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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cleveland Era, by Henry Jones Ford
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Cleveland Era
+       A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics, Volume 44 in The
+       Chronicles of America Series
+
+Author: Henry Jones Ford
+
+Posting Date: January 23, 2009 [EBook #3041]
+[Last updated: April 18, 2015]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CLEVELAND ERA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The James J. Kelly Library Of St. Gregory's
+University, and Alev Akman
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CLEVELAND ERA,
+
+A CHRONICLE OF THE NEW ORDER IN POLITICS
+
+By Henry Jones Ford
+
+NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO.
+
+LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
+
+OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+1919
+
+Volume 44 in the Chronicles of America Series. Abraham Lincoln Edition.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I.    A TRANSITION PERIOD
+     II.   POLITICAL GROPING AND PARTY FLUCTUATION
+     III.  THE ADVENT OF CLEVELAND
+     IV.   A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
+     V.    PARTY POLICY IN CONGRESS
+     VI.   PRESIDENTIAL KNIGHT-ERRANTRY
+     VII.  THE PUBLIC DISCONTENTS
+     VIII. THE REPUBLICAN OPPORTUNITY
+     IX.   THE FREE SILVER REVOLT
+     X.    LAW AND ORDER UPHELD
+     BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+
+
+
+THE CLEVELAND ERA
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. A TRANSITION PERIOD
+
+Politicians at Washington very generally failed to realize that the
+advent of President Hayes marked the dismissal of the issues of war and
+reconstruction. They regarded as an episode what turned out to be the
+close of an era. They saw, indeed, that public interest in the old
+issues had waned, but they were confident that this lack of interest was
+transient. They admitted that the emotional fervor excited by the war
+and by the issues of human right involved in its results was somewhat
+damped, but they believed that the settlement of those issues was still
+so incomplete that public interest would surely rekindle. For many years
+the ruling thought of the Republican party leaders was to be watchful
+of any opportunity to ply the bellows on the embers. Besides genuine
+concern over the way in which the negroes had been divested of political
+privileges conferred by national legislation, the Republicans felt a
+tingling sense of party injury.
+
+The most eminent party leaders at this time--both standing high as
+presidential possibilities--were James G. Blaine and John Sherman. In
+a magazine article published in 1880 Mr. Blaine wrote: "As the matter
+stands, all violence in the South inures to the benefit of one political
+party.... Our institutions have been tried by the fiery test of war, and
+have survived. It remains to be seen whether the attempt to govern the
+country by the power of a 'solid South,' unlawfully consolidated, can be
+successful.... The republic must be strong enough, and shall be strong
+enough, to protect the weakest of its citizens in all their rights." And
+so late as 1884, Mr. Sherman earnestly contended for the principle of
+national intervention in the conduct of state elections. "The war," he
+said, "emancipated and made citizens of five million people who had been
+slaves. This was a national act and whether wisely or imprudently done
+it must be respected by the people of all the States. If sought to be
+reversed in any degree by the people of any locality it is the duty
+of the national government to make their act respected by all its
+citizens."
+
+Republican party platforms reiterated such opinions long after their
+practical futility had become manifest. Indeed, it was a matter of
+common knowledge that negro suffrage had been undone by force and fraud;
+hardly more than a perfunctory denial of the fact was ever made in
+Congress, and meanwhile it was a source of jest and anecdote among
+members of all parties behind the scenes. Republican members were
+bantered by Democratic colleagues upon the way in which provision
+for Republican party advantage in the South had actually given to the
+Democratic party a solid block of sure electoral votes. The time at
+last came when a Southern Senator, Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina,
+blurted out in the open what had for years been common talk in private.
+"We took the government away," he asserted. "We stuffed ballot boxes. We
+shot them. We are not ashamed of it.... With that system--force, tissue
+ballots, etc.--we got tired ourselves. So we called a constitutional
+convention, and we eliminated, as I said, all of the colored people we
+could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.... The brotherhood
+of man exists no longer, because you shoot negroes in Illinois, when
+they come in competition with your labor, and we shoot them in South
+Carolina, when they come in competition with us in the matter of
+elections."
+
+Such a miscarriage of Republican policy was long a bitter grievance to
+the leaders of the party and incited them to action. If they could have
+had their desire, they would have used stringent means to remedy the
+situation. Measures to enforce the political rights of the freedmen were
+frequently agitated, but every force bill which was presented had to
+encounter a deep and pervasive opposition not confined by party lines
+but manifested even within the Republican party itself. Party platforms
+insisted upon the issue, but public opinion steadily disregarded it.
+Apparently a fine opportunity to redress this grievance was afforded
+by the election of President Harrison in 1888 upon a platform declaring
+that the national power of the Democratic party was due to "the
+suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the
+Constitution and laws of the United States," and demanding "effective
+legislation to secure integrity and purity of elections." But, although
+they were victorious at the polls that year, the Republican leaders were
+unable to embody in legislation the ideal proposed in their platform. Of
+the causes of this failure, George F. Hoar gives an instructive
+account in his "Autobiography." As chairman of the Senate committee on
+privileges and elections he was in a position to know all the details of
+the legislative attempts, the failure of which compelled the Republican
+leaders to acquiesce in the decision of public opinion against the old
+issues and in favor of new issues.
+
+Senator Hoar relates that he made careful preparation of a bill for
+holding, under national authority, separate registrations and elections
+for members of Congress. But when he consulted his party associates in
+the Senate he found most of them averse to an arrangement which would
+double the cost of elections and would require citizens to register
+at different times for federal elections and for state and municipal
+elections. Senator Hoar thereupon abandoned that bill and prepared
+another which provided that, upon application to court showing
+reasonable grounds, the court should appoint officers from both parties
+to supervise the election. The bill adopted a feature of electoral
+procedure which in England has had a salutary effect. It was provided
+that in case of a dispute concerning an election certificate, the
+circuit court of the United States in which the district was situated
+should hear the case and should award a certificate entitling the one or
+other of the contestants to be placed on the clerk's roll and to serve
+until the House should act on the case. Mr. Hoar stated that the bill
+"deeply excited the whole country," and went on to say that "some worthy
+Republican senators became alarmed. They thought, with a good deal of
+reason, that it was better to allow existing evils and conditions to
+be cured by time, and the returning conscience and good sense of the
+people, rather than have the strife, the result of which must be quite
+doubtful, which the enactment and enforcement of this law, however
+moderate and just, would inevitably create." The existence of this
+attitude of mind made party advocacy of the bill a hopeless undertaking
+and, though it was favorably reported on August 7, 1890, no further
+action was taken during that session. At the December session it was
+taken up for consideration, but after a few days of debate a motion to
+lay it aside was carried by the Democrats with the assistance of enough
+Republicans to give them a majority. This was the end of force bills,
+and during President Cleveland's second term the few remaining statutes
+giving authority for federal interference in such matters was repealed
+under the lead of Senator Hill of New York. With the passage of this
+act, the Republican party leaders for the first time abandoned all
+purpose of attempting to secure by national legislation the political
+privileges of the negroes. This determination was announced in the
+Senate by Mr. Hoar and was assented to by Senator Chandler of New
+Hampshire, who had been a zealous champion of federal action. According
+to Mr. Hoar, "no Republican has dissented from it."
+
+The facts upon which the force bill was based were so notorious and
+the bill itself was so moderate in its character that the general
+indifference of the public seemed to betray moral insensibility and
+emotional torpor. Much could be said in favor of the bill. This latest
+assertion of national authority in federal elections involved no new
+principle. In legalistic complexion the proposed measure was of the same
+character as previous legislation dealing with this subject, instances
+of which are the Act of 1842, requiring the election of members of the
+House by districts, and the Act of 1866, regulating the election of
+United States Senators. Fraudulent returns in congressional elections
+have always been a notorious evil, and the partisan way in which they
+are passed upon is still a gross blemish upon the constitutional system
+of the United States, and one which is likely never to be removed until
+the principle of judicial determination of electoral contests has been
+adopted in this country as it has been in England. The truth of the
+matter appears to be that the public paid no attention to the merits
+of the bill. It was viewed simply as a continuation of the radical
+reconstruction policy, the practical results of which had become
+intolerable. However great the actual evils of the situation might be,
+public opinion held that it would be wiser to leave them to be dealt
+with by state authority than by such incompetent statesmanship as had
+been common in Washington. Moreover, the man in the street resented the
+indifference of politicians to all issues save those derived from the
+Civil War.
+
+Viscount Bryce in his "American Commonwealth," the most complete and
+penetrating examination of American political conditions written during
+this period, gives this account of the party situation:
+
+"The great parties are the Republicans and the Democrats. What are their
+principles, their distinctive tenets, their tendencies? Which of them is
+for tariff reform, for the further extension of civil service reform, a
+spirited foreign policy, for the regulation of railroads and telegraphs
+by legislation, for changes in the currency, for any other of the twenty
+issues which one hears discussed in this country as seriously involving
+its welfare? This is what a European is always asking of intelligent
+Republicans and intelligent Democrats. He is always asking because he
+never gets an answer. The replies leave him deeper in perplexity. After
+some months the truth begins to dawn upon him. Neither party has, as a
+party, anything definite to say on these issues; neither party has any
+clean-cut principles, any distinctive tenets. Both have traditions. Both
+claim to have tendencies. Both certainly have war cries, organizations,
+interests, enlisted in their support. But those interests are in
+the main the interests of getting or keeping the patronage of the
+government. Tenets and policies, points of political doctrine and points
+of political practice have all but vanished. They have not been thrown
+away, but have been stripped away by time and the progress of events,
+fulfilling some policies, blotting out others. All has been lost, except
+office or the hope of it."
+
+That such a situation could actually exist in the face of public
+disapproval is a demonstration of the defects of Congress as an organ of
+national representation. Normally, a representative assembly is a school
+of statesmanship which is drawn upon for filling the great posts of
+administration. Not only is this the case under the parliamentary system
+in vogue in England, but it is equally the case in Switzerland whose
+constitution agrees with that of the United States in forbidding members
+of Congress to hold executive office. But somehow the American Congress
+fails to produce capable statesmen. It attracts politicians who display
+affability, shrewdness, dexterity, and eloquence, but who are lacking in
+discernment of public needs and in ability to provide for them, so
+that power and opportunity are often associated with gross political
+incompetency.* The solutions of the great political problems of the
+United States are accomplished by transferring to Washington men like
+Hayes and Cleveland whose political experience has been gained in other
+fields.
+
+
+     *  Of this regrettable fact the whole history of emancipation is a
+monument. The contrast between the social consequences of emancipation
+in the West Indies, as guided by British statesmanship, under conditions
+of meager industrial opportunity, and the social consequences of
+emancipation in the United States, affords an instructive example of
+the complicated evils which a nation may experience through the sheer
+incapacity of its government.
+
+
+The system of congressional government was subjected to some scrutiny in
+1880-81 through the efforts of Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio, an
+old statesman who had returned to public life after long absence. He had
+been prominent in the Democratic party before the war and in 1864 he
+was the party candidate for Vice-President. In 1868 he was the leading
+candidate for the presidential nomination on a number of ballots, but
+he was defeated. In 1869 he was a candidate for Governor of Ohio but
+was defeated; he then retired from public life until 1879 when he
+was elected to the United States Senate. As a member of that body, he
+devoted himself to the betterment of political conditions. His efforts
+in this direction were facilitated not only by his wide political
+experience but also by the tact and urbanity of his manners, which had
+gained for him in Ohio politics the nickname of "Gentleman George."
+
+In agreement with opinions long previously expressed in Story's
+"Commentaries," Senator Pendleton attributed the inefficiency of
+national government to the sharp separation of Congress from the
+Administration--a separation not required by the Constitution but made
+by Congress itself and subject to change at its discretion. He proposed
+to admit the heads of executive departments to participation in the
+proceedings of Congress. "This system," said he, "will require the
+selection of the strongest men to be heads of departments, and will
+require them to be well equipped with the knowledge of their offices.
+It will also require the strongest men to be the leaders of Congress and
+participate in the debate. It will bring those strong men in contact,
+perhaps into conflict, to advance the public weal and thus stimulate
+their abilities and their efforts, and will thus assuredly result to
+the good of the country."* The report--signed by such party leaders as
+Allison, Blaine, and Ingalls among the Republicans, and by Pendleton and
+Voorhees among the Democrats--reviewed the history of relations between
+the executive and legislative branches and closed with the expression of
+the unanimous belief of the committee that the adoption of the measure
+"will be the first step towards a sound civil service reform, which will
+secure a larger wisdom in the adoption of policies, and a better system
+in their execution."
+
+
+     *  "Senate Report," No. 837, 46th Congress, 3d session, February
+4, 1881.
+
+
+No action was taken on this proposal, notwithstanding the favor
+with which it was regarded by many close students of the political
+institutions of the country. Public opinion, preoccupied with more
+specific issues, seemed indifferent to a reform that aimed simply at
+general improvement in governmental machinery. The legislative calendars
+are always so heaped with projects that to reach and act upon any
+particular measure is impossible, except when there is brought to bear
+such energetic pressure as to produce special arrangements for the
+purpose, and in this case no such pressure was developed. A companion
+measure for civil service reform which was proposed by Senator Pendleton
+long remained in a worse situation, for it was not merely left under the
+congressional midden heap but was deliberately buried by politicians who
+were determined that it should never emerge. That it did emerge is due
+to a tragedy which aroused public opinion to an extent that intimidated
+Congress.
+
+Want of genuine political principles made factional spirit only the more
+violent and depraved. So long as power and opportunity were based
+not upon public confidence but upon mere advantage of position, the
+contention of party leaders turned upon questions of appointment to
+office and the control of party machinery. The Republican national
+convention of 1880 was the scene of a factional struggle which left
+deep marks upon public life and caused divisions lasting until the party
+leaders of that period were removed from the scene. In September 1879,
+General Grant landed in San Francisco, after a tour around the world
+occupying over two years, and as he passed through the country he was
+received with a warmth which showed that popular devotion was abounding.
+A movement in favor of renominating him to the Presidency was started
+under the direction of Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. Grant's
+renown as the greatest military leader of the Civil War was not his only
+asset in the eyes of his supporters. In his career as President he had
+shown, on occasion, independence and steadfastness of character. He
+stayed the greenback movement by his veto after eminent party leaders
+had yielded to it. He had endeavored to introduce civil service reform
+and, although his measures had been frustrated by the refusal of
+Congress to vote the necessary appropriations, his tenacity of purpose
+was such that it could scarcely be doubted that with renewed opportunity
+he would resume his efforts. The scandals which blemished the conduct of
+public affairs during his administration could not be attributed to any
+lack of personal honesty on his part. Grant went out of the presidential
+office poorer than when he entered it. Since then, his views had
+been broadened by travel and by observation, and it was a reasonable
+supposition that he was now better qualified than ever before for the
+duties of the presidential office. He was only fifty-eight, an age much
+below that at which an active career should be expected to close, and
+certainly an age at which European statesmen are commonly thought to
+possess unabated powers. In opposition to him was a tradition peculiar
+to American politics, though unsupported by any provision of the
+Constitution according to which no one should be elected President for
+more than two terms. It may be questioned whether this tradition does
+not owe its strength more to the ambition of politicians than to sincere
+conviction on the part of the people.*
+
+
+     *  The reasoning of "The Federalist," in favor of continued
+reeligibility, is cogent in itself and is supported by the experience
+of other countries, for it shows that custody of power may remain in the
+same hands for long periods without detriment and without occasioning
+any difficulty in terminating that custody when public confidence is
+withdrawn. American sensitiveness on this point would seem to impute
+to the Constitution a frailty that gives it a low rating among forms of
+government. As better means are provided for enforcing administrative
+responsibility, the popular dislike of third terms will doubtless
+disappear.
+
+
+So strong was the movement in favor of General Grant as President that
+the united strength of the other candidates had difficulty in staying
+the boom, which, indeed, might have been successful but for the arrogant
+methods and tactical blunders of Senator Conkling. When three of the
+delegates voted against a resolution binding all to support the nominee
+whoever that nominee might be, he offered a resolution that those who
+had voted in the negative "do not deserve and have forfeited their vote
+in this convention." The feeling excited by this condemnatory motion
+was so strong that Conkling was obliged to withdraw it. He also made a
+contest in behalf of the unit rule but was defeated, as the convention
+decided that every delegate should have the right to have his vote
+counted as he individually desired. Notwithstanding these defeats of
+the chief manager of the movement in his favor, Grant was the leading
+candidate with 304 votes on the first ballot, James G. Blaine standing
+second with 284. This was the highest point in the balloting reached
+by Blaine, while the Grant vote made slight gains. Besides Grant and
+Blaine, four other candidates were in the field, and the convention
+drifted into a deadlock which under ordinary circumstances would have
+probably been dissolved by shifts of support to Grant. But in the
+preliminary disputes a very favorable impression had been made upon the
+convention by General Garfield, who was not himself a candidate but was
+supporting the candidacy of John Sherman, who stood third in the poll.
+On the twenty-eighth ballot, two votes were cast for Garfield; although
+he protested that he was not a candidate and was pledged to Sherman. But
+it became apparent that no concentration could be effected on any other
+candidate to prevent the nomination of Grant, and votes now turned to
+Garfield so rapidly that on the thirty-sixth ballot he received 399, a
+clear majority of the whole. The adherents of Grant stuck to him to the
+end, polling 306 votes on the last ballot and subsequently deporting
+themselves as those who had made a proud record of constancy.
+
+The Democratic national convention nominated General Hancock, which
+was, in effect, an appeal to the memories and sentiments of the past,
+as their candidate's public distinction rested upon his war record. The
+canvass was marked by listlessness and indifference on the part of the
+general public, and by a fury of calumny on the part of the politicians
+directed against their opponents. Forgery was resorted to with marked
+effect on the Pacific coast, where a letter--the famous Morey letter--in
+which Garfield's handwriting was counterfeited, was circulated
+expressing unpopular views on the subject of Chinese  immigration. The
+forgery was issued in the closing days of the canvass, when there
+was not time to expose it. Arrangements had been made for a wide
+distribution of facsimiles which exerted a strong influence. Hancock won
+five out of the six electoral votes of California and came near getting
+the three votes of Oregon also. In the popular vote of the whole
+country, Garfield had a plurality of less than ten thousand in a total
+vote of over nine million.
+
+The peculiarities of the party system which has been developed
+in American politics, forces upon the President the occupation of
+employment agent as one of his principal engagements. The contention
+over official patronage, always strong and ardent upon the accession of
+every new President, was aggravated in Garfield's case by the factional
+war of which his own nomination was a phase. The factions of the
+Republican party in New York at this period were known as the
+"Stalwarts" and the "Half-Breeds," the former adhering to the leadership
+of Senator Conkling, the latter to the leadership of Mr. Blaine, whom
+President Garfield had appointed to be his Secretary of State. Soon
+after the inauguration of Garfield it became manifest that he would
+favor the "Half-Breeds"; but under the Constitution appointments are
+made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and both the
+Senators from New York were "Stalwarts." Although the Constitution
+contemplates the action of the entire Senate as the advisory body in
+matters of appointment, a practice had been established by which the
+Senators from each State were accorded the right to dictate appointments
+in their respective States. According to Senator Hoar, when he entered
+public life in 1869, "the Senate claimed almost the entire control of
+the executive function of appointment to office.... What was called 'the
+courtesy of the Senate' was depended upon to enable a Senator to dictate
+to the executive all appointments and removals in his territory." This
+practice was at its greatest height when President Garfield challenged
+the system, and he let it be understood that he would insist upon his
+constitutional right to make nominations at his own discretion. When
+Senator Conkling obtained from a caucus of his Republican colleagues an
+expression of sympathy with his position, the President let it be known
+that he regarded such action as an affront and he withdrew all New York
+nominations except those to which exception had been taken by the New
+York Senators, thus confronting the Senate with the issue whether they
+would stand by the new Administration or would follow Conkling's lead.
+
+On the other hand, Senator Conkling and his adherents declared the issue
+to be simply whether competent public officials should be removed to
+make room for factional favorites. This view of the case was adopted by
+Vice-President Arthur and by Postmaster-General James of Garfield's
+own Cabinet, who, with New York Senators Conkling and Platt, signed a
+remonstrance in which they declared that in their belief the interests
+of the public service would not be promoted by the changes proposed.
+These changes were thus described in a letter of May 14, 1881, from the
+New York Senators to Governor Cornell of New York:
+
+"Some weeks ago, the President sent to the Senate in a group the
+nominations of several persons for public offices already filled. One of
+these offices is the Collectorship of the Port of New York, now held by
+General Merritt; another is the consul generalship at London, now held
+by General Badeau; another is Charge d'Affaires to Denmark, held by Mr.
+Cramer; another is the mission to Switzerland, held by Mr. Fish, a son
+of the former Secretary of State.... It was proposed to displace them
+all, not for any alleged fault of theirs, or for any alleged need or
+advantage of the public service, but in order to give the great offices
+of Collector of the Port of New York to Mr. William H. Robertson as
+a 'reward' for certain acts of his, said to have aided in making the
+nomination of General Garfield possible.... We have not attempted to
+'dictate,' nor have we asked the nomination of one person to any office
+in the State."
+
+Except in the case of their remonstrance against the Robertson
+appointment, they had "never even expressed an opinion to the President
+in any case unless questioned in regard to it." Along with this
+statement the New York Senators transmitted their resignations, saying
+"we hold it respectful and becoming to make room for those who may
+correct all the errors we have made, and interpret aright all the duties
+we have misconceived."
+
+The New York Legislature was then in session. Conkling and Platt offered
+themselves as candidates for reelection, and a protracted factional
+struggle ensued; in the course of which, the nation was shocked by the
+news that President Garfield had been assassinated by a disappointed
+office seeker in a Washington railway station on July 2, 1881. The
+President died from the effects of the wound on the 19th of September.
+Meanwhile, the contest in the New York Legislature continued until
+the 22d of July when the deadlock was broken by the election of Warner
+Miller and Elbridge G. Lapham to fill the vacancies.
+
+The deep disgust with which the nation regarded this factional war, and
+the horror inspired by the assassination of President Garfield, produced
+a revulsion of public opinion in favor of civil service reform so
+energetic as to overcome congressional antipathy. Senator Pendleton's
+bill to introduce the merit system, which had been pending for nearly
+two years, was passed by the Senate on December 27, 1882, and by
+the House on January 4, 1883. The importance of the act lay in its
+recognition of the principles of the reform and in its provision of
+means by which the President could apply those principles. A Civil
+Service Commission was created, and the President was authorized to
+classify the Civil Service and to provide selection by competitive
+examination for all appointments to the service thus classified. The
+law was essentially an enabling act, and its practical efficacy was
+contingent upon executive discretion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. POLITICAL GROPING AND PARTY FLUCTUATION
+
+President Garfield's career was cut short so soon after his accession
+to office, that he had no opportunity of showing whether he had the will
+and the power to obtain action for the redress of public grievances,
+which the congressional factions were disposed to ignore. His experience
+and his attainments were such as should have qualified him for the
+task, and in his public life he had shown firmness of character. His
+courageous opposition to the greenback movement in Ohio had been of
+great service to the nation in maintaining the standard of value. When
+a party convention in his district passed resolutions in favor of
+paying interest on the bonds with paper instead of coin, he gave a rare
+instance of political intrepidity by declaring that he would not accept
+the nomination on such a platform. It was the deliberate opinion
+of Senator Hoar, who knew Garfield intimately, that "next to the
+assassination of Lincoln, his death was the greatest national misfortune
+ever caused to this country by the loss of a single life."
+
+The lingering illness of President Garfield raised a serious question
+about presidential authority which is still unsettled. For over two
+months before he died he was unable to attend to any duties of office.
+The Constitution provides that "in case of the removal of the President
+from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge
+the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on
+the Vice-President." What is the practical significance of the term
+"inability"? If it should be accepted in its ordinary meaning, a
+prostrating illness would be regarded as sufficient reason for allowing
+the Vice-President to assume presidential responsibility. Though there
+was much quiet discussion of the problem, no attempt was made to press
+a decision. After Garfield died, President Arthur, on succeeding to the
+office, took up the matter in his first annual message, putting a
+number of queries as to the actual significance of the language of the
+Constitution--queries which have yet to be answered. The rights and
+duties of the Vice-President in this particular are dangerously vague.
+The situation is complicated by a peculiarity of the electoral system.
+In theory, by electing a President the nation expresses its will
+respecting public policy; but in practice the candidate for President
+may be an exponent of one school of opinion and the candidate for
+Vice-President may represent another view. It is impossible for a voter
+to discriminate between the two; he cannot vote for the candidate for
+President without voting for the candidate for Vice-President, since he
+does not vote directly for the candidates themselves but for the party
+electors who are pledged to the entire party ticket. Party conventions
+take advantage of this disability on the part of the voter to work an
+electioneering device known as a "straddle," the aim of which is to
+please opposite interests by giving each a place on the ticket. After
+Garfield was nominated, the attempt was made to placate the defeated
+faction by nominating one of its adherents for Vice-President, and now
+that nominee unexpectedly became the President of the United States,
+with power to reverse the policy of his predecessor.
+
+In one important matter there was, in fact, an abrupt reversal of
+policy. The independent countries of North and South America had been
+invited to participate in a general congress to be held in Washington,
+November 24, 1881. James Gillespie Blaine, who was then Secretary
+of State, had applied himself with earnestness and vigor to this
+undertaking, which might have produced valuable results. It was a
+movement towards closer relations between American countries, a purpose
+which has since become public policy and has been steadily promoted by
+the Government. With the inauguration of President Arthur, Blaine was
+succeeded by Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, who practically
+canceled the invitation to the proposed Congress some six weeks after it
+had been issued. On February 3, 1889, Blaine protested in an open letter
+to the President, and the affair occasioned sharp discussion. In his
+regular message to Congress in the following December, the President
+offered excuses of an evasive character, pointing out that Congress had
+made no appropriation for expenses and declaring that he had thought it
+"fitting that the Executive should consult the representatives of the
+people before pursuing a line of policy somewhat novel in its character
+and far-reaching in its possible consequences."
+
+In general, President Arthur behaved with a tact and prudence that
+improved his position in public esteem. It soon became manifest that,
+although he had been Conkling's adherent, he was not his servitor. He
+conducted the routine business of the presidential office with dignity,
+and he displayed independence of character in his relations with
+Congress. But his powers were so limited by the conditions under which
+he had to act that to a large extent public interests had to drift
+along without direction and management. In some degree, the situation
+resembled that which existed in the Holy Roman Empire when a complicated
+legalism kept grinding away and pretentious forms of authority were
+maintained, although, meanwhile, there was actual administrative
+impotence. Striking evidence of the existence of such a situation is
+found in President Arthur's messages to Congress.
