Monday, October 30, 1893, Part II.
In which the Chicago newspapers' gossip about one another and their candidates give us a peek at the political process.
Saturday, January 20, 2024. Good morning.
And thank you! I thought there would be a drop-off in readership after I started recounting the events since the material is a bit drier than previous installations, but according to the stats, no. I must be doing something right if you’re still reading.
Where were we?
Here is a link to the home page if you want to read past issues.
• Saturday night, October 28: Mayor of Chicago Carter Harrison is assassinated. Chicago has no current laws on how to replace a mayor who has died in office. Politicians and newspaper publishers press for a succession process that will be advantageous to their side. (Harrison was a Democrat, but the City Council was majority Republican.)
• The upcoming judicial election has received national attention because Illinois Governor Altgeld is attacking incumbent Judge Gary. The Governor had pardoned the Haymarket prisoners whom the judge had sentenced.
• Sunday morning: Newspapers are already promoting candidates for temporary Mayor. This is also the day that the inquest is held at Harrison’s home, with the killer in attendance.
• Monday, October 30: The World’s Fair closes down. The City Council meets to prepare the mayor’s funeral. The Harrisons receive visitors. The Chicago Tribune continues its vendetta against Governor Altgeld.
This week (still Monday):
• The newspapers opine about who should serve as temporary mayor and who should not, and what process should be used.
As I was writing, I was thinking about the contorted political analyses about how Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis might get a leg up on Donald Trump and how much more complex 1893 Chicago politics seems in comparison. This week, we get a good look at how Chicago newspapers used their power to press their political agendas, and how they used gossip about the other side to reveal political tactics and strategy.
Monday, October 30, Part II. The Mayor is Dead. Long Live the (Future) Mayor.
The mayor had not been dead an hour before conversations began about how to replace him, who should replace him, and what legal authority the temporary mayor should have. By Monday, the newspapers were printing the details of some of those conversations.
That morning, city attorneys found an old city charter that covered the situation. The provision directed the City Council to elect one of its own to be mayor pro tem before setting a special election.
The nominally nonpartisan Chicago Record disagreed that the discovery of the old charter settled the succession question. It worried about the consequences if the Chicago City Council were allowed to choose one of its own for Mayor. Bribe-fed aldermen had pushed through several franchises for their private benefactors, only to be thwarted by Mayor Harrison’s veto. If a mayor were chosen from among them, the private utilities and their supporters would have a free ride. There was also this concern: “…there is no telling when such a mayor so chosen would vacate his office.” (The Record, October 31, 1893.)
The politician that the Record worried about was Martin B. Madden.
As I have said, Martin B. Madden was a Republican alderman with many friends on the other side of the aisle. He had voted with them on many questionable franchises. He would later partner with Democrats in the infamous Ogden Oil scandal, introducing an ordinance in the City Council to enfranchise the company to do business in the city. (There was, in fact, no such company, at least not one that had anything to do with oil.)
The Record stated:
“The Madden-Powers combination is averse to a party caucus, and the order has gone around for the friends of Madden to remain away so that no action taken could be binding…Ald Madden, it is conceded, could not gain a nomination, as the republican leaders are all opposed to him because of his accepting extensive patronage from the Harrison administration..’
The Republican Chicago Tribune did consider the succession matter settled. In its October 31st edition, the Trib announced that the election of an acting mayor in the Council “will probably put an end to some of the Aldermanic caucuses which have been indecently projected already.” Further: “There seems to be little doubt that Ald. Madden will be selected as the acting Mayor, though some opposition to him has been developed…”
In the next paragraph, there is this: “There seems to be an indecent desire on the part of certain politicians of both parties to go into the business of caucusing on the mayoral question and into booming of candidates also.” Gaslighting in the age of actual gas lights.
The other Republican paper, the Inter-Ocean, was an unabashed Swift supporter. The current publisher, H.H. Kohlsaat, had been a friend of George Swift's since their childhood days in Galena, Illinois. Other papers referred to the Inter-Ocean as "Swift's organ."
The Inter-Ocean declared that the failure to caucus for a nominee would result in a “free-for-all fight" when it came time to vote. (As events will show, the caucuses did not prevent a “free-for-all fight.”)
The Democratic Herald, for its part, laid bare the Madden scheme. (And don’t you love that little bit of writing at the start.)
