LIBRARY "!TV OP SAN DIEGO THE PARTIES ANDTHE MEN POLITICAL ISSUES OF 1896 A HISTORY OF OUR GREAT PARTIES FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE PRESENT DAY. A REC- ORD OF BYGONE CONVENTIONS AND THE VARIOUS PLATFORMS, INCLUDING THE NATIONAL CON- VENTIONS OF THE PRESENT YEAR. THE BIOGRAPHIES AND PORTRAITS OF EMINENT POLITICAL LEADERS. AND THE LIVES OF THE CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESI- DENT OF THE UNITED STATES. THE ISSUES OF THE DAY IMPARTIALLY REVIEWED. Soun4 Money Hon. John G. Carlisle. Free Silver Hon. Henry M. Teller Protection Hon. Thomas B. Reed. Tariff for Revenue Hon. William L. Wilson. The Freedom of Cuba Hon. Roger Q. Mills. Special Articles Stanley Waterloo. Biographies John Wesley Hanson, Jr. Endorsed by Gov. Claude Matthews o! Indiana; Gen. Lew Wallace, Hon. R. W. Thompson, Rev. Chas. H. Parkhurst, Hon. Win. F. Ha-rrity. and others. Copyright, 1896, BY ROBERT O. LAW. INTRODUCTORY. Peace has its conflicts as well as war, and the history of a great nation, even in her prosperity, is a realistic drama of constant strife against foes without and foes within. It does not need the lurid scenery that surrounds an actual battlefield to picture the action of our great political parties meeting on neutral grounds to decide the momentous questions of the day. But the contest is none the less fierce, and its recital none the less interesting, although the only weapon used is the peaceful ballot-box. Peace has its heroes as well as war, and the lives of American statesmen is a resplendent record of repeated sacrifice and devotion to our country's needs and of un>- flinching bravery in defense of her glorious principles. A great political struggle has begun. Under which leader shall we stand? Under which banner shall we array ourselves? Let every true citizen read this great work, if he would also " read the signs of the times." The present work is a graphic history of the origin and development of our great parties from the dawn of the Republic to the present day. It embodies a summary of the most striking events during our political growth, vi INTRODUCTORY. The present campaign will mark an era in the history of our country. Statesmen regard it as the turning point in our political career. Our parties are divided upon the all-absorbing money question. The Republican Conven- tion adopted a platform advocating gold as the monetary standard. The Democratic Convention declared itself in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. The question is, what do the peo- ple want? They want facts. They want answers to all questions relating to the issues of the day. But more especially upon the financial problem which has obliter- ated party lines and aroused the voters of the country to the firm conviction that what is needed most in these ritical times is reliable information for their guidance. This is a practical political text-book adapted to the use of everyone. It includes a record of bygone con- ventions and former platforms. It contains the official report of the national conventions of 1896 together with the lives of the candidates for President and Vice-Pres- ident; also the biographies and portraits of eminent living statesmen who are the Nation's acknowledged political captains and who are leading the contending forces in the present campaign. The work is strictly non-partisan and unprejudiced. Every question is discussed from every standpoint and by eminent authorities. The all-important topics Free Trade. Protection, the Monroe Doctrine, the Labor Question, the Cuban Problem, the Gold Standard and the INTRODUCTORY. Tii Free Coinage of Silver are handled by statesmen who are recognized as the ablest exponents of these subjects. The editors desire to express their thanks to the officials of the National Conventions through whose influences they were enabled to obtain an accurate and reliable report of their proceedings. Sergeants-at-arms T. E. Byrnes of the Republican Convention, and Col. J. I. Martin of the Democratic Con- vention, extended to our representative all the courtesies in their power. Through their kindness we were enabled to secure official photographic views of both convention halls. The editors further desire to express their apprecia- tion for the consideration shown them by the Presidential and Vice -Presidential candidates; Hon. Joshua Levering, Hon. William McKinley, Hon. William J. Bryan, Hon. Hale Johnson, Hon. Garrett A. Hobart, and Hon. Arthur Sewall for special interviews and photographs. In conclusion the editors wish to extend to Hon. Claude Matthews, Governor of Indiana; Hon. W. F. Har- rity, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Gen. Lew Wallace, the brilliant author and delegate-at- large to the Republican National Convention of 1896; Hon. R. W. Thompson, Ex-Secretary of the Navy, and Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, the eminent reformer, their gratitude for indorsements of the work accorded it by these distinguished men. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Russell A. Alger. William B. Allison. Thomas F. Bayard. Wilson S. Bissell. Joseph C. S. Blackburn. Richard P. Bland. Horace Boies. Charles A. Boutelle. William O. Bradley. Calvin S. Brice. Benjamin T. Cable. J. Donald Cameron. James E. Campbell. Johi G. Carlisle. William E. Chandler. Grover Cleveland. WiMiam B. Cockran. Charles F. Crisp. John M. Harlan. Benjamin Harrison. William F. Harrity. David B. Henderson. Hilary A. Herbert. David B. Hill, Shelby M. Cullom. Amos Cummings. John W. Daniel. Cushman K. Davis. Chauncey M. Depew. Donald M. Dickinson. George F. Edmunds. Stephen B. Elkins. William C. Endicott. Morris M. Estee. William M. Evarts. Roswell P. Flower. Joseph B. Foraker. David R. Francis. Arthur P. Gorman. Galusha A. Grow. George W. Peck. Thomas C. Platt. Matthew S. Quay. Thomas B. Reed. Theodore Roosevelt. William E. Russell. Philetus Sawyer. Jerry Simpson. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Continued. George F. Hoar. John Sherman. John J. Ingalls. John C. Spooner. Daniel S. Lamont. John P. St. John. William S. Linton. Adlai E. Stevenson. Henry Cabot Lodge. Henry M. Teller. Claude Matthews. Richard W. Thompson. William McKinley. John M. Thurston. Roger Q. Mills. George G. Vest. John T. Morgan. William F. Vilas. William R. Morrison. Daniel W. Voorhees. J. Sterling Morton. Lew Wallace. Levi P. Morton. John Wanamaker. Knute Nelson. Henry Watterson. William J. Northen. James B. Weaver. Richard Olney. Andrew D. White. John M. Palmer. William C. Whitney. Thomas W. Palmer. William L. Wilson. Robert E. Pattison. Ida Saxton McKinley. The White House. Birthplace of William McKinley. Home of William McKinley. Convention Hall at St. Louis. Garrett A. Hobart. Arthur J. Sewall. William J. Bryan. Hale Johnson. Joshua Levering. Democratic Convention Hall. TABLE OF CONTENTS. i. KARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. Whigs and Tories Particularisms Strong Government Men Washington's Administration Federalists-^-Anti-Fed- eralists Close Constructionists Republicans Democrats Origin of the Republican Party Why the Term Demo- crat was Originally a Reproach First Republican Can- didate Decline of the Federal Party Rise of the Demo- cratic Party 17 II. REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. Inauguration of Thomas Jefferson His Policy Platform of the Republican Party Purchase of Louisiana The Election of James Madison Controversy with England War of 1812 Treaty of Ghent Refusal of New England States to Take Part in the War End of the Federal Party 29 III. THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Election of James Monroe His Policy The Era of Good Feeling Sentiments of General Jackson Missouri Ques- tion Monroe Doctrine The Holy Alliance Administra- tion of J. Q. Adams The Caucus System Overthrown Jackson Men The People's Party Anti-Masonic Party The Nomination of General Jackson by the Democratic Party His Election 41 IV. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. The Spoils System Breach Between Jackson and Calhoun Nullification Party Anti-Slavery Society Abolitionists Democratic National Convention of 1832 Origin of the Two-Thirds Rule Re-election of General Jackson Equal Rights Party Locofocos Nomination of Van Buren by the Democratic Party Nomination of William H. Harrison by the Whig Party Election of Van Buren Platform of the Locofocos Resolutions Adopted by the Whigs Policy of Van Buren Renomination of Harrison by the Whig Party Democratic Platform Election of Harrison oO 9 10 CONTENTS. V. THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. Death ot Harrison Administration of Vice-President Tyler The Liberal Party Nomination of Henry Clay by the \Vhig Party Nomination of James K. Polk by the Dem- ocratic Party Democratic Platform Events in President Polk's Administration Barnburners Free Soil Party Hunkers Nomination of General Taylor by the Whig Party Whig Principles Election of Taylor 62 VI. BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Collapse of the Whig Party The American Party Nomina- tion of Franklin Pierce by the Democratic Convention in 1852 Nomination of General Scott by the Whigs Nomi- nation of John P. Hale by the Free Soil Party Democratic Platform Civil War in Kansas Birth of the Republ can Party Election of Pierce Nomination of Fremont by the Republican Party in 1856 Nomination of James Buchanan by the Democratic Party His Election 72 VII. THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. Democratic Platform Republican Platform 82 VIII. THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. Nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 Division in the Democratic Party Nomination of Stephen A. Douglas by One Wing-Nomination of John C. Breckinridge by the other The Platform upon which Lincoln was Nominated The Douglas Platform The Breckinridge Platform Election of Lincoln Secession of Southern States Civil War As- sassination of President Lincoln 91 IX. PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. The Republican National Convention of 1868 Nomination of Gen. U. S. Grant Nomination of Horatio Seymour by the Democratic Party Election of Grant The Republi- can Platform 101 X. POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. The Fifteenth Amendment Civil Service Reform The La- bor Reform Party The Grangers Prohibition Party Greenback Party Resumption of Specie Payment Re- election of Grant in 1872 Republican Platform Nomina- tion of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 by the Republican Party- Nomination of Samuel J. Tildenby the Democratic Party Election of Hayes 10U CONTENTS. 11 XI. THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. Platform of the Republican Party Adopted at the Convention held in Chicago June 2, 1880 The Democratic Platform. . 120 XII. WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? The Famous Speech of Jas. A. Garfield Nominating John Sherman Nomination of James A. Garfield Record of the Convention 129 XIII. REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. Assassination of President Garfield Accession of Vice-Presi- dent Arthur Nomination of James G. Elaine by the Re- publican Party in 1884 The Republican Platform Defeat of Elaine 140 ' XIV. THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. The Nomination of Grover Cleveland in 1884 Platform of the Democratic Party Election of Cleveland 148 XV. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. The Prohibition Movement and Platform Peoples' Party and Platform 158 XVI. REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. Issues of 1888 Nomination of Benjamin Harrison Platform of tlie Republican Party 168 XVII. HARRISON'S NOMINATION. Speech of Governor A. G. Porter Speech of Chauncey M. Depew Levi P. Morton made Vice-President 177 XVIII. THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. Nomination of Grover Cleveland Democratic Platform of 1888 Election of Harrison His Administration 184 XIX. SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. Anti-Saloon Republican Convention in 1888 Prohibition Con- vention and Platform The Union Labor Convention and Platform.. .110 12 CONTENTS. XX. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. The Republican Platform Renomination of Benjamin Har- rison 197 XXI. DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. Nomination of Grover Cleveland Democratic Platform 202 XXII. HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Outline of the Republican Policy 212 XXIII. CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Democratic Principles 237 XXIV. CAMPAIGN OF 1892. Election of Cleveland Inaugural Address 244 XXV. A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF UNITED STATES TERRITORY. Our Relations with the Government of the Sandwich Islands The Cuban Problem The Possibility of Annexation Relations with Spain Jingoism 252 XXVI. THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. The Monroe Doctrine Revived in 1895 Venezuelan Question The Schomburgk Line Claims of Great Britain Lord Salisbury and President Cleveland The President's Mes- sage to Congress Second Message to Congress Appoint- ment of the Venezuelan Commission War with England Averted 260 XXVII. THE MONETARY QUESTION. The Greenback Party The Silver Party Free Silverites The 16 to 1 ratio Gold as a Standard Balance of Power held by the Free Silverites in the Senate Effect of the Gold Discoveries at Cripple Creek Bimetallism 273 XXVIII. SOUND MONEY. By John G. Carlisle 382 CONTENTS. 