+
+In his message of December 6, 1881, the President mentioned the fact
+that in the West "a band of armed desperadoes known as 'Cowboys,'
+probably numbering fifty to one hundred men, have been engaged for
+months in committing acts of lawlessness and brutality which the local
+authorities have been unable to repress." He observed that "with every
+disposition to meet the exigencies of the case, I am embarrassed by lack
+of authority to deal with them effectually." The center of disturbance
+was in Arizona, and the punishment of crime there was ordinarily the
+business of the local authorities. But even if they called for aid,
+said the President, "this Government would be powerless to render
+assistance," for the laws had been altered by Congress so that States
+but not Territories could demand the protection of the national
+Government against "domestic violence." He recommended legislation
+extending to the Territories "the protection which is accorded the
+States by the Constitution." On April 26, 1882, the President sent a
+special message to Congress on conditions in Arizona, announcing that
+"robbery, murder, and resistance to laws have become so common as to
+cease causing surprise, and that the people are greatly intimidated
+and losing confidence in the protection of the law." He also advised
+Congress that the "Cowboys" were making raids into Mexico, and again
+begged for legal authority to act. On the 3rd of May, he issued a
+proclamation calling upon the outlaws "to disperse and retire peaceably
+to their respective abodes." In his regular annual message on December
+4, 1882, he again called attention "to the prevalent lawlessness upon
+the borders, and to the necessity of legislation for its suppression."
+
+Such vast agitation from the operations of a band of ruffians, estimated
+at from fifty to one hundred in number, and such floundering incapacity
+for prompt action by public authority seem more like events from a
+chronicle of the Middle Ages than from the public records of a modern
+nation. Of like tenor, was a famous career which came to an end in this
+period. Jesse W. James, the son of a Baptist minister in Clay County,
+Missouri, for some years carried on a bandit business, specializing
+in the robbery of banks and railroad trains, with takings computed
+at $263,778. As his friends and admirers were numerous, the elective
+sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, and judges in the area of his
+activities were unable to stop him by any means within their reach.
+Meanwhile, the frightened burghers of the small towns in his range of
+operations were clamoring for deliverance from his raids, and finally
+Governor Crittenden of Missouri offered a reward of $10,000 for his
+capture dead or alive. Two members of his own band shot him down in his
+own house, April 3, 1882. They at once reported the deed and surrendered
+themselves to the police, were soon put on trial, pleaded guilty of
+murder, were sentenced to death, and were at once pardoned by the
+Governor. Meanwhile, the funeral ceremonies over Jesse James's remains
+drew a great concourse of people, and there were many indications of
+popular sympathy. Stories of his exploits have had an extensive sale,
+and his name has become a center of legend and ballad somewhat after the
+fashion of the medieval hero Robin Hood.
+
+The legislative blundering which tied the President's hands and made the
+Government impotent to protect American citizens from desperadoes of
+the type of the "cowboys" and Jesse James, is characteristic of Congress
+during this period. Another example of congressional muddling is found
+in an act which was passed for the better protection of ocean travel
+and which the President felt constrained to veto. In his veto message of
+July 1, 1882, the President said that he was entirely in accord with
+the purpose of the bill which related to matters urgently demanding
+legislative attention. But the bill was so drawn that in practice it
+would have caused great confusion in the clearing of vessels and would
+have led to an impossible situation. It was not the intention of the
+bill to do what the President found its language to require, and the
+defects were due simply to maladroit phrasing, which frequently occurs
+in congressional enactments, thereby giving support to the theory of
+John Stuart Mill that a representative assembly is by its very nature
+unfit to prepare legislative measures.
+
+The clumsy machinery of legislation kept bungling on, irresponsive to
+the principal needs and interests of the times. An ineffectual start
+was made on two subjects presenting simple issues on which there was
+an energetic pressure of popular sentiment--Chinese immigration and
+polygamy among the Mormons. Anti-Chinese legislation had to contend with
+a traditional sentiment in favor of maintaining the United States as an
+asylum for all peoples. But the demand from the workers of the Pacific
+slope for protection against Asiatic competition in the home labor
+market was so fierce and so determined that Congress yielded. President
+Arthur vetoed a bill prohibiting Chinese immigration as "a breach of our
+national faith," but he admitted the need of legislation on the subject
+and finally approved a bill suspending immigration from China for a term
+of years. This was a beginning of legislation which eventually arrived
+at a policy of complete exclusion. The Mormon question was dealt with
+by the Act of March 22, 1882, imposing penalties upon the practice of
+polygamy and placing the conduct of elections in the Territory of
+Utah under the supervision of a board of five persons appointed by the
+President. Though there were many prosecutions under this act, it
+proved so ineffectual in suppressing polygamy that it was eventually
+supplemented by giving the Government power to seize and administer the
+property of the Mormon Church. This action, resulting from the Act of
+March 3, 1887, created a momentous precedent. The escheated property
+was held by the Government until 1896 and meanwhile, the Mormon Church
+submitted to the law and made a formal declaration that it had abandoned
+polygamy.
+
+Another instance in which a lack of agreement between the executive and
+the legislative branches of the Government manifested itself, arose
+out of a scheme which President Arthur recommended to Congress for the
+improvement of the waterways of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The
+response of Congress was a bill in which there was an appropriation of
+about $4,000,000 for the general improvements recommended, but about
+$14,000,000 were added for other special river and harbor schemes which
+had obtained congressional favor. President Arthur's veto message of
+August 1, 1882, condemned the bill because it contained provisions
+designed "entirely for the benefit of the particular localities in which
+it is proposed to make the improvements." He thus described a type
+of legislation of which the nation had and is still having bitter
+experience: "As the citizens of one State find that money, to raise
+which they in common with the whole country are taxed, is to be expended
+for local improvements in another State, they demand similar benefits
+for themselves, and it is not unnatural that they should seek to
+indemnify themselves for such use of the public funds by securing
+appropriations for similar improvements in their own neighborhood. Thus
+as the bill becomes more objectionable it secures more support." The
+truth of this last assertion Congress immediately proved by passing the
+bill over the President's veto. Senator Hoar, who defended the bill, has
+admitted that "a large number of the members of the House who voted
+for it lost their seats" and that in his opinion the affair "cost the
+Republican party its majority in the House of Representatives."
+
+Legislation regarding the tariff was, however, the event of Arthur's
+administration which had the deepest effect upon the political
+situation. Both national parties were reluctant to face the issue,
+but the pressure of conditions became too strong for them. Revenue
+arrangements originally planned for war needs were still amassing
+funds in the Treasury vaults which were now far beyond the needs of the
+Government, and were at the same time deranging commerce and industry.
+In times of war, the Treasury served as a financial conduit; peace had
+now made it a catch basin whose excess accumulations embarrassed the
+Treasury and at the same time caused the business world to suffer
+from a scarcity of currency. In his annual message on December 6, 1881,
+President Arthur cautiously observed that it seemed to him "that the
+time has arrived when the people may justly demand some relief from the
+present onerous burden." In his message of December 4, 1882, he was much
+more emphatic. Calling attention to the fact that the annual surplus
+had increased to more than $145,000,000, he observed that "either the
+surplus must lie idle in the Treasury or the Government will be forced
+to buy at market rates its bonds not then redeemable, and which under
+such circumstances cannot fail to command an enormous premium, or the
+swollen revenues will be devoted to extravagant expenditures, which, as
+experience has taught, is ever the bane of an overflowing treasury."
+
+The congressional agents of the protected industries were confronted
+by an exacting situation. The country was at peace but it was still
+burdened by war taxes, although the Government did not need the
+accumulating revenue and was actually embarrassed by its excess. The
+President had already made himself the spokesman of the popular demand
+for a substantial reduction of taxes. Such a combination of forces in
+favor of lightening the popular burden might seem to be constitutionally
+irresistible, but by adroit maneuvering the congressional supporters of
+protection managed to have the war rates generally maintained and, in
+some cases, even increased. The case is a typical example of the way
+in which advantage of strategic position in a governmental system can
+prevail against mere numbers.
+
+By the Act of May 15, 1882, a tariff commission was created to examine
+the industrial situation and make recommendations as to rates of duty.
+The President appointed men who stood high in the commercial world
+and who were strongly attached to the protective system. They applied
+themselves to their task with such energy that by December 4, 1882, they
+had produced a voluminous report with suggested amendments to customs
+laws.
+
+But the advocates of high protection in the House were not satisfied;
+they opposed the recommendations of the report and urged that the best
+and quickest way to reduce taxation was by abolishing or reducing items
+on the internal revenue list. This policy not only commanded support on
+the Republican side, but also received the aid of a Democratic faction
+which avowed protectionist principles and claimed party sanction for
+them. These political elements in the House were strong enough to
+prevent action on the customs tariff, but a bill was passed reducing
+some of the internal revenue taxes. This action seemed likely to prevent
+tariff revision at least during that session. Formidable obstacles, both
+constitutional and parliamentary, stood in the way of action, but they
+were surmounted by ingenious management.
+
+The Constitution provides that all revenue bills shall originate in
+the House of Representatives, but the Senate has the right to propose
+amendments. Under cover of this clause the Senate originated a
+voluminous tariff bill and tacked it to the House bill as an amendment.
+When the bill, as thus amended, came back to the House, a two-thirds
+vote would have been required by the existing rules to take it up for
+consideration, but this obstacle was overcome by adopting a new rule
+by which a bare majority of the House could forthwith take up a bill
+amended by the Senate, for the purpose of non-concurrence but not for
+concurrence. The object of this maneuver was to get the bill into a
+committee of conference where the details could be arranged by private
+negotiation. The rule was adopted on February 26, 1883, but the
+committee of conference was not finally constituted until the 1st of
+March, within two days of the close of the session. On the 3rd of March,
+when this committee reported a measure on which they had agreed, both
+Houses adopted this report and enacted the measure without further ado.
+
+In some cases, rates were fixed by the committee above the figures voted
+in either House and even when there was no disagreement, changes were
+made. The tariff commission had recommended, for example, a duty of
+fifty cents a ton on iron ore, and both the Senate and the House voted
+to put the duty at that figure; but the conference committee fixed the
+rate at seventy-five cents. When a conference committee report comes
+before the House, it is adopted or rejected in toto, as it is not
+divisible or amendable. In theory, the revision of a report is feasible
+by sending it back to conference under instructions voted by the House,
+but such a procedure is not really available in the closing hours of a
+session, and the only practical course of action is either to pass the
+bill as shaped by the conferees or else to accept the responsibility
+for inaction. Thus pressed for time, Congress passed a bill containing
+features obnoxious to a majority in both Houses and offensive to public
+opinion. Senator Sherman in his "Recollections" expressed regret that he
+had voted for the bill and declared that, had the recommendations of the
+tariff commission been adopted, "the tariff would have been settled
+for many years," but "many persons wishing to advance their particular
+industries appeared before the committee and succeeded in having their
+views adopted." In his annual message, December 4, 1883, President
+Arthur accepted the act as a response to the demand for a reduction
+of taxation, which was sufficiently tolerable to make further effort
+inexpedient until its effects could be definitely ascertained; but he
+remarked that he had "no doubt that still further reductions may be
+wisely made."
+
+In general, President Arthur's administration may therefore be
+accurately described as a period of political groping and party
+fluctuation. In neither of the great national parties was there a
+sincere and definite attitude on the new issues which were clamorous for
+attention, and the public discontent was reflected in abrupt changes of
+political support. There was a general feeling of distrust regarding the
+character and capacity of the politicians at Washington, and election
+results were apparently dictated more by fear than by hope. One party
+would be raised up and the other party cast down, not because the one
+was trusted more than the other, but because it was for a while less
+odious. Thus a party success might well be a prelude to a party disaster
+because neither party knew how to improve its political opportunity.
+The record of party fluctuation in Congress during this period is almost
+unparalleled in sharpness.*
+
+
+     *  In 1875, at the opening of the Forty-fourth Congress, the House
+stood 110 Republicans and 182 Democrats. In 1881, the House stood 150
+Republicans to 131 Democrats, with 12 Independent members. In 1884, the
+Republican list had declined to 119 and the Democratic had grown to 201,
+and there were five Independents. The Senate, although only a third
+of its membership is renewed every two years, displayed extraordinary
+changes during this period. The Republican membership of 46 in 1876 had
+declined to 33 by 1880, and the Democratic membership had increased
+to 42. In 1882, the Senate was evenly balanced in party strength, each
+party having 37 avowed adherents, but there were two Independents.
+
+
+In state politics, the polling showed that both parties were disgusted
+with their leadership and that there was a public indifference to issues
+which kept people away from the polls. A comparison of the total vote
+cast in state elections in 1882 with that cast in the presidential
+election of 1880, showed a decline of over eight hundred thousand in the
+Republican vote and of nearly four hundred thousand in the Democratic
+vote. The most violent of the party changes that took place during this
+period occurred in the election of 1882, in New York State, when the
+Republican vote showed a decline of over two hundred thousand and the
+Democratic candidate for Governor was elected by a plurality of nearly
+that amount. It was this election which brought Grover Cleveland into
+national prominence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. THE ADVENT OF CLEVELAND
+
+Popular dissatisfaction with the behavior of public authority had not
+up to this time extended to the formal Constitution. Schemes of radical
+rearrangement of the political institutions of the country had not yet
+been agitated. New party movements were devoted to particular measures
+such as fresh greenback issues or the prohibition of liquor traffic.
+Popular reverence for the Constitution was deep and strong, and it was
+the habit of the American people to impute practical defects not to the
+governmental system itself but to the character of those acting in
+it. Burke, as long ago as 1770, remarked truly that "where there is a
+regular scheme of operations carried on, it is the system and not any
+individual person who acts in it that is truly dangerous." But it is an
+inveterate habit of public opinion to mistake results for causes and
+to vent its resentment upon persons when misgovernment occurs. That
+disposition was bitterly intense at this period. "Turn the rascals out"
+was the ordinary campaign slogan of an opposition party, and calumny
+formed the staple of its argument. Of course no party could establish
+exclusive proprietorship to such tactics, and whichever party might be
+in power in a particular locality was cast for the villain's part in the
+political drama. But as changes of party control took place, experience
+taught that the only practical result was to introduce new players into
+the same old game. Such experience spread among the people a despairing
+feeling that American politics were hopelessly depraved, and at the same
+time it gave them a deep yearning for some strong deliverer. To this
+messianic hope of politics may be ascribed what is in some respects the
+most remarkable career in the political history of the United States.
+The rapid and fortuitous rise of Grover Cleveland to political eminence
+is without a parallel in the records of American statesmanship,
+notwithstanding many instances of public distinction attained from
+humble beginnings.
+
+The antecedents of Cleveland were Americans of the best type. He was
+descended from a colonial stock which had settled in the Connecticut
+Valley. His earliest ancestor of whom there is any exact knowledge
+was Aaron Cleveland, an Episcopal clergyman, who died at East Haddam,
+Connecticut, in 1757, after founding a family which in every generation
+furnished recruits to the ministry. It argues a hereditary disposition
+for independent judgment that among these there was a marked variation
+in denominational choice. Aaron Cleveland was so strong in his
+attachment to the Anglican church that to be ordained he went to
+England--under the conditions of travel in those days a hard, serious
+undertaking. His son, also named Aaron, became a Congregational
+minister. Two of the sons of the younger Aaron became ministers, one
+of them an Episcopalian like his grandfather. Another son, William,
+who became a prosperous silversmith, was for many years a deacon in
+the church in which his father preached. William sent his second son,
+Richard, to Yale, where he graduated with honors at the age of nineteen.
+He turned to the Presbyterian church, studied theology at Princeton, and
+upon receiving ordination began a ministerial career which like that
+of many preachers was carried on in many pastorates. He was settled at
+Caldwell, New Jersey, in his third pastorate, and there Stephen Grover
+Cleveland was born, on March 18, 1837, the fifth in a family of children
+that eventually increased to nine. He was named after the Presbyterian
+minister who was his father's predecessor. The first name soon dropped
+out of use, and from childhood he went by his middle name, a practice of
+which the Clevelands supply so many instances that it seems to be quite
+a family trait.
+
+In campaign literature, so much has been made of the humble
+circumstances in which Grover made his start in life, that the unwary
+reader might easily imagine that the future President was almost a waif.
+Nothing could be farther from the truth. He really belonged to the most
+authentic aristocracy that any state of society can produce--that which
+maintains its standards and principles from generation to generation
+by the integrity of the stock without any endowment of wealth.
+The Clevelands were people who reared large families and sustained
+themselves with dignity and credit on narrow means. It was a settled
+tradition with such republican aristocrats that a son destined for a
+learned profession--usually the ministry--should be sent to college,
+and for that purpose heroic economies were practiced in the family. The
+opportunities which wealth can confer are really trivial in comparison
+with the advantage of being born and reared in such bracing conditions
+as those which surrounded Grover Cleveland. As a boy he was a clerk in
+a country store, but his education was not neglected and at the age of
+fifteen he was studying, with a view to entering college. His father's
+death ended that prospect and forced him to go to work again to help
+support the family. Some two years later, when the family circumstances
+were sufficiently eased so that he could strike out for himself, he
+set off westward, intending to reach Cleveland. Arriving at Buffalo, he
+called upon a married aunt, who, on learning that he was planning to
+get work at Cleveland with the idea of becoming a lawyer, advised him
+to stay in Buffalo where opportunities were better. Young Cleveland was
+taken into her home virtually as private secretary to her husband, Lewis
+F. Allen, a man of means, culture, and public spirit. Allen occupied a
+large house with spacious grounds in a suburb of the city, and owned a
+farm on which he bred fine cattle. He issued the "American Short-Horn
+Herd Book," a standard authority for pedigree stock, and the fifth
+edition, published in 1861, made a public acknowledgment of "the
+kindness, industry, and ability" with which Grover Cleveland had
+assisted the editor "in correcting and arranging the pedigrees for
+publication."
+
+With his uncle's friendship to back him, Cleveland had, of course, no
+difficulty in getting into a reputable law office as a student,
+and thereafter his affairs moved steadily along the road by which
+innumerable young Americans of diligence and industry have advanced
+to success in the legal profession. Cleveland's career as a lawyer was
+marked by those steady, solid gains in reputation which result from care
+and thoroughness rather than from brilliancy, and in these respects
+it finds many parallels among lawyers of the trustee type. What is
+exceptional and peculiar in Cleveland's career is the way in which
+political situations formed about him without any contrivance on his
+part, and as it were projected him from office to office until he
+arrived in the White House.
+
+At the outset nothing could have seemed more unlikely than such a
+career. Cleveland's ambitions were bound up in his profession and his
+politics were opposed to those of the powers holding local control. But
+the one circumstance did not shut him out of political vocation and
+the other became a positive advantage. He entered public life in 1863
+through an unsought appointment as assistant district attorney for Erie
+County. The incumbent of the office was in poor health and needed an
+assistant on whom he could rely to do the work. Hence Cleveland was
+called into service. His actual occupancy of the position prompted his
+party to nominate him to the office; and although he was defeated, he
+received a vote so much above the normal voting strength of his party
+that, in 1869, he was picked for the nomination to the office of sheriff
+to strengthen a party ticket made up in the interest of a congressional
+candidate. The expectation was that while the district might be carried
+for the Democratic candidate for Congress, Cleveland would probably fail
+of election. The nomination was virtually forced upon him against
+his wishes. But he was elected by a small plurality. This success,
+reenforced by his able conduct of the office, singled him out as the
+party's hope for success in the Buffalo municipal election; and after
+his term as sheriff he was nominated for mayor, again without any effort
+on his part. Although ordinarily the Democratic party was in a hopeless
+minority, Cleveland was elected. It was in this campaign that he
+enunciated the principle that public office is a public trust, which was
+his rule of action throughout his career. Both as sheriff and as mayor
+he acted upon it with a vigor that brought him into collision with
+predatory politicians, and the energy and address with which he defended
+public interests made him widely known as the reform mayor of Buffalo.
+His record and reputation naturally attracted the attention of the state
+managers of the Democratic party, who were casting about for a candidate
+strong enough to overthrow the established Republican control, and
+Cleveland was just as distinctly drafted for the nomination to the
+governorship in 1882 as he had been for his previous offices.
+
+In his career as governor Cleveland displayed the same stanch
+characteristics as before, and he was fearless and aggressive in
+maintaining his principles. The most striking characteristic of his veto
+messages is the utter absence of partisan or personal designs. Some
+of the bills he vetoed purported to benefit labor interests, and
+politicians are usually fearful of any appearance of opposition to such
+interests: His veto of the bill establishing a five cent fare for the
+New York elevated railways was an action of a kind to make him a target
+for calumny and misrepresentation. Examination of the record reveals no
+instance in which Cleveland flinched from doing his duty or faltered in
+the full performance of it. He acted throughout in his avowed capacity
+of a public trustee, and he conducted the office of governor with the
+same laborious fidelity which he had displayed as sheriff and as mayor.
+And now, as before, he antagonized elements of his own party who
+sought only the opportunities of office and cared little for its
+responsibilities. He did not unite suavity of manner with vigor of
+action, and at times he allowed himself to reflect upon the motives of
+opponents and to use language that was personally offensive. He told the
+Legislature in one veto message that "of all the defective and shabby
+legislation which has been presented to me, this is the worst and most
+inexcusable." He once sent a scolding message to the State Senate, in
+which he said that "the money of the State is apparently expended with
+no regard to economy," and that "barefaced jobbery has been permitted."
+The Senate having refused to confirm a certain appointee, he declared
+that the opposition had "its rise in an overwhelming greed for the
+patronage which may attach to the place," and that the practical
+effect of such opposition was to perpetuate "the practice of unblushing
+peculation." What he said was quite true and it was the kind of truth
+that hurt. The brusqueness of his official style and the censoriousness
+of his language infused even more personal bitterness into the
+opposition which developed within his own party than in that felt in the
+ranks of the opposing party. At the same time, these traits delighted
+a growing body of reformers hostile to both the regular parties. These
+"Mugwumps," as they were called, were as a class so addicted to personal
+invective that it was said of them with as much truth as wit that they
+brought malice into politics without even the excuse of partisanship.
+But it was probably the enthusiastic support of this class which turned
+the scale in New York in the presidential election of 1884.
+
+In the national conventions of that year, there was an unusually small
+amount of factional strife. In the Republican convention, President
+Arthur was a candidate, but party sentiment was so strong for Blaine
+that he led Arthur on the first ballot and was nominated on the fourth
+by a large majority. In the Democratic convention, Cleveland was
+nominated on the second ballot. Meanwhile, his opponents had organized a
+new party from which more was expected than it actually accomplished.
+It assumed the title Anti-Monopoly and chose the notorious demagogue,
+General Benjamin F. Butler, as its candidate for President.
+
+During this campaign, the satirical cartoon attained a power and an
+effectiveness difficult to realize now that it has become an ordinary
+feature of journalism, equally available for any school of opinion. But
+it so happened that the rise of Cleveland in politics coincided with the
+artistic career of Joseph Keppler, who came to this country from Vienna
+and who for some years supported himself chiefly as an actor in
+Western theatrical companies. He had studied drawing in Vienna and
+had contributed cartoons to periodicals in that city. After some
+unsuccessful ventures in illustrated journalism, he started a pictorial
+weekly in New York in 1875. It was originally printed in German, but in
+less than a year it was issued also in English. It was not until
+1879 that it sprang into general notice through Keppler's success in
+reproducing lithographed designs in color. Meanwhile, the artist was
+feeling his way from the old style caricature, crowded with figures with
+overhead loops of explanatory text, to designs possessing an artistic
+unity expressive of an idea plain enough to tell its own story. He had
+matured both his mechanical resources and his artistic method by the
+time the campaign of 1884 came on, and he had founded a school which
+could apply the style to American politics with aptness superior to
+his own. It was Bernhard Gillam, who, working in the new Keppler style,
+produced a series of cartoons whose tremendous impressiveness was
+universally recognized. Blaine was depicted as the tattooed man and was
+exhibited in that character in all sorts of telling situations. While
+on the stump during the campaign, Blaine had sometimes literally to wade
+through campaign documents assailing his personal integrity, and phrases
+culled from them were chanted in public processions. One of the features
+of a great parade of business men of New York was a periodical chorus
+of "Burn this letter," suiting the action to the word and thus making a
+striking pyrotechnic display.* But the cartoons reached people who
+would never have been touched by campaign documents or by campaign
+processions.
+
+
+     *  The allusion was to the Mulligan letters, which had been made
+public by Mr. Blaine himself when it had been charged that they
+contained evidence of corrupt business dealings. The disclosure had been
+made four years before and ample opportunity had existed for instituting
+proceedings if the case warranted it, but nothing was done except to
+nurse the scandal for campaign use.
+
+
+Notwithstanding the exceptional violence and novel ingenuity of the
+attacks made upon him, Blaine met them with such ability and address
+that everywhere he augmented the ordinary strength of his party, and his
+eventual defeat was generally attributed to an untoward event among his
+own adherents at the close of the campaign. At a political reception
+in the interest of Blaine among New York clergymen, the Reverend Dr.
+Burchard spoke of the Democratic party as "the party of rum, Romanism,
+and rebellion." Unfortunately Blaine did not hear him distinctly enough
+to repudiate this slur upon the religious belief of millions of American
+citizens, and alienation of sentiment caused by the tactless and
+intolerant remark could easily account for Blaine's defeat by a small
+margin. He was only 1149 votes behind Cleveland in New York in a poll of
+over 1,125,000 votes, and only 23,005 votes behind in a national poll of
+over 9,700,000 votes for the leading candidates. Of course Cleveland
+in his turn was a target of calumny, and in his case the end of the
+campaign did not bring the customary relief. He was pursued to the end
+of his public career by active, ingenious, resourceful, personal spite
+and steady malignity of political opposition from interests whose enmity
+he had incurred while Governor of New York.
+
+The situation which confronted Cleveland when he became President was
+so complicated and embarrassing that perhaps even the most sagacious and
+resourceful statesman could not have coped with it successfully, though
+it is the characteristic of genius to accomplish the impossible. But
+Cleveland was no genius; he was not even a man of marked talent. He was
+stanch, plodding, laborious, and dutiful; but he was lacking in ability
+to penetrate to the heart of obscure political problems and to deal
+with primary causes rather than with effects. The great successes of his
+administration were gained in particular problems whose significance had
+already been clearly defined. In this field, Cleveland's resolute and
+energetic performance of duty had splendid results.
+
+At the time of Cleveland's inauguration as President, the Senate claimed
+an extent of authority which, if allowed to go unchallenged, would
+have turned the Presidency into an office much like that of the doge
+of Venice, one of ceremonial dignity without real power. "The
+Federalist"--that matchless collection of constitutional essays written
+by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay--laid down the doctrine that "against the
+enterprising ambition" of the legislative department "the people ought
+to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions."
+But some of the precautions taken in framing the Constitution proved
+ineffectual from the start. The right conferred upon the President to
+recommend to the consideration of Congress "such measures as he shall
+judge necessary and expedient," was emptied of practical importance by
+the success of Congress in interpreting it as meaning no more than that
+the President may request Congress to take a subject into consideration.
