A School History of the United States Part 55

1. Every presidential elector was chosen by popular vote; and every electoral vote was counted as it was cast. This was the first presidential election in our country of which both these statements could be made.

2. For the first time since 1844 there was no agitation of a Southern question.

3. All parties agreed in calling for anti-Chinese legislation.

Garfield and Arthur were elected, and inaugurated on March 4, 1881. But on July 2, 1881, as Garfield stood in a railway station at Was.h.i.+ngton, a disappointed office seeker came up behind and shot him in the back. A long and painful illness followed, till he died on September 19, 1881.

[Ill.u.s.tration: James A. Garfield]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chester A. Arthur]

%538. Presidential Succession%--The death of Garfield and the succession of Arthur to the presidential office left the country in a peculiar situation. An act of Congress pa.s.sed in 1792 provided that if both the presidency and vice presidency were vacant at the same time, the President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, or if there were none, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, should act as President, till a new one was elected. But in September, 1881, there was neither a President _pro tempore_ of the Senate nor a Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the Forty-sixth Congress ceased to exist on March 4, and the Forty-seventh was not to meet till December. Had Arthur died or been killed, there would therefore have been no President. It was not likely that such a condition would happen again; but attention was called to the necessity of providing for succession to the presidency, and in 1886 a new law was enacted. Now, should the presidency and vice presidency both become vacant, the presidency pa.s.ses to members of the Cabinet in the order of the establishment of their departments, beginning with the Secretary of State. Should he die, be impeached and removed, or become disabled, it would go to the Secretary of the Treasury, and then, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, the Attorney-general, the Postmaster-general, the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior.

%539. Party Pledges redeemed.%--Since the Republican party was in power, a redemption of the pledges in their platform was necessary, and three laws of great importance were enacted. One, the Edmunds law (1882), was intended to suppress polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. Another (1882) stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. The third, the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), was designed to secure appointment to public office on the ground of fitness, and not for political service.

%540. Corporations.%--These measures were all good enough in their way; but they left untouched grievances which the workingmen and a great part of the people felt were unbearable. That the development of the wealth and resources of our country is chiefly due to great corporations and great capitalists is strictly true. But that many of them abused the power their wealth gave them cannot be denied. They were accused of buying legislatures, securing special privileges, fixing prices to suit themselves, importing foreign laborers under contract in order to depress wages, and favoring some customers more than others.

%541. The Anti-monopoly and Labor Parties.%--Out of this condition of affairs grew the Anti-monopoly party, which held a convention in 1884 and demanded that the Federal government should regulate commerce between the states; that it should therefore control the railroads and the telegraphs; that Congress should enact an interstate commerce law; and that the importation of foreign laborers under contract should be made illegal.

This platform was so fully in accordance with the views of the Greenback or National party, that Benjamin F. Butler, the candidate of the Anti-monopolists, was endorsed and so practically united the two parties.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Grover Cleveland]

%542. The Republican and Democratic Parties%.--The Republicans nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, and the Democrats Stephen Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. The Prohibitionists put up John P. St. John and William Daniel. The nomination of Blaine was the signal for the revolt of a wing of the Republicans, which took the name of Independents, and received the nickname of "Mugwumps." The revolt was serious in its consequences, and after the most exciting contest since 1876, Cleveland was elected.

%543. Public Measures adopted during 1885-1889.%--Widely as the parties differed on many questions, Democrats, Republicans, and Nationalists agreed in demanding certain reform measures which were now carried out. In 1885 an Anti-Contract-Labor law was enacted, forbidding any person, company, or corporation to bring any aliens into the United States under contract to perform labor or service. In 1887 came the Interstate Commerce Act, placing the railroads under the supervision of commissioners whose duty it is to see that all charges for the transportation of pa.s.sengers and freight are "reasonable and just," and that no special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or unjust discriminations are made for one s.h.i.+pper over another. In 1888 a second Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the return of any Chinese laborer who had once left the country. That same year a Department of Labor was established and put in charge of a commissioner. His duty is to "diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor."

%544. Political Issues since 1888%.--Thus by the end of Mr.

Cleveland's first term many of the demands of the workingmen had been granted, and laws enacted for their relief. These issues disposed of, a new set arose, and after 1888 financial questions took the place of labor issues.

%545. The Surplus and the Tariff.%--These financial problems were brought up by the condition of the public debt. For twenty years past the debt had been rapidly growing less and less, till on December 1, 1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in twenty-one years. By that time every bond of the United States that could be called in and paid at its face value had been canceled. As all the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, the government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer them to run. If it suffered them to run, a great surplus would pile up in the Treasury.

Thus on December 1, 1887, after every possible debt of the government was met, there was a surplus of $50,000,000. Six months later (June 1, 1888) the sum had increased to $103,000,000.