13 XXIX. FREE SILVER. By fton. Henry M. Teller 298 XXX. THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. By Hon. Roger Q. Mills 303 XXXI. TARIFF FOR REVENUE. By Hon. William L.Wilson 316 XXXII. PROTECTION. By Hon. Thomas B. Reed 327 XXXIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. The Situation Throughout the Country Prior to the Repub- lican National Convention of 1896 The Issues of the Day. 338 XXXIV. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. Senator John M. Thurston Elected Permanent Chairman Report of the Committee on Resolutions Report of the Committee on Credentials Report of the Platform Com- mittee Motion to Substitute a Silver Plank by Hon. Henry M. Teller of Colorado Defeat of the Motion Adoption of a Platform Speech of Senator Teller Bolt of the Free Si!yer Advocates Speech of Joseph B. Foraker Nomi- nation of William McKinley Close of the Convention. . . 348 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. LIFE OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. XXXV. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1896. Full Text of the Platform 408 XXXVI. The Prohibition Convention 409 LIFE OF HON. JOSHUA LEVERING. LIFE OF HON. HALE JOHNSON. 14 CONTENTS. XXXVII. Democratic Differences 421 XXXVIII. The Debate Extended 433 XXXIX. Continuation of the Struggle 442 XL. The Issue Defined 451 XLI. The Presidential Nomination 461 XLII. The Vice-Presidential Nomination 471 XLIII. A Dramatic Episode of the Proceedings 482 XLIV. The Dissatisfied in the Democratic Party 492 LIFE OF WILLIAM J. BRYAN. LIFE OF ARTHUR J. SEWALL. ADDENDA. The Constitution of the United States. THE PARTIES AND THE MEN. CHAPTER I. EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. To -give anything like an accurate history of the two greater political parties now in existence in the United States, it is necessary to follow their story up through all the years since the close of the War of the Revolution. This history forms a line, the strands of which have at times run together, only to spread apart, and to be again bound into a single cable by a succession of events. Beginning with the Whigs and Tories, there has been an almost constant rising and falling of parties, intermingling at intervals with the two stronger ones, the final result being the establishment of the Republican and Democratic parties of to-day, with newer organizations struggling to overturn them. The War of the Revolution began in 1775, and was waged one year against the mother country for a re- dress of grievances; but being unable to obtain this, the colonies declared themselves free and independ- ent. The questions at issue between the British min- istry and the colonists gave rise, among the latter, 2 18 EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. to the Whig and Tory parties. These were the names of the two great political parties in England, but they lost in America the significance which they had in the parent county. The line of difference be- tween the parties, for the first fifteen months of hos- tilities, was drawn by the terms on which the con- nection of the colonies with England should con- tinue. "The Whigs wished to remain colonists on condition that their rights would be guaranteed to them;" the Tories were willing to thus remain with- out such guarantee. After the Declaration of Inde- pendence in 1776, the Whigs advocated absolute separation from Great Britain, while the Tories sup- ported the cause of the Crown. The declaration was moved in Congress, June 7th, by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, in these words: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all politi- cal connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." A formal declaration was then prepared, and adopted on the 4th of July. The Whig party was composed of those Americans who favored the principles for which the Revolution- ary war was fought, and drew into its ranks nearly all the clergy, except those of the Episcopal faith; the major part of the lawyers; a large proportion of the physicians; and manj' "young men who had their 'fortunes to make and distinctions to win." "Sons of Liberty" and "Liberty Men" were Whigs. Those of this party who took an active part in the strug- EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 gle for independence were called Patriots. A major- ity of the colonists were Whigs. It is estimated that in some states they were probably in the minority, and in others they about equaled their opponents. When hostilities opened, this party began to assume control of colonial affairs, both civil and military, and throughout the war it directed the government of the states and of the nation. The Whigs fought for a cause as righteous as any that ever arrayed men in battle, and in so doing they broke the yoke of colonial vassalage and gained for the world much of that which they gained for themselves. The Tory party was composed of the colonists who adhered to the Crown during the war. It was joined by nearly all royal officials, some eminent lawyers, dependents of royal landholders, numerous physi- cians, some who were at first conservative, or neutral, and those who, not otherwise influenced, dreading the strength of England, believed that a "successful resistance to her power was impossible." The Tories, or Royalists, composed a considerable portion of the force employed to put down the "rebellion." The number of them who enlisted in the military service of the Crown was probably more than twenty-five thousand. Various measures were taken by the Whig populace to awe and punish the Tories. Differ- ent ones at different times, as circumstances seemed to suggest, were "tarred and feathered," mobbed, smoked, waylaid, insulted, deposed from office, and driven from home. Against them the legislatures of the states, according to the offense committed, passed laws inflicting such penalties as death, exile, confis- 20 EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. cation of estate, loss of personal liberty for a limited period, disqualification from, office, imprisonment, and transportation to a British possession. At the peace of 1783, these laws were in force, and no pro- vision was made for the Royalists; they were banished by those they had opposed, and neglected by those they had aided. When the British troops were with- drawn from our shores, the Tories abandoned the United States and became the founders of New Brunswick and Upper Canada. The exiles appealed to Parliament for relief, and received, after several years of delay, fifteen and a half millions of dollars. Besides this, many of them obtained "annuities, half pay as military officers, large grants of land, and shared with other subjects in the patronage of the Crown." The Royalists, whose injury to the cause of liberty had not been great, were permitted to remain at home. The issue on which their party was based died with the Revolution, and in 1783 the Tory party ceased to exist. It w,ould add but little to the interest and utility of this work to enter into any details regarding the "Particularists" and the "Strong Government men." They cut but a small figure in the political history, and they were forgotten in the rise of the Federal and the anti-Federal parties. This latter party was in power till the Confederation was superseded by the Federal government, and it "represented very fairly the ideas and feelings thai prevailed with the masses during the Revolution." IMosI prominent among the anti-Federal leaders were Patrick Henry, John Han- cock, Samuel Adams, and George Clinton. This party EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 distrusted the motives of the opposition, and feared that the strong government which the latter wished to establish would be disposed to grasp at powrr and become, eventually, oppressive and tyrannical. Their suspicions in regard to this led them to oppose meas- ures which they otherwise would have supported. They did not regard the condition of the nation as deplorable as was represented by their opponents, and in behalf of their position they appealed to the peace the country was enjoying. They regarded the government of the Confederation sufficient to meet the w r ants of the Union. Nothing but necessity led them to change in opinion. As by degrees the Union approached dissolution, certain anti-Federalists would accept the views of their opponents. The pro- ceedings of the constitutional convention were con- ducted w r ith closed doors; this fact served to increase the suspicion of the anti-Federals, and gave rise to rumors purporting the establishment of a monarchy. After the constitution was presented for ratification, the anti-Federalists became "alarmed at the character of the new government to be established; increased their attachments for the governments of the states; excited fears; refused ta examine and judge; and persisted in their opposition to the constitution till they were forced to accept it or dissolve the Union." The anti-Federalists became Close Constructionists, because they wished to interpret the constitution according to its terms and prevent an ingenious con- struction of its provisions. When the constitution was reported by the Phila- delphia convention, the energies of the Strong Gov- 22 EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. ernment men were exerted to secure the ratification of the new instrument, and, because these partisans favored a federal government under the constitution, they assumed for their party the name of Federal. This party was in the minority till the beginning of Washington's administration. The Federalists be- came Broad Constructionists, because they desired to interpret the constitution so as to invest the Fed- eral government with a great amount of power. Dis- cussions upon the subject of ratification were carried on in public assemblies, through the press, and in local legislatures. Jay, Wilson, Hamilton and Madison were especially conspicuous in the Federal cause. In a New York newspaper there appeared, under the name of "Publius," eighty-five essays favoring the adoption of the constitution. These essays, written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, were collected and published in a book called "The Federalist," "which is a classic in American political literature." The , labors of the Federalists had the desired effect. On the 2d day of July, 1788, Congress was informed by the President that nine states had ratified the consti- tution. That body fixed the "first Wednesday in March as the time, and New York as the place, for commencing proceedings under the constitution." Upon the inauguration of Mr. Washington the Fed- eral party passed into power and assumed control of the national legislature. The first duty of the party was that of organizing a government based upon the constitution. This was a task requiring time, pa- tience and deliberation. It was the desire of W^ash- ington to be the mediator between the two political EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 23 parties, and, though it was perhaps an unwise move, he brought iiito his cabinet both Hamilton and Jeffer- son. Mr. Hamilton was the acknowledged leader of the Federalists, and Mr. Jefferson stood in the same relation to the Republican party. The antagonism of these two leaders soon led Thomas Jefferson to reject as inappropriate the name of anti-Federal, and his party assumed the title of Republican-Democrat. The word "Democrat," however, proved obnoxious to many, and was presently dropped. The party in power claimed to be Federal Republicans, and when they were accused of being monarchists and enemies of free institutions, they repelled the charge, and "stigmatized the Eepublicans as Democrats, an appellation assumed by the ferocious Jacobins who had so lately filled France with frenzy, terror, and bloodshed." The name being affixed as a reproach, was not at first adopted. Washington's Farewell Address, issued in August of 1796, assured the people that he would now retire from public life. There was no other man on whom the wnole nation could unite. The presidential con- test which folio wed excited an implacable party spirit, and was the first great struggle for ascendancy be- tween the parties. The Federalists nominated John Adams for President, and the Republicans, Thomas Jefferson. The result was a victory for each party. Mr. Adams was elected President, and Mr. Jefferson, receiving the next highest number of votes, was chosen Vice-President. The election showed that the Federalists were losing ground and that the Re- publicans were gaining. The former were weak;- 24 EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. ened by feuds among their leaders, and the latter were strengthening their organization and numbers as they advanced from a party of mere opposition to one with a positive policy. With two such men as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, each