+In practice, Congress considers only such measures as are recommended by
+its own committees. The framers of the Constitution took special pains
+to fortify the President's position by the veto power, which is treated
+at length in the Constitution. By a special clause, the veto power was
+extended to "every order, resolution or vote... except on a question of
+adjournment"--a clause which apparently should enable the President
+to strike off the "riders" continually put upon appropriation bills to
+coerce executive action; but no President has ventured to exercise
+this authority. Although the Senate was joined to the President as an
+advisory council in appointments to office, it was explained in "The
+Federalist" that "there will be no exertion of choice on the part of
+Senators." Nevertheless, the Senate has claimed and exercised the right
+to dictate appointments. While thus successfully encroaching upon the
+authority of the President, the Senate had also been signally successful
+in encroaching upon the authority of the House. The framers of the
+Constitution anticipated for the House a masterful career like that of
+the House of Commons, and they feared that the Senate could not
+protect itself in the discharge of its own functions; so, although the
+traditional principle that all revenue bills should originate in the
+House was taken over into the Constitution, it was modified by the
+proviso that "the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on
+other bills." This right to propose amendments has been improved by the
+Senate until the prerogative of the House has been reduced to an empty
+form. Any money bill may be made over by amendment in the Senate,
+and when contests have followed, the Senate has been so successful in
+imposing its will upon the House that the House has acquired the habit
+of submission. Not long before the election of Cleveland, as has been
+pointed out, this habitual deference of the House had enabled the Senate
+to originate a voluminous tariff act in the form of an amendment to the
+Internal Revenue Bill voted by the House.
+
+In addition to these extensions of power through superior address in
+management, the ascendancy of the Senate was fortified by positive law.
+In 1867, when President Johnson fell out with the Republican leaders in
+Congress, a Tenure of Office Act was passed over his veto, which
+took away from the President the power of making removals except by
+permission of the Senate. In 1869, when Johnson's term had expired, a
+bill for the unconditional repeal of this law passed the House with
+only sixteen votes in the negative, but the Senate was able to force a
+compromise act which perpetuated its authority over removals.* President
+Grant complained of this act as "being inconsistent with a faithful and
+efficient administration of the government," but with all his great
+fame and popularity he was unable to induce the Senate to relinquish the
+power it had gained.
+
+
+     *  The Act of April 5, 1869, required the President, within thirty
+days after the opening of the sessions, to nominate persons for all
+vacant offices, whether temporarily filled or not, and in place of all
+officers who may have been suspended during the recess of the Senate.
+
+
+This law was now invoked by Republicans as a means of counteracting
+the result of the election. Such was the feeling of the times that
+partisanship could easily masquerade as patriotism. Republicans still
+believed that as saviors of the Union they had a prescriptive right to
+the government. During the campaign, Eugene Field, the famous Western
+poet, had given a typical expression of this sentiment in some scornful
+verses concluding with this defiant notice:
+
+These quondam rebels come today In penitential form, And hypocritically
+say The country needs "Reform!" Out on reformers such as these; By
+Freedom's sacred powers, We'll run the country as we please; We saved
+it, and it's ours.
+
+Although the Democratic party had won the Presidency and the House, the
+Republicans still retained control of the Senate, and they were expected
+as a matter of course to use their powers for party advantage. Some
+memorable struggles, rich in constitutional precedents, issued from
+these conditions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
+
+As soon as Cleveland was seated in the presidential chair, he had to
+deal with a tremendous onslaught of office seekers. In ordinary business
+affairs, a man responsible for general policy and management would
+never be expected to fritter away his time and strength in receiving
+applicants for employment. The fact that such servitude is imposed
+upon the President of the United States shows that American political
+arrangements are still rather barbaric, for such usages are more
+suitable to some kinglet seated under a tree to receive the petitions of
+his tribesmen than they are to a republican magistrate charged with the
+welfare of millions of people distributed over a vast continent. Office
+seekers apparently regard themselves as a privileged class with a right
+of personal access to the President, and any appearances of aloofness or
+reserve on his part gives sharp offense. The exceptional force of
+such claims of privilege in the United States may be attributed to the
+participation which members of Congress have acquired in the appointing
+power. The system thus created imposes upon the President the duties
+of an employment agent, and at the same time engages Congressmen in
+continual occupation as office brokers. The President cannot deny
+himself to Congressmen, since he is dependent upon their favor for
+opportunity to get legislative consideration for his measures.
+
+It was inevitable that numerous changes in office should take place
+when the Democratic party came into power, after being excluded for
+twenty-four years. It may be admitted that, in a sound constitutional
+system, a change of management in the public business would not vacate
+all offices any more than in private business, but would affect only
+such leading positions as are responsible for policy and discipline.
+Such a sensible system, however, had existed only in the early days of
+the republic and at the time of Cleveland's accession to office federal
+offices were generally used as party barracks. The situation which
+confronted President Cleveland he thus described in later years:
+
+"In numerous instances the post-offices were made headquarters for local
+party committees and organizations and the centers of partisan scheming.
+Party literature favorable to the postmaster's party, that never passed
+regularly through the mails, was distributed through the post-offices as
+an item of party service; and matter of a political character, passing
+through the mails in the usual course and addressed to patrons belonging
+to the opposite party, was withheld; disgusting and irritating placards
+were prominently displayed in many post-offices, and the attention of
+Democratic inquirers for mail matter was tauntingly directed to them
+by the postmaster; and in various other ways postmasters and similar
+officials annoyed and vexed those holding opposite political opinions,
+who, in common with all having business at public offices, were entitled
+to considerate and obliging treatment. In some quarters, official
+incumbents neglected public duty to do political work and especially in
+Southern States, they frequently were not only inordinately active in
+questionable political work, but sought to do party service by secret
+and sinister manipulation of colored votes, and by other practices
+inviting avoidable and dangerous collisions between the white and
+colored population."*
+
+
+     * Cleveland, "Presidential Problems," pp. 42-43.
+
+
+The Administration began its career in March, 1885. The Senate did not
+convene until December. Meanwhile, removals and appointments went on
+in the public service, the total for ten months being six hundred and
+forty-three which was thirty-seven less than the number of removals made
+by President Grant in seven weeks, in 1869.
+
+In obedience to the statute of 1869, President Cleveland sent in all the
+recess appointments within thirty days after the opening of the
+session. They were referred to various committees according to the long
+established custom of the Senate, but the Senate moved so slowly
+that three months after the opening of the session, only seventeen
+nominations had been considered, fifteen of which the Senate confirmed.
+
+Meanwhile, the Senate had raised an issue which the President met with
+a force and a directness probably unexpected. Among the recess
+appointments was one to the office of District Attorney for the Southern
+District of Alabama, in place of an officer who had been suspended in
+July 1885, but whose term of office expired by limitation on December
+20, 1885. Therefore, at the time the Senate took up the case, the Tenure
+of Office Act did not apply to it, and the only question actually
+open was whether the acting officer should be confirmed or rejected.
+Nevertheless, the disposition to assert control over executive action
+was so strong that the Senate drifted into a constitutional struggle
+over a case that did not then involve the question of the President's
+discretionary power of removal from office, which was really the point
+at issue.
+
+On December 26, 1885, the Judiciary Committee notified the
+Attorney-General to transmit "all papers and information in the
+possession of the Department" regarding both the nomination and "the
+suspension and proposed removal from office" of the former incumbent. On
+January 11, 1886, the Attorney-General sent to the Committee the papers
+bearing upon the nomination, but withheld those touching the removal
+on the ground that he had "received no direction from the President in
+relation to their transmission." The matter was debated by the Senate
+in executive session and on January 25, 1886, a resolution was
+adopted which was authoritative in its tone and which directed the
+Attorney-General to transmit copies of all documents and papers in
+relation to the conduct of the office of District Attorney for the
+Southern District of Alabama since January 1, 1885. Within three days,
+Attorney-General Garland responded that he had already transmitted all
+papers relating to the nomination; but with regard to the demand for
+papers exclusively relating to the suspension of the former incumbent he
+was directed by the President to say "that it is not considered that the
+public interests will be promoted by a compliance."
+
+The response of the Attorney-General was referred to the Judiciary
+Committee which, on the 18th of February, made an elaborate report
+exhibiting the issue as one which involved the right of Congress to
+obtain information. It urged that "the important question, then, is
+whether it is within the constitutional competence of either House of
+Congress to have access to the official papers and documents in the
+various public offices of the United States, created by laws enacted by
+themselves." The report, which was signed only by the Republican
+members of the Committee, was an adroit partisan performance, invoking
+traditional constitutional principles in behalf of congressional
+privilege. A distinct and emphatic assertion of the prerogative of the
+Senate was made, however, in resolutions recommended to the Senate for
+adoption. Those resolutions censured the Attorney-General and declared
+it to be the duty of the Senate "to refuse its advice and consent
+to proposed removals of officers" when papers relating to them "are
+withheld by the Executive or any head of a department."
+
+On the 2nd of March, a minority report was submitted, making the point
+of which the cogency was obvious, that inasmuch as the term of the
+official concerning whose suspension the Senate undertook to inquire had
+already expired by legal limitation, the only object in pressing for the
+papers in his case must be to review an act of the President which
+was no longer within the jurisdiction of the Senate, even if the
+constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act should be granted.
+The report also showed that of the precedents cited in behalf of the
+majority's contention, the applicability could be maintained only of
+those which were supplied by cases arising since 1867, before which time
+the right of the President to remove officers at his own discretion was
+fully conceded.
+
+The controversy had so far followed the ordinary lines of partisan
+contention in Congress, which public opinion was accustomed to regard
+with contemptuous indifference as mere sparring for points in the
+electioneering game. President Cleveland now intervened in a way which
+riveted the attention of the nation upon the issue. Ever since the
+memorable struggle which began when the Senate censured President
+Jackson and did not end until that censure was expunged, the Senate
+had been chary of a direct encounter with the President. Although the
+response of the Attorney-General stated that he was acting under the
+direction of the President, the pending resolutions avoided any mention
+of the President but expressed "condemnation of the refusal of the
+Attorney-General under whatever influence, to send to the Senate" the
+required papers. The logical implication was that, when the orders
+of the President and the Senate conflicted, it was the duty of the
+Attorney-General to obey the Senate. This raised an issue which
+President Cleveland met by sending to the Senate his message of March
+1, 1886, which has taken a high rank among American constitutional
+documents. It is strong in its logic, dignified in its tone, terse,
+direct, and forceful in its diction.
+
+Cleveland's message opened with the statement that "ever since the
+beginning of the present session of the Senate, the different heads of
+the departments attached to the executive branch of the government have
+been plied with various requests and documents from committees of the
+Senate, from members of such committees, and at last from the Senate
+itself, requiring the transmission of reasons for the suspension of
+certain officials during the recess of that body, or for papers touching
+the conduct of such officials." The President then observed that "though
+these suspensions are my executive acts, based upon considerations
+addressed to me alone and for which I am wholly responsible, I have had
+no invitation from the Senate to state the position which I have felt
+constrained to assume." Further on, he clinched this admission of full
+responsibility by declaring that "the letter of the Attorney-General in
+response to the resolution of the Senate... was written at my suggestion
+and by my direction."
+
+This statement made clear in the sight of the nation that the true issue
+was between the President and the Senate. The strength of the Senate's
+position lay in its claim to the right of access to the records
+of public offices "created by laws enacted by themselves." The
+counterstroke of the President was one of the most effective passages
+of his message in its effect upon public opinion. "I do not suppose,"
+he said, "that the public offices of the United States are regulated or
+controlled in their relations to either House of Congress by the fact
+that they were 'created by laws enacted by themselves.' It must be that
+these instrumentalities were enacted for the benefit of the people and
+to answer the general purposes of government under the Constitution and
+the laws, and that they are unencumbered by any lien in favor of either
+branch of Congress growing out of their construction, and unembarrassed
+by any obligation to the Senate as the price of their creation."
+
+The President asserted that, as a matter of fact, no official papers
+on file in the departments had been withheld. "While it is by no means
+conceded that the Senate has the right, in any case, to review the
+act of the Executive in removing or suspending a public officer upon
+official documents or otherwise, it is considered that documents and
+papers of that nature should, because they are official, be freely
+transmitted to the Senate upon its demand, trusting the use of the same,
+for proper and legitimate purposes, to the good faith of that body; and
+though no such paper or document has been especially demanded in any
+of the numerous requests and demands made upon the departments, yet as
+often as they were found in the public offices they have been furnished
+in answer to such applications." The point made by the President, with
+sharp emphasis, was that there was nothing in his action which could be
+construed as a refusal of access to official records; what he did refuse
+to acknowledge was the right of the Senate to inquire into his motives
+and to exact from him a disclosure of the facts, circumstances, and
+sources of information that prompted his action. The materials upon
+which his judgment was formed were of a varied character. "They consist
+of letters and representations addressed to the Executive or intended
+for his inspection; they are voluntarily written and presented by
+private citizens who are not in the least instigated thereto by any
+official invitation or at all subject to official control. While some
+of them are entitled to Executive consideration, many of them are so
+irrelevant or in the light of other facts so worthless, that they have
+not been given the least weight in determining the question to which
+they are supposed to relate." If such matter were to be considered
+public records and subject to the inspection of the Senate, the
+President would thereby incur "the risk of being charged with making a
+suspension from office upon evidence which was not even considered."
+
+Issue as to the status of such documents was joined by the President
+in the sharpest possible way by the declaration: "I consider them in no
+proper sense as upon the files of the department but as deposited there
+for my convenience, remaining still completely under my control. I
+suppose if I desired to take them into my custody I might do so
+with entire propriety, and if I saw fit to destroy them no one could
+complain."
+
+Moreover, there were cases in which action was prompted by oral
+communications which did not go on record in any form. As to this,
+Cleveland observed, "It will not be denied, I suppose, that the
+President may suspend a public officer in the entire absence of any
+papers or documents to aid his official judgment and discretion; and
+I am quite prepared to avow that the cases are not few in which
+suspensions from office have depended more upon oral representations
+made to me by citizens of known good repute and by members of the House
+of Representatives and Senators of the United States than upon any
+letters and documents presented for my examination." Nor were such
+representations confined to members of his own party for, said he, "I
+recall a few suspensions which bear the approval of individual members
+identified politically with the majority in the Senate." The message
+then reviewed the legislative history of the Tenure of Office Act and
+questioned its constitutionality. The position which the President had
+taken and would maintain was exactly defined by this vigorous statement
+in his message:
+
+"The requests and demands which by the score have for nearly three
+months been presented to the different Departments of the government,
+whatever may be their form, have but one complexion. They assume
+the right of the Senate to sit in judgement upon the exercise of my
+exclusive discretion and executive function, for which I am solely
+responsible to the people from whom I have so lately received the sacred
+trust of office. My oath to support and defend the Constitution, my duty
+to the people who have chosen me to execute the powers of their great
+office and not relinquish them, and my duty to the chief magistracy
+which I must preserve unimpaired in all its dignity and vigor, compel me
+to refuse compliance with these demands."
+
+There is a ringing quality in the style of this message not generally
+characteristic of President Cleveland's state papers. It evoked as
+ringing a response from public opinion, and this effect was heightened
+by a tactless allusion to the message made at this time in the Senate.
+In moving a reference of the message to the Judiciary Committee, its
+chairman, Senator Edmunds of Vermont, remarked that the presidential
+message brought vividly to his mind "the communication of King Charles I
+to the Parliament, telling them what, in conducting their affairs, they
+ought to do and ought not to do." The historical reference, however, had
+an application which Senator Edmunds did not foresee. It brought vividly
+to mind what the people of England had endured from a factional tyranny
+so relentless that the nation was delighted when Oliver Cromwell turned
+Parliament out of doors. It is an interesting coincidence that the
+Cleveland era was marked by what in the book trade was known as the
+Cromwell boom. Another unfortunate remark made by Senator Edmunds was
+that it was the first time "that any President of the United States
+has undertaken to interfere with the deliberations of either House of
+Congress on questions pending before them, otherwise than by message on
+the state of the Union which the Constitution commands him to make from
+time to time." The effect of this statement, however, was to stir up
+recollections of President Jackson's message of protest against the
+censure of the Senate. The principle laid down by Jackson in his message
+of April 15, 1834, was that "the President is the direct representative
+of the American people," whereas the Senate is "a body not directly
+amenable to the people." However assailable this statement may be
+from the standpoint of traditional legal theory, it is indubitably the
+principle to which American politics conform in practice. The people
+instinctively expect the President to guard their interests against
+congressional machinations.
+
+There was a prevalent belief that the Senate's profession of motives,
+of constitutional propriety, was insincere and that the position it had
+assumed would never have been thought of had the Republican candidate
+for President been elected. A feeling that the Senate was not playing
+the game fairly to refuse the Democrats their innings was felt even
+among Senator Edmunds' own adherents. A spirit of comity traversing
+party lines is very noticeable in the intercourse of professional
+politicians. Their willingness to help each other out is often
+manifested, particularly in struggles involving control of party
+machinery. Indeed, a system of ring rule in a governing party seems to
+have for its natural concomitant the formation of a similar ring in the
+regular opposition, and the two rings maintain friendly relations behind
+the forms of party antagonism. The situation is very similar to that
+which exists between opposing counsel in suits at law, where the
+contentions at the trial table may seem to be full of animosity and may
+indeed at times really develop personal enmity, but which as a general
+rule are merely for effect and do not at all hinder cooperation in
+matters pertaining to their common professional interest.
+
+The attitude taken by the Senate in its opposition to President
+Cleveland jarred upon this sense of professional comity, and it was
+very noticeable that in the midst of the struggle some questionable
+nominations of notorious machine politicians were confirmed by
+the Senate. It may have been that a desire to discredit the reform
+professions of the Administration contributed to this result, but the
+effect was disadvantageous to the Senate. "The Nation" on March 11,
+1886, in a powerful article reviewing the controversy observed: "There
+is not the smallest reason for believing that, if the Senate won, it
+would use its victory in any way for the maintenance or promotion of
+reform. In truth, in the very midst of the controversy, it confirmed the
+nomination of one of Baltimore's political scamps." It is certainly true
+that the advising power of the Senate has never exerted a corrective
+influence upon appointments to office; its constant tendency is towards
+a system of apportionment which concedes the right of the President
+to certain personal appointments and asserts the reciprocal right of
+Congressmen to their individual quotas.
+
+As a result of these various influences, the position assumed by the
+Republicans under the lead of Senator Edmunds was seriously weakened.
+When the resolutions of censure were put to the vote on the 26th of
+March, that condemning the refusal of the Attorney-General to produce
+the papers was adopted by thirty-two ayes to twenty-six nays--a strict
+party vote; but the resolution declaring it to be the duty of the
+Senate in all such cases to refuse its consent to removals of suspended
+officials was adopted by a majority of only one vote, and two Republican
+Senators voted with the Democrats. The result was, in effect, a defeat
+for the Republican leaders, and they wisely decided to withdraw from the
+position which they had been holding. Shortly after the passage of the
+resolutions, the Senate confirmed the nomination over which the contest
+started, and thereafter the right of the President to make removals at
+his own discretion was not questioned.
+
+This retreat of the Republican leaders was accompanied, however, by a
+new development in political tactics, which from the standpoint of party
+advantage, was ingeniously conceived. It was now held that, inasmuch as
+the President had avowed attachment to the principle of tenure of
+office during good behavior, his action in suspending officers therefore
+implied delinquency in their character or conduct from which they should
+be exonerated in case the removal was really on partisan grounds. In
+reporting upon nominations, therefore, Senate committees adopted the
+practice of noting that there were no charges of misconduct against the
+previous incumbents and that the suspension was on account of "political
+reasons." As these proceedings took place in executive session, which is
+held behind closed doors, reports of this character would not ordinarily
+reach the public, but the Senate now voted to remove the injunction of
+secrecy, and the reports were published. The manifest object of these
+maneuvers was to exhibit the President as acting upon the "spoils
+system" of distributing offices. The President's position was that he
+was not accountable to the Senate in such matters. In his message of the
+1st of March he said: "The pledges I have made were made to the people,
+and to them I am responsible for the manner in which they have been
+redeemed. I am not responsible to the Senate, and I am unwilling to
+submit my actions and official conduct to them for judgement."
+
+While this contest was still going on, President Cleveland had to
+encounter another attempt of the Senate to take his authority out of his
+hands. The history of American diplomacy during this period belongs to
+another volume in this series,* but a diplomatic question was drawn into
+the struggle between the President and the Senate in such a way that it
+requires mention here. Shortly after President Cleveland took office,
+the fishery articles of the Treaty of Washington had terminated. In his
+first annual message to Congress, on December 8, 1885, he recommended
+the appointment of a commission to settle with a similar commission
+from Great Britain "the entire question of the fishery rights of the two
+governments and their respective citizens on the coasts of the United
+States and British North America." But this sensible advice was
+denounced as weak and cowardly. Oratory of the kind known as "twisting
+the lion's tail" resounded in Congress. Claims were made of natural
+right to the use of Canadian waters which would not have been indulged
+for a moment in respect of the territorial waters of the United States.
+For instance, it was held that a bay over six miles between headlands
+gave free ingress so long as vessels kept three miles from shore--a
+doctrine which, if applied to Long Island Sound, Delaware Bay, or
+Chesapeake Bay, would have impaired our national jurisdiction over those
+waters. Senator Frye of Maine took the lead in a rub-a-dub agitation in
+the presence of which some Democratic Senators showed marked timidity.
+The administration of public services by congressional committees has
+the incurable defect that it reflects the particular interests and
+attachments of the committeemen. Presidential administration is
+so circumstanced that it tends to be nationally minded; committee
+administration, just as naturally, tends to be locally minded. Hence,
+Senator Frye was able to report from the committee on foreign relations
+a resolution declaring that a commission "charged with the consideration
+and settlement of the fishery rights... ought not to be provided for by
+Congress." Such was the attitude of the Senate towards the President
+on this question, that on April 13, 1886, this arrogant resolution was
+adopted by thirty-five ayes to 10 nays. A group of Eastern Democrats who
+were in a position to be affected by the longshore vote, joined with the
+Republicans in voting for the resolution, and among them Senator Gorman
+of Maryland, national chairman of the Democratic party.
+
+
+     *  See "The Path of Empire," by Carl Russell Fish (in "The
+Chronicles of America").
+
+
+President Cleveland was no more affected by this Senate resolution than
+he had been by their other resolutions attacking his authority. He went
+ahead with his negotiations and concluded treaty arrangements which the
+Senate, of course, rejected; but, as that result had been anticipated,
+a modus vivendi which had been arranged by executive agreements between
+the two countries went into effect, regardless of the Senate's
+attitude. The case is a signal instance of the substitution of executive
+arrangements for treaty engagements which has since then been such a
+marked tendency in the conduct of the foreign relations of the United
+States.
+
+A consideration which worked steadily against the Senate in its attacks
+upon the President, was the prevalent belief that the Tenure of Office
+Act was unconstitutional in its nature and mischievous in its effects.
+Although Senator Edmunds had been able to obtain a show of solid party
+support, it eventually became known that he stood almost alone in
+the Judiciary Committee in his approval of that act. The case is an
+instructive revelation of the arbitrary power conferred by the committee
+system. Members are loath to antagonize a party chairman to whom their
+own bills must go for approval. Finally, Senator Hoar dared to take
+the risk, and with such success that on June 21, 1886, the committee
+reported a bill for the complete repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, the
+chairman--Senator Edmunds--alone dissenting. When the bill was taken up
+for consideration, Senator Hoar remarked that he did not believe there
+were five members of the Senate who really believed in the propriety of
+that act. "It did not seem to me to be quite becoming," he explained,
+"to ask the Senate to deal with this general question, while the
+question which arose between the President and the Senate as to the
+interpretation and administration of the existing law was pending. I
+thought, as a party man, that I had hardly the right to interfere with
+the matter which was under the special charge of my honorable friend
+from Vermont, by challenging a debate upon the general subject from a
+different point of view."
+
+Although delicately put, this statement was in effect a repudiation of
+the party leadership of Edmunds and in the debate which ensued, not
+a single Senator came to his support. He stood alone in upholding
+the propriety of the Tenure of Office Act, arguing that without its
+restraint "the whole real power and patronage of this government was
+vested solely in the hands of a President of the United States and
+his will was the law." He held that the consent of the Senate to
+appointments was an insufficient check if the President were allowed to
+remove at his own will and pleasure. He was answered by his own party
+colleagues and committee associates, Hoar and Evarts. Senator Hoar went
+so far as to say that in his opinion there was not a single person in
+this country, in Congress or out of Congress, with the exception of the
+Senator from Vermont, who did not believe that a necessary step towards
+reform "must be to impose the responsibility of the Civil Service
+upon the Executive." Senator Evarts argued that the existing law was
+incompatible with executive responsibility, for "it placed the Executive
+power in a strait-jacket." He then pointed out that the President had
+not the legal right to remove a member of his own Cabinet and asked, "Is
+not the President imprisoned if his Cabinet are to be his masters by
+the will of the Senate?" The debate was almost wholly confined to the
+Republican side of the Senate, for only one Democrat took any part in
+it. Senator Edmunds was the sole spokesman on his side, but he fought
+hard against defeat and delivered several elaborate arguments of the
+"check and balance" type. When the final vote took place, only three
+Republicans actually voted for the repealing bill, but there were
+absentees whose votes would have been cast the same way had they been
+needed to pass the bill.*
+
+
+     *  The bill was passed by thirty yeas and twenty-two nays, and
+among the nays were several Senators who while members of the House had
+voted for repeal. The repeal bill passed the House by a vote of 172 to
+67, and became law on March 3, 1887
+
+
+President Cleveland had achieved a brilliant victory. In the joust
+between him and Edmunds, in lists of his adversary's own contriving,
+he had held victoriously to his course while his opponent had been
+unhorsed. The granite composure of Senator Edmunds' habitual mien did
+not permit any sign of disturbance to break through, but his position in
+the Senate was never again what it had been, and eventually he resigned
+his seat before the expiration of his term. He retired from public life
+in 1891, at the age of sixty-three.
+
+From the standpoint of the public welfare, it is to be noted that
+the issue turned on the maintenance of privilege rather than on the
+discharge of responsibility. President Cleveland contended that he was
+not responsible to the Senate but to the people for the way in which he
+exercised his trusteeship. But the phrase "the people" is an abstraction
+which has no force save as it receives concrete form in appropriate
+institutions. It is the essential characteristic of a sound
+constitutional system that it supplies such institutions, so as to
+put executive authority on its good behavior by steady pressure of
+responsibility through full publicity and detailed criticism. This
+result, the Senate fails to secure because it keeps trying to invade
+executive authority, and to seize the appointing power instead of
+seeking to enforce executive responsibility. This point was forcibly
+put by "The Nation" when it said: "There is only one way of securing
+the presentation to the Senate of all the papers and documents which
+influence the President in making either removals or appointments, and
+that is a simple way, and one wholly within the reach of the Senators.
+They have only to alter their rules, and make executive sessions as
+public as legislative sessions, in order to drive the President not only
+into making no nominations for which he cannot give creditable reasons,
+but into furnishing every creditable reason for the nomination which he
+may have in his possession."*
+
+
+     *  "The Nation," March 11, 1888.
+
+
+During the struggle, an effort was made to bring about this very reform,
+under the lead of a Republican Senator, Orville H. Platt of Connecticut.
+On April 13, 1886, he delivered a carefully prepared speech, based upon
+much research, in which he showed that the rule of secrecy in executive
+sessions could not claim the sanction of the founders of the government.