Unless this was to go on, and the money of the country be locked up in the Treasury, one of three things must be done:

1. More bonds must be bought at high rates.

2. Or the revenue must be reduced by reducing taxation.

3. Or the surplus must be distributed among the states as in 1837, or spent.

%546. The Mills Tariff Bill.%--Each plan had its advocates. But the Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, attempted to solve the problem by cutting down the revenue, and pa.s.sed a tariff bill, called the Mills Bill, after its chief author, Mr. R. Q. Mills of Texas.

The Republicans declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in the Senate.

%547. The Campaign of 1888; Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President.%--In the party platforms of 1888 we find, therefore, that three issues are prominent: (1) taxation, (2) tariff reform, (3) the surplus. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, and demanded frugality in public expenses, no more revenue than was needed to pay the necessary cost of government, and a tariff for revenue only. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, and demanded a tariff for protection, a reduction of the revenue by the repeal of taxes on tobacco and on spirits used in the arts, and by the admission free of duty of foreign-made articles the like of which are not produced at home.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Benjamin Harrison]

The Prohibitionists, the Union Labor party, and the United Labor party also placed candidates in the field. Harrison and Morton were elected, and inaugurated March 4, 1889.

%548. The Republicans in Control.%--The Republican party not only regained the presidency, but was once more in control of the House and Senate. Thus free to carry out its pledges, it pa.s.sed the McKinley Tariff Act (1890); a new pension bill, which raised the number of pensioners to 970,000, and the sum annually spent on pensions from $106,000,000 to $150,000,000; and a new financial measure, known as

%549. The Sherman Act.%--You remember that the attempt to enact a law for the free coinage of silver in 1878 led to the Bland-Allison Act, for the purchase of bullion and the coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver each month. As this was not free coinage, the friends of silver made a second attempt, in 1886, to secure the desired legislation. This also failed. But in the summer of 1890, the silver men, having a majority of the Senate, pa.s.sed a free-coinage bill (June 17), which the House rejected (June 25). A conference followed, and from this conference came a bill which was quickly enacted into a law and called the Sherman Act. It provided

1. That the Secretary of the Treasury should buy 4,500,000 ounces of silver each month.

2. That he should pay for the bullion with paper money called treasury notes.

3. That on demand of the holder the Secretary must redeem these notes in gold or silver.

4. After July 1, 1891, the silver need not be coined, but might be stored in the Treasury, and silver certificates issued.

%550. The Farmers' Alliance%.--This legislation, combined with an agricultural depression and widespread discontent in the agricultural states, caused the defeat of the Republicans in the elections of 1890.

The Democratic minority of 21 in the House of Representatives of the Fifty-first Congress was turned into a Democratic majority of 135 in the Fifty-second. Eight other members were elected by the Farmers' Alliance.

For twenty years past the farmers in every great agricultural state had been organizing, under such names as Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers'

League, the Grange, Patrons of Industry, Agricultural Wheel, Farmers'

Alliance. Their object was to promote sociability, spread information concerning agriculture and the price of grain and cattle, and guard the interests and welfare of the farmer generally. By 1886 many of these began to unite, and the National Agricultural Wheel of the United States, the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, and several more came into existence. In 1889 the amalgamation was carried further still, and at a convention in St. Louis they were all practically united in the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union.

The purpose of this alliance was political, and as its stronghold was Kansas, the contest began in that state in 1890. At a convention of Alliance men and Knights of Labor, a "People's Party" was formed, which elected a majority of the state legislature. Five out of seven Congressmen were secured, and one United States senator. Before Congress met (in December, 1891), another member of the House was elected elsewhere, and three more senators. The support of fifty other representatives was claimed. Greatly elated over this important footing, the Alliance men marked out a plan for congressional legislation.

They demanded

1. A bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver.

2. The subtreasury scheme.

3. A Land Mortgage Bill.

%551. The Subtreasury Plan of the Alliance Party.%--The idea at the base of these demands was that the amount of money in circulation must be increased, and loaned to the people without the aid of banks or capitalists. It was proposed, therefore, that the government should establish a number of subtreasury or money-loaning stations in each state, at which the farmers could borrow money from the government (at two per cent interest), giving as security non-perishable farm produce.

%552. The Land Mortgage Scheme% provided that any owner of from 10 to 320 acres of land, at least half of which was under cultivation, might borrow from the government treasury notes equal to half the a.s.sessed value of the land and buildings.

%553. The People's Party organized.%--That either of the old parties would further such schemes was far from likely. A cry was therefore raised by the most ardent Alliance men for a third party, and at a conference of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 1891, a new national party was founded, and named "The People's Party of the United States of America."

%554. Party Candidates in 1892.%--When the campaign opened in 1892 there were thus four parties in the field. The People's party nominated James B. Weaver and James G. Field. The platform called for

1. The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1.

2. A graduated income tax.

3. Government owners.h.i.+p of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.

4. The restriction of immigration.

5. A national currency to be loaned to the people at two per cent interest per annum, secured by land or produce.

6. All land held by aliens, or by railroads in excess of their actual needs, to be reclaimed and held for actual settlers.

The Prohibitionists nominated John Bidwell and J. B. Cranfill, and declared "anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a beverage."