possessing strong and widely differ- ing political sentiments, it was no wonder that the administration of Mr. Adams was filled with conten- tion. When the Sixth Congress convened, the Federal gain had been such as to give the administration a majority in the House, but the gain was the result of external politics the war with France and its value could not be lasting. The supremacy of the Federal party was drawing to a close. A disaffection in its ranks had been growing for some time, when, in May, 1800, it occasioned a rupture of the cabinet. This served to weaken the efforts of the Federalists at the election of 1800. The Federal candidates for President and Vice-President were John Adams and O. C. Pinckney. Mr. Adams' Federal opponents en- deavored to secure the first position for Mr. Pinckney. Hamilton wrote a pamphlet setting forth the defects of Mr. Adams, and- giving the "su- perior fitness of Mr. Pinckney for the position of Chief Magistrate." There was no such division among the opposition. In 1800, a congressional convention, composed of Republicans, was held in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were nominated as candidates for (lie executive offices. A platform of principles was promulgated. An earnest and spirited campaign followed. Of the electors chosen, DANIEL S. LAMONT. Born in Cortland County, N. Y., February 9, 1851; after completing an academic course K egan life as a clerk, but abandoned that occupation for a political career; was a dele- gate to Democratic State Convention before he was of age, and was a member of the New York Assembly in 1870, 1871 and 1875; was afterward chief clerk in the New York state department under John Bigelow, and was confidential secre- tary to Samuel J. Tilden during the latter's term as governor of New York; from 1875 until 1883 held the office of secretary of the Democratic State Committee of New York; was Secre- tary of War during the last administration of President Cleve- land. CALVIN S. BRICE. Born in Denmark, Ohio, September 17, 1845; educated in the common schools of his home, and afterward in those of higher grade in Lima, Ohio; entered the preparatory department of Miami University in 1858, joining the freshman class the fol- lowing year; at the outbreak of the war enlisted, but after- ward returned to the university, where he was graduated in 1853; entered the law department of Michigan University, and was admitted to the bar; is known chiefly as a corporation lawyer and a leader in financial circles; was elected United States Senator in 1890. EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 27 seventy-three were Republicans, and sixty-five Fed- eralists. By the constitution at that time, each elector voted for two persons; he who received the greatest number of votes was to be President, and he who received the next greatest was to be Vice-Presi- dent. The Republicans voted so that Jefferson and Burr received each seventy-three votes, which threw the election into the House. Thomas Jefferson was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot. During the excite- ment preceding the election of Jefferson the country was in peril. The Federalists thought of casting the election on the Senate, if the states could make no choice. To this the Republicans threatened forcible resistance. The efforts of the Federals in the House to defeat the election of Jefferson by forming a coali- tion with the friends of Burr, caused a great number to desert the Federal ranks and join the Republicans. Thus was broken the sceptre of Federal power. The defeated factions charged each other with caus- ing the downfall of the Federal party. But for this political prostration there were other causes. The party maintained its supremacy from the first more through superior organization and skillful leaders than through the aid of a numerical majority; it or- ganized a government, "novel in its character, and well calculated to create diversity of opinion relative to the details of its administration;" it adhered to the policy of non-interference with the affairs of for- eign nations, a policy which, as regards England and France, was not approved by large numbers of the people; it increased the expenditures of the govern- ment to meet the rapid expansion and growing de- 28 EARLY PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. mand of the country, and this increase met with op- position, the causes not being sought. The Federal party did not fall without honor. "To it belongs the proud distinction of having laid the foundation of the government structure, and of having reared the machinery for its operation. The principles of the party survived its existence; they were denounced by the opposition, but were generally re-established and maintained by the party that succeeded to power." The title "Democratic-Republican," abbreviated to the second word, continued to be the official name of the party of Jefferson. The unpopularity of Ad- ams' administration was transferred to the Federal party, and the name "Democrat," by which this or- ganization stigmatized the minority, was adopted by a good portion of them, and became a synonym for the word Republican. CHAPTER II. REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS THE END OF ONE PARTY. Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated President, at Washington City, March 4, 1801. His policy was set forth in his inaugural address, which showed that he desired to effect a unity of action between the par- ties. What he deemed the essential principles of our government was stated in the following words: "Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none; the support of the state govern- ments in all their rights, as the most competent ad- ministration for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad ; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and safe corrective of abuses, which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital prin- ciple and immediate parent of despotism; a well-dis- ciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve 30 REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and the sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information, and ar- raignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason; the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected!" This ad- dress, for a long time, constituted a creed of political faith for great numbers of the people. The platform of the Republican party upon which Mr. Jefferson was elected was as follows: 1. An inviolable preservation of the Federal constitution, according to the true sense in which it was adopted by the states, that in which it was advocated by its friends, and not that which its -enemies apprehended, who, therefore, became its ene- mies. 2. Opposition to monarchizing its features by the forms of its administration, with a view to conciliate a transition, first, to a president and senate for life; and, secondly, to an hereditary tenure of those offices, and thus to worm out the elective prin- ciple. 3. Preservation to the states of the powers not yielded by them to the Union, and to the legislature of the Union its con- stitutional share in division of powers; and resistance, there- fore, to existing movements for transferring all the powers of the states to the general government, and all of those of that government to the executive branch. 4. A rigorously frugal administration of the government, and the application of all the possible savings of the public revenue to the liquidation of the public debt; and resistance, therefore, to all measures looking to a multiplication of officers and salaries, merely to create partisans and to augment the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing. 5. Reliance for internal defense solely upon the militia, till REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 31 actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may be suffi- cient to protect our coasts and harbors from depredations; and opposition, therefore, to the policy of a standing army in time of peace which may overawe the public sentiment, and to a navy, which, by its own expenses, and the wars in which it will implicate us, will grind us with public burdens and sink us under them. 6. Free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment. 7. Opposition to linking ourselves, by new treaties, with the quarrels of Europe, entering their fields of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of kings to war against the principles of liberty. 8. Freedom of religion, and opposition to all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another. 9. Freedom of speech and of the press; and opposition, therefore, to all violations of the constitution, to silence, by force, and not by reason, the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their public agents. 10. Liberal naturalization laws, under which the well dis- posed of all nations who may desire to embark their fortunes with us and share with us the public burdens, may have that opportunity, under moderate restrictions, for the development of honest intention, and severe ones to guard against the usurpation of our flag. 11. Encouragement of science and the arts in all their independence of all foreign monopolies, institutions and in- branches, to the end that the American people may perfect their fluences. Mr. Jefferson endeavored to put the government on its Republican track. Circumstances favored his endeavors. The foreign and domestic difficulties, which bore so heavily upon his predecessor, were either settled or being adjusted. National finances were prosperous, and material resources were in- creasing rapidly. He accepted the institutions of the government as they had been provided for by his predecessor, and in so doing incurred no responsi- 32 REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. bility. Many of his principles were the opposite of those on which the government was administered during Federal rule. The administration was sus- tained by large majorities, and the Republicans were gaining strength in every section of the Union. Mr. Jefferson strengthened himself with the people by the enactment of many popular measures,' and was re-elected in 1804. Louisiana had been purchased in 1803. The Republicans favored the annexation, and based its legality upon an attribute of sovereign- ty transferred to the general government by the indi- vidual states. That attribute is the right to acquire territory. This was interpreting the constitution so as to give it assumed powers; it was a doctrine which the Republicans had hitherto combated, but which they now advocated with great ardor. The executive himself did not believe that the constitution war- ranted the acquisition of foreign territory, but he acquiesced in th'e will of his friends. The Federals maintained that the government had no power to acquire territory, according to the terms of the constitution; that the purchase of Louisiana would give to the southern states a preponderance which would continue for all time, since the internal development of the southern states would be more rapid than that of the northern; that states devel- oped out of the territory west of the Mississippi would prove injurious to the commerce of New England, and would disturb the political equilibrium which should exist between the east and other sections of the coun- try; and that the admission of the "western world" into the Union would compel the eastern states to REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 33 establish an independent empire. When the pur- chase was made, the minority doubted whether the Louisianians should be admitted to the privileges of citizenship, owing to their lineage, dialect, manners, and religion. The accession of Louisiana to the Union impressed the Federalists with the idea that the "balance of power" among the states must remain forever in favor of the south, and prompted their most radical leaders to suggest the secession of the northern states. Their hope of success was in uniting with the followers of Burr, that he might be elected gov- ernor of New York and be made leader of the north- ern party. This being accomplished, the name Fed- eral would be dropped, and the war-cry would become "the north P and "the south!" But Hamilton opposed the plan, frustrated the election of Burr, and the overwhelming majorities of the party in power rendered fruitless any immediate attempts at dissolving the Union. Mr. Jefferson's administration gave him an oppor- tunity to exemplify the substantive ideas embodied in the platform on which he was elected, and asserted in his inaugural address. He tested Republicanism and demonstrated that, according to its principles, the government could be administered with fairness. His course was consistent; his duties were faithfully performed; his administration was promotive of the varied interests of the country, and its influence upon the sentiments and aspirations of the people was benign. The Republicans were divided as to who should 34 REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. be Jefferson's successor. One caucus nominated James Madison, and the other, James Monroe. Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King were the Fed- eral candidates. An earnest canvass followed, in which the Republicans feared 1 their own dissensions more than Federal opposition. Seventeen Congress- men formally protested against the election of Mr. Madison and proclaimed his unfitness for the Presi- dency. In some places George Clinton was suggested as the proper man for the position. But the domi- nant party was too strong to be overthrown and Mr. Madison was elected by a large majority. His policy, both in regard to foreign and general affairs, was the same as that of Jefferson. His inaugural address contained an enunciation of principles which re- peated, in substance, those of his predecessor, and added nothing save what was demanded by the exi- gencies of the times. Mr. Madison inherited from the previous adminis- tration the pending controversy with England. He desired to avert war as long as possible by the use of diplomacy. England and France were still at a dead-lock and disregarding neighboring neutrals. The former adhered to her "orders in council," and insisted that "a man once a subject was always a sub- ject;" the latter had authorized the seizure and con- fiscation of American vessels which should enter the ports of France. Mr. Erskine, the British minister, in April, 1809, concluded a treaty with the govern- ment, which engaged that the "orders in council" should be withdrawn; but the British ministry re- fused to sanction his action. When the Non-Inter- THOMAS C. PLATT. Born in Oswego, N. Y., July 15, 1833; received a thorough education and entered Yale College, but left in 1853 because of failing health; received the honorary degree of M. A. in 1876; engaged in business and eventually became president of the Tioga (N. Y.) National Bank, and later engaged in the lumber business in Michigan; elected to Congress in 1872 and re- elected in 1874; chosen United States Senator, but resigned with Roscoe Conkling shortly after; again became a candidate for the seat, but was defeated; since 1880 'has been the president of the United States Express Company; was a mem- ber of the National Republican Convention in 1876, 1880, and 1884. GALUSHA A. GROW. Born in Ashford, Conn., August 31, 1824; graduated at Am- herst in 1844; studied law and practiced at Towanda until 1850, when he became a farmer; elected to Congress as a Demo- crat in 1851 and served for twelve successive years, but in the meantime severed his connections with the Democratic party on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise Bill; served as Speaker of the House from July 4, 1861, until March 4, 1863; was a delegate to the National Republican Conventions of 1864 and 1868; President of the International and Great North- ern Railroad in 1871; in 1894 was elected Congressman-at- large. REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 37 course act expired, in May, 1810, Mr. Madison "caused proposals to be made to both belligerents, that if either would revoke its hostile edict, this law should only be revived and enforced against the other na- tion/' France accepted the proposal and received the benefits of its execution; England did not. The Republican party was divided on the question of a war with England. One portion favoring the war, and headed by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, was called the war party; the other portion ques- tioned the propriety of a declaration of war, and re- ceived the sympathy of the President. The war party determined that Mr. Madison should identify himself w r ith them, and refused to give him their support for a second term unless he would comply with their w r ishes. The desired effect having been produced upon the President, he was nominated for re-election by the Republicans, at a congressional caucus held at Washington on the 8th of May. The Federalists, having no ticket of their own, supported Clinton and Ingersoll, candidates of the "Clintonians." Mr. Madison was re-elected in 1812, and, faithful to his promise, the War of 1812 was declared and sup- ported by the Republicans, who were held responsible for the measure. On the first of June the President, in a message, declared that our flag was continually violated on the high seas; that the right of searching American vessels for British seamen was claimed and practiced; that thousands of American citizens had been dragged on board of foreign ships and exiled to distant climes; that remonstrances were disregarded ; that a peaceful adjustment was refused; that Amer- 3 38 REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. lean blood had been shed; and that the British min- istry had been intriguing for a dismemberment of the Union. Deliberations in favor of war were begun immediately, carried on with closed doors, and hur- ried through so rapidly that the minority were cut off from debate. On the 18th of June war was declared, but it was a party rather than a national war. It was supported in the south and the west with unanimity and patriotism; in New England it was violently op- posed. Perhaps nine-tenths of the people were at first in favor of war. The administration party branded the leaders of the minority as Jacobins, ene- mies of republics, and as monarchists, designing the subversion of the Union. In December, 1813, the President recommended greater restrictions on im- portations. Congress, accordingly, in secret session, passed a bill imposing great "restrictions on com- merce on inland waters." This is known as the em- bargo. Negotiations for a peace which would insure to the United States a redress of the wrongs complained of, were in progress during most of the war. In 1813, the Emperor of Russia offered his mediation between the hostile governments. It was accepted by the United States and declined by England; but the lat- ter proposed to treat directly with our government. This met with the approbation of the administration, and a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, in Bel- gium, December 24, 1814. The Federal party were bitterly opposed to the war. Some of them declared it presumptuous, inex- pedient, unnecessary, immoral, cruel, unjust, and REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 39 ruinous. Some of the New England states refused the militia aid which the administration called for. Massachusetts voted two memorials to Congress, pro- testing against the war and praying for peace. In February, 1814, a committee of the general assembly of this state presented the following report on nu- merous petitions which had been sent to the legis- lature: "A power to regulate commerce is abused, when employed to destroy it; and a manifest and voluntary abuse of power sanctions the spirit of re- sistance, as much as a direct and palpable usurpa- tion. The sovereignty reserved to the states was re- served to protect the citizens from acts of violence by the United States, as well as for the purpose of domestic regulation. We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent state of Massachus- etts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, with- out power to protect its people and defend them from oppression, from whatever quarter it comes* When the national compact is violated, and the citizens of the state are oppressed by cruel and unauthorized law, this legislature is bound to -interpose its power and wrest from the oppr3ssor its victim." The Re- publicans declared the report to be treasonable. It seems that on this subject the political parties had completely changed grounds. A peace party had been organized, but it only succeeded in making futile attempts at a reconciliation. The New England Fed- eral delegates assembled at Hartford nine days be- fore the treaty of Ghent. They deliberated for three weeks with closed doors and adopted a number of resolutions, among them being a call for seven amend- 40 REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. ments to the constitution. The imputation was made that the New England states intended, if possible, to make a separate peace with Great Britain. This, if it was a fact, was never clearly disclosed. When the war had ended the country was soon blessed with great prosperity. The sufferings of the conflict were forgotten, and men seemed to remem- ber most of all how reluctantly the Federals had aided the Union in its time of need. This was the final death-blow to the party, which had been gradu- ally decaying since the election of Jefferson. The Federal leaders had taken part in the Hartford con- vention. The guilt attached to a connection with this convention isolated them more and more, while the followers rapidly joined the Republican ranks. The Federalist party was dead. CHAPTER III. THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. At a Republican caucus, March 16, 1816, two un- successful attempts were made "to pass a resolution declaring it inexpedient to make caucus nominations by members of Congress." The practice had previ- ously occasioned a defection among the Republicans, and now nineteen of the congressmen refused to par- ticipate in the proceedings. Monroe and Tompkins were nominated by a vote which was declared unani- mous. The Federals/ coalescing with Clintonians, who repudiated caucus nominations, were without much strength; their candidates were Rufus King and John E. Howard. Though the nomination of Monroe had been re- sisted on personal grounds, and because of "an unwil- lingness on the part of many that the 'Virginia Dy- nasty' should continue," he, nevertheless, was elected by 183 votes against 34 cast for the Federalists. When his administration began, the questions in- volved in the old controversy between the parties had ceased to have any practical significance. He adopt- ed the doctrine of the new school of Republicans, of which Clay and Calhoun were leaders, and thus be- came acceptable to the Federalists, "who were gradu- ally yielding to the liberal views of new generations 42 THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. of men." The Clintonians and the friends of Craw- ford acquiesced in the decision of the last election, and "most of them signified their intention of sup- porting the administration." Wherever party differences existed 1 , they were sub- siding by degrees into calm serenity. The President visited the states, the summer after his inauguration, and the favorable greeting which he received, added to the political peace which the country enjoyed, caused it to be announced that the "Era of Good Feel- ing" had begun. By this designation the whole of Monroe's administration is known, though it belongs more distinctly to the second term. General Jackson t gratified at the auspicious cir- cumstances attending Mr. Monroe, advised him as follows: "Now is the time to exterminate that mon- ster, called party spirit. By. selecting [for cabinet officers] characters most conspicuous for their pro- bity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, without regard to party, you will go far to, if not entirely, eradicate those feelings, which, on former occasions, threw so many obstacles in the way of government. The chief magistrate of a great and powerful nation should never indulge in party feelings. His conduct should be liberal and disinterested; always bearing in mind, that he acts for the whole and not a part of the com- munity." Mr. Monroe, believing that a free government can exist without parties, concurred generally in the views of Jackson, but thought that he could bring all the people quietly into the Republican fold, and at the same time let his administration rest strongly on THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 43 that party. All of his cabinet members were Re- publicans. James Monroe served two terms, and his eight years in office were marked by some of the most important events in the history of the country from the close of the war of the revolution to beginning of the war of the rebellion. It was during his administration that the Missouri question arose. It was Mr. Monroe who, in his message to Congress, December 2, 1823, introduced the words which are now called The Mon- roe Doctrine. Although it was years after its pro- mulgation in 1867 when the United States de- manded the withdrawal of the French from Mexico before it was put in practice at all, The Monroe Doc- trine has recently played a very prominent part in our relations with England, and at one time, through what is known as the Venezuela question, there was more than a hint of war. The following word's con- tain the principle involved: "We owe it to candor and to amicable relations existing between the United States and the European powers to declare that we should consider any at- tempt on their part to extend their system to any por- tion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." This, with accompanying reasons for the position taken, was a statement of the doctrine that "Amer- ica is for Americans," and exemplified the policy of Washington: "No entangling alliances." Congress deemed the position necessary, but did not enforce it. The doctrine was called out by an attempt of the Holy Alliance to check liberty on both sides of the At- RUSSELL A. ALGER. Born in