+It is true that the Senate originally sat with closed doors for all
+sorts of business, but it discontinued the practice after a few years.
+It was not until 1800, six years after the practice of public sessions
+had been adopted, that any rule of secrecy was applied to business
+transacted in executive sessions. Senator Platt's motion to repeal
+this rule met with determined opposition on both sides of the chamber,
+coupled with an indisposition to discuss the matter. When it came up for
+consideration on the 15th of December, Senator Hoar moved to lay it on
+the table, which was done by a vote of thirty-three to twenty-one. Such
+prominent Democratic leaders as Gorman of Maryland and Vest of Missouri
+voted with Republican leaders like Evarts, Edmunds, Allison, and
+Harrison, in favor of Hoar's motion, while Hoar's own colleague, Senator
+Dawes, together with such eminent Republicans as Frye of Maine, Hawley
+of Connecticut, and Sherman of Ohio voted with Platt. Thus, any party
+responsibility for the result was successfully avoided, and an issue of
+great constitutional importance was laid away without any apparent stir
+of popular sentiment.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. PARTY POLICY IN CONGRESS
+
+While President Cleveland was successfully asserting his executive
+authority, the House of Representatives, too, was trying to assert its
+authority; but its choice of means was such that it was badly beaten and
+was reduced to a state of humble subordination from which it has never
+emerged. Its traditional procedure was arranged on the theory that
+Congress ought to propose as well as to enact legislation, and to
+receive recommendations from all quarters without preference or
+discrimination. Although the Constitution makes it the right and duty of
+the President to "recommend to their consideration such measures as
+he shall judge necessary and expedient," measures proposed by the
+Administration stand on the same footing under the rules as those
+proposed by the humblest citizen of the United States. In both cases,
+they are allowed to reach Congress only in the form of a bill or
+resolution introduced by a member of Congress, and they go on the files
+without any distinction as to rank and position except such as pertains
+to them from the time and order in which they are introduced. Under
+the rules, all measures are distributed among numerous committees, each
+having charge of a particular class, with power to report favorably
+or adversely. Each committee is constituted as a section of the whole
+House, with a distribution of party representation corresponding to that
+which exists in the House.
+
+Viewed as an ideal polity, the scheme has attractive features. In
+practice, however, it is attended with great disadvantages. Although the
+system was originally introduced with the idea that it would give the
+House of Representatives control over legislative business, the actual
+result has been to reduce this body to an impotence unparalleled among
+national representative assemblies in countries having constitutional
+government. In a speech delivered on December 10, 1885, William M.
+Springer of Illinois complained: "We find ourselves bound hand and foot,
+the majority delivering themselves over to the power of the minority
+that might oppose any particular measures, so that nothing could be done
+in the way of legislation except by unanimous consent or by a two-thirds
+vote." As an instance of legislative paralysis, he related that
+"during the last Congress a very important bill, that providing for the
+presidential succession... was reported from a committee of which I had
+the honor to be a member, and was placed on the calendar of the House on
+the 21st day of April, 1884; and that bill, which was favored by nearly
+the entire House, was permitted to die on the calendar because there
+never was a moment, when under the rules as they then existed, the bill
+could be reached and passed by the House." During the whole of that
+session of Congress, the regular calendar was never reached. "Owing
+to the fact that we could not transact business under the rules, all
+business was done under unanimous consent or under propositions
+to suspend the rules upon the two Mondays in each month on which
+suspensions were allowed." As a two-thirds majority was necessary to
+suspend the rules, any considerable minority had a veto power.
+
+The standing committees, whose ostensible purpose was to prepare
+business for consideration, were characterized as legislative
+cemeteries. Charles B. Lore of Delaware, referring to the situation
+during the previous session, said: "The committees were formed, they
+met in their respective committee rooms day after day, week after week,
+working up the business which was committed to them by this House, and
+they reported to this House 8290 bills. They came from the respective
+committees, and they were consigned to the calendars of this House,
+which became for them the tomb of the Capulets; most of them were never
+heard of afterward. From the Senate there were 2700 bills.... Nine
+tenths of the time of the committees of the Forty-eighth Congress was
+wasted. We met week after week, month after month, and labored over the
+cases prepared, and reported bills to the House. They were put upon the
+calendars and there were buried, to be brought in again and again in
+succeeding Congresses."
+
+William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania bluntly declared: "No legislation
+can be effectually originated outside the Committee on Appropriations,
+unless it be a bill which will command unanimous consent or a stray bill
+that may get a two-thirds vote, or a pension bill." He explained that
+he excepted pension bills "because we have for several years by special
+order remitted the whole subject of pensions to a committee who bring in
+their bills at sessions held one night in each week, when ten or fifteen
+gentlemen decide what soldiers may have pensions and what soldiers may
+not."
+
+The Democratic party found this situation extremely irritating when it
+came into power in the House. It was unable to do anything of importance
+or even to define its own party policy, and in the session of Congress
+beginning in December, 1885, it sought to correct the situation by
+amending the rules. In this undertaking it had sympathy and support
+on the Republican side. The duress under which the House labored was
+pungently described by Thomas B. Reed, who was just about that time
+revealing the ability that gained for him the Republican leadership.
+In a speech, delivered on December 16, 1885, he declared: "For the last
+three Congresses the representatives of the people of the United
+States have been in irons. They have been allowed to transact no public
+business except at the dictation and by the permission of a small
+coterie of gentlemen, who, while they possessed individually more
+wisdom than any of the rest of us, did not possess all the wisdom in the
+world."
+
+The coterie alluded to by Mr. Reed was that which controlled the
+committee on appropriations. Under the system created by the rules of
+the House, bills pour in by tens of thousands. A member of the House, of
+a statistical turn of mind, once submitted figures to the House showing
+that it would take over sixty-six years to go through the calendars of
+one session in regular order, allowing an average of one minute for each
+member to debate each bill. To get anything done, the House must proceed
+by special order, and as it is essential to pass the appropriations to
+keep up the government, a precedence was allowed to business reported
+by that committee which in effect gave it a position of mastery. O. R.
+Singleton of Mississippi, in the course of the same debate, declared
+that there was a "grievance which towers above all others as the Alps
+tower above the surrounding hills. It is the power resting with said
+committee, and oftentimes employed by it, to arrest any legislation
+upon any subject which does not meet its approval. A motion to go into
+committee of the whole to consider appropriation bills is always in
+order, and takes precedence of all other motions as to the order of
+business." The practical effect of the rules was that, instead of
+remaining the servant of the House, the committee became its master. Not
+only could the committee shut off from any consideration any measure to
+which it was opposed, but it could also dictate to the House the
+shape in which its own bills should be enacted. While the form of full
+consideration and amendment is preserved, the terms of a bill are
+really decided by a conference committee appointed to adjust differences
+between the House and the Senate. John H. Reagan of Texas stated that
+"a conference committee, made up of three members of the appropriations
+committee, acting in conjunction with a similar conference committee
+on the part of the Senate, does substantially our legislation upon this
+subject of appropriations." In theory, the House was free to accept or
+reject the conference committee's report. Practically the choice lay
+between the bill as fixed by the conference committee or no bill at all
+during that session. Mr. Reagan stated the case exactly when he said
+that it meant "letting six men settle what the terms are to be,
+beyond our power of control, unless we consent to a called session of
+Congress."
+
+To deal with this situation, the House had refused to adopt the rules of
+the preceding Congress; and after electing John G. Carlisle as Speaker
+and authorizing the appointment of a committee on rules, it deferred the
+appointment of the usual legislative committees until after a new set
+of rules had been adopted. The action of the Speaker in constituting the
+Rules Committee was scrupulously fair to the contending interests. It
+consisted of himself, Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania, and William
+R. Morrison of Illinois from the Democratic side of the House; and
+of Thomas B. Reed of Maine and Frank Hiscock of New York from the
+Republican side. On the 14th of December, the committee made two
+reports: a majority report presented by Mr. Morrison and a minority
+report presented by Mr. Randall and signed by him alone.
+
+These reports and the debates which followed are most disappointing.
+What was needed was a penetrating discussion of the means by which
+the House could establish its authority and perform its constitutional
+functions. But it is a remarkable circumstance that at no time was any
+reference made to the only way in which the House can regain freedom of
+action--namely, by having the Administration submit its budget demands
+and its legislative proposals directly to the committee of the whole
+House. The preparatory stages could then be completed before the opening
+of the legislative session. Congress would thus save the months of time
+that are now consumed in committee incubation and would almost
+certainly be assured of opportunity of considering the public business.
+Discrimination in legislative privilege among members of the House would
+then be abolished, for every member would belong to the committee on
+appropriations. It is universally true in constitutional governments
+that power over appropriations involves power over legislation, and the
+only possibility of a square deal is to open that power to the entire
+membership of the assembly, which is the regular practice in Switzerland
+and in all English commonwealths. The House could not have been ignorant
+of the existence of this alternative, for the whole subject had been
+luminously discussed in the Senate Report of February 4, 1881. It was,
+therein, clearly pointed out that such an arrangement would prevent
+paralysis or inaction in Congress. With the Administration proposing
+its measures directly to Congress, discussion of them and decisions upon
+them could not be avoided.
+
+But such a public forum could not be established without sweeping away
+many intrenchments of factional interest and private opportunity, and
+this was not at all the purpose of the committee on rules. It took its
+character and direction from an old feud between Morrison and Randall.
+Morrison, as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in 1876, had
+reported a tariff reform measure which was defeated by Randall's
+influence. Then Randall, who had succeeded to the Speakership,
+transferred Morrison from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means
+Committee to the chairmanship of the committee on public lands. But
+Morrison was a man who would not submit to defeat. He was a veteran of
+the Civil War, and had been severely wounded in leading his regiment at
+Fort Donelson. After the war, he figured in Illinois politics and served
+as Speaker of the State Legislature. He entered Congress in 1873 and
+devoted himself to the study of the tariff with such intelligence and
+thoroughness that his speeches are still an indispensable part of the
+history of tariff legislation. His habitual manner was so mild
+and unassuming that it gave little indication of the force of his
+personality, which was full of energy and perseverance.
+
+Randall was more imperious in his mien. He was a party leader of
+established renown which he had gained in the struggles over force bills
+at the close of the reconstruction period. His position on the tariff
+was that of a Pennsylvania protectionist, and upon the tariff reform
+issue in 1883, he was defeated for the Speakership. At that time, John
+G. Carlisle of Kentucky was raised to that post, while Morrison again
+became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. But Randall, now
+appointed chairman of the Appropriations Committee, had so great an
+influence that he was able to turn about forty Democratic votes against
+the tariff bill reported by the Ways and Means Committee, thus enabling
+the Republicans to kill the bill by striking out the enacting clause.
+
+Only this practical aim, then, was in view in the reports presented by
+the committee on rules. The principal feature of the majority report was
+a proposal to curtail the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee
+by transferring to other committees five of the eleven regular
+appropriation bills. What, from the constitutional point of view, would
+appear to be the main question--the recovery by the House of its freedom
+of action--was hardly noticed in the report or in the debates which
+followed. Heretofore, the rules had allotted certain periods to general
+business; now, the majority report somewhat enlarged these periods and
+stipulated that no committee should bring more than one proposal before
+the House until all other committees had had their turn. This provision
+might have been somewhat more effective had it been accompanied by a
+revision of the list of committees such as was proposed by William M.
+Springer. He pointed out that there were a number of committees "that
+have no business to transact or business so trifling and unimportant as
+to make it unnecessary to have standing committees upon such subjects";
+he proposed to abolish twenty-one of these committees and to create four
+new ones to take their place; he showed that "if we allow these twenty
+useless committees to be again put on our list, to be called regularly
+in the morning hour... forty-two days will be consumed in calling these
+committees"; and, finally, he pointed out that the change would effect a
+saving since it would "do away with sixteen committee clerkships."
+
+This saving was, in fact, fatal to the success of Springer's proposal,
+since it meant the extinction of so many sinecures bestowed through
+congressional favor. In the end, Springer reduced his proposed change to
+the creation of one general committee on public expenditures to take the
+place of eight committees on departmental expenditures. It was notorious
+that such committees did nothing and could do nothing, and their
+futility, save as dispensers of patronage, had been demonstrated in a
+startling manner by the effect of the Acts of July 12, 1870, and June
+20, 1874, requiring all unused appropriations to be paid into the
+Treasury. The amounts thus turned into the Treasury aggregated
+$174,000,000 and in a single bureau there was an unexpended balance of
+$36,000,000, which had accumulated for a quarter of a century because
+Congress had not been advised that no appropriation was needed. Mr.
+Springer remarked that, during the ten years in which he had been a
+member of Congress, he had observed with regard to these committees
+"that in nearly all cases, after their appointment, organization, and
+the election of a clerk, the committee practically ceased to exist, and
+nothing further is done." William R. Morrison at once came to the
+rescue of the endangered sinecures and argued that even although these
+committees had been inactive in the past they "constituted the eyes, the
+ears, and the hands of the House." In consequence, after a short debate
+Mr. Springer's motion was rejected without a division.
+
+The arrangements subsequently made to provide time and opportunity
+for general legislation, turned out in practice to be quite futile and
+indeed they were never more than a mere formal pretense. It was quite
+obvious, therefore, that the new rules tended only to make the situation
+worse than before. Thomas Ryan of Kansas told the plain truth when he
+said: "You do not propose to remedy any of those things of which you
+complain by any of the rules you have brought forward. You propose to
+clothe eight committees with the same power, with the same temptation
+and capacity to abuse it. You multiply eightfold the very evils of which
+you complain." James H. Blount of Georgia sought to mitigate the
+evils of the situation by giving a number of other committees the same
+privilege as the appropriation committees, but this proposal at once
+raised a storm, for appropriation committees had leave to report at any
+time, and to extend the privilege would prevent expeditious handling
+of appropriation bills. Mr. Blount's motion was, therefore, voted down
+without a division.
+
+While in the debate, the pretense of facilitating routine business was
+ordinarily kept up; occasional intimations of actual ulterior purpose
+leaked out, as when John B. Storm of Pennsylvania remarked that it was a
+valuable feature of the rules that they did hamper action and "that
+the country which is least governed is the best governed, is a maxim in
+strict accord with the idea of true civil liberty." William McKinley was
+also of the opinion that barriers were needed "against the wild projects
+and visionary schemes which will find advocates in this House." Some
+years later, when the subject was again up for discussion, Thomas B.
+Reed went to the heart of the situation when he declared that the rules
+had been devised not to facilitate action but to obstruct it, for "the
+whole system of business here for years has been to seek methods of
+shirking, not of meeting, the questions which the people present for
+the consideration of their representatives. Peculiar circumstances
+have caused this. For a long time, one section of the country largely
+dominated the other. That section of the country was constantly
+apprehensive of danger which might happen at any time by reason of an
+institution it was maintaining. Very naturally, all the rules of the
+House were bent for the obstruction of action on the part of Congress."
+It may be added that these observations apply even more forcibly, to
+the rules of the Senate. The privilege of unrestricted debate was not
+originally granted by those rules but was introduced as a means
+of strengthening the power of sectional resistance to obnoxious
+legislation.
+
+The revision of the rules in 1885, then, was not designed really to
+facilitate action by the House, but rather to effect a transfer of the
+power to rule the House. It was at least clear that under the proposed
+changes the chairman of the committee on appropriations would no longer
+retain such complete mastery as Randall had wielded, and this was enough
+to insure the adoption of the majority report. The minority report
+opposed this weakening of control on the ground that it would be
+destructive of orderly and responsible management of the public funds.
+Everything which Randall said on that point has since been amply
+confirmed by much sad experience. Although some leading Republicans,
+among whom was Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, argued strongly in support
+of Randall's views, the temper of the House was such that the majority
+in favor of the change was overwhelming, and on December 18, 1885, the
+Morrison plan was finally adopted without a roll call.
+
+The hope that the change in organization would expedite action on
+appropriation bills, was promptly disappointed. Only one of the fourteen
+regular appropriation bills became law before the last day of the fiscal
+year. The duress to which the House was subject became tighter and
+harder than before, and the Speakership entered upon a development
+unparalleled in constitutional history. The Speaker was practically in a
+position to determine what business the House might consider and what it
+might not, and the circumstances were such as to breed a belief that it
+was his duty to use his discretion where a choice presented itself. It
+is obvious that, when on the floor of the House there are a number of
+applicants for recognition, the Speaker must choose between them. All
+cannot be allowed to speak at once. There is no chance to apply the shop
+rule, "first come first served," for numerous applications for the floor
+come at the same time. Shall the Speaker choose at random or according
+to some definite principle of selection? In view of the Speaker's
+interest in the welfare of the party which raised him to the office, he
+would naturally inquire in advance the purpose for which the recognition
+of the chair was desired. It was a manifest step towards orderly
+procedure in session, however, when instead of crowding around the
+clerk's desk bawling for recognition, members applied to the Speaker in
+advance. In Speaker Blaine's time, this had become a regular practice
+and ever since then, a throng of members at the Speaker's office trying
+to arrange with him for recognition has been a daily occurrence during
+a legislative session. Samuel W. McCall, in his work on "The Business of
+Congress," says that the Speaker "usually scrutinizes the bill and the
+committee's report upon it, and in case of doubt he sometimes refers
+them to a member in whom he has confidence, for a more careful
+examination than he himself has time to give."
+
+Under Speaker Carlisle, this power to censor proposals was made
+conspicuous through the factional war in the Democratic party. For
+several sessions of Congress, a bill had been pending to repeal the
+internal revenue taxes upon tobacco, and it had such support that it
+might have passed if it could have been reached for consideration. On
+February 5, 1887, a letter was addressed to Speaker Carlisle by three
+prominent Democrats: Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania, George D. Wise
+of Virginia, and John S. Henderson of North Carolina, saying: "At the
+instance of many Democratic members of the House, we appeal to you
+earnestly to recognize on Monday next, some Democrat who will move to
+suspend the rules for the purpose of giving the House an opportunity
+of considering the question of the total repeal of the internal revenue
+taxes on tobacco." The letter went on to argue that it would be bad
+policy to let a Republican have credit for a proposal, which it was
+declared "will command more votes than any other measure pending before
+the House looking towards a reduction in taxation; and favorable action
+on this proposition will not interfere with other efforts that are being
+made to reduce the burden of the people."
+
+Speaker Carlisle, however, refused to allow the House to consider the
+matter on the ground that negotiations with Randall and his friends for
+concerted party action had so far been fruitless. "Among other things,"
+he wrote, "we proposed to submit the entire subject to a caucus of our
+political friends, with the understanding that all parties would abide
+by the result of its action.... We have received no response to that
+communication, and I consider that it would not be proper under the
+circumstances for me to agree to a course of action which would present
+to the House a simple proposition for the repeal of the internal revenue
+tax on tobacco, snuff and cigars, to the exclusion of all other measures
+for the reduction of taxation." The letter closed by "sincerely hoping
+that some plan may yet be devised which will enable the House to
+consider the whole subject of revenue reduction."
+
+No one was less of an autocrat in temper and habit of thought than
+Speaker Carlisle, and he assumed this position in deference to
+a recognized function of his office, supported by a long line of
+precedents. The case was, therefore, a signal illustration of the way
+in which the House has impaired its ability to consider legislation by
+claiming the exclusive privilege of proposing legislation. If the rules
+had allowed the President to propose his measures directly to the House,
+then the way would have been opened for a substitute or an amendment. As
+it was, the House was able to act only upon matters within the control
+of a few persons advantageously posted, and none of the changes of rules
+that have been made from time to time have seriously disturbed this
+fundamental situation.
+
+Notwithstanding the new rules adopted in December, 1885, nothing of
+importance was accomplished by the House. On February 15, 1886, William
+R. Morrison introduced a tariff bill making a moderate reduction in
+rates of duty, which, after considerable amendment in the committee of
+ways and means, was reported to the House on the 12th of April; but no
+further action was taken until the 17th of June, when Morrison moved
+that the House go into committee of the whole to consider the bill.
+Thirty-five Democrats voted with the Republicans against the motion,
+which was defeated by 157 nays to 140 yeas. No further attempt was
+made to take up the bill during that session, and in the ensuing fall
+Morrison was defeated as a candidate for reelection. Before leaving
+Congress he tried once more to obtain consideration of his bill but in
+vain. Just as that Congress was expiring, John S. Henderson of North
+Carolina was at last allowed to move a suspension of the rules in order
+to take a vote on a bill to reduce internal revenue taxes, but he failed
+to obtain the two-thirds vote required for suspension of the rules.
+
+That the proceedings of the Forty-ninth Congress were not entirely
+fruitless, was mainly due to the initiative and address of the Senate.
+Some important measures were thus pushed through, among them the
+act regulating the presidential succession and the act creating the
+Interstate Commerce Commission. The first of these provided for the
+succession of the heads of departments in turn, in case of the
+removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and the
+Vice-President.
+
+The most marked legislative achievement of the House was an act
+regulating the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, to which
+the Senate assented with some amendment, and which was signed with
+reluctance by the President, after a special message to the House
+sharply criticizing some of the provisions of the act. A bill providing
+for arbitration of differences between common carriers and their
+employees was passed by the Senate without a division, but it did not
+reach the President until the closing days of the session and failed of
+enactment because he did not sign it before the final adjournment. Taken
+as a whole, then, the record of the Congress elected in 1884 showed
+that while the Democratic party had the Presidency and the House of
+Representatives, the Republican party, although defeated at the polls,
+still controlled public policy through the agency of the Senate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. PRESIDENTIAL KNIGHT-ERRANTRY
+
+Although President Cleveland decisively repelled the Senate's attempted
+invasion of the power of removal belonging to his office, he was still
+left in a deplorable state of servitude through the operation of old
+laws based upon the principle of rotation in office. The Acts of 1820
+and 1836, limiting commissions to the term of four years, forced him
+to make numerous appointments which provoked controversy and made
+large demands upon his time and thought. In the first year of his
+administration, he sent about two thousand nominations to the Senate,
+an average of over six a day, assuming that he was allowed to rest on
+Sunday. His freedom of action was further curtailed by an Act of 1863,
+prohibiting the payment of a salary to any person appointed to fill a
+vacancy existing while the Senate was in session, until the appointment
+had been confirmed by the Senate. The President was thus placed under a
+strict compulsion to act as a party employment agent.
+
+If it is the prime duty of a President to act in the spirit of a
+reformer, Cleveland is entitled to high praise for the stanchness with
+which he adhered to his principles under most trying circumstances. Upon
+November 27, 1885, he approved rules confirming and extending the civil
+service regulations. Charges that Collector Hedden of the New York
+Customs House was violating the spirit of the Civil Service Act, and
+was making a party machine of his office, caused the Civil Service
+Commission to make an investigation which resulted in his resignation
+in July, 1886. On the 10th of August, Daniel Magone of Ogdensburg, New
+York, a widely known lawyer, was personally chosen by the President with
+a view to enforcing the civil service law in the New York Customs House.
+Before making this appointment, President Cleveland issued an order to
+all heads of departments warning all officeholders against the use of
+their positions to control political movements in their localities.
+"Officeholders," he declared, "are the agents of the people, not their
+masters. They have no right, as officeholders, to dictate the political
+action of their associates, or to throttle freedom of action within
+party lines by methods and practices which prevent every useful and
+justifiable purpose of party organization." In August, President
+Cleveland gave signal evidence of his devotion to civil service reform
+by appointing a Republican, because of his special qualifications, to be
+chief examiner for the Civil Service Commission.
+
+Democratic party workers were so angered and disgusted by the
+President's policy that any mention of his name was enough to start a
+flow of coarse denunciation. Strong hostility to his course of action
+was manifested in Congress. Chairman Randall, of the committee on
+appropriations, threatened to cut off the appropriation for office room
+for the commission. A "rider" to the legislative appropriation bill,
+striking at the civil service law, caused a vigorous debate in the House
+in which leading Democrats assailed the Administration, but eventually
+the "rider" was ruled out on a point of order. In the Senate, such party
+leaders as Vance of North Carolina, Saulsbury of Delaware, and Voorhees
+of Indiana, openly ridiculed the civil service law, and various attempts
+to cripple it were made but were defeated. Senator Vance introduced a
+bill to repeal the law, but it was indefinitely postponed by a vote of
+33 to 6, the affirmative vote being cast mainly by Republicans; and in
+general the strongest support for the law now came from the Republican
+side. Early in June, 1887, an estimate was made that nine thousand civil
+offices outside the scope of the civil service rules were still held by
+Republicans. The Republican party press gloated over the situation and
+was fond of dwelling upon the way in which old-line Democrats were being
+snubbed while the Mugwumps were favored. At the same time, civil
+service reformers found much to condemn in the character of Cleveland's
+appointments. A special committee of the National Civil Service Reform
+League, on March 30, 1887, published a report in which they asserted
+that, "tried by the standard of absolute fidelity to the reform as it
+is understood by this League, it is not to be denied that this
+Administration has left much to be desired." At a subsequent session of
+the League, its President, George William Curtis, proclaimed that the
+League did not regard the Administration as "in any strict sense of
+the words a civil service reform administration." Thus while President
+Cleveland was alienating his regular party support, he was not getting
+in return any dependable support from the reformers. He seemed to be
+sitting down between two stools, both tilting to let him fall.
+
+Meanwhile, he went on imperturbably doing his duty as he saw it. Like
+many of his predecessors, he would rise early to get some time to attend
+to public business before the rush of office seekers began, but the bulk
+of his day's work lay in the discharge of his compulsory duties as an
+employment agent. Many difficult situations were created by contentions
+among Congressmen over appointments. It was Cleveland's habit to
+deal with these cases by homely expostulation and by pleas for mutual
+concessions. Such incidents do not of course go upon record, and it is
+only as memoirs and reminiscences of public men are published that this
+personal side of history becomes known. Senator Cullom of Illinois in
+his "Fifty Years of Public Service" gives an account that doubtless
+fairly displays Cleveland's way of handling his vexatious problems. "I
+happened to be at the White House one day, and Mr. Cleveland said to
+me, 'I wish you would take up Lamar's nomination and dispose of it. I am
+between hay and grass with reference to the Interior Department. Nothing
+is being done there; I ought to have some one on duty, and I cannot do
+anything until you dispose of Lamar.'" Mr. Lamar, who had entered
+the Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, was nominated for associate
+justice of the Supreme Court on December 6, 1887. He had been an eminent
+member of the Senate, with previous distinguished service in the House,
+so that the Senate must have had abundant knowledge of his character
+and attainments. It is impossible to assign the delay that ensued
+to reasonable need of time for inquiry as to his qualifications, but
+Senator Cullom relates that "the nomination pended before the Judiciary
+Committee for a long time." Soon after the personal appeal, which
+was made by the President to every Senator he could reach, action was
+finally taken and the appointment was confirmed January 16, 1888.
+
+Senator Cullom's reminiscences also throw light upon the process by
+which judges are appointed. President Cleveland had selected Melville W.
+Fuller of Illinois for the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court.
