Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1881 — How Grant Was Nominated. [ARTICLE]

How Grant Was Nominated.

Thurlow Weed says in a letter to the New York Tribune: “I propose to show how Gen.i_Grant became a Republican instead of a Democratic candidate for president. Before the presidential canva<Tor 1868 had opened, thoughtful men of both parties were casting about for suitable candidates. I learned that Dean Richmond, Peter Cagger and Cornelius Wendell, wiser Democratic leaders than those who succeeded them, were quietly preparing the way for General Grant’s nomination. It was generally understood that while Gen. Grant hail not been a prominent politician, he Jhad acted before the rebellion with the Democratic party. I called a meeting of an impromptu goneral committee, a committee that had quietly been doing good Republican work in this city for several years. Prominent among the members of that committee were John A. Kennedy, James Kelly, James Bowen, Thomas Murphy, etal. This was arranged Saturday. In the evening of that day Gen. Grant’s arrival at Long Brancli was announced. I immediately took a boat for that place, and after breakfast Sunday morning invited Gen. Grant to smoke his cigar in my room. I then greatly surprised the General by informing him that he would be nominated for President at a Republican meeting held in New York on the following Monday evening, and that the proceedings would be presented to nim by the chairman of the meeting, Mr. Thomas Murphy. I added that he need not personally trouble himself about the election; tnat he had done his work with a bayonet, and that the people would do their work with the ballot.”