Lafayette, Ohio, February 27, 1836; after receiving a liberal education adopted the profession of law; admitted to the bar in 1859, but at the breaking out of the war entered the volunteer service as Captain of the Second Michigan Cav- alry; won promotion on many battlefields, coming out as bre- vet Major-General; after the war engaged in lumber business in Detroit; in 1884 was elected Governor of Michigan and served two years; takes an active interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic and was chosen Commander- in-Chief of that organization in 1890; in the presidential con- vention in 1888 he received a large vote. THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 47 state legislatures and other political machinery. Crawford was chosen by a caucus. This injured his prospects, for the caucus system had become so odious that the Republicans would unite on no man nomi- nated in that way. Each candidate was a Repub- lican. The canvass was exciting, but the considera- tions were local and personal rather than political, Republicanism being not at issue with any opposing measure. This quadrangular contest, known as the "scrub race," completely overthrew "king caucus," and failed to indicate a choice of the candidates; ac- cordingly, it devolved upon the House to choose a President out of the three highest on the list- Jackson, Adams and Crawford. It rested upon Mr. Clay to decide which of these should administer the government. His position was so delicate and criti- cal that no path was left him on which he could move without censure. He was equal to the task, and de- termined to vote for Mr. Adams, basing his objection to Mr. Crawford on the ground of ill health, and the circumstances under which he was before the House, and to General Jackson, on the fact that he was a mili- tary chieftain. It was during Adams' administration that it can be safely said that Democracy, as it exists to-day, be- gan to show its head. That division in the Repub- lican party which supported Jackson and Crawford, abandoned, in 1828, the name of Republican, and adopted the title of "Democratic," "as a novel, distinct and popular uame." This marks the beginning of the modern Democratic party, though its adherents were generally called Jackson men till 1836. The Demo- RUSSELL A. ALGER. Born in Lafayette, Ohio, February 27, 1836; after receiving a liberal education adopted the profession of law; admitted to the bar in 1859, but at the breaking out of the war entered the volunteer service as Captain of the Second Michigan Cav- alry; won promotion on many battlefields, coming out as bre- vet Major-General; after the war engaged in lumber business in Detroit; in 1884 was elected Governor of Michigan and served two years; takes an active interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic and was chosen Commander- in-Chief of that organization in 1890; in the presidential con- vention in 1888 he received a large vote. THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 47 state legislatures and other political machinery. Crawford was chosen by a caucus. This injured his prospects, for the caucus system had become so odious that the Republicans would unite on no man nomi- nated in that way. Each candidate Avas a Repub- lican. The canvass was exciting, but the considera- tions were local and personal rather than political, Republicanism being not at issue with any opposing measure. This quadrangular contest, known as the "scrub race," completely overthrew "king caucus," and failed to indicate a choice of the candidates; ac- cordingly, it devolved upon the House to choose a President out of the three highest on the list- Jackson, Adams and Crawford. It rested upon Mr. Clay to decide which of these should administer the government. His position was so delicate and criti- cal that no path was left him on which he could move Avithout censure. He Avas equal to the task, and de- termined to vote for Mr. Adams, basing his objection to Mr. Crawford on the ground of ill health, and the circumstances under Avhich he Avas before the House, and to General Jackson, on the fact that he Avas a mili- tary chieftain. It was during Adams' administration that it can be safely said that Democracy, as it exists to-day, be- gan to show its head. That division in the Repub- lican party which supported Jackson and Crawford, abandoned, in 1828, the name of Republican, and adopted the title of "Democratic," "as a novel, distinct and popular name." This marks the beginning of the modern Democratic party, though its adherents were generally called Jackson men till 1836. The Demo- 48 THE BIRTH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. crats, being close ,constructionists, claimed their or- ganization to be a reformation and continuation of the real party of Jefferson. The section of the Republican party which adhered to Adams as their candidate, retained the name "Re- publican," to which they prefixed the word "na- tional" as an indication of the national character of Republicanism in contradistinction from the alleged sectional policy espoused by the Jackson party. The National Republicans adhered professedly to the faith of the Republican party, and claimed that their organization was a continuation of the party of Jef- ferson, Madison, Monroe, and Adams. The National Republicans were broad constructionists. Among the outside parties organized at this time was the People's party, which exhibited no little strength. It began in the state of New York, at the fall elections of 1823, when the Republicans were divided upon the choice of presidential electors. Some wished them to be chosen by the state legisla- tures; others, by the people. The latter portion de- veloped into a political organization called the "Peo- ple's Party." Another was the Anti Masonic party. William Morgan, a Royal Arch Mason, of Genesee county, New York, threatened to publish the secrets of Ma- sonry. He was arrested for a debt of two dollars and thrown into jail, from which he was taken by night to Fort Niagara. He remained a short time at this place, and on the 29th of September, 1826, dis- appeared, and was never seen afterwards. Much ex- citement followed this event, for it was claimed that THE BIRTH OP THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 49 the Masons had put him to death clandestinely. The subject was taken into politics the following year, and the Anti-Masonic party was organized, which found adherents in all the principal towns and cities in the west. The principal object of the party was the exclusion from office of the supporters of Masonry. But now the time had come for a change. The Re- publican party had been in power for twenty-four years, under Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, and it was practically the same under John Q. Adams. Andrew Jackson was essentially a Republican, but he was one of the disaffected, and he stands as the sponsor for the Democratic party. The election of 1828 was a hot one. The canvass began almost as soon as Mr. Adams was declared elected in 1824. General Jackson was the announced candidate on one side, and Mr. Adams on the other. These efforts, undertaken by the friends of the candidates, were soon seconded by the people. The legislature of Ten- nessee nominated General Jackson in October, 1825. Mr. Adams was nominated by the general assembly of Massachusetts. Additional nominations were made for each by conventions of friends. The caucus system had gone into disuse, and national conven- tions had not been invented. The canvass was long and exciting. The merits and failings of each can- didate were magnified in an unusual degree; but the hero of New Orleans was elected by an overwhelm- ing majority. CHAPTER IV. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. With the inauguration of President Jackson was the real career of the Democratic party practically begun. He adopted the sentiment that "To the vic- tors belong the spoils," which originated with Wil- liam L. Marcy, a New York Senator, while arguing, in 1832, for the nomination of Martin Van Buren as minister to England. It was taken up as a maxim by the Jackson party and has, to an extent, consti- tuted, since its utterance, the code of both parties for the conduct of the civil service of the United States. At this time, however, the National Republicans passed resolutions condemning it. President Jack- son, while administering the government, removed 690 men from office and filled the vacancies with offi- cials whose political views accorded with his own. Confident that he could conduct the government bet- ter by the aid of his friends than by the assistance of his opponents, he often remarked that he was "too old a soldier to have his garrison in the hands of his enemies." President Jackson, soon after his inauguration, de- clared himself in favor of only one term, and this led John C. Calhoun to begin laying his wires for the succession. This caused a disruption in the cabinet THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. 51 and created a wide breach between Mr. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun and his friends. When it became a matter of open warfare Mr. Calhoun organized a party of his own which was called the Nullification party. This was by no means the only element of antago- nism which cropped up at this time against the Jack- son administration. The Anti-Masonic party had held a convention in Philadelphia in September, 1830, when the following resolution was passed: Resolved, That it is recommended to the people of the United States opposed to secret societies, to meet in convention on Monday, September 26, 1831, at the city of Baltimore, by delegates equal in number to their representatives in both houses of Con- gress, to make nomination of suitable candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, to be supported at the next elec- tion, and for the transaction of such other business as the cause of anti-Masonry may require. Also, in 1833, the National Anti-Slavery Society was formed, as a result of the great interest awakened on the question of slavery two years before. Many auxiliary societies were organized throughout the northern states. The subject was openly and freely discussed; anti-slavery newspapers were soon estab- lished, and anti-slavery mail was circulated in the southern states. The opponents of slavery were called Abolitionists. The removal of the money deposits created in cer- tain quarters a bitter feeling against Mr. Jackson. The law of 1816, establishing the National Bank, ordered that the public moneys should be deposited in the vaults, and empowered the Secretary of the 52 THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. Treasury to remove the funds when necessary, pro- vided he would lay before Congress his reasons for so doing. During the recess of Congress, the Presi- dent determined that the revenue collectors should cease to deposit the revenues in the Bank, and that the funds remaining therein should be used to meet the current expenses of the government till the amount should be exhausted. This was termed a re- moval of the deposits, since it produced that result. In September, 1833, the President directed the Secre- tary of the Treasury to issue the necessary order. On his refusal to do so, Koger B. Taney was appointed in his stead, and, complying with the direction of the President, he designated certain banks as deposi- tories. This act of the President was censured by the entire opposition and many of his political Mends. It created great excitement throughout the country, and gave rise to a reconstruction of parties, which re- sulted in the formation of the Whig party. It was composed of the National Republicans, the Anti- Masons, most of the nulliflers, and many Democrats who denounced what they deemed the high-handed measures of the executive. But notwithstanding all this, the Democratic na- tional convention assembled at Baltimore in May, 1832, renominated General Jackson for President, and selected Martin Van Buren for Vice-President. Preceding the vote for the latter, it was resolved "that two-thirds of the whole number of the votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice." This was the origin of the famous two- thirds rule. No platform of principles was adopted. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. 