginia, his vote stemmed in part from the unpopularity of Horace Greeley, the Democratic candidate. The debate on the Civil Rights bill in Congress in 1874 produced further setbacks for the Republicans. In a typical reaction to the bill, which forbade discrimination against Negroes in public places and transportation, the Buckhannon Delta declared on January 24, 1874, that "We consented willingly to granting political and legal rights to . . . the colored men, but we will never favor forcing social equality upon us."I Resentment against federal intervention in racial matters was so great that many Republican politicians declined to run for office in 1874. At its state convention the party endorsed independent Democrats for most legislative races. Waitman T. Willey, long a Republican wheelhorse in the state, refused to accept his party's nomination for Congress. Similar conditions prevailed in 1876. NathanGoff and the RepublicanParty. Republican leaders in the Appalachian states gradually realized that in order to return to power they must ignore the racial policies of their party in Washington and concentrate on issues of local interest. One of the first West Virginians to perceive this necessity was Nathan Goff, Jr., scion of a wealthy Clarksburg family, who served as United States District Attorney for West Virginia from 1868 to 1881. With an impressive record as a Union captain in the Civil War, a gift for oratory, and a handsome appearance, Goff unsuccessfully sought high elective office three times during the 1870s.He was defeated for Congress from the state's First District in 1870by John J. Davis and again in 1874 by Benjamin Wilson. In 1876 he won the Republican nomination for governor and ran well ahead of his party, but he lost to Democrat Henry Mason Mathews. 1Quoted in Gordon B. McKinney,Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865-1900:Politics and the Appalachian Communitv (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978),43. 206 West Virginia: A History At the Republican state convention of 1880, Goff, who controlled federal patronage in West Virginia, established his dominance in party affairs. Later, at the national convention, West Virginia delegates bowed to his wishes and supported James G. Blaine for president and Goff for vice president, but the convention chose James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. In the state election of that year a coalition of Republicans and Greenbackers, favored by Goff, reduced the Democrats to a mere fifty-one percent of the vote. Old-line Republicans challenged Goff s leadership. In 1881he accepted an appointment as secretary of the navy, and when James A. Garfield became president, Goff again became District Attorney for West Virginia. He antagonized many financial backers of the party by insisting that George W. Atkinson , a major coordinator of the Republican and Greenback campaigns in 1880, be named United States marshal for West Virginia. In a purge of Blaine supporters in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur removed Goff himself from his federal post. Despite his break with the Arthur administration, Goff held his organization together and in 1882, with Greenback assistance, won election to Congress. Like other Republicans from the Appalachian area, he gained strength by concentrating upon local matters, including special claims and pension bills for his constituents, aid for flood victims along the Ohio River, and protection of jobs of local beneficiaries of federal patronage. He so successfully reinvigorated his political machine that the 1884state convention by a vote of 229 to 190 endorsed Blaine over the administration. Although Republicans lost both national and state races in West Virginia, Goff won reelection to Congress. The party was edging closer to victory in the state, and Goff was its master. Goff reached the pinnacle of his political career in 1888,when, on the basis of original returns and with the aid of black voters, he defeated A. Brooks Fleming, his Democratic opponent, for the governorship by the narrow margin of 110 votes. Fleming challenged Goffs election, and more than a year after inauguration day, the legislature, by a strict party vote, declared Fleming the victor...