+According to Senator Cullom, Senator Edmunds "was very much out of humor
+with the President because he had fully expected that Judge Phelps, of
+his own State, was to receive the honor.... The result was that Senator
+Edmunds held the nomination, without any action, in the Judiciary
+Committee for some three months." Senator Cullom, although a party
+associate of Edmunds, was pleased that the President had selected an
+Illinois jurist and he was determined that, if he could help it, Edmunds
+should not have the New Hampshire candidate appointed. He therefore
+appealed to the committee to do something about the nomination, either
+one way or the other. The committee finally reported the nomination to
+the Senate without recommendation. When the matter came up in executive
+session, "Senator Edmunds at once took the floor and attacked Judge
+Fuller most viciously as having sympathized with the rebellion." But
+Cullom was primed to meet that argument. He had been furnished with a
+copy of a speech attacking President Lincoln which Phelps had delivered
+during the war, and he now read it to the Senate, "much to the chagrin
+and mortification of Senator Edmunds." Cullom relates that the Democrats
+in the Senate enjoyed the scene. "Naturally, it appeared to them a very
+funny performance, two Republicans quarreling over the confirmation of
+a Democrat. They sat silent, however, and took no part at all in the
+debate, leaving us Republicans to settle it among ourselves." The result
+of the Republican split was that the nomination of Fuller was confirmed
+"by a substantial majority."
+
+Another nomination which caused much agitation at the time was that of
+James C. Matthews of New York, to be Recorder of Deeds in the District
+of Columbia. The office had been previously held by Frederick Douglass,
+a distinguished leader of the colored race; and in filling the vacancy
+the President believed it would be an exercise of wise and kindly
+consideration to choose a member of the same race. But in the Washington
+community, there was such a strong antipathy to the importation of
+a negro politician from New York to fill a local office that a great
+clamor was raised, in which Democrats joined. The Senate rejected the
+nomination, but meanwhile Mr. Matthews had entered upon the duties of
+his office and he showed such tact and ability as gradually to soften
+the opposition. On December 21, 1886, President Cleveland renominated
+him, pointing out that he had been in actual occupation of the office
+for four months, managing its affairs with such ability as to remove
+"much of the opposition to his appointment which has heretofore
+existed." In conclusion, the President confessed "a desire to cooperate
+in tendering to our colored fellow-citizens just recognition." This was
+a shrewd argument. The Republican majority in the Senate shrank from
+what might seem to be drawing the color line, and the appointment was
+eventually confirmed; but this did not remove the sense of grievance in
+Washington over the use of local offices for national party purposes.
+Local sentiment in the District of Columbia is, however, politically
+unimportant, as the community has no means of positive action.*
+
+
+     *  It is a singular fact, which contains matter for deep
+consideration, that the District of Columbia, the national capital,
+is the only populated area in the civilized world without any sort of
+suffrage rights.
+
+
+In the same month in which President Cleveland issued his memorable
+special message to the Senate on the Tenure of Office Act, he began
+another struggle against congressional practice in which he was not
+so fortunate. On March 10, 1886, he sent to Congress the first of his
+pension vetoes. Although liberal provision for granting pensions had
+been made by general laws, numerous special applications were made
+directly to Congress, and congressmen were solicited to secure favorable
+consideration for them. That it was the duty of a representative to
+support an application from a resident of his district, was a doctrine
+enforced by claim agents with a pertinacity from which there was no
+escape. To attempt to assume a judicial attitude in the matter was
+politically dangerous, and to yield assent was a matter of practical
+convenience. Senator Cullom relates that when he first became a member
+of the committee on pensions he was "a little uneasy" lest he "might
+be too liberal." But he was guided by the advice of an old, experienced
+Congressman, Senator Sawyer of Wisconsin, who told him: "You need not
+worry, you cannot very well make a mistake allowing liberal pensions to
+the soldier boys. The money will get back into the Treasury very soon."
+
+The feeling that anything that the old soldiers wanted should be granted
+was even stronger in the House, where about the only opportunity of
+distinction allowed by the procedure was to champion these local demands
+upon the public treasury. It was indeed this privilege of passing
+pension bills which partially reconciled members of the House to
+the actual control of legislative opportunity by the Speaker and
+the chairmen of a few dominating committees. It was a congressional
+perquisite to be allowed to move the passage of so many bills; enactment
+followed as a matter of course. President Cleveland made a pointed
+reference to this process in a veto message of June 21, 1886. He
+observed that the pension bills had only "an apparent Congressional
+sanction" for the fact was that "a large proportion of these bills have
+never been submitted to a majority of either branch of Congress, but are
+the results of nominal sessions held for the express purpose of their
+consideration and attended by a small minority of the members of the
+respective houses of the legislative branch of government."
+
+Obviously, the whole system of pension legislation was faulty. Mere
+individual effort on the part of the President to screen the output of
+the system was scarcely practicable, even if it were congruous with
+the nature of the President's own duties; but nevertheless Cleveland
+attempted it, and kept at it with stout perseverance. One of his veto
+messages remarks that in a single day nearly 240 special pension bills
+were presented to him. He referred them to the Pension Bureau for
+examination and the labor involved was so great that they could not
+be returned to him until within a few hours of the limit fixed by the
+Constitution for the President's assent.
+
+There could be no more signal proof of President Cleveland's constancy
+of soul than the fact that he was working hard at his veto forge, with
+the sparks falling thickly around, right in his honeymoon. He married
+Miss Frances Folsom of Buffalo on June 2, 1886. The ceremony took place
+in the White House, and immediately thereafter, the President and his
+charming bride went to Deer Park, Maryland, a mountain resort. The
+respite from official cares was brief; on June 8th, the couple returned
+to Washington and some of the most pugnacious of the pension vetoes
+were sent to Congress soon after. The rest of his public life was passed
+under continual storm, but the peace and happiness of his domestic life
+provided a secure refuge.
+
+On the other hand, the rebuffs which Democratic Congressmen received in
+the matter of pension legislation were, it must be admitted, peculiarly
+exasperating. Reviewing the work of the Forty-ninth Congress, "The
+Nation" mentioned three enactments which it characterized as great
+achievements that should be placed to the credit of Congress. Those were
+the act regulating the presidential succession, approved January 18,
+1886; the act regulating the counting of the electoral votes, approved
+February 3, 1887; and the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, approved
+March 3, 1887. But all three measures originated in the Senate, and
+the main credit for their enactment might be claimed by the Republican
+party. There was some ground for the statement that they would have
+been enacted sooner but for the disturbance of legislative routine by
+political upheavals in the House; and certainly no one could pretend
+that it was to get these particular measures passed that the Democratic
+party was raised to power. The main cause of the political revolution of
+1884 had been the continuance of war taxes, producing revenues that were
+not only not needed but were positively embarrassing to the Government.
+Popular feeling over the matter was so strong that even the Republican
+party had felt bound to put into its national platform, in 1884, a
+pledge "to correct the irregularities of the tariff and to reduce the
+surplus." The people, however, believed that the Republican party had
+already been given sufficient opportunity, and they now turned to
+the Democratic party for relief. The rank and file of this party felt
+acutely, therefore, that they were not accomplishing what the people
+expected. Members arrived in Washington full of good intentions. They
+found themselves subject to a system which allowed them to introduce all
+the bills they wanted, but not to obtain action upon them. Action
+was the prerogative of a group of old hands who managed the important
+committees and who were divided among themselves on tariff policy. And
+now, the little bills which, by dint of persuasion and bargaining, they
+had first put through the committees, and then through both Houses of
+Congress, were cut down by executive veto, turning to their injury what
+they had counted upon to help them in their districts.
+
+During the campaign, Democratic candidates had everywhere contended that
+they were just as good friends of the old soldiers as the Republicans.
+Now, they felt that to make good this position they must do something to
+offset the effect of President Cleveland's vetoes. In his messages, he
+had favored "the most generous treatment to the disabled, aged and needy
+among our veterans"; but he had argued that it should be done by general
+laws, and not by special acts for the benefit of particular claimants.
+The Pension Committee of the House responded by reporting a bill "for
+the relief of dependent parents and honorably discharged soldiers and
+sailors who are now disabled and dependent upon their own labor for
+support." It passed the House by a vote of 180 to 76, with 63 not
+voting, and it passed the Senate without a division. On the 11th of
+February, President Cleveland sent in his veto, accompanied by a message
+pointing out in the language of the act defects and ambiguities which he
+believed would "but put a further premium on dishonesty and mendacity."
+He reiterated his desire that provision should be made "for those who,
+having served their country long and well, are reduced to destitution
+and dependence," but he did not think that the bill was a proper means
+of attaining that object. On the 19th of February, the House committee
+on pensions submitted an elaborate report on the veto in which they
+recited the history of the bill and the reasons actuating the committee.
+Extracts from Cleveland's messages were quoted, and the committee
+declared that, in "hearty accord with these views of the President and
+largely in accordance with his suggestions, they framed a bill which
+they then thought, and still continue to think, will best accomplish the
+ends proposed." A motion to pass the bill over the veto on the 24th of
+February received 175 votes to 125, but two-thirds not having voted in
+the affirmative the bill failed to pass. The Republicans voted solidly
+in support of the bill, together with a large group of Democrats.
+The negative vote came wholly from the Democratic side. Such a fiasco
+amounted to a demonstration of the lack of intelligent leadership.
+If the President and his party in Congress were cooperating for the
+furtherance of the same objects, as both averred, it was discreditable
+all around that there should have been such a complete misunderstanding
+as to the procedure.
+
+Meanwhile, the President was making a unique record by his vetoes.
+During the period of ninety-six years, from the foundation of the
+Government down to the beginning of Cleveland's administration, the
+entire number of veto messages was 132. In four years, Cleveland sent
+in 301 veto messages, and in addition he practically vetoed 109 bills
+by inaction. Of 2042 private pension bills passed by Congress, 1518
+were approved and 284 became laws by lapse of time without approval. The
+positive results of the President's activity were thus inconsiderable,
+unless incidentally he had managed to correct the system which he had
+opposed. That claim, indeed, was made in his behalf when "The Nation"
+mentioned "the arrest of the pension craze" as a "positive achievement
+of the first order.'" But far from being arrested, "the pension craze"
+was made the more furious, and it soon advanced to extremes unknown
+before.*
+
+
+     *  March 19, 1887.
+
+
+The Democratic politicians naturally viewed with dismay the approach
+of the national election of 1888. Any one could see that the party was
+drifting on to the rocks and nobody deemed to be at the helm. According
+to William R. Morrison, who certainly had been in a position to know,
+President Cleveland had "up to this time taken no decided ground one way
+or the other on the question of tariff." He had included the subject
+in the long dissertation on the state of the Union, which ever since
+Jefferson's time the President has been wont to send to Congress at
+the opening of a session, but he had not singled it out as having
+precedence. He now surprised the country, roused his party, and gave
+fresh animation to national politics on December 6, 1887, by devoting
+his third annual message wholly to the subject of taxation and
+revenue. He pointed out that the treasury surplus was mounting up to
+$140,000,000; that the redemption of bonds which had afforded a means
+for disbursement of excess revenues had stopped because there were no
+more bonds that the Government had a right to redeem; and that, hence,
+the Treasury "idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the channels
+of trade," a situation from which monetary derangement and business
+distress would naturally ensue. He strongly urged that the "present
+tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable and illogical source of
+unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised and amended."
+Cleveland gave a detailed analysis of the injurious effects which the
+existing tariff had upon trade and industry, and went on to remark that
+"progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling
+upon the theories of protection and free trade. This savors too much of
+bandying epithets. It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory."
+The effect of the message was very marked both upon public opinion and
+party activity. Mr. Morrison correctly summed up the party effect
+in saying that "Mr. Mills, obtaining the substantial support of the
+Administration, was enabled to press through the House a bill differing
+in a very few essential measures from, and combining the general details
+and purposes of, the several measures of which I have been the author,
+and which had been voted against by many of those who contributed to the
+success of the Mills Bill."
+
+An incident which attracted great notice because it was thought to have
+a bearing on the President's policy of tariff revision, was the veto of
+the Allentown Public Building Bill. This bill was of a type which is one
+of the rankest growths of the Congressional system--the grant of
+money not for the needs of public service but as a district favor. It
+appropriated $100,000 to put up a post-office building at Allentown,
+Pennsylvania, where adequate quarters were being occupied by the
+post-office at an annual rent of $1300. President Cleveland vetoed the
+bill simply on the ground that it proposed an unnecessary expenditure,
+but the fact was at once noted that the bill had been fathered by
+Congressman Snowden, an active adherent of Randall in opposition to
+the tariff reform policy of the Administration. The word went through
+Congress and reverberated through the press that "there is an Allentown
+for every Snowden." Mr. Morrison said in more polite phrase what came
+to the same thing when he observed that "when Mr. Cleveland took decided
+ground in favor of revision and reduction, he represented the patronage
+of the Administration, in consequence of which he was enabled to enforce
+party discipline, so that a man could no longer be a good Democrat and
+favor anything but reform of the tariff."
+
+After the Mills Bill had passed the House* and had been sent to the
+Senate, it was held in committee until October 3, 1888. When it emerged
+it carried an amendment which was in effect a complete substitute,
+but it was not taken up for consideration until after the presidential
+election, and it was meant simply as a Republican alternative to the
+Mills Bill for campaign use. Consideration of the bill began on the
+5th of December and lasted until the 22nd of January, when the bill was
+returned to the House transformed into a new measure. It was referred to
+the Ways and Means Committee, and Chairman Mills reported it back with a
+resolution setting forth that "the substitution by the Senate under the
+form of an amendment.... of another and different bill," is in conflict
+with the section of the Constitution which "vests in the House of
+Representatives the sole power to originate such a measure." The House
+refused to consider the resolution, a number of Democrats led by Mr.
+Randall voting with the Republicans in the negative. No further action
+was taken on the bill and since that day the House has never ventured
+to question the right of the Senate to amend tax bills in any way and
+to any extent. As Senator Cullom remarks in his memoirs, the Democrats,
+although they had long held the House and had also gained, the
+Presidency, "were just as powerless to enact legislation as they had
+been before."
+
+ * The Mills Bill was passed July 21, 1888, yeas 162, nays 149,
+not voting 14. Randall, Snowden, and two other Democrats joined the
+Republicans in voting against the bill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE PUBLIC DISCONTENTS
+
+While President and Congress were passing the time in mutual
+obstruction, the public discontents were becoming hot and bitter to
+a degree unknown before. A marked feature of the situation was the
+disturbance of public convenience involving loss, trouble, and distress
+which were vast in extent but not easily expressed in statistical form.
+The first three months of 1886 saw an outbreak of labor troubles far
+beyond any previous record in their variety and extent. In 1885, the
+number of strikes reported was 645 affecting 2284 establishments, a
+marked increase over preceding years. In 1886, the number of strikes
+rose to 1411, affecting 9861 establishments and directly involving
+499,489 persons. The most numerous strikes were in the building trades,
+but there were severe struggles in many other industries. There was, for
+example, an interruption of business on the New York elevated railway
+and on the street railways of New York, Brooklyn, and other cities.
+
+But the greatest public anxiety was caused by the behavior of the
+Knights of Labor, an organization then growing so rapidly that it gave
+promise of uniting under one control the active and energetic elements
+of the working classes of the country. It started in a humble way, in
+December, 1869, among certain garment cutters in Philadelphia, and for
+some years spread slowly from that center. The organization remained
+strictly secret until 1878, in which year it held a national convention
+of its fifteen district assemblies at Reading, Pennsylvania. The object
+and principles of the order were now made public and, thereafter, it
+spread with startling rapidity, so that in 1886 it pitted its strength
+against public authority with a membership estimated at from, 500,000
+to 800,000. Had this body been an army obedient to its leaders, it
+would have wielded great power; but it turned out to be only a mob. Its
+members took part in demonstrations which were as much mutinies against
+the authority of their own executive board as they were strikes against
+their employers. The result of lack of organization soon began to be
+evident. In March 1886, the receiver of the Texas Pacific Railroad
+discharged an employee prominent in the Knights of Labor and thus
+precipitated a strike which was promptly extended to the Missouri
+Pacific. There were riots at various points in Missouri and Kansas, and
+railroad traffic at St. Louis was completely suspended for some days,
+but the strike was eventually broken. The Knights of Labor, however,
+had received a blow from which it never recovered, and as a result its
+membership declined. The order has since been almost wholly superseded
+by the American Federation of Labor, established in 1886 through shrewd
+management by an association of labor unions which had been maintained
+since 1881. The Knights had been organized by localities with the aim of
+merging all classes of working men into one body. The Federation, on
+the other hand, is composed of trades unions retaining their autonomy--a
+principle of organization which has proved to be more solid and durable.
+
+To these signs of popular discontent the Government could not be blind.
+A congressional committee investigated the railroad strikes, and both
+parties in Congress busied themselves with labor legislation. But in
+spite of this apparent willingness to cope with the situation, there now
+followed another display of those cross purposes which occurred so often
+during the Cleveland administration. The House had already passed a
+bill providing means of submitting to arbitration controversies between
+railroads engaged in interstate commerce and their employees. President
+Cleveland now sent a special message recommending that "instead of
+arbitrators chosen in the heat of conflicting claims and after each
+dispute shall arise, there be created a Commission of Labor, consisting
+of three members, who shall be regular officers of the government,
+charged among other duties with the consideration and settlement when
+possible, of all controversies between labor and capital." In spite of
+the urgency of the situation, the Senate seized this occasion for a new
+display of party tactics, and it allowed the bill already passed by the
+House to lie without action while it proceeded to consider various labor
+measures of its own. For example, by June 1, 1886, the Senate had
+passed a bill providing that eight hours should be a day's work for
+letter-carriers; soon afterwards, it passed a bill legalizing the
+incorporation of national trades unions, to which the House promptly
+assented without a division; and the House then continued its labor
+record by passing on the 15th of July a bill against the importation of
+contract labor. This last bill was not passed by the Senate until after
+the fall elections. It was approved by the President on February 23,
+1887.
+
+The Senate also delayed action on the House bill, which proposed
+arbitration in labor disputes, until the close of the session; and
+then the President, in view of his disregarded suggestion, withheld
+his assent. It was not until the following year that the legislation
+recommended by the President was enacted. By the Act of June 13, 1888,
+the Department of Labor was established, and by the Act of October
+1, 1888, in addition to provision for voluntary arbitration between
+railroad corporations and their employees, the President was authorized
+to appoint a commission to investigate labor conflicts, with power to
+act as a board of conciliation. During the ten years in which the act
+remained on the statute books, it was actually put to use only in 1894,
+when a commission was appointed to investigate the Pullman strike at
+Chicago, but this body took no action towards settling the dispute.
+
+Thus far, then, the efforts of the Government to deal with the labor
+problem had not been entirely successful. It is true that the labor
+conflicts arose over differences which only indirectly involved
+constitutional questions. The aims of both the Knights of Labor and of
+the American Federation were primarily economic and both organizations
+were opposed to agitation of a distinctively political character. But
+parallel with the labor agitation, and in communication with it, there
+were radical reform movements of a type unknown before. There was now to
+arise a socialistic movement opposed to traditional constitutionalism,
+and therefore viewed with alarm in many parts of the country. Veneration
+of the Constitution of 1787 was practically a national sentiment which
+had lasted from the time the Union was successfully established until
+the Cleveland era. However violent political differences in regard to
+public policy might be, it was the invariable rule that proposals must
+claim a constitutional sanction. In the Civil War, both sides felt
+themselves to be fighting in defense of the traditional Constitution.
+
+The appeal to antiquity--even such a moderate degree of antiquity as
+may be claimed for American institutions--has always been the staple
+argument in American political controversy. The views and intentions
+of the Fathers of the Constitution are exhibited not so much
+for instruction as for imitation, and by means of glosses and
+interpretations conclusions may be reached which would have surprised
+the Fathers to whom they are imputed. Those who examine the records of
+the formative period of American institutions, not to obtain material
+for a case but simply to ascertain the facts, will readily observe that
+what is known as the principle of strict construction dates only from
+the organization of national parties under the Constitution. It was an
+invention of the opposition to Federalist rule and was not held by the
+makers of the Constitution themselves. The main concern of the framers
+was to get power for the National Government, and they went as far as
+they could with such success that striking instances may be culled from
+the writings of the Fathers showing that the scope they contemplated has
+yet to be attained. Strict construction affords a short and easy way
+of avoiding troublesome issues--always involved in unforeseen national
+developments--by substituting the question of constitutional power for a
+question of public propriety. But this method has the disadvantage,
+that it belittles the Constitution by making it an obstacle to progress.
+Running through much political controversy in the United States is the
+argument that, even granting that a proposal has all the merit claimed
+for it, nevertheless it cannot be adopted because the Constitution is
+against it. By strict logical inference the rejoinder then comes
+that, if so, the Constitution is no longer an instrument of national
+advantage. The traditional attachment of the American people to the
+Constitution has indeed been so strong that they have been loath to
+accept the inference that the Constitution is out of date, although the
+quality of legislation at Washington kept persistently suggesting that
+view of the case.
+
+The failures and disappointments resulting from the series of national
+elections from 1874 to 1884, at last, made an opening for party
+movements voicing the popular discontent and openly antagonistic to
+the traditional Constitution. The Socialist Labor party held its first
+national convention in 1877. Its membership was mostly foreign; of
+twenty-four periodical publications then carried on in the party
+interest, only eight were in the English language; and this polyglot
+press gave justification to the remark that the movement was in the
+hands of people who proposed to remodel the institutions of the country
+before they had acquired its language. The alien origin of the movement
+was emphasized by the appearance of two Socialist members of the German
+Reichstag, who made a tour of this country in 1881 to stir up interest
+in the cause. It was soon apparent that the growth of the Socialist
+party organization was hindered by the fact that its methods were too
+studious and its discussions too abstract to suit the energetic temper
+of the times. Many Socialists broke away to join revolutionary clubs
+which were now organized in a number of cities without any clearly
+defined principle save to fight the existing system of government.
+
+At this critical moment in the process of social disorganization, the
+influence of foreign destructive thought made itself felt. The
+arrival of Johann Most from Europe, in the fall of 1882, supplied this
+revolutionary movement with a leader who made anarchy its principle.
+Originally a German Socialist aiming to make the State the sole landlord
+and capitalist, he had gone over to anarchism and proposed to dissolve
+the State altogether, trusting to voluntary association to supply
+all genuine social needs. Driven from Germany, he had taken refuge in
+England, but even the habitual British tolerance had given way under
+his praise of the assassination of the Czar Alexander in 1881 and his
+proposal to treat other rulers in the same way. He had just completed
+a term of imprisonment before coming to the United States. Here, he was
+received as a hero; a great mass meeting in his honor was held in Cooper
+Union, New York, in December, 1882; and when he toured the country he
+everywhere addressed large meetings.
+
+In October 1883, a convention of social revolutionists and anarchists
+was held in Chicago, at which a national organization was formed called
+the International Working People's Association. The new organization
+grew much faster than the Socialist party itself, which now almost
+disappeared. Two years later, the International had a party press
+consisting of seven German, two Bohemian, and only two English papers.
+Like the Socialist party, it was, therefore, mainly foreign in its
+membership. It was strongest in and about Chicago, where it included
+twenty groups with three thousand enrolled members. The anarchist
+papers exhorted their adherents to provide themselves with arms and even
+published instructions for the use of dynamite.
+
+Political and industrial conditions thus supplied material for an
+explosion which came with shocking violence. On May 4, 1885, towards the
+close of an anarchist meeting held in Chicago, a dynamite bomb thrown
+among a force of policemen killed one and wounded many. Fire was at
+once opened on both sides, and, although the battle lasted only a few
+minutes, seven policemen were killed and about sixty wounded; while
+on the side of the anarchists, four were killed and about fifty were
+wounded. Ten of the anarchist leaders were promptly indicted, of whom
+one made his escape and another turned State's evidence. The trial of
+the remaining eight began on June 21, 1886, and two months later the
+death sentence was imposed upon seven and a penitentiary term of fifteen
+years upon one. The sentences of two of the seven were commuted to life
+imprisonment; one committed suicide in his cell by exploding a cartridge
+in his mouth; and four met death on the scaffold. While awaiting
+their fate they were to a startling extent regarded as heroes and
+bore themselves as martyrs to a noble cause. Six years later, Illinois
+elected as governor John P. Altgeld, one of whose first steps was to
+issue a pardon to the three who were serving terms of imprisonment and
+to criticize sharply the conduct of the trial which had resulted in the
+conviction of the anarchists.
+
+The Chicago outbreak and its result stopped the open spread of
+anarchism. Organized labor now withdrew from any sort of association
+with it. This cleared the field for a revival of the Socialist movement
+as the agency of social and political reconstruction. So rapidly did
+it gain in membership and influence that by 1892 it was able to present
+itself as an organized national party appealing to public opinion for
+confidence and support, submitting its claims to public discussion, and
+stating its case upon reasonable grounds. Although its membership was
+small in comparison with that of the old parties, the disparity was
+not so great as it seemed, since the Socialists represented active
+intelligence while the other parties represented political inertia. From
+this time on, Socialist views spread among college students, artists,
+and men of letters, and the academic Socialist became a familiar figure
+in American society.
+
+Probably more significant than the Socialist movement, as an indication
+of the popular demand for radical reform in the government of the
+country, was the New York campaign of Henry George in 1886. He was a San
+Francisco printer and journalist when he published the work on "Progress
+and Poverty" which made him famous. Upon the petition of over thirty
+thousand citizens, he became the Labor candidate for mayor of New York
+City. The movement in support of George developed so much strength that
+the regular parties felt compelled to put forward exceptionally strong
+candidates. The Democrats nominated Abram S. Hewitt, a man of the
+highest type of character, a fact which was not perhaps so influential
+in getting him the nomination as that he was the son-in-law of Peter
+Cooper, a philanthropist justly beloved by the working classes. The
+Republicans nominated Theodore Roosevelt, who had already distinguished
+himself by his energy of character and zeal for reform. Hewitt was
+elected, but George received 68,110 votes out of a total of 219,679, and
+stood second in the poll. His supporters contended that he had really
+been elected but had been counted out, and this belief turned their
+attention to the subject of ballot reform. To the agitation which
+Henry George began, may be fairly ascribed the general adoption of the
+Australian ballot in the United States.
+
+The Socialist propaganda carried on in large cities and in factory towns
+hardly touched the great mass of the people of the United States, who
+belonged to the farm rather than to the workshop. The great agricultural
+class, which had more weight at the polls than any other class of
+citizens, was much interested in the redress of particular grievances
+and very little in any general reform of the governmental system. It
+is a class that is conservative in disposition but distrustful of
+authority, impatient of what is theoretical and abstract, and bent upon
+the quick practical solution of problems by the nearest and simplest
+means. While the Socialists in the towns were interested in labor
+questions, the farmers more than any other class were affected by the
+defective system of currency supply. The national banking system had not
+been devised to meet industrial needs but as a war measure to provide
+a market for government bonds, deposits of which had to be made as the
+basis of note issues. As holdings of government bonds were amassed in
+the East, financial operations tended to confine themselves to that
+part of the country, and banking facilities seemed to be in danger
+of becoming a sectional monopoly, and such, indeed, was the case to a
+marked extent. This situation inspired among the farmers, especially
+in the agricultural West, a hatred of Wall Street and a belief in the
+existence of a malign money power which provided an inexhaustible fund
+of sectional feeling for demagogic exploitation.