53 The Nullification candidate was John C. Calhoun, nominated by the legislature of South Carolina. No one was indicated for the second office, and the per- son of the candidate was deemed sufficient without a promulgation of principles. General Jackson was re-elected, having received 219 electoral votes out of 31G. Clay and Sergeant, the nominees of the National Republicans, only received 49 votes. In 1835, in the city and county of New York, a por- tion of the Democrats organized themselves into the "Equal Rights" party. Having convened in Tam- many Hall to overslaugh the proceedings of the Dem- ocratic nominating committee, they presented a chairman in opposition to the one supported by the regular Democrats. When neither party could se- cure the election of its chairman, the committee, in the midst of the greatest confusion, extinguished the lights. The Equal Rights men immediately relighted the room with candles and locofoco matches, with which they had provided themselves. From this they received the name of Locofocos, a designation which was, for a time, applied to the Democratic party by the opposition. But Democracy was now treading on dangerous ground. In 1836 the Democratic party, in national convention at Baltimore, May, 1835, confirmed the two-thirds rule, and, without adopting a platform, nominated Martin Van Buren and R. M. Johnson. The Locofocos held a counter convention in 1836, and adopted a. declaration of principles. At a Whig con- vention, held at Albany, New York, and composed of delegates from that state only, William H. Harrison 54 THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. and Francis Granger were nominated. Resolutions favoring Harrison and opposing Van Buren were adopted. No principles were asserted. The Anti- Masons, who had not identified themselves with the Whigs, confirmed, in convention, the ticket selected at Albany. This nomination met with approval from Whig state conventions, but not without exceptions. Daniel Webster, H. L. White, and William Smith were also candidates. This lack of unity weakened the efforts of the Whigs, and injured their chances of success. Van Buren was chosen by a mere popular majority. He, however, only served one term, and his defeat made a break in the party which for four years was filled by the Whigs. The platform of the Locofocos was as follows: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that the true foundation of re- publican government is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management; that the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right; that the rightful power of all legislation is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us; that no man has the natural right to commit aggressions on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; that every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this is all the law should enforce on him; that when the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions. We declare unqualified hostility to bank notes and paper money as a circulating medium, because gold and silver is the only safe and constitutional currency; hostility to any and all monopolies by legislation, because they are violations of equal rights of the people; hostility to the dangerous and unconsti- GEORGE F. HOAR. Born in Concord, Mass., August 29, 1826; graduated at Har- vard in 1846; studied law and began the practice of his pro- fession in Worcester; was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1852, and of the State Senate in 1857; elected as a Republican to four successive Congresses, serving from 1869 till 1877; elected United States Senator in 1877 and was re-elected in 1883, 1889 and 1895; was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884 and 1888, presiding over the convention of 1880; from 1874 to 1880 was an overseer of Harvard College, and in the latter year was regent of the Smithsonian Institution. DANIEL W. VOORHEES. Born at Butler County, Ohio, September 26, 1827; first prac- ticed law at Covington, Ind., where he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 1856; in 1858 was ap- pointed United States district attorney for Indiana, and in 1861 was elected to Congress, in which body he served until 1866; sat in the National House of Representatives from 1869 until 1873, and upon the death of Oliver P. Morton was ap- pointed to fill a seat in the United States Senate, serving from 1877 until 1879, when he was elected for a full term; he was re-elected in 1885 and 1891. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. 57 tutional creation of vested rights or prerogatives by legislation, because they are usurpations of the people's sovereign rights; no legislative or other authority in the body politic can rightfully, by charter or otherwise, exempt any man or body of men, in any case whatever, from trial by jury and the jurisdiction or opera- tion of the laws which govern the community. We hold that each and every law or act of incorporation, passed by preceding legislatures, can be rightfully altered and repealed by their successors; and that they should be altered or repealed, when necessary for the public good, or when required by a majority of the people. The Whigs adopted the following resolutions at Albany, February 3, 1836: Resolved, That in support of our cause we invite all citizens opposed to Martin Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees. Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by intriguing with the executive to obtain his influence to elect him to the presidency, has set an example dangerous to our freedom and corrupting to our free institutions. Resolved, That the support we render to William H. Harri- son is by no means given to him solely on account of his bril- liant and successful services as leader of our armies during the last war, but that in him we view also the man of high intellect, the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the machinery of hackneyed politicians a man of the school of Washington. Resolved, That in Francis Granger we recognize one of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, whose patriotism we trust, and whose principles we sanction. President Van Buren adopted the same line of pol- icy as pursued by his predecessor. The measures adopted to dispense with the IT. S. Bank and to ren- der gold and silver the medium of exchange occa- sioned a financial panic, which reached a crisis in May, 1837. During this month the banks of New York suspended specie payment. Other banks fol- lowed their example; commercial distress, deprecia- 4 58 THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. tion of property and prostration of business ensued. The calamity was attributed to the policy of the Pres- ident. One of the prominent Democratic measures of the administration was the proposition to admit Texas to the Union, but it was not carried into effect until the one term when the Whigs were in power. Mr. Tyler, in a message (December, 1843), announced his desire of effecting a peaceable union between Texas and the United States. The measure was advocated by the Democrats and opposed by the Whigs; though some anti-slavery men of the former and a few pro- slavery men of the latter, did not, on this question, vote with their party. The bill providing for the an- nexation was signed by the executive on the last day of his official life. During Mr. Van Buren's term the Abolitionists grew in strength and in November, 1839, they organ- ized the Abolition party at Warsaw, N. Y. This or- ganization was perfected in 1840 and was then called the Liberty party. It made material inroads upon both the Democrats and the Whigs. The former, however, suffered the most and lost the election of 1840. In November, 1839, when the Abolitionists organ- ized their party, they nominated James G. Birney and Francis J. Leinoyne. These gentlemen declined the candidature; but the organization, the following year, under the name of Liberty party, nominated James G. Birney and Thomas Earle. The Whig na- tional convention, at Harrisburg, December 4, 1830, nominated William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. 59 These selections were hailed with satisfaction. At Baltimore, on the 5th of May, 1840, the Democratic national convention unanimously nominated Mr. Van Buren for President, and left to the states the nomination of a Vice-President. The canvass was unusually interesting. The object of the Whigs was the defeat of Van Buren and the overthrow of his pol- icy. They had no platform to support, and made no attempts to defend accusations against their candi- dates; hence their line of action was on the offensive. They brought all their forces to bear against the Pres- ident's financial policy, the adoption of the sub-treas- ury scheme, the suspension of internal improvements, the extravagant expenditures of the Seminole war, and the re-election of a President for a second term. General Harrison's military reputation won for him what the same possession won for General Jackson. Van Buren's administration was held responsible for the unfortunate condition of the country, and but lit- tle enthusiasm could be aroused in his behalf. Gen- eral Harrison was elected by a large majority, having received 234 electoral votes to 60 cast for Mr. Van Buren. This canvass was known as the "Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign." The Whigs adopted no platform, but the Democrats put their faith in the following planks which set forth their principles in the plainest terms. The platform was as follows: Resolved, Thst the Federal government is one of limited powers, derived solely from the constitution, and the grants of power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpe- dient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers. 60 THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. Resolved, That the constitution does not confer upon the general government the power to commence and carry on a general system of national improvements. 3. Resolved, That the constitution does not confer au- thority upon the Federal government, directly or indirectly, to as- sume the debts of the several states, contracted for local internal improvements or other state purposes; nor would such assump- tion be just or expedient. 4. Resolved, That justice and sound policy forbid the Fed- eral government to foster one branch of industry to the detri- ment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of our common country that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and to complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence or foreign aggression. 5. Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the gov- ernment to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in con- ducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the government. 6. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a United States bank; that we believe such an institution ore of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and cal- culated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the people. 7. Resolved, That Congress has no power, under the con- stitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several states; and that such states are the sole and proper judges of everything pertaining to their own affairs, not pro- hibited by the constitution; that all efforts, by Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are cal- culated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous conse- quences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanence of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions. THE JACKSON DEMOCRACY. 61 8. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the gov- ernment from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the government and the rights of the people. 9. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jeffer- son in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal prin- ciples in the democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the present privilege of becoming citizens, and the owners of soil among us, ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute book. - Whereas, Several of the states have nominated Martin Van Buren as a candidate for the presidency, have put in nomination different individuals as candidates for vicerpresident, thus in- dicating a diversity of opinion as to the person best entitled to the nomination; and whereas, some of the said states are not represented in this convention; therefore, Resolved, That the convention deem it expedient at the prsent time not to choose between the individuals in nomination, but to leave the decision to their republican fellow-citizens in the several states, trusting that before the election shall take place, their opinions will become so concentrated as to secure the choice of a vice-president by the electoral college. CHAPTER V. THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. William Henry Harrison lived but one month after his inauguration. He died on April 4, 1841, and left Vice-President Tyler to care for the Whig interests. Nothing of any great importance occurred under Mr. Tyler's administration. In his inaugural address he sanctioned Mr. Harrison's calling of an extra session of Congress, and he announced his intention of carry- ing out .the promises of his predecessor. A limited veto became one of the issues of the Whig party. Dur- ing Mr. Tyler's term, several of the mushroom parties which were always cropping up, showed their heads, notably the "Native American Party," the "Barn- burners," and the "Hunkers." But like their ephem- eral predecessors, they soon became absorbed by one or the other of the two great political factions and were heard of no more. In August, 1843, the Liberty party met in national convention at Buffalo, New York, and designated James G. Birney and Thomas Morris as their candi- dates. A platform containing twenty-five resolu- tions was adopted. The Whig party assembled at Baltimore, in national convention, May 1, 1844. Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen were nomi- nated. The ticket was received with enthusiasm and THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. 63 great expectations of success. The national conven- tion of the Democratic party, held at Baltimore May 27, 1844, nominated James K. Polk and Silas Wright. The latter declined the nomination, and George M. Dallas was subsequently selected. The platform of 1840 was reaffirmed, to which three additional reso- lutions were appended. Mr. Tyler was nominated by a convention of office-holders; but finding that the movement did not meet with popular support, he withdrew in favor of Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk united the Democratic party, so that it presented a strong front to its opponents, among whom there was a lack of harmony. Many Whigs at the north were hostile to the annexation of Texas and the system of slavery, while their ultra members at the south were in favor of both. From the former the Liberty ticket re- ceived considerable support, and from the latter the Democratic candidates received a large vote. The campaign closed, to the great disappointment of the Whigs, with the election of Messrs. Polk and Dallas. These received 170 electoral votes; the Whigs, 105. The Whigs adopted a very brief platform, as fol- lows: Resolved, That these principles may be summed as compris- ing a well-regulated national currency: a taiiff for revenue to defray the necessary expenses of the government, and discrim- inating with special reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country; the distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public lands; a single term for the presidency; a reform of executive usurpations; and generally such an admin- istration of the affairs of the country as shall impart to every branch of the public service the greatest practical efficiency, controlled by a well-regulated and wise economy. 64 THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. The Democratic party was once more in power, and Mr. Polk, in his inaugural, expressed views consonant with the platform of 1840, which had been endorsed with three new resolutions added. These resolutions were as follows : Resolutions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, of the plat- form of 1840, were reaffirmed, to which were added the following: 10. Resolved, That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the con- stitution, and that we are opposed to the laws lately adopted, and to any law for the distribution of such proceeds among the states, as alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the con- stitution. 11. Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified veto power by which he is enabled, under restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interest, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits can not secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has thrice saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the bank of the United States. 12. Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power, and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period, are great American measures, which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the de- mocracy of the Union. The principal events in Mr. Folk's administration were the completion of the annexation of Texas, the Mexican war, and the Wilmot Proviso. The latter was the only measure which bore anything like a po- litical significance. But that did not cut any figure in general results. HILARY A. HERBERT. Born March 12, 1834, in Laurensville, S. C.; educated in the Universities of Alabama and Virginia; studied law and was admitted to the bar; entered the Confederate service as a Captain; became Colonel of the Eighth Alabama Volunteers; continued the practice of law at Greenville, Ala., till 1872, when he removed to Montgomery, where he 'has since resided; was first elected to Forty-fifth Congress and was re-elected seven times; when appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Cleveland, was about to enter upon his fifteenth continuous year in the National House of Representatives. JERRY SIMPSON. Born in the Province of New Brunswick March 31, 1842; at the age of fourteen began life as a sailor; during the early part of the Civil War served in the Twelfth Illinois Infantry; moved to Kansas in 1878, where he engaged in farming and stock raising; in politics has been identified with the Green- back and Union Labor parties; was twice defeated for the Kansas Legislature on the independent ticket in Barber County; was nominated for the Fifty-second Congress by the People's party, and elected by the aid of the Democrats, who indorsed his nomination; was re-elected to the Fifty-third Congress as a Farmers' Alliance candidate. THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. 67 The members of the Liberty party did not always act in harmony. In 1845, a state convention of men belonging to the Liberal party was held at Port Byron, New York. An address was printed, though not adopted, containing sentiments which met with the approval of many of the Liberty party. These men, in 1847, held a convention at Macedon, New York, nominated a Presidential ticket, consisting of Gerrit Smith and Elihu Burritt, separated entirely from their party, and took the name of Liberty League. They maintained that slavery was uncon- stitutional, and had for their watchword, "Duty is ours, results are God's." When the Barnburners retired from the convention at Baltimore, they issued a call for a state conven- tion, to be held at Utica. The delegates, on the 22d of June, nominated Martin Van Buren (N. Y.) and Henry Dodge (Wis.), and called upon the opponents of slave extension to meet in national convention at Buffalo on the 9th of August. At the appointed time, delegates convened from a few of the slave states and from most all the free states. The Lib- erty party withdrew its own candidates and joined in the proceedings. A new party was organized which received the title of "Free Soil," a name taken from a resolution in the platform of principles. Mar- tin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams were chosen as candidates, General Dodge having resigned. In October, 1847, the Liberty party, in national con- vention, at Buffalo, put in nomination John P. Hale and Leicester King. The Liberty League and dis- satisfied members of the Liberty party met at Au- 68 THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. burn, New York, January, 1848, renominated Gerrit Smith, and, Mr. Burritt having declined, selected C. C. Foote (Mich.), as candidate for Vice-President. The extreme views held by the League prevented it from developing popular strength. The Democratic con- vention was held at Baltimore, May 22, 1848. Two delegations appeared from New York, the Hunkers (for Dickinson) and the Barnburners (for Van Buren). After an exciting debate, both factions were admit- ted, with power to cast jointly the vote of the state. The decision being unsatisfactory, the former refused to participate in the proceedings, and the latter with- drew under protest. Generals Lewis Cass (Mich.) and William O. Butler (Ky.) were nominated. This selection became acceptable to the Hunkers, who, during the year, were merged into the regular Demo- cratic ranks. The convention adopted a platform containing twenty-three resolutions, seven of which were taken from the platform of 1844. The Whig national convention, at Philadelphia, June 7, 1848, nominated General Zachary Taylor (La.) and Millard Fillmore (N. Y.) Owing to conflicting opinions on the slavery question no platform was adopted, but on the 9th of June, at a ratification meeting in the same city, seven resolutions were agreed upon, all com- mendatory of General Taylor. It had become very evident that the Democrats and Whigs were both dissatisfied with the position of their candidate upon the slavery question. Cass was distrusted by the former, and Taylor by the latter, but the result showed the strength of the Whigs. Mr. Taylor and Millard Fillmore were elected, having re- THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. 69 ceived 163 votes against 127 cast for Cass and Butler. The Democratic platform was a lengthy one, begin- ning: Resolved, That the American democracy place their trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the American people. Resolved, That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, as the great moral element in a form of government springing from and upheld by the popular will; and contrast it with the creed and practice of federalism, under whatever name or form, which seeks to palsy the will of the constituent and which con- ceives no imposition too monstrous for the popular credulity. And closing, this document says: Resolved, That the confidence of the Democracy of the Union in the principles, capacity, firmness, and integrity of James K. Polk, manifested by his nomination and election in 1844, has been signally justified by the strictness of his adherence to sound Democratic doctrines, by the purity of purpose, the energy and ability, which have characterized his administration in all our affairs at home and abroad; that we tender to him our cordial congratulations upon the brilliant success which has hitherto crowned his patriotic efforts, and assure him in advance, that at tho expiration of his presidential term he will carry with him to his retirement, the esteem, respect and admiration of a grateful country. Resolved, That this convention hereby present to the people of the United States Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of President, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-President of the United States. The following Whig principles were adopted at the ratification meeting held in Philadelphia, June 9th: Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States, here assem- bled by their representatives, heartily ratify the nominations of General Zachary Taylor as President, and Millard Fillmore as Vice-President, of the United States, and pledge themselves to their support. 70 THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. Resolved, That in the choice of General Taylor as the Whig candidate for President, we are glad to discover sympathy with a great popular sentiment throughout the nation a sentiment which, having its origin in admiration of great military success, has been strengthened hy the development, in every action and every word, of sound conservative opinions, and of true fidelity to the great example of former days, and to the principles of the constitution as administered by its founders. Resolved, That General Taylor, in saying that, had he voted in 1844, he would have voted the Whig ticket, gives us the as- surance and no better is needed from a consistent and truth- speaking man that his heart was with us at the crisis of our political destiny, when Henry Clay was our candidate, and when not only Whig principles were well denned and clearly asserted, but Whig measures depended on success. The heart that was with us then is with us now, and we have a soldier's word of honor, and a life of public and private virtue, as the security. Resolved, That we look on General Taylor's administration of the government as one conducive of peace, prosperity and union; of peace, because no one better knows, or has greater reason to deplore, what he has seen sadly on the field of victory, the horrors of war, and especially of a foreign and aggressive war; of prosperity, now more than ever needed to relieve the nation from a burden of debt, and restore industry agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial to its accustomed and peaceful functions and influences; of union, because we have a candidate whose very position as a southwestern man, reared on the banks of the great stream whose tributaries, natural and artificial, em- brace the whole Union, renders the protection of the interests of the whole country his first trust, and whose various duties in past life have been rendered, not on the soil, or under the flag of any state or section, but over the wide frontier, and under the broad banner of the nation. Resolved, That standing, as the Whig party does, on the broad and firm platform of the constitution, braced up by all its inviolable and sacred guarantees and compromises, and cher- ished in the affections, because protective of the interests of the people, we are proud to have as the exponent of our opinions, one who is pledged to construe it by the wise and generous rules which Washington applied to it, and who has said and no Whig THE WHIG PARTY ONCE MORE. 71 desires any other assurance that he will make Washington's administration the model of his own. Resolved, That as Whigs and Americans, we are proud to acknowledge our gratitude for the great military services which, beginning at Palo Alto, and ending at Buena Vista, first awak- ened the American people to a just estimate of Mm who is now our Whig candidate. In the discharge of a painful duty for his march into the enemy's country was a reluctant one; in the command of regulars at one time, and volunteers at another, and of both combined; in the decisive though