Every sunset brings changes, in politics as in most things, and when the moon began to shine last night Alderman Madden found that his star showed signs of fading. Madden’s main hope for securing the prize of acting mayor depended on the absence of caucuses. Had the scheme of holding no caucuses been adhered to the minority of republicans, who are Madden men, with the aid of the main body of the democrats, would easily succeed in putting the alderman from the fourth ward in the chair. Two stubborn facts seem to block the way, though, to the goal of Alderman Madden’s ambition, and they are these:
1. A big majority of his own party in the council are as strongly opposed to him as they are in favor of Alderman Swift, the latter having been duly elected chairman of the council by a caucus of the Republicans last spring when Alderman Madden was dethroned.
2. A resolute minority of the democratic aldermen are doggedly and implacably opposed to the election of Alderman Madden.
—Chicago Herald, October 31, 1893
I can’t resist including more from this article in the Herald; it's a great example of how transparent - and byzantine - politics was in Chicago back then.
The anti-Madden Republicans have called a caucus meeting for tomorrow. In that caucus the majority role will prevail and this means a blow at Mr. Madden and a boom for Mr. Swift.
The anti-Madden democrats have issued a call for a caucus meeting for Saturday, with the result of the deliberations problematical. And for this reason. When the bulk of the democrats felt that, being in a minority in the council, they could not hope to elect one of themselves, resolved to do the next best thing, namely to elect a semi-democrat like Mr. Madden, they did not calculate on such possible complications as would really make it likely that they could name a democrat for the position. In this latter respect the condition of things has changed. The republicans take the ground that if Alderman Madden should be elected he will go into the chair to all intents and purposes as a democrat, while wearing the republican label. Then, say the Swift republicans, should Alderman Madden’s temporary administration be shady, the reflection would be on the party to which he nominally belongs. On this ground, sooner than help to elect him, they would, if they could not elect Alderman Swift, turn around and support a democrat for the place. In view of such a development as this the question has arisen in the minds of the more shrewd one among the democrats as to whether they ought not to be prepared with a candidate taken from their own ranks. Alderman Sexton and Alderman McGillen are the only two who are being considered in this respect. They both stand well with their own colleagues and have each a following among the republicans.
Harrison's newspaper, the Chicago Times, was also suspicious of the Council selecting from among its own. About Madden and the Dems, it had this to say:
It is said that a combination has been effected between city hall democratic members of the council and Ald. Madden’s friends whereby that gentleman is to be elected temporary mayor. It is said that a caucus of city hall men was held yesterday for that purpose and that an understanding with Ald. Madden has been reached. The majority of the republican members of the council are said to favor George B. Swift for temporary mayor. The matter may be settled in caucus, however…”
The Record, ever chatty, shared some more behind the scenes thinking on the part of the Times and Inter-Ocean editors about their candidates.
Another consideration which weighed with the City Hall people was the fact that it had been told that the administration newspaper [The Times] was against Ald. Madden and that it would insist on the democratic aldermen nominating one of their own number for the position of acting mayor. The idea that the parties in the council were responsible for the outcome of the present critical situation is shared by Mr. H.H. Kohlsaat, for that gentleman [the editor of the Inter-Ocean], it is understood, has insisted that the republican majority in the council should meet in caucus and decide on a candidate for acting mayor. Sheriff Gilbert, County Clerk Wulff and Collector Mamer assured Mr. Kohlsaat, so it is said, that their opinions coincided with his and that they should insist on a caucus..”
—The Chicago Record, November 1, 1893.
To summarize: With Republicans controlling City Hall, Democrats favor a process that would result in their friend and Republican Martin B. Madden, winning the seat. Thus, they, and Madden and his backer the Chicago Tribune, favor going right to the City Council vote without holding caucuses. (The Trib uses the excuse that holding caucuses so soon after the Mayor’s death is “unseemly.”) Most Republicans favor caucuses for the same reason. However, when Democrats realize how many Republicans and Democrats are opposed to candidate Madden, their newspaper organs change their tunes.
It’s important to point out that Corporation Counsel Adolph Kraus had not even ruled yet on whether the old charter governed the current situation. Some attorneys argued against it. In fact, there was even some question about whether Kraus could be trusted to issue the opinion, given how close he had been to Harrison.
We will cover what happened next in two weeks after I do a piece next week how primaries functioned in Gilded Age Chicago.
Resources
The History of the Republican Party [in Illinois ]and Biographies of Its Supporters - By David Ward Wood