+
+For lack of proper machinery of credit for carrying on the process of
+exchange, there seemed to be an absolute shortage in the amount of money
+in circulation, and it was this circumstance that had given such force
+to the Greenback Movement. Although that movement was defeated, its
+supporters urged that, if the Government could not supply additional
+note issues, it should at least permit an increase in the stock of
+coined money. This feeling was so strong that as early as 1877 the House
+had passed a bill for the free coinage of silver. For this, the
+Senate substituted a measure requiring the purchase and coinage by the
+Government of from two to four million dollars' worth of silver monthly,
+and this compromise was accepted by the House. As a result, in February,
+1878, it was passed over President Hayes's veto.
+
+The operation of this act naturally tended to cause the hoarding of
+gold as the cheaper silver was equally a legal tender, and meanwhile the
+silver dollars did not tend to pass into circulation. In 1885, in his
+first annual message to Congress, President Cleveland mentioned the fact
+that, although 215,759,431 silver dollars had been coined, only about
+fifty million had found their way into circulation, and that "every
+month two millions of gold in the public Treasury are paid out for two
+millions or more of silver dollars to be added to the idle mass already
+accumulated." The process was draining the stock of gold in the Treasury
+and forcing the country to a silver basis without really increasing
+the amount of money in actual circulation or removing any of the
+difficulties in the way of obtaining supplies of currency for business
+transactions. President Cleveland recommended the repeal of the Silver
+Coinage Act, but he had no plan to offer by which the genuine complaints
+of the people against the existing monetary system could be removed.
+Free silver thus was allowed to stand before the people as the only
+practical proposal for their relief, and upon this issue a conflict soon
+began between Congress and the Administration.
+
+At a convention of the American Bankers' Association in September, 1885,
+a New York bank president described the methods by which the Treasury
+Department was restricting the operation of the Silver Coinage Act so
+as to avoid a displacement of the gold standard. On February 3, 1886,
+Chairman Bland of the House committee on coinage reported a resolution
+reciting statements made in that address, and calling upon the Secretary
+of the Treasury for a detailed account of his administration of the
+Silver Coinage Act. Secretary Manning's reply was a long and weighty
+argument against continuing the coinage of silver. He contended that
+there was no hope of maintaining a fixed ratio between gold and silver
+except by international concert of action, but "the step is one which
+no European nation... will consent to take while the direct or
+indirect substitution of European silver for United States gold seems a
+possibility." While strong as to what not to do, his reply, like most of
+the state papers of this period, was weak as to what to do and how to do
+it. The outlook of the Secretary of the Treasury was so narrow that he
+was led to remark that "a delusion has spread that the Government has
+authority to fix the amount of the people's currency, and the power,
+and the duty." The Government certainly has the power and the duty of
+providing adequate currency supply through a sound banking system. The
+instinct of the people on that point was sounder than the view of their
+rulers.
+
+Secretary Manning's plea had so little effect that the House promptly
+voted to suspend the rules in order to make a free coinage bill the
+special order of business until it was disposed of. But the influence of
+the Administration was strong enough to defeat the bill when it came
+to a vote. Though for a time, the legislative advance of the silver
+movement was successfully resisted, the Treasury Department was left in
+a difficult situation, and the expedients to which it resorted to guard
+the gold supply added to the troubles of the people in the matter of
+obtaining currency. The quick way of getting gold from the Treasury was
+to present legal tender notes for redemption. To keep this process in
+check, legal tender notes were impounded as they came in, and silver
+certificates were substituted in disbursements. But under the law of
+1878, silver certificates could not be issued in denominations of less
+than ten dollars. A scarcity of small notes resulted, which oppressed
+retail trade until, in August, 1886, Congress authorized the issue of
+silver certificates in one and two and five dollar bills.
+
+A more difficult problem was presented by the Treasury surplus which, by
+old regulations savoring more of barbarism than of civilized polity, had
+to be kept idle in the Treasury vaults. The only apparent means by which
+the Secretary of the Treasury could return his surplus funds to the
+channels of trade was by redeeming government bonds; but as these were
+the basis of bank note issues, the effect of any such action was to
+produce a sharp contraction in this class of currency. Between 1882
+and 1889, national bank notes declined in amount from $356,060,348
+to $199,779,011. In the same period, the issue of silver certificates
+increased from $63,204,780 to $276,619,715, and the total amount
+of currency of all sorts nominally increased from $1,188,752,363 to
+$1,405,018,000; but of this, $375,947,715 was in gold coin which was
+being hoarded, and national bank notes were almost equally scarce since
+they were virtually government bonds in a liquid form.
+
+As the inefficiency of the monetary system came home to the people
+in practical experience, it seemed as if they were being plagued and
+inconvenienced in every possible way. The conditions were just such as
+would spread disaffection among the farmers, and their discontent sought
+an outlet. The growth of political agitation in the agricultural
+class, accompanied by a thorough-going disapproval of existing party
+leadership, gave rise to numerous new party movements. Delegates
+from the Agricultural Wheel, the Corn-Planters, the Anti-Monopolists,
+Farmers' Alliance, and Grangers, attended a convention in February,
+1887, and joined the Knights of Labor and the Greenbackers to form the
+United Labor party. In the country, at this time, there were numerous
+other labor parties of local origin and composition, with trade
+unionists predominating in some places and Socialists in others.
+Very early, however, these parties showed a tendency to division that
+indicated a clash of incompatible elements. Single taxers, greenbackers,
+labor leaders, grangers, and socialists were agreed only in condemning
+existing public policy. When they came to consider the question of what
+new policy should be adopted, they immediately manifested irreconcilable
+differences. In 1888, rival national conventions were held in
+Cincinnati, one designating itself as the Union Labor party, the other
+as the United Labor party. One made a schedule of particular demands;
+the other insisted on the single tax as the consummation of their
+purpose in seeking reform. Both put presidential tickets in the field,
+but of the two, the Union Labor party made by far the better showing at
+the polls though, even so, it polled fewer votes than did the National
+Prohibition party. Although making no very considerable showing at the
+polls, these new movements were very significant as evidences of popular
+unrest. The fact that the heaviest vote of the Union Labor party was
+polled in the agricultural States of Kansas, Missouri, and Texas, was a
+portent of the sweep of the populist movement which virtually captured
+the Democratic party organization during President Cleveland's second
+term.
+
+The withdrawal of Blaine from the list of presidential candidates in
+1888 left the Republican Convention at Chicago to choose from a score
+of "favorite sons." Even his repeated statement that he would not accept
+the nomination did not prevent his enthusiastic followers from hoping
+that the convention might be "stampeded." But on the first ballot,
+Blaine received only thirty-five votes while John Sherman led with 229.
+It was anybody's race until the eighth ballot, when General Benjamin
+Harrison, grandson of "Tippecanoe," suddenly forged ahead and received
+the nomination.
+
+The defeat of the Democratic party at the polls in the presidential
+election of 1888 was less emphatic than might have been expected from
+its sorry record. Indeed, it is quite possible that an indiscretion in
+which Lord Sackville-West, the British Ambassador, was caught may have
+turned the scale. An adroitly worded letter was sent to him, purporting
+to come from Charles Murchison, a California voter of English birth,
+asking confidential advice which might enable the writer "to assure many
+of our countrymen that they would do England a service by voting
+for Cleveland and against the Republican system of tariff." With an
+astonishing lack of astuteness, the British minister fell into the trap
+and sent a reply which, while noncommittal on particulars, exhibited
+friendly interest in the reelection of President Cleveland. This
+correspondence, when published late in the campaign, caused the
+Administration to demand his recall. A spirited statement of the case
+was laid before the public by Thomas Francis Bayard, Secretary of State,
+a few days before the election, but this was not enough to undo the harm
+that had been done, and the Murchison letter takes rank with the Morey
+letter attributed to General Garfield as specimens of the value of the
+campaign lie as a weapon in American party politics.
+
+President Cleveland received a slight plurality in the total popular
+vote; but by small pluralities Harrison carried the big States, thus
+obtaining a heavy majority in the electoral vote. At the same time,
+the Republicans obtained nearly as large a majority in the House as the
+Democrats had had before.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE REPUBLICAN OPPORTUNITY
+
+The Republican party had the inestimable advantage in the year 1889 of
+being able to act. It controlled the Senate which had become the seat
+of legislative authority; it controlled the House; and it had placed its
+candidate in the presidential chair. All branches of the Government
+were now in party accord. The leaders in both Houses were able
+men, experienced in the diplomacy which, far more than argument or
+conviction, produces congressional action. Benjamin Harrison himself
+had been a member of the ruling group of Senators, and as he was fully
+imbued with their ideas as to the proper place of the President he was
+careful to avoid interference with legislative procedure. Such was the
+party harmony that an extensive program of legislation was put through
+without serious difficulty, after obstruction had been overcome in the
+House by an amendment of the rules.
+
+In the House of Representatives, the quorum is a majority of the whole
+membership. This rule enabled the minority to stop business at any
+time when the majority party was not present in sufficient strength to
+maintain the quorum by its own vote. On several occasions, the Democrats
+left the House nominally without a quorum by the subterfuge of refusing
+to answer to their names on the roll call. Speaker Reed determined to
+end this practice by counting as present any members actually in the
+chamber. To the wrath of the minority, he assumed this authority while
+a revision of the rules was pending. The absurdity of the Democratic
+position was naively exposed when a member arose with a law book in his
+hand and said, "I deny your right, Mr. Speaker, to count me as present,
+and I desire to read from the parliamentary law on the subject." Speaker
+Reed, with the nasal drawl that was his habit, replied, "The Chair is
+making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present?
+Does he deny it?" The rejoinder was so apposite that the House broke
+into a roar of laughter, and the Speaker carried his point.
+
+Undoubtedly, Speaker Reed was violating all precedents. Facilities of
+obstruction had been cherished by both parties, and nothing short of
+Reed's earnestness and determination could have effected this salutary
+reform. The fact has since been disclosed that he had made up his mind
+to resign the Speakership and retire from public life had his party
+failed to support him. For three days, the House was a bedlam, but the
+Speaker bore himself throughout with unflinching courage and unruffled
+composure. Eventually he had his way. New rules were adopted, and the
+power to count a quorum was established.* When in later Congresses a
+Democratic majority returned to the former practice, Reed gave them such
+a dose of their own medicine that for weeks the House was unable to keep
+a quorum. Finally, the House was forced to return to the "Reed rules"
+which have since then been permanently retained. As a result of
+congressional example, they have been generally adopted by American
+legislative bodies, with a marked improvement in their capacity to do
+business.
+
+
+     *  The rule that "no dilatory motion shall be entertained by the
+Speaker" was also adopted at this time.
+
+
+With the facilities of action which they now possessed, the Republican
+leaders had no difficulty in getting rid of the surplus in the Treasury.
+Indeed, in this particular they could count on Democratic aid. The
+main conduit which they used was an increase of pension expenditures.
+President Harrison encouraged a spirit of broad liberality toward
+veterans of the Civil War. During the campaign he said that it "was
+no time to be weighing the claims of old soldiers with apothecary's
+scales," and he put this principle of generous recognition into effect
+by appointing as commissioner of pensions a robust partisan known as
+"Corporal" Tanner. The report went abroad that on taking office he had
+gleefully declared, "God help the surplus," and upon that maxim he acted
+with unflinching vigor. It seemed, indeed, as if any claim could count
+upon being allowed so long as it purported to come from an old soldier.
+But Tanner's ambition was not satisfied with an indulgent consideration
+of applications pending during his time; he reopened old cases,
+rerated a large number of pensioners, and increased the amount of their
+allowance. In some cases, large sums were granted as arrears due on the
+basis of the new rate. A number of officers of the pension bureau
+were thus favored, for a man might receive a pension on the score of
+disability though still able to hold office and draw its salary and
+emoluments. For example, the sum of $4300 in arrears was declared to
+be due to a member of the United States Senate, Charles F. Manderson of
+Nebraska. Finally, "Corporal" Tanner's extravagant management became
+so intolerable to the Secretary of the Interior that he confronted
+President Harrison with the choice of accepting his resignation or
+dismissing Tanner. Tanner therefore had to go, and with him his system
+of reratings.
+
+A pension bill for dependents, such as Cleveland had vetoed, now went
+triumphantly through Congress.* It granted pensions of from six to
+twelve dollars a month to all persons who had served for ninety days
+in the Civil War and had thereby been incapacitated for manual labor to
+such a degree as to be unable to support themselves. Pensions were
+also granted to widows, minor children, and dependent parents. This law
+brought in an enormous flood of claims in passing, upon which it was
+the policy of the Pension Bureau to practice great indulgence. In one
+instance, a pension was granted to a claimant who had enlisted but never
+really served in the army as he had deserted soon after entering the
+camp. He thereupon had been sentenced to hard labor for one year and
+made to forfeit all pay and allowances. After the war, he had been
+convicted of horse stealing and sent to the state penitentiary in
+Wisconsin. While serving his term, he presented a pension claim
+supported by forged testimony to the effect that he had been wounded in
+the battle of Franklin. The fraud was discovered by a special examiner
+of the pension office, and the claimant and some of his witnesses were
+tried for perjury, convicted, and sent to the state penitentiary at
+Joliet, Illinois. After serving his time there, he posed as a neglected
+old soldier and succeeded in obtaining letters from sympathetic
+Congressmen commending his case to the attention of the pension office,
+but without avail until the Act of 1890 was passed. He then put in a
+claim which was twice rejected by the pension office examiners, but
+each time the decision was overruled, and in the end he was put upon the
+pension roll. This case is only one of many made possible by lax methods
+of investigating pension claims. Senator Gallinger of New Hampshire
+eventually said of the effect of pension policy, as shaped by his own
+party with his own aid:
+
+"If there was any soldier on the Union side during the Civil War who was
+not a good soldier, who has not received a pension, I do not know who
+he is. He can always find men of his own type, equally poor soldiers who
+would swear that they knew he had been in a hospital at a certain time,
+whether he was or not--the records did not state it, but they knew it
+was so--and who would also swear that they knew he had received a shock
+which affected his hearing during a certain battle, or that something
+else had happened to him; and so all those pension claims, many of which
+are worthless, have been allowed by the Government, because they were
+'proved.'"
+
+
+     *  June 27, 1890.
+
+
+The increase in the expenditure for pensions, which rose from
+$88,000,000 in 1889 to $159,000,000 in 1893, swept away much of the
+surplus in the Treasury. Further inroads were made by the enactment of
+the largest river and harbor appropriation bill in the history of the
+country up to this time. Moreover, a new tariff bill was contrived in
+such a way as to impose protective duties without producing so much
+revenue that it would cause popular complaint about unnecessary
+taxation. A large source of revenue was cut off by abolishing the
+sugar duties and by substituting a system of bounties to encourage home
+production. Upon this bill as a whole, Senator Cullom remarks in
+his memoirs that "it was a high protective tariff, dictated by the
+manufacturers of the country" who have "insisted upon higher duties than
+they really ought to have." The bill was, indeed, made up wholly
+with the view of protecting American manufactures from any foreign
+competition in the home market.
+
+As passed by the House, not only did the bill ignore American commerce
+with other countries but it left American consumers exposed to the
+manipulation of prices on the part of other countries. Practically all
+the products of tropical America, except tobacco, had been placed upon
+the free list without any precaution lest the revenue thus surrendered
+might not be appropriated by other countries by means of export taxes.
+Blaine, who was once more Secretary of State, began a vigorous agitation
+in favor of adding reciprocity provisions to the bill. When the Senate
+showed a disposition to resent his interference, Blaine addressed to
+Senator Frye of Maine a letter which was in effect an appeal to the
+people, and which greatly stirred the farmers by its statement that
+"there is not a section or a line in the entire bill that will open
+the market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of pork." The
+effect was so marked that the Senate yielded, and the Tariff Bill, as
+finally enacted, gave the President power to impose certain duties
+on sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides imported from any country
+imposing on American goods duties, which, in the opinion of the
+President, were "reciprocally unequal and unreasonable." This more
+equitable result is to be ascribed wholly to Blaine's energetic and
+capable leadership.
+
+Pending the passage of the Tariff Bill, the Senate had been wrestling
+with the trust problem which was making a mockery of a favorite theory
+of the Republicans. They had held that tariff protection benefited
+the consumer by the stimulus which it gave to home production and by
+ensuring a supply of articles on as cheap terms as American labor
+could afford. There were, however, notorious facts showing that certain
+corporations had taken advantage of the situation to impose high prices,
+especially upon the American consumer. It was a campaign taunt that the
+tariff held the people down while the trusts went through their
+pockets, and to this charge the Republicans found it difficult to make a
+satisfactory reply.
+
+The existence of such economic injustice was continually urged in
+support of popular demands for the control of corporations by the
+Government. Though the Republican leaders were much averse to providing
+such control, they found inaction so dangerous that on January 14, 1890,
+Senator John Sherman reported from the Finance Committee a vague but
+peremptory statute to make trade competition compulsory. This was the
+origin of the AntiTrust Law which has since gone by his name, although
+the law actually passed was framed by the Senate judiciary committee.
+The first section declared that "every contract, combination in the form
+of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce
+among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to
+be illegal." The law made no attempt to define the offenses it penalized
+and created no machinery for enforcing its provisions, but it gave
+jurisdiction over alleged violations to the courts--a favorite
+congressional mode of getting rid of troublesome responsibilities. As a
+result, the courts have been struggling with the application of the law
+ever since, without being able to develop a clear or consistent rule
+for discriminating between legal and illegal combinations in trade and
+commerce. Even upon the financial question, the Republicans succeeded
+in maintaining party harmony, notwithstanding a sharp conflict between
+factions. William Windom, the Secretary of the Treasury, had prepared a
+bill of the type known as a "straddle." It offered the advocates of free
+coinage the right to send to the mint silver bullion in any quantity
+and to receive in return the net market value of the bullion in treasury
+notes redeemable in gold or silver coin at the option of the Government.
+The monthly purchase of not less than $2,000,000 worth of bullion was,
+however, no longer to be required by law. When the advocates of silver
+insisted that the provision for bullion purchase was too vague, a
+substitute was prepared which definitely required the Secretary of the
+Treasury to purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver bullion in one month.
+The bill, as thus amended, was put through the House under special rule
+by a strict party vote. But when the bill reached the Senate, the
+former party agreement could no longer be maintained, and the Republican
+leaders lost control of the situation. The free silver Republicans
+combined with most of the Democrats to substitute a free coinage bill,
+which passed the Senate by forty-three yeas to twenty-four nays, all the
+negative votes save three coming from the Republican side.
+
+It took all the influence the party leaders could exert to prevent a
+silver stampede in the House when the Senate substitute bill was brought
+forward; but by dexterous management, a vote of non-concurrence was
+passed and a committee of conference was appointed. The Republican
+leaders now found themselves in a situation in which presidential
+non-interference ceased to be desirable, but president Harrison could
+not be stirred to action. He would not even state his views. As Senator
+Sherman remarked in his "Recollections," "The situation at that time was
+critical. A large majority of the Senate favored free silver, and it was
+feared that the small majority against it in the other House might yield
+and agree to it. The silence of the President on the matter gave rise to
+an apprehension that if a free coinage bill should pass both Houses, he
+would not feel at liberty to veto it."
+
+In this emergency, the Republican leaders appealed to their free silver
+party associates to be content with compelling the Treasury to purchase
+4,500,000 ounces of silver per month, which it was wrongly calculated
+would cover the entire output of American mines. The force of party
+discipline eventually prevailed, and the Republican party got together
+on this compromise. The bill was adopted in both Houses by a strict
+party vote, with the Democrats solidly opposed, and was finally enacted
+on July 14, 1890.
+
+Thus by relying upon political tactics, the managers of the Republican
+party were able to reconcile conflicting interests, maintain party
+harmony, and present a record of achievement which they hoped to make
+available in the fall elections. But while they had placated the party
+factions, they had done nothing to satisfy the people as a whole or to
+redress their grievances. The slowness of congressional procedure
+in matters of legislative reform allowed the amplest opportunity to
+unscrupulous business men to engage, in the meantime, in profiteering at
+the public expense. They were able to lay in stocks of goods at the
+old rates so that an increase of customs rates, for example, became
+an enormous tax upon consumers without a corresponding gain to the
+Treasury; for the yield was largely intercepted on private accounts by
+an advance in prices. The Tariff Bill, which William McKinley reported
+on April 16, 1890, became law only on the 1st of October, so there were
+over five months during which profiteers could stock at old rates
+for sales at the new rates and thus reap a rich harvest. The public,
+however, was infuriated, and popular sentiment was so stirred by the
+methods of retail trade that the politicians were both angered and
+dismayed. Whenever purchasers complained of an increase of price, they
+received the apparently plausible explanation, "Oh, the McKinley Bill
+did it." To silence this popular discontent, the customary arts and
+cajoleries of the politicians proved for once quite ineffectual.
+
+At the next election, the Republicans carried only eighty-eight seats in
+the House out of 332--the most crushing defeat they had yet sustained.
+By their new lease of power in the House, however, the Democratic
+party could not accomplish any legislation, as the Republicans still
+controlled the Senate. The Democratic leaders, therefore, adopted the
+policy of passing a series of bills attacking the tariff at what were
+supposed to be particularly vulnerable points. These measures, the
+Republicans derided as "pop-gun bills," and in the Senate they turned
+them over to the committee on finance for burial. Both parties were rent
+by the silver issue, but it was noticeable that in the House which was
+closest to the people the opposition to the silver movement was stronger
+and more effective than in the Senate.
+
+Notwithstanding the popular revolt against the Republican policy which
+was disclosed by the fall elections of 1890, President Harrison's annual
+message of December 9, 1891, was marked by extreme complacency. Great
+things, he assured the people, were being accomplished under his
+administration. The results of the McKinley Bill "have disappointed
+the evil prophecies of its opponents and in large measure realized the
+hopeful predictions of its friends." Rarely had the country been so
+prosperous. The foreign commerce of the United States had reached the
+largest total in the history of the country. The prophecies made by the
+antisilver men regarding disasters to result from the Silver Bullion
+Purchase Act, had not been realized. The President remarked "that the
+increased volume of currency thus supplied for the use of the people was
+needed and that beneficial results upon trade and prices have followed
+this legislation I think must be clear to every one." He held that the
+free coinage of silver would be disastrous, as it would contract the
+currency by the withdrawal of gold, whereas "the business of the world
+requires the use of both metals." While "the producers of silver
+are entitled to just consideration," it should be remembered that
+"bimetallism is the desired end, and the true friends of silver will be
+careful not to overrun the goal." In conclusion, the President expressed
+his great joy over "many evidences of the increased unification of the
+people and of the revived national spirit. The vista that now opens to
+us is wider and more glorious than before. Gratification and amazement
+struggle for supremacy as we contemplate the population, wealth, and
+moral strength of our country."
+
+Though the course of events has yet to be fully explained, President
+Harrison's dull pomposity may have been the underlying reason of the
+aversion which Blaine now began to manifest. Although on Harrison's side
+and against Blaine, Senator Cullom remarks in his memoirs that Harrison
+had "a very cold, distant temperament," and that "he was probably the
+most unsatisfactory President we ever had in the White House to those
+who must necessarily come into personal contact with him." Cullom is
+of the opinion that "jealousy was probably at the bottom of their
+disaffection," but it appears to be certain that at this time Blaine had
+renounced all ambition to be President and energetically discouraged any
+movement in favor of his candidacy. On February 6, 1892, he wrote to
+the chairman of the Republican National Committee that he was not
+a candidate and that his name would not go before the convention.
+President Harrison went ahead with his arrangements for renomination,
+with no sign of opposition from Blaine. Then suddenly, on the eve of
+the convention, something happened--exactly what has yet to be
+discovered--which caused Blaine to resign the office of Secretary of
+State. It soon became known that Blaine's name would be presented,
+although he had not announced himself as a candidate. Blaine's health
+was then broken, and it was impossible that he could have imagined that
+his action would defeat Harrison. It could not have been meant for more
+than a protest. Harrison was renominated on the first ballot with Blaine
+a poor second in the poll.
+
+In the Democratic convention, Cleveland, too, was renominated on the
+first ballot, in the face of a bitter and outspoken opposition. The
+solid vote of his own State, New York, was polled against him under the
+unit rule, and went in favor of David B. Hill. But even with this large
+block of votes to stand upon, Hill was able to get only 113 votes in
+all, while Cleveland received 616. Genuine acceptance of his leadership,
+however, did not at all correspond with this vote. Cleveland had come
+out squarely against free silver, and at least eight of the Democratic
+state conventions--in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada,
+South Carolina, and Texas--came out just as definitely in favor of
+free silver. But even delegates who were opposed to Cleveland, and who
+listened with glee to excoriating speeches against him forthwith, voted
+for him as the candidate of greatest popular strength. They then solaced
+their feelings by nominating a free silver man for Vice-President, who
+was made the more acceptable by his opposition to civil service reform.
+The ticket thus straddled the main issue; and the platform was
+similarly ambiguous. It denounced the Silver Purchase Act as "a cowardly
+makeshift" which should be repealed, and it declared in favor of "the
+coinage of both gold and silver without discrimination," with the
+provision that "the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of
+equal intrinsic and exchangeable value." The Prohibition party in that
+year came out for the "free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold." A
+more significant sign of the times was the organization of the "People's
+party," which held its first convention and nominated the old Greenback
+leader, James B. Weaver of Iowa, on a free silver platform.
+
+The campaign was accompanied by labor disturbances of unusual extent
+and violence. Shortly after the meeting of the national conventions, a
+contest began between the powerful Amalgamated Association of Steel
+and Iron Workers, the strongest of the trade-unions, and the Carnegie
+Company over a new wage scale introduced in the Homestead mills. The
+strike began on June 29, 1892, and local authority at once succumbed
+to the strikers. In anticipation of this eventuality, the company had
+arranged to have three hundred Pinkerton men act as guards. They arrived
+in Pittsburgh during the night of the 5th of July and embarked on barges
+which were towed up the river to Homestead. As they approached, the
+strikers turned out to meet them, and an engagement ensued in which men
+were killed or wounded on both sides and the Pinkerton men were defeated
+and driven away. For a short time, the strikers were in complete
+possession of the town and of the company's property. They preserved
+order fairly well but kept a strict watch that no strike breakers should
+approach or attempt to resume work. The government of Pennsylvania was,
+for a time, completely superseded in that region by the power of the
+Amalgamated Association, until a large force of troops entered Homestead
+on the 12th of July and remained in possession of the place for several
+months. The contest between the strikers and the company caused great
+excitement throughout the country, and a foreign anarchist from New
+York attempted to assassinate Mr. Frick, the managing director of the
+company. Though this strike was caused by narrow differences concerning
+only the most highly paid classes of workers, it continued for some
+months and then ended in the complete defeat of the union.
