Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [68]
In April, Pulitzer’s restlessness prevailed. Even with the 1876 nominating season approaching, Pulitzer left for New York and took a ship bound for Europe. He went first to Paris, armed with a letter of introduction from former senator John Henderson of Missouri to Elihu Washburne, the American minister to France. Henderson detailed the political service of “my young friend” and asked that he be extended official courtesies. Washburne complied and even offered to supply Pulitzer with theater or opera tickets. Pulitzer, however, cut short his stay in Paris without availing himself of Washburne’s cultural amenities.
In Germany, Pulitzer took in a political meeting. Unlike the boisterous affairs he had become used to in the United States, the German gathering was orderly and businesslike. Its conclusion was also a shock for an American. “Suddenly a hitherto silent and quiet man arose upon the platform and walked up to the chairman,” Pulitzer said. The chairman then interrupted the speaker and the unknown man replaced him at the podium. He revealed that he was an officer of the law and declared that the meeting was over because the speaker had violated the law by criticizing the cabinet. “The chairman muttered some words of protest,” Pulitzer said, there “were some indignant expressions in the audience, but the interrupted speaker spoke no more, and in a very few moments the meeting was actually dissolved.”
As much as Europe captivated Pulitzer, the calendar inexorably drew him back to the United States. It was an election year—a presidential one. Ever since witnessing Lincoln’s reelection while in the Union army, Pulitzer regarded elections as the high holy days of democracy. They couldn’t be missed.
Chapter Ten
FRAUD AND HIS FRAUDULENCY
The presidential campaign was under way by the time Pulitzer boarded the Cunard steamship Bothnia in Liverpool on July 15, 1876. Disembarking in New York eleven days later, he repaired to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where, in possession of New York newspapers, he caught up on the political news, having survived for three months on the incomplete and dated dispatches that reached Europe.
By his absence, Pulitzer had passed up a chance to attend the Democratic national convention, which had concluded the previous month in St. Louis. His friends and political partners hadn’t missed it. Hutchins and Slayback were delegates from Missouri, and Watterson was a delegate from Kentucky. In fact, Watterson had brought the hall to its feet when he urged delegates—descendants of Jackson, as he called them—“to wrest the government…from the clutches of rings and robbers.” The Democrats were convinced they had, at long last, picked a winner in selecting as their candidate Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York, who prosecuted Boss Tweed. If corruption was the issue, no better white knight could be found.
Pulitzer was elated with the choice and immediately put himself at the service of the party. While his friends were asked to work solely in their own political backyards, Pulitzer was invited to engage the enemy on the important battleground of Ohio and Indiana. Because they held their state government elections in October, the two states were considered bellwethers, exercising extraordinary influence on November’s federal elections. Pulitzer’s status as a former Republican, widely known among German voters, made him useful in reaching voters in the two states, each of which had a large German population.
In early September, Pulitzer made