+
+On the same day that the militia arrived at Homestead, a more bloody and
+destructive conflict occurred in the Coeur d'Alene district of Idaho,
+where the workers in the silver mines were on strike. Nonunion men were
+imported and put into some of the mines. The strikers, armed with rifles
+and dynamite, thereupon attacked the nonunion men and drove them
+off, but many lives were lost in the struggle and much property was
+destroyed. The strikers proved too strong for any force which state
+authority could muster, but upon the call of the Governor, President
+Harrison ordered federal troops to the scene and under martial law order
+was soon restored.
+
+Further evidence of popular unrest was given in August by a strike of
+the switchmen in the Buffalo railway yards, which paralyzed traffic
+until several thousand state troops were put on guard. About the same
+time, there were outbreaks in the Tennessee coal districts in protest
+against the employment of convict labor in the mines. Bands of strikers
+seized the mines, and in some places turned loose the convicts and
+in other places escorted them back to prison. As a result of this
+disturbance, during 1892 state troops were permanently stationed in the
+mining districts, and eventually the convicts were put back at labor in
+the mines.
+
+Such occurrences infused bitterness into the campaign of 1892 and
+strongly affected the election returns. Weaver carried Colorado, Idaho,
+Kansas, and Nevada, and he got one electoral vote in Oregon and in
+North Dakota; but even if these twenty-two electoral votes had gone to
+Harrison, he would still have been far behind Cleveland, who received
+277 electoral votes out of a total of 444. Harrison ran only about
+381,000 behind Cleveland in the popular vote, but in four States, the
+Democrats had nominated no electors and their votes had contributed to
+the poll of over a million for Weaver. The Democratic victory was so
+sweeping that it gained the Senate as well as the House, and now for the
+first time a Democratic President was in accord with both branches of
+Congress. It was soon to appear, however, that this party accord was
+merely nominal.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE FREE SILVER REVOLT
+
+The avenging consequences of the Silver Purchase Act moved so rapidly
+that when John Griffin Carlisle took office as Secretary of the Treasury
+in 1893, the gold reserve had fallen to $100,982,410--only $982,410
+above the limit indicated by the Act of 1882--and the public credit was
+shaken by the fact that it was an open question whether the government
+obligation to pay a dollar was worth so much or only one half so much.
+The latter interpretation, indeed, seemed impending. The new Secretary's
+first step was to adopt the makeshift expedient of his predecessors. He
+appealed to the banks for gold and backed up by patriotic exhortation
+from the press, he did obtain almost twenty-five millions in gold in
+exchange for notes. But as even more notes drawing out the gold
+were presented for redemption, the Secretary's efforts were no more
+successful than carrying water in a sieve.
+
+Of the notes presented for redemption during March and April, nearly
+one-half were treasury notes of 1890, which by law the Secretary might
+redeem "in gold or silver coin at his discretion." The public was now
+alarmed by a rumor that Secretary Carlisle, who while in Congress had
+voted for free silver, would resort to silver payments on this class of
+notes, and regarded his statements as being noncommittal on the point.
+Popular alarm was, to some extent, dispelled by a statement from
+President Cleveland, on the 23rd of April, declaring flatly and
+unmistakably that redemption in gold would be maintained. But the
+financial situation throughout the country was such that nothing could
+stave off the impending panic. Failures were increasing in number, some
+large firms broke under the strain, and the final stroke came on the 5th
+of May when the National Cordage Company went into bankruptcy. As often
+happens in the history of panics, the event was trivial in comparison
+with the consequences. This company was of a type that is the reproach
+of American jurisprudence--the marauding corporation. In the very month
+in which it failed, it declared a large cash dividend. Its stock, which
+had sold at 147 in January, fell in May to below ten dollars a share.
+Though the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, which failed
+in February, had a capital of $40,000,000 and a debt of more than
+$125,000,000, the market did not break completely under that strain. The
+National Cordage had a capital of $20,000,000 and liabilities of only
+$10,000,000, but its collapse brought down with it the whole structure
+of credit. A general movement of liquidation set in, which throughout
+the West was so violent as to threaten general bankruptcy. Nearly all
+of the national bank failures were in the West and South, and still more
+extensive was the wreck of state banks and private banks. It had been
+the practice of country banks, while firmly maintaining local rates, to
+keep the bulk of their resources on deposit with city banks at two
+per cent. This practice now proved to be a fatal entanglement to many
+institutions. There were instances in which country banks were forced
+to suspend, though cash resources were actually on the way to them from
+depository centers.*
+
+
+     *  Out of 158 national bank failures during the year, 153 were in
+the West and South. In addition there went down 172 state banks, 177
+private banks, 47 savings banks, 13 loan and trust companies, and 6
+mortgage companies.
+
+Even worse than the effect of these numerous failures on the business
+situation was the derangement which occurred in the currency supply. The
+circulating medium was almost wholly composed of bank notes, treasury
+notes, and treasury certificates issued against gold and silver in the
+Treasury, coin being little in use except as fractional currency. Bank
+notes were essentially treasury certificates issued upon deposits of
+government bonds. In effect, the circulating medium was composed of
+government securities reduced to handy bits. Usually, a bank panic tends
+to bring note issues into rapid circulation for what they will fetch,
+but in this new situation, people preferred to impound the notes, which
+they knew to be good whatever happened so long as the Government
+held out. Private hoarding became so general that currency tended to
+disappear. Between September 30, 1892 and October 31, 1893, the amount
+of deposits in the national banks shrank over $496,000,000. Trade was
+reduced to making use of the methods of primitive barter, though the
+emergency was met to some extent by the use of checks and clearinghouse
+certificates. In many New England manufacturing towns, for example,
+checks for use in trade were drawn in denominations from one dollar
+up to twenty. In some cases, corporations paid off their employees in
+checks drawn on their own treasurers which served as local currency. In
+some Southern cities, clearing-house certificates in small denominations
+were issued for general circulation--in Birmingham, Alabama, for sums as
+small as twenty-five cents. It is worth noting that a premium was
+paid as readily for notes as for gold; indeed, the New York "Financial
+Chronicle" reported that the premium on currency was from two to three
+per cent, while the premium on gold was only one and one half per cent.
+Before the panic had ended, the extraordinary spectacle was presented of
+gold coins serving as a medium of trade because treasury notes and bank
+notes were still hoarded. These peculiarities of the situation had a
+deep effect upon the popular attitude towards the measures recommended
+by the Administration.
+
+While this devastating panic was raging over all the country, President
+Cleveland was beset by troubles that were both public and personal. He
+was under heavy pressure from the office seekers. They came singly or in
+groups and under the escort of Congressmen, some of whom performed such
+service several times a day. The situation became so intolerable that
+on the 8th of May President Cleveland issued an executive order setting
+forth that "a due regard for public duty, which must be neglected if
+present conditions continue, and an observance of the limitations placed
+upon human endurance, oblige me to decline, from and after this date,
+all personal interviews with those seeking office."
+
+According to the Washington papers, this sensible decision was received
+with a tremendous outburst of indignation. The President was denounced
+for shutting his doors upon the people who had elected him, and he was
+especially severely criticized for the closing sentence of his order
+stating that "applicants for office will only prejudice their prospects
+by repeated importunity and by remaining at Washington to await
+results." This order was branded as an arbitrary exercise of power
+compelling free American citizens to choose exile or punishment, and
+was featured in the newspapers all over the country. The hubbub became
+sufficient to extract from Cleveland's private secretary an explanatory
+statement pointing out that in the President's day a regular allotment
+of time was made for congressional and business callers other than the
+office seekers, for whom a personal interview was of no value since the
+details of their cases could not be remembered. "What was said in behalf
+of one man was driven out of mind by the remarks of the next man in
+line," whereas testimonials sent through the mails went on file and
+received due consideration. "So many hours a day having been given up
+to the reception of visitors, it has been necessary, in order to keep up
+with the current work, for the President to keep at his desk from early
+in the morning into the small hours of the next morning. Now that may
+do for a week or for a month, but there is a limit to human physical
+endurance, and it has about been reached."
+
+Such were the distracting conditions under which President Cleveland had
+to deal with the tremendous difficulties of national import which beset
+him. There were allusions in his inaugural address which showed how
+keenly he felt the weight of his many responsibilities, and there is a
+touch of pathos in his remark that he took "much comfort in remembering
+that my countrymen are just and generous, and in the assurance that they
+will not condemn those who by sincere devotion to their service deserve
+their forbearance and approval." This hope of Cleveland's was eventually
+justified, but not until after his public career had ended; meanwhile
+he had to undergo a storm of censure so blasting that it was more like
+a volcanic rain of fire and lava than any ordinary tempest, however
+violent.
+
+On the 30th of June, President Cleveland called an extra session of
+Congress for the 7th of August "to the end that the people may be
+relieved through legislation from present and impending danger and
+distress." In recent years, the fact has come to light that his health
+was at that time in a condition so precarious that it would have caused
+wild excitement had the truth become known, for only his life stood in
+the way of a free silver President. On the same day on which he issued
+his call for the extra session, President Cleveland left for New York
+ostensibly for a yachting trip, but while the yacht was steaming slowly
+up the East River, he was in the hands of surgeons who removed the
+entire left upper jaw. On the 5th of July they performed another
+operation in the same region for the removal of any tissues which
+might possibly have been infected. These operations were so completely
+successful that the President was fitted with an artificial jaw of
+vulcanized rubber which enabled him to speak without any impairment of
+the strength and clearness of his voice.* Immediately after this severe
+trial, which he bore with calm fortitude, Cleveland had to battle with
+the raging silver faction, strong in its legislative position through
+its control of the Senate.
+
+
+     *  For details, see New York "Times," Sept. 21, 1917.
+
+
+When Congress met, the only legislation which the President had to
+propose was the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act, although he remarked
+that "tariff reform has lost nothing of its immediate and permanent
+importance and must in the near future engage the attention
+of Congress." It was a natural inference, therefore, that the
+Administration had no financial policy beyond putting a stop to treasury
+purchases of silver, and there was a vehement outcry against an action
+which seemed to strike against the only visible source of additional
+currency. President Cleveland was even denounced as a tool of Wall
+Street, and the panic was declared to be the result of a plot of British
+and American bankers against silver.
+
+Nevertheless, on the 28th of August, the House passed a repeal bill by a
+vote of 240 to 110. There was a long and violent struggle in the
+Senate, where such representative anomalies existed that Nevada with
+a population of 45,761 had the same voting power as New York with
+5,997,853. Hence, at first, it looked as if the passage of a repeal bill
+might be impossible. Finally, the habit of compromise prevailed and a
+majority agreement was reached postponing the date of repeal for twelve
+or eighteen months during which the treasury stock of silver bullion
+was to be turned into coin. Cleveland made it known that he would not
+consent to such an arrangement, and the issue was thereafter narrowed
+to that of unconditional repeal of the Silver Purchase Act. The Senators
+from the silver-mining States carried on an obstinate filibuster and
+refused to allow the question to come to a vote, until their arrogance
+was gradually toned down by the discovery that the liberty to dump
+silver on the Treasury had become a precarious mining asset. The law
+provided for the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces a month, "or, so much
+thereof as may be offered at the market price." Secretary Carlisle found
+that offers were frequently higher in price than New York and London
+quotations, and by rejecting them he made a considerable reduction in
+the amount purchased. Moreover, the silver ranks began to divide on the
+question of policy. The Democratic silver Senators wished to enlarge the
+circulating medium by increasing the amount of coinage, and they did not
+feel the same interest in the mere stacking of bullion in the Treasury
+that possessed the mining camp Senators on the Republican side.
+When these two elements separated on the question of policy, the
+representatives of the mining interests recognized the hopelessness of
+preventing a vote upon the proposed repeal of the silver purchase act.
+On the 30th of October, the Senate passed the repeal with no essential
+difference from the House bill, and the bill became law on November 1,
+1893.
+
+But although the repeal bill stopped the silver drain upon the Treasury,
+it did not relieve the empty condition to which the Treasury had
+been reduced. It was manifest that, if the gold standard was to be
+maintained, the Treasury stock of gold would have to be replenished. The
+Specie Resumption Act of 1875 authorized the sale of bonds "to prepare
+and provide for" redemption of notes in coin, but the only classes of
+bonds which it authorized were those at four per cent payable after
+thirty years, four and a half per cent payable after fifteen years, and
+five per cent payable after ten years from date. For many years, the
+Government had been able to borrow at lower rates but had in vain
+besought Congress to grant the necessary authority. The Government now
+appealed once more to Congress for authority to issue bonds at a lower
+rate of interest. Carlisle, the Secretary of the Treasury, addressed
+a letter to the Senate committee of finance, setting forth the
+great saving that would be thus effected. Then ensued what must be
+acknowledged to be a breakdown in constitutional government. Immediately
+after a committee meeting on January 16, 1894, the Chairman, Senator
+Voorhees, issued a public statement in which he said that "it would
+be trifling with a very grave affair to pretend that new legislation
+concerning the issue of bonds can be accomplished at this time, and
+in the midst of present elements and parties in public life, with
+elaborate, extensive, and practically indefinite debate." Therefore,
+he held that "it will be wiser, safer and better for the financial
+and business interests of the country to rely upon existing law." This
+plainly amounted to a public confession that Congress was so organized
+as to be incapable of providing for the public welfare.
+
+Carlisle decided to sell the ten-year class of bonds, compensating for
+their high interest rate by exacting such a premium as would reduce
+to three per cent the actual yield to holders. On January 17, 1894,
+he offered bonds to the amount of fifty millions, but bids came in so
+slowly that he found it necessary to visit New York to make a personal
+appeal to a number of leading bankers to exert themselves to prevent the
+failure of the sale. As a result of these efforts, the entire issue
+was sold at a premium of $8,660,917, and the treasury stock of gold was
+brought up to $107,440,802.
+
+Then followed what is probably the most curious chapter in the financial
+history of modern times. Only gold was accepted by the Treasury in
+payment of bonds; but gold could be obtained by offering treasury notes
+for redemption. The Act of 1878 expressly provided that, when redeemed,
+these notes "shall not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but they
+shall be reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation." The
+Government, as President Cleveland pointed out, was "forced to redeem
+without redemption and pay without acquittance." These conditions set up
+against the Treasury an endless chain by which note redemptions drained
+out the gold as fast as bond sales poured it in. In a message to
+Congress on January 28, 1895, President Cleveland pointed out that the
+Treasury had redeemed more than $300,000,000 of its notes in gold,
+and yet these notes were all still outstanding. Appeals to Congress to
+remedy the situation proved absolutely fruitless, and the only choice
+left to the President was to continue pumping operations or abandon the
+gold standard, as the silver faction in Congress desired. By February
+8, 1895, the stock of gold in the Treasury was down to $41,340,181. The
+Administration met this sharp emergency by a contract with a New York
+banking syndicate which agreed to deliver 3,500,000 ounces of standard
+gold coin, at least one half to be obtained in Europe. The syndicate
+was, moreover, to "exert all financial influence and make all legitimate
+efforts to protect the Treasury of the United States against the
+withdrawals of gold pending the complete performance of the contract."
+
+The replenishing of the Treasury by this contract was, however, only
+a temporary relief. By January 6, 1896, the gold reserve was down to
+$61,251,710. The Treasury now offered $100,000,000 of the four per
+cent bonds for sale and put forth special efforts to make subscription
+popular. Blanks for bids were displayed in all post-offices, a circular
+letter was sent to all national banks, the movement was featured in the
+newspapers, and the result was that 4635 bids were received coming from
+forty-seven States and Territories, and amounting to $526,970,000.
+This great oversubscription powerfully upheld the public credit
+and, thereafter, the position of the Treasury remained secure; but
+altogether, $262,000,000 in bonds had been sold to maintain its
+solvency.
+
+Consideration of the management of American foreign relations during
+this period does not enter into the scope of this book, but the fact
+should be noted that the anxieties of public finance were aggravated by
+the menace of war.* In the boundary dispute between British Guiana
+and Venezuela, President Cleveland proposed arbitration, but this was
+refused by the British Government. President Cleveland, whose foreign
+policy was always vigorous and decisive, then sent a message to Congress
+on December 17, 1895, describing the British position as an infringement
+of the Monroe Doctrine and recommending that a commission should be
+appointed by the United States to conduct an independent inquiry to
+determine the boundary line in dispute. He significantly remarked that
+"in making these recommendations I am fully alive to the responsibility
+incurred and keenly realize all the consequences that may follow." The
+possibility of conflict, thus hinted, was averted when Great Britain
+agreed to arbitration, but meanwhile, American securities in great
+numbers were thrown upon the market through sales of European account
+and added to the financial strain.
+
+
+     *  See "The Path of Empire," by Carl Russell Fish (in "The
+Chronicles of America").
+
+
+The invincible determination which President Cleveland showed in this
+memorable struggle to maintain the gold standard will always remain his
+securest title to renown, but the admiration due to his constancy of
+soul cannot be extended to his handling of the financial problem. It
+appears, from his own account, that he was not well advised as to the
+extent and nature of his financial resources. He did not know until
+February 7, 1895, when Mr. J. P. Morgan called his attention to the
+fact, that among the general powers of the Secretary of the Treasury is
+the provision that he "may purchase coin with any of the bonds or notes
+of the United States authorized by law, at such rates and upon such
+terms as he may deem most advantageous to the public interest." The
+President was urged to proceed under this law to buy $100,000,000 in
+gold at a fixed price, paying for it in bonds. This advice Cleveland did
+not accept at the time, but in later years he said that it was "a wise
+suggestion," and that he had "always regretted that it was not adopted."
+
+But apart from any particular error in the management of the Treasury,
+the general policy of the Administration was much below the requirements
+of the situation. The panic came to an end in the fall of 1893, much as
+a great conflagration expires through having reached all the material on
+which it can feed, but leaving a scene of desolation behind it. Thirteen
+commercial houses out of every thousand doing business had failed.
+Within two years, nearly one fourth of the total railway capitalization
+of the country had gone into bankruptcy, involving an exposure of
+falsified accounts sufficient to shatter public confidence in the
+methods of corporations. Industrial stagnation and unemployment were
+prevalent throughout the land. Meanwhile, the congressional situation
+was plainly such that only a great uprising of public opinion could
+break the hold of the silver faction. The standing committee system,
+which controls the gateways of legislation, is made up on a system of
+party apportionment whose effect is to give an insurgent faction of the
+majority the balance of power, and this opportunity for mischief was
+unsparingly used by the silver faction.
+
+Such a situation could not be successfully encountered save by a policy
+aimed distinctly at accomplishing a redress of popular grievances. But
+such a policy, President Cleveland failed to conceive. In his inaugural
+address, he indicated in a general way the policy pursued throughout
+his term when he said, "I shall to the best of my ability and within
+my sphere of duty preserve the Constitution by loyally protecting every
+grant of Federal power it contains, by defending all its restraints
+when attacked by impatience and restlessness, and by enforcing its
+limitations and reservations in favor of the states and the people."
+This statement sets forth a low view of governmental function and
+practically limits its sphere to the office of the policeman, whose
+chief concern is to suppress disorder. Statesmanship should go deeper
+and should labor in a constructive way to remove causes of disorder.
+
+An examination of President Cleveland's state papers show that his
+first concern was always to relieve the Government from its financial
+embarrassments; whereas the first concern of the people was naturally
+and properly to find relief from their own embarrassments. In the
+last analysis, the people were not made for the convenience of the
+Government, but the Government was made for the convenience of the
+people, and this truth was not sufficiently recognized in the policy
+of Cleveland's administration. His guiding principle was stated, in the
+annual message, December 3, 1894, as follows: "The absolute divorcement
+of the Government from the business of banking is the ideal relationship
+of the Government to the circulation of the currency of the country."
+That ideal, however, is unattainable in any civilized country. The only
+great state in which it has ever been actually adopted is China, and the
+results were not such as to commend the system. The policy which yields
+the greatest practical benefits is that which makes it the duty of the
+Government to supervise and regulate the business of banking and to
+attend to currency supply; and the currency troubles of the American
+people were not removed until eventually their Government accepted and
+acted upon this view.
+
+Not until his message of December 3, 1894, did President Cleveland make
+any recommendation going to the root of the trouble, which was, after
+all, the need of adequate provision for the currency supply. In that
+message, he sketched a plan devised by Secretary Carlisle, allowing
+national banks to issue notes up to seventy-five per cent of their
+actual capital and providing also, under certain conditions, for the
+issue of circulating notes by state banks without taxation. This plan,
+he said, "furnishes a basis for a very great improvement in our present
+banking and currency system." But in his subsequent messages, he kept
+urging that "the day of sensible and sound financial methods will not
+dawn upon us until our Government abandons the banking business." To
+effect this aim, he urged that all treasury notes should be "withdrawn
+from circulation and canceled," and he declared that he was "of opinion
+that we have placed too much stress upon the danger of contracting
+the currency." Such proposals addressed to a people agonized by actual
+scarcity of currency were utterly impracticable, nor from any point of
+view can they be pronounced to have been sound in the circumstances then
+existing. Until the banking system was reformed, there was real danger
+of contracting the currency by a withdrawal of treasury notes. President
+Cleveland was making a mistake to which reformers are prone; he was
+taking the second step before he had taken the first. The realization
+on the part of others that his efforts were misdirected not only made
+it impossible for him to obtain any financial legislation but actually
+fortified the position of the free silver advocates by allowing them the
+advantage of being the only political party with any positive plans
+for the redress of popular grievances. Experts became convinced that
+statesmen at Washington were as incompetent to deal with the banking
+problems as they had been in dealing with reconstruction problems and
+that, in like manner, the regulation of banking had better be abandoned
+to the States. A leading organ of the business world pointed out that
+some of the state systems of note issue had been better than the system
+of issuing notes through national banks which had been substituted in
+1862; and it urged that the gains would exceed all disadvantages if
+state banks were again allowed to act as sources of currency supply by
+a repeal of the government tax of ten per cent on their circulation.
+But nothing came of this suggestion, which was, indeed, a counsel
+of despair. It took many years of struggle and more experiences of
+financial panic and industrial distress to produce a genuine reform in
+the system of currency supply.
+
+President Cleveland's messages suggest that he made up his mind to do
+what he conceived to be his own duty regardless of consequences, whereas
+an alert consideration of possible consequences is an integral part of
+the duties of statesmanship. He persevered in his pension vetoes without
+making any movement towards a change of system, and the only permanent
+effect of his crusade was an alteration of procedure on the part of
+Congress in order to evade the veto power. Individual pension bills are
+still introduced by the thousand at every session of Congress, but since
+President Cleveland's time all those approved have been included in one
+omnibus bill, known as a "pork barrel bill," which thus collects enough
+votes from all quarters to ensure passage.
+
+President Cleveland found another topic for energetic remonstrance in
+a system of privilege that had been built up at the expense of the
+post-office department. Printed matter in the form of books was charged
+eight cents a pound, but in periodical form only one cent a pound. This
+discrimination against books has had marked effect upon the quality of
+American literature, lowering its tone and encouraging the publication
+of many cheap magazines. President Cleveland gave impressive statistics
+showing the loss to the Government in transporting periodical
+publications, "including trashy and even harmful literature." Letter
+mails weighing 65,337,343 pounds yielded a revenue of $60,624,464.
+Periodical publications weighing 348,988,648 pounds yielded a revenue of
+$2,996,403. Cleveland's agitation of the subject under conditions then
+existing could not, however, have any practical effect save to affront
+an influential interest abundantly able to increase the President's
+difficulties by abuse and misrepresentation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. LAW AND ORDER UPHELD
+
+While President Cleveland was struggling with the difficult situation
+in the Treasury, popular unrest was increasing in violence. Certain
+startling political developments now gave fresh incitement to the
+insurgent temper which was spreading among the masses. The relief
+measure at the forefront of President Cleveland's policy was tariff
+reform, and upon this the legislative influence of the Administration
+was concentrated as soon as the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act had
+been accomplished.
+
+The House leader in tariff legislation at that time was a man of
+exceptionally high character and ability. William L. Wilson was
+President of the University of West Virginia when he was elected to
+Congress in 1882, and he had subsequently retained his seat more by the
+personal respect he inspired than through the normal strength of his
+party in his district. The ordinary rule of seniority was by consent set
+aside to make him chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He aimed
+to produce a measure which would treat existing interests with some
+consideration for their needs. In the opinion of F. W. Taussig, an
+expert economist, the bill as passed by the House on February 1,
+1894, "was simply a moderation of the protective duties" with the one
+exception of the removal of the duty on wool. Ever since 1887, it had
+been a settled Democratic policy to put wool on the free list, in order
+to give American manufacturers the same advantage in the way of raw
+material which those of every other country enjoyed, even in quarters
+where a protective tariff was stiffly applied.
+
+The scenes that now ensued in the Senate showed that arbitrary rule
+may be readily exercised under the forms of popular government. Senator
+Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania, a genial, scholarly cynic who
+sought his ends by any available means and who disdained hypocritical
+pretenses, made it known that he was in a position to block all
+legislation unless his demands were conceded. He prepared an everlasting
+speech, which he proceeded to deliver by installments in an effort to
+consume the time of the Senate until it would become necessary to yield
+to him in order to proceed with the consideration of the bill. His
+method was to read matter to the Senate until he was tired and then
+to have some friend act for him while he rested. According to the
+"Washington Star," Senator Gallinger was "his favorite helper in this,
+for he has a good round voice that never tires, and he likes to read
+aloud." The thousands of pages of material which Senator Quay had
+collected for use, and the apparently inexhaustible stores upon which
+he was drawing, were the subject of numerous descriptive articles in
+the newspapers of the day. Senator Quay's tactics were so successful,
+indeed, that he received numerous congratulatory telegrams from those
+whose interests he was championing. They had been defeated at the polls
+in their attempt to control legislation, and defeated in the House of
+Representatives, but now they were victorious in the Senate.
+
+The methods of Senator Quay were tried by other Senators on both sides,
+though they were less frank in their avowal. After the struggle was
+over, Senator Vest of Missouri, who had been in charge of the bill,
+declared:
+
+"I have not an enemy in the world whom I would place in the position
+that I have occupied as a member of the Finance Committee under the
+rules of the Senate. I would put no man where I have been, to be
+blackmailed and driven in order to pass a bill that I believe is
+necessary to the welfare of the country, by Senators who desired to
+force amendments upon me against my better judgment and compel me to
+decide the question whether I will take any bill at all or a bill which
+had been distorted by their views and objects. Sir, the Senate 'lags
+superfluous on the stage' today with the American people, because in an
+age of progress, advance, and aggressive reform, we sit here day after
+day and week after week, while copies of the census reports, almanacs,
+and even novels are read to us, and under our rules there is no help for
+the majority except to listen or leave the chamber."
+
+The passage of the bill in anything like the form in which it reached
+the Senate was plainly impossible without a radical change in the rules,
+and on neither side of the chamber was there any real desire for an
+amendment of procedure. A number of the Democratic Senators who believed
+that it was desirable to keep on good terms with business interests
+were, in reality, opposed to the House bill. Their efforts to control
+the situation were favored by the habitual disposition of the Senate,
+when dealing with business interests, to decide questions by private
+conference and personal agreements, while maintaining a surface show of
+party controversy. Hence, Senator Gorman of Maryland was able to
+make arrangements for the passage of what became known as the Gorman
+Compromise Bill, which radically altered the character of the original
+measure by the adoption of 634 amendments. It passed the Senate on the
+3rd of July by a vote of thirty-nine to thirty-four.
+
+The next step was the appointment of a committee of conference between
+the two Houses, but the members for the House showed an unusual
+determination to resist the will of the Senate, and on the 19th of July,
+the conferees reported that they had failed to reach an agreement. When
+President Cleveland permitted the publication of a letter which he had
+written to Chairman Wilson condemning the Senate bill, the fact was
+disclosed that the influence of the Administration had been used to
+stiffen the opposition of the House. Senator Gorman and other Democratic
+Senators made sharp replies, and the party quarrel became so bitter that
+it was soon evident that no sort of tariff bill could pass the Senate.
+
+The House leaders now reaped a great advantage from the Reed rules
+to the adoption of which they had been so bitterly opposed. Availing
+themselves of the effective means of crushing obstruction provided by
+the powers of the Rules Committee, in one day they passed the Tariff
+Bill as amended by the Senate, which eventually became law, and then
+passed separate bills putting on the free list coal, barbed wire, and
+sugar. These bills had no effect other than to put on record the opinion
+of the House, as they were of course subsequently held up in the Senate.
+This unwonted insubordination on the part of the House excited much
+angry comment from dissatisfied Senators. President Cleveland was
+accused of unconstitutional interference in the proceedings of Congress;
+and the House was blamed for submitting to the Senate and passing the
+amended bill without going through the usual form of conference and
+adjustment of differences. Senator Sherman of Ohio remarked that "there
+are many cases in the bill where enactment was not intended by the
+Senate. For instance, innumerable amendments were put on by Senators
+on both sides of the chamber... to give the Committee of Conference a
+chance to think of the matter, and they are all adopted, whatever may be
+their language or the incongruity with other parts of the bill."
+
+The bitter feeling, excited by the summary mode of enactment on the part
+of the House, was intensified by President Cleveland's treatment of the
+measure. While he did not veto it, he would not sign it but allowed it
+to become law by expiration of the ten days in which he could reject
+it. He set forth his reasons in a letter on August 27, 1894, to
+Representative Catchings of Missouri, in which he sharply commented
+upon the incidents accompanying the passage of the bill and in which he
+declared:
+
+"I take my place with the rank and file of the Democratic party who
+believe in tariff reform, and who know what it is; who refuse to accept
+the result embodied in this bill as the close of the war; who are not
+blinded to the fact that the livery of Democratic tariff reform has been
+stolen and used in the service of Republican protection; and who have
+marked the places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the
+counsels of the brave in their hour of might."
+
+The letter was written throughout with a fervor rare in President
+Cleveland's papers, and it had a scorching effect. Senator Gorman and
+some other Democratic Senators lost their seats as soon as the people
+had a chance to express their will.
+
+The circumstances of the tariff struggle greatly increased popular
+discontent with the way in which the government of the country was
+being conducted at Washington. It became a common belief that the actual
+system of government was that the trusts paid the campaign expenses
+of the politicians and in return the politicians allowed the trusts
+to frame the tariff schedules. Evidence in support of this view was
+furnished by testimony taken in the investigation of the sugar scandal
+in the summer of 1894. Charges had been made in the newspapers that some
+Senators had speculated in sugar stocks during the time when they were
+engaged in legislation affecting the value of those stocks. Some of them
+admitted the fact of stock purchases, but denied that their legislative
+action had been guided by their investments. In the course of the
+investigation, H. O. Havemeyer, the head of the Sugar Trust, admitted
+that it was the practice to subsidize party management. "It is my
+impression," he said, "that whenever there is a dominant party, wherever
+the majority is large, that is the party that gets the contribution
+because that is the party which controls the local matters." He
+explained that this system was carried on because the company had large
+interests which needed protection, and he declared "every individual and
+corporation and firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these things
+and we do them."
+
+During the tariff struggle, a movement took place which was an evidence
+of popular discontent of another sort. At first it caused great
+uneasiness, but eventually the manifestation became more grotesque than
+alarming. Jacob S. Coxey of Massillon, Ohio, a smart specimen of the
+American type of handy business man, announced that he intended to
+send a petition to Washington wearing boots so that it could not be
+conveniently shelved by being stuck away in a pigeonhole. He thereupon
+proceeded to lead a march of the unemployed, which started from
+Massillon on March 25, 1894, with about one hundred men in the ranks.
+These crusaders Coxey described as the "Army of the Commonweal of
+Christ," and their purpose was to proclaim the wants of the people on
+the steps of the Capitol on the 1st of May. The leader of this band
+called upon the honest working classes to join him, and he gained
+recruits as he advanced. Similar movements started in the Western
+States. "The United States Industrial Army," headed by one Frye, started
+from Los Angeles and at one time numbered from six to eight hundred men;
+they reached St. Louis by swarming on the freight trains of the Southern
+Pacific road and thereafter continued on foot. A band under a leader
+named Kelly started from San Francisco on the 4th of April and by
+commandeering freight trains reached Council Bluffs, Iowa, whence they
+marched to Des Moines. There, they went into camp with at one time as
+many as twelve hundred men. They eventually obtained flatboats, on which
+they floated down the Mississippi and then pushed up the Ohio to a point
+in Kentucky whence they proceeded on foot. Attempts on the part of such
+bands to seize trains brought them into conflict with the authorities
+at some points. For instance, a detachment of regular troops in Montana
+captured a band coming East on a stolen Northern Pacific train, and
+militia had to be called out to rescue a train from a band at Mount
+Sterling, Ohio.
+
+Coxey's own army never amounted to more than a few hundred, but it
+was more in the public eye. It had a large escort of newspaper
+correspondents who gave picturesque accounts of the march to Washington;
+and Coxey himself took advantage of this gratuitous publicity to express
+his views. Among other measures, he urged that since good roads and
+money were both greatly needed by the country at large, the Government
+should issue $500,000,000 in "non-interest bearing bonds" to be used
+in employing workers in the improvement of the roads. After an orderly
+march through parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, in the course
+of which his men received many donations of supplies from places through
+which they passed, Coxey and his army arrived at Washington on the 1st
+of May and were allowed to parade to the Capitol under police escort
+along a designated route. When Coxey left the ranks, however, to cut
+across the grass to the Capitol, he was arrested on the technical charge
+of trespassing. The army went into camp, but on the 12th of May the
+authorities forced the men to move out of the District. They thereupon
+took up quarters in Maryland and shifted about from time to time.
+Detachments from the Western bands arrived during June and July, but
+the total number encamped about Washington probably never exceeded a
+thousand. Difficulties in obtaining supplies and inevitable collisions
+with the authorities caused the band gradually to disperse. Coxey, after
+his short term in jail, traveled about the country trying to stir
+up interest in his aims and to obtain supplies. The novelty of his
+movement, however, had worn off, and results were so poor that on the
+26th of July he issued a statement saying he could do no more and that
+what was left of the army would have to shift for itself. In Maryland,
+the authorities arrested a number of Coxey's "soldiers" as vagrants. On
+the 11th of August, a detachment of Virginia militia drove across the
+Potomac the remnants of the Kelly and Frye armies, which were then taken
+in charge by the district authorities. They were eventually supplied by
+the Government with free transportation to their homes.
+
+Of more serious import than these marchings and campings, as evidence of
+popular unrest, were the activities of organized labor which now began
+to attract public attention. The Knights of Labor were declining in
+numbers and influence. The attempt, which their national officers made
+in January, 1894, to get out an injunction to restrain the Secretary of
+the Treasury from making bond sales really facilitated Carlisle's effort
+by obtaining judicial sanction for the issue. Labor disturbances now
+followed in quick succession. In April, there was a strike on the Great
+Northern Railroad, which for a long time almost stopped traffic between
+St. Paul and Seattle. Local strikes in the mining regions of West
+Virginia and Colorado, and in the coke fields of Western Pennsylvania,
+were attended by conflicts with the authorities and some loss of life.
+A general strike of the bituminous coal miners of the whole country was
+ordered by the United Mine Workers on the 21st of April, and called out
+numbers variously estimated at from one hundred and twenty-five thousand
+to two hundred thousand; but by the end of July the strike had ended in
+a total failure.
+
+All the disturbances that abounded throughout the country were
+overshadowed, however, by a tremendous struggle which centered in
+Chicago and which brought about new and most impressive developments
+of national authority. In June, 1893, Eugene V. Debs, the
+secretary-treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, resigned
+his office and set about organizing a new general union of railroad
+employees in antagonism to the Brotherhoods, which were separate unions
+of particular classes of workers. He formed the American Railway Union
+and succeeded in instituting 465 local lodges which claimed a membership
+of one hundred and fifty thousand. In March, 1894, Pullman Company
+employees joined the new union. On the 11th of May, a class of workers
+in this company's shops at Pullman, Illinois, struck for an increase
+of wages, and on the 21st of June the officers of the American Railway
+Union ordered its members to refuse to handle trains containing Pullman
+cars unless the demands of the strikers were granted. Although neither
+the American Federation of Labor nor the Brotherhoods endorsed this
+sympathetic strike, it soon spread over a vast territory and was
+accompanied by savage rioting and bloody conflicts. In the suburbs
+of Chicago the mobs burned numerous cars and did much damage to other
+property. The losses inflicted on property throughout the country by
+this strike have been estimated at $80,000,000.
+
+The strikers were undoubtedly encouraged in resorting to force by the
+sympathetic attitude which Governor Altgeld of Illinois showed towards
+the cause of labor. The Knights of Labor and other organizations of
+workingmen had passed resolutions complimenting the Governor on his
+pardon of the Chicago anarchists, and the American Railway Union counted
+unduly upon his support in obtaining their ends. The situation was such
+as to cause the greatest consternation throughout the country, as there
+was a widespread though erroneous belief that there was no way in which
+national Government could take action to suppress disorder unless it was
+called upon by the Legislature, if it happened to be in session, or by
+the Governor. But at this critical moment, the Illinois Legislature
+was not in session, and Governor Altgeld refused to call for aid. For
+a time, it therefore seemed that the strikers were masters of the
+situation and that law and order were powerless before the mob.
+
+There was an unusual feeling of relief throughout the country when word
+came from Washington on the 1st of July that President Cleveland had
+called out the regular troops. Governor Altgeld sent a long telegram
+protesting against sending federal troops into Illinois without any
+request from the authority of the State. But President Cleveland replied
+briefly that the troops were not sent to interfere with state authority
+but to enforce the laws of the United States, upon the demand of the
+Post Office Department that obstruction to the mails be removed, and
+upon the representations of judicial officers of the United States that
+processes of federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary
+means. In the face of what was regarded as federal interference, riot
+for the moment blazed out more fiercely than ever, but the firm stand
+taken by the President soon had its effect. On the 6th of July, Governor
+Altgeld ordered out the state militia which soon engaged in some sharp
+encounters with the strikers. On the next day, a force of regular troops
+dispersed a mob at Hammond, Indiana, with some loss of life. On the
+8th of July, President Cleveland issued a proclamation to the people of
+Illinois and of Chicago in particular, notifying them that those "taking
+part with a riotous mob in forcibly resisting and obstructing the
+execution of the laws of the United States... cannot be regarded
+otherwise than as public enemies," and that "while there will be no
+hesitation or vacillation in the decisive treatment of the guilty, this
+warning is especially intended to protect and save the innocent."
+The next day, he issued as energetic a proclamation against "unlawful
+obstructions, combinations and assemblages of persons" in North Dakota,
+Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, California, Utah, and New
+Mexico.
+
+At the request of the American Railway Union, delegates from twenty-five
+unions connected with the American Federation of Labor met in Chicago
+on the 12th of July, and Debs made an ardent appeal to them to call a
+general strike of all labor organizations. But the conference decided
+that "it would be unwise and disastrous to the interests of labor to
+extend the strike any further than it had already gone" and advised the
+strikers to return to work. Thereafter, the strike rapidly collapsed,
+although martial law had to be proclaimed and, before quiet was
+restored, some sharp conflicts still took place between federal troops
+and mobs at Sacramento and other points in California. On the 3rd of
+August, the American Railway Union acknowledged its defeat and called
+off the strike. Meanwhile, Debs and other leaders had been under
+arrest for disobedience to injunctions issued by the federal courts.
+Eventually, Debs was sentenced to jail for six months,* and the others
+for three months. The cases were the occasion of much litigation in
+which the authority of the courts to intervene in labor disputes by
+issuing injunctions was on the whole sustained. The failure and collapse
+of the American Railway Union appears to have ended the career of Debs
+as a labor organizer, but he has since been active and prominent as a
+Socialist party leader.
+
+
+     *  Under Section IV of the Anti-Trust Law of 1890.
+
+
+Public approval of the energy and decision which President Cleveland
+displayed in handling the situation was so strong and general that it
+momentarily quelled the factional spirit in Congress. Judge Thomas M.
+Cooley, then, probably the most eminent authority on constitutional law,
+wrote a letter expressing "unqualified satisfaction with every step"
+taken by the President "in vindication of the national authority." Both
+the Senate and the House adopted resolutions endorsing the prompt and
+vigorous measures of the Administration. The newspapers, too, joined in
+the chorus of approval. A newspaper ditty which was widely circulated
+and was read by the President with pleasure and amusement ended a string
+of verses with the lines:
+
+The railroad strike played merry hob, The land was set aflame; Could
+Grover order out the troops To block the striker's game? One Altgeld
+yelled excitedly, "Such tactics I forbid; You can't trot out those
+soldiers," yet That's just what Grover did.
+
+In after years when people talk Of present stirring times, And of
+the action needful to Sit down on public crimes, They'll all of them
+acknowledge then (The fact cannot be hid) That whatever was the best to
+do Is just what Grover did.
+
+This brief period of acclamation was, however, only a gleam of sunshine
+through the clouds before the night set in with utter darkness.
+Relations between President Cleveland and his party in the Senate had
+long been disturbed by his refusal to submit to the Senate rule that
+nominations to office should be subject to the approval of the Senators
+from the State to which the nominees belonged. On January 15, 1894,
+eleven Democrats voted with Senator David B. Hill to defeat a New York
+nominee for justice of the Supreme Court. President Cleveland then
+nominated another New York jurist against whom no objection could be
+urged regarding reputation or experience; but as this candidate was not
+Senator Hill's choice, the nomination was rejected, fourteen Democrats
+voting with him against it. President Cleveland now availed himself of
+a common Senate practice to discomfit Senator Hill. He nominated Senator
+White of Louisiana, who was immediately confirmed as is the custom of
+the Senate when one of its own members is nominated to office. Senator
+Hill was thus left with the doubtful credit of having prevented the
+appointment of a New Yorker to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court.
+But this incident did not seriously affect his control of the Democratic
+party organization in New York. His adherents extolled him as a New York
+candidate for the Presidency who would restore and maintain the regular
+party system without which, it was contended, no administration could be
+successful in framing and carrying out a definite policy. Hill's action,
+in again presenting himself as a candidate for Governor in the fall of
+1894, is intelligible only in the light of this ambition. He had already
+served two terms as Governor and was now only midway in his senatorial
+term; but if he again showed that he could carry New York he would
+have demonstrated, so it was thought, that he was the most eligible
+Democratic candidate for the Presidency. But he was defeated by a
+plurality of about 156,000.
+
+The fall elections of 1894, indeed, made havoc in the Democratic party.
+In twenty-four States, the Democrats failed to return a single member,
+and in each of six others, only a single district failed to elect
+a Republican. The Republican majority in the House was 140, and the
+Republican party also gained control of the Senate. The Democrats who
+had swept the country two years before were now completely routed.
+
+Under the peculiar American system which allows a defeated party to
+carry on its work for another session of Congress as if nothing had
+happened, the Democratic party remained in actual possession of Congress
+for some months but could do nothing to better its record. The leading
+occupation of its members now seemed to be the advocacy of free silver
+and the denunciation of President Cleveland. William J. Bryan of
+Nebraska was then displaying in the House the oratorical accomplishments
+and dauntless energy of character which soon thereafter gained him the
+party leadership. With prolific rhetoric, he likened President Cleveland
+to a guardian who had squandered the estate of a confiding ward and to
+a trainman who opened a switch and caused a wreck, and he declared
+that the President in trying to inoculate the Democratic party with
+Republican virus had poisoned its blood.
+
+Shortly after the last Democratic Congress--the last for many years--the
+Supreme Court undid one of the few successful achievements of this party
+when it was in power. The Tariff Bill contained a section imposing a
+tax of two per cent on incomes in excess of $4000. A case was framed
+attacking the constitutionality of the tax,* the parties on both sides
+aiming to defeat the law and framing the issues with that purpose in
+view. On April 8, 1895, the Supreme Court rendered a judgment which
+showed that the Court was evenly divided on some points. A rehearing was
+ordered and a final decision was rendered on the 20th of May. By a vote
+of five to four it was held that the income tax was a direct tax, that
+as such it could be imposed only by apportionment among the States
+according to population, and that as the law made no such provision the
+tax was therefore invalid. This reversed the previous position of the
+Court** that an income tax was not a direct tax within the meaning
+of the Constitution, but that it was an excise. This decision was the
+subject of much bitter comment which, however, scarcely exceeded in
+severity the expressions used by members of the Supreme Court who filed
+dissenting opinions. Justice White was of the opinion that the effect of
+this judgment was "to overthrow a long and consistent line of decisions
+and to deny to the legislative department of the Government the
+possession of a power conceded to it by universal consensus for one
+hundred years." Justice Harlan declared that it struck "at the very
+foundation of national authority" and that it gave "to certain kinds of
+property a position of favoritism and advantage inconsistent with the
+fundamental principles of our social organization." Justice Brown hoped
+that "it may not prove the first step towards the submergence of the
+liberties of the people in a sordid despotism of wealth." Justice
+Jackson said it was "such as no free and enlightened people can ever
+possibly sanction or approve." The comments of law journals were also
+severe, and on the whole, the criticism of legal experts was more
+outspoken than that of the politicians.
+
+
+     *  Pollock vs. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, 157 U.S. 429.
+
+
+     * * Springer vs. United States, 102 U.S. 586.
+
+
+Public distrust of legislative procedure in the United States is so
+great that powers of judicial interference are valued to a degree not
+usual in any other country. The Democratic platform of 1896 did not
+venture to go farther in the way of censure than to declare that "it is
+the duty of Congress to use all the constitutional power which remains
+after that decision, or which may come from its reversal by the court as
+it may hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be
+equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due
+proportion of the expenses of the government." Even this suggestion of
+possible future interference with the court turned out to be a heavy
+party load in the campaign.
+
+With the elimination of the income tax, the revenues of the country
+became insufficient to meet the demands upon the Treasury, and Carlisle
+was obliged to report a deficit of $42,805,223 for 1895. The change of
+party control in Congress brought no relief. The House, under the able
+direction of Speaker Reed, passed a bill to augment the revenue by
+increasing customs duties and also a bill authorizing the Secretary of
+the Treasury to sell bonds or issue certificates of indebtedness bearing
+interest at three per cent. Both measures, however, were held up in
+the Senate, in which the silver faction held the balance of power.*
+On February 1, 1896, a free silver substitute for the House bond
+bill passed the Senate by a vote of forty-two to thirty-five, but the
+minority represented over eight million more people than the majority.
+The House refused, by 215 to 90, to concur in the Senate's amendment,
+and the whole subject was then dropped.
+
+
+     *  The distribution of party strength in the Senate was:
+Republicans, 43; Democrats, 39; Populists, 6. Republicans made
+concessions to the Populists which caused them to refrain from voting
+when the question of organisation was pending, and the Republicans were
+thus able to elect the officers and rearrange the committees, which
+they did in such a way as to put the free silver men in control of the
+committee on finance. The bills passed by the house were referred to
+this committee, which thereupon substituted bills providing for free
+coinage of silver.
+
+
+President Cleveland had to carry on the battle to maintain the gold
+standard and to sustain the public credit without any aid from Congress.
+The one thing he did accomplish by his efforts, and it was at that
+moment the thing of chief importance, was to put an end to party
+duplicity on the silver question. On that point, at least, national
+party platforms abandoned their customary practice of trickery and
+deceit. Compelled to choose between the support of the commercial
+centers and that of the mining camps, the Republican convention came
+out squarely for the gold standard and nominated William McKinley for
+President. Thirty-four members of the convention, including four United
+States Senators and two Representatives, bolted. It was a year of bolts,
+the only party convention that escaped being that of the Socialist Labor
+party, which ignored the monetary issue save for a vague declaration
+that "the United States have the exclusive right to issue money." The
+silver men swept the Democratic convention, which then nominated William
+Jennings Bryan for President. Later on, the Gold Democrats held a
+convention and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois. The Populists and
+the National Silver party also nominated Bryan for President, but
+each made its own separate nomination for Vice-President. Even the
+Prohibitionists split on the issue, and a seceding faction organized the
+National party and inserted a free silver plank in their platform.
+
+In the canvass which followed, calumny and misrepresentation were for
+once discarded in favor of genuine discussion. This new attitude was
+largely due to organizations for spreading information quite apart from
+regular party management. In this way, many able pamphlets were issued
+and widely circulated. The Republicans had ample campaign funds; but
+though the Democrats were poorly supplied, this deficiency did not
+abate the energy of Bryan's campaign. He traveled over eighteen thousand
+miles, speaking at nearly every stopping place to great assemblages.
+McKinley, on the contrary, stayed at home, although he delivered an
+effective series of speeches to visiting delegations. The outcome seemed
+doubtful, but the intense anxiety which was prevalent was promptly
+dispelled when the election returns began to arrive. By going over to
+free silver, the Democrats wrested from the Republicans all the mining
+States, except California, together with Kansas and Nebraska, but the
+electoral votes which they thus secured were a poor compensation for
+losses elsewhere. Such old Democratic strongholds as Delaware, Maryland,
+and West Virginia gave McKinley substantial majorities, and Kentucky
+gave him twelve of her thirteen electoral votes. McKinley's popular
+plurality was over six hundred thousand, and he had a majority of
+ninety-five in the electoral college.
+
+The nation approved the position which Cleveland had maintained, but the
+Republican party reaped the benefit by going over to that position while
+the Democratic party was ruined by forsaking it. Party experience during
+the Cleveland era contained many lessons, but none clearer than that
+presidential leadership is essential both to legislative achievement and
+to party success.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
+
+Among general histories dealing with this period, the leading authority
+is D. R. Dewey, "National Problems," 1885-97 (1907) in "The American
+Nation"; but suggestive accounts may be found in E. B. Andrews, "History
+of the Last Quarter of a Century in the United States" (1896); in H.
+T. Peck, "Twenty Years of the Republic" (1913); and in C. A. Beard,
+"Contemporary American History" (1914).
+
+The following works dealing especially with party management and
+congressional procedure will be found serviceable: E. Stanwood, "History
+of the Presidency" (1898); M. P. Follett, "The Speaker of the House of
+Representatives" (1896); H. J. Ford, "The Rise and Growth of American
+Politics" (1898); H. J. Ford, "The Cost of our National Government"
+(1910); S. W. McCall, "The Business of Congress" (1911); D. S.
+Alexander, "History and Procedure of the House of Representatives"
+(1916); C. R. Atkinson, "The Committee on Rules and the Overthrow of
+Speaker" Cannon (1911). The debate of 1885-86 on revision of the rules
+is contained in the "Congressional Record," 49th Congress, 1st session,
+vol. 17, part I, pp. 39, 71, 87, 102 129, 182, 9,16, 216, 239, 304.
+
+Of special importance from the light they throw upon the springs
+of action are the following works: Grover Cleveland, "Presidential
+Problems" (1904); F. E. Goodrich, "The Life and Public Services of
+Grover Cleveland" (1884); G. F. Parker, "The Writings and Speeches of
+Grover Cleveland" (1890); J. L. Whittle, "Grover Cleveland" (1896); J.
+G. Blaine, "Political Discussions" (1887); E. Stanwood, "James Gillespie
+Blaine" (1905); A. R. Conkling, "Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling"
+(1889); John Sherman, "Recollections of Forty Years in the House,
+Senate, and Cabinet" (1895); G. F. Hoar, "Autobiography of Seventy
+Years" (1903); S. M. Cullom, "Fifty Years of Public Service" (1911); L.
+A. Coolidge, "An Old-fashioned Senator: Orville H. Platt of Connecticut"
+(1910); S. W. McCall, "The Life of Thomas Brackett Reed" (1914); A. E.
+Stevenson, "Something of Men I Have Known" (1909).
+
+For the financial history of the period, see J. L. Laughlin, "The
+History of Bimetallism in the United States" (1897); A. D. Noyes, "Forty
+Years of American Finance" (1909); Horace White, "Money and Banking,
+Illustrated by American History" (1904).
+
+The history of tariff legislation is recorded by F. W. Taussig, "The
+Tariff History of the United States" (1914), and E. Stanwood, "American
+Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century" (1903).
+
+On the trust problem there is much valuable information in W. Z. Ripley,
+"Trusts, Pools, and Corporations" (1905); K. Coman, "Industrial History
+of the United States" (1905); J. W. Jenks, "The Trust Problem" (1905).
+
+The conditions which prompted the creation of the Interstate Commerce
+Commission are exhibited in the report of the Senate Select Committee
+on Interstate Commerce, "Senate Reports," No. 46, 49th Congress, 1st
+session.
+
+Useful special treatises on the railroad problem are E. R. Johnson,
+"American Railway Transportation" (1903); B. H. Meyer, "Railway
+Legislation in the United States" (1903); and W. Z. Ripley, "Railway
+Problems" (1907).
+
+The history of labor movements may be followed in J. R. Commons,
+"History of Labor in the United States" (1918); M. Hillquit, "History
+of Socialism in the United States" (1903); "Report of the Industrial
+Commission," vol. XVII (1901); and in the Annual Reports of the United
+States Commissioner of Labor. Congressional investigations of particular
+disturbances produced the House Reports No. 4174, 49th Congress, 2d
+session, 1887, on the Southwestern Railway Strike, and No. 2447, 52d
+Congress, 2d session, 1893, on the Homestead Strike.
+
+On the subject of pensions the most comprehensive study is that by W. H.
+Glasson, "History of Military Pension Legislation in the United States,
+Columbia University Studies," vol. XII, No. 3 (1900). Of special
+interest is the speech by J. H. Gallinger, "Congressional Record," 65th
+Congress, 2d session, vol. 56, No. 42, p. 1937.
+
+Other public documents of special importance are "Senate Report," No.
+606, 53d Congress, concerning the sugar scandal, and "Senate Documents,"
+No. 187, 54th Congress, 2d session, concerning the bond sales. "The
+Congressional Record" is at all times a mine of information. Valuable
+historical material is contained in the "New Princeton Review," vols.
+I-VI (1886-88), the New York "Nation," the "Political Science Quarterly,"
+and other contemporary periodicals.
+
+A vivid picture of political conditions on the personal side is given in
+Slason Thompson, "Eugene Field" (1901), vol. I, chap. 10; vol. II, chap.
+8.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cleveland Era, by Henry Jones Ford
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