punctual discipline of his camp, where aH respected and loved him; in the negotiation of terms for a dejected and desperate enemy; in the exigency of actual conflict when the balance was perilously doubtful we have found him the same brave, distinguished, and considerate, no heartless spectator of bloodshed, no trifler with human life or human happiness; and we do not know which to admire most, his heroism in withstanding the assaults of the enemy in the most hopeless fields of Buena Vista mourning in generous sorrow over the graves of Ringgold, of Clay, or of Hardin or in giving, in the heat of battle, terms of merciful capitulation to a vanquished foe at Monterey, and not being ashamed to avow that he did it to spare women and children, helpless infancy and more helpless age, against whom no American soldier ever wars. Such a mili- tary man, whose triumphs are neither remote nor doubtful, whose virtues these trials have tested, we are proud to make our candidate. Resolved, That in support of this nomination, we ask our Whig friends throughout the nation to unite, to co-operate zeal- ously, resolutely, with earnestness, in behalf of our candidate, whom calumny can not reach, and with respectful demeanor to our adversaries, whose candidates have yet to prove their claims on the gratitude of the nation, CHAPTER VI. , BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. With the end of the Taylor and Fillmore adminis- tration the second Whig party in this country col- lapsed. Before the canvass of 1852, the Whigs avoided making the question of slavery a political issue. The compromises contained the Fugitive Slave bill, and other features which were offensive to the mass of northern Whigs, and, when their platform sanctioned the measures, the party divided against itself, and, without power for good or evil, became as dead "for all the purposes of a political campaign." After the election, the members of the party began to look else- where for political affiliation, and, in time, entered such organizations as met their approval. The American party was organized in 1852, with the professed object of purifying the ballot box, ex- cluding from office those of foreign birth, and oppos- ing the efforts to reject the Bible from the public schools. It operated secretly and with astonishing success. Its members were sworn to support the candidates put in nomination by the order. At first it selected candidates from all political parties. The organization \vas generally called the Know-Nothing party, because, when questioned concerning their or- THE BIRTH OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 73 der, the members answered that they knew nothing. The Democratic national convention, at Baltimore, June 1, 1852, nominated Franklin Pierce (N. H.) and Wm. R. King (Ala.). These candidates were pledged to support the compromises of 1850. The platform contained twenty resolutions. In the same city, on the 16th of June, the national convention of Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott (Va.) and Wm. A. Graham (N. C.). The plat- form adopted consisted of eight resolutions. The two leading conventions took the same position on the subject of slavery. The Free Soil party, at Pittsburg, August 11, 1852, in national convention, nominated John P. Hale (N. H.) and George W. Julian (Ind.). This party did not expect to secure any electoral votes, but acted in the hope that its principles, in time, might enter the other parties, and sever the connection between the government and slavery. The platform contained twenty-two resolutions. The Democrats were a unit upon their platform; most of them who had supported Van Buren in 184S, returned to the old party, and voted for Mr. Pierce. The Whigs could not conduct a vigorous canvass, owing to the indifference with which their platform was supported. At the election they were complete- ly routed. Mr. Pierce received 254 electoral votes out of the 296 cast in the college of that year. Thi's was the last final gasp of the Whigs, and as so little interest was taken in their platform, it is not considered worth while reproducing it here. The Democratic platform is given in full, as it promul- 74 THE BIRTH OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. gates many sound principles of the party of to-day. Resolutions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, of the platform of* 1848, were reaffirmed, to which were added the fol- lowing: Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the gov- ernment to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in con- ducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the government, and for the gradual but certain extinction of the public debt. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a National Bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hos- tility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our re- publican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calcu- lated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power, and that above the laws and the will of the people; and that the results of Democratic legislation, in this and all other financial measures, upon which issues have been made between the two political parties of the country, have demonstrated to candid and practical men of all parties, their soundness, safety, and utility, in all business pursuits. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the govern- ment from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the government and the rights of the people. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the con- stitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal prin- ciples in the Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of the soil among us, ought be resisted with the same spirit that swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute book. Resolved, That Congress has no power under the constitu- tion to interfere with, or control, the domestic institutions of the several states, and that such states are the sole and, proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs, not pro- hibited by the constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are CHARLES A. BOUTELLE. Born in Damariscotta, Maine, February 9, 1839; educated in the public schools at Brunswick and at Yarmouth Academy; became a shipmaster, and in 1862 volunteered and served in the United States navy; engaged in commercial business in New York in 1866; in 1870 became managing editor of the "Bangor Whig and Courier"; was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1876; was delegate-at-large and chairman of the Maine delegation in the National Republican Convention in 1888; was elected representative-at-large to the Forty-eighth Congress; was elected to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses and re-elected to the Fifty-first and Fifty- second Congresses. SHELBY M. CULLOM. Born in Wayne County, Ky., November 22, 1829; received an academical and collegiate education; admitted to bar in Springfield, 111., and practiced there; was elected City Attorney; elected to State Legislature in 1856, 1860, 1872 and 1874; was Speaker in 1861 and 1873; was elected a Representative to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses; elected Governor of Illinois in 1876, and re-elected in 1880; resigned February 5, 1883, to accept a seat in the United States Senate, as a Republican, and successor to Hon. David Davis; has been called the father of the Inter-State Commerce Law. THE BIRTH OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 77 calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous conse- quences; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political instituions. Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and is in- tended to embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitation in Con- gress; and therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national platform, will abide by, and adhere to, a faith- ful execution of the acts known as the Compromise measures settled by the last Congress, "the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor" included; which act, being designed to carry out an express provision of the constitution, can not, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, nor so changed as to destroy or im- pair its efficiency. Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made. [Here resolutions 13 and 14, of the platform of 1848, were in- serted.] Resolved, That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Vir- ginia resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature in 1799; that it adopts those princi- ples as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import. Resolved, That the war with Mexico, upon all the principles of patriotism and the law of nations, was a just and necessary war on our part, in which no American citizen should have shown himself opposed to his country, and neither morally nor physically, by word or deed, given aid and comfort to the enemy. Resolved, That we rejoice at the restoration of friendly rela- tions with our sister Republic of Mexico, and earnestly desire for her all the blessings and prosperity which we enjoy under re- publican institutions, and we congratulate the American people on the results of that war which have so manifestly justified the policy and conduct of the Democratic party, and insured to the United States indemnity for the past and security for the future. Resolved, That, in view of the condition of popular institu- tions in the old world, a high and sacred duty is devolved with 5 78 THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. increased responsibility upon the Democracy of this country, as the party of the people, to uphold and maintain the rights of every state, and thereby the union of states, and to sustain and advance among them constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and by a vigilant and con- stant adherence to those principles and compromises of the con- stitution which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it is, and the Union as it should be, in the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progressive people. Had it not been for the growing agitation occa- sioned by the slavery question, Franklin Pierce would undoubtedly have enjoyed a most peaceful term in office. It was, however, disturbed by troubles aris- ing from this matter, and it had become the all-ab- sorbing topic of discussion. A civil war broke out in Kansas, and there came up a strong endeavor to repeal the Missouri Compromise. This effort on the part of the pro-slavery men had the most unexpected results. The Republican party of to-day was born. The proposed repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, was regarded as an assault upon freedom, and produced earnest discussion from the pulpit, the platform, and the press. Large numbers of Anti- Slavery men, belonging to the different parties, soon decided that their success could be secured only "through the formation of a new party which could act without the embarrassment of a pro-slavery wing." The first movement towards the organiza- tion of such a party was during the early months of 1854, in Wisconsin, at Ripon, Fond du Lac county. At the call of Mr. A. E. Bovey, a meeting was held THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 79 on the last of February, which adopted the resolution that if the Kansas-Nebraska bill should pass, they would "throw old party organizations to the winds, and organize a new party on the sole issue of the non- extension of slavery." On the 20th of March another meeting was held, at which Mr. Bovey expressed the thought that the party would probably take the name of "Republican." The organization of this party was perfected for the state, by a convention held the fol- lowing July. The Detroit Tribune "took ground in favor of disbanding the Whig and Free-Soil parties, and of the organization of a new party, composed of all the opponents of slavery extension." This was followed, in Michigan, by a mass convention, which met on the 6th of July, adopted a platform opposing the extension of slavery, and assumed for the new party the name of "Republican." This action pre- ceded the organization of the party in other portions of the country. During the year 1854, in those states whose elections furnished opportunity, the new party was organized, or a, fusion ticket was supported by Anti-Nebraska partisans. In several states the Re- publican party was not organized till 1855. From a small beginning it increased rapidly in numbers, and, meeting with encouraging success at state elections, it gradually drew into its fold all those who opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. Thus, by the fusion of Free-Soilers, Whigs, Anti-Nebraska Democrats, and Anti-Slavery Americans, was organ- ized the Republican party. The election came in 1856. The Americans, in 1856, considering themselves 80 THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. sufficiently strong to run candidates of their own, met in convention at Philadelphia, February 22d, se- lected as candidates Millard Fillraore (N. Y.) and Andrew J. Donelson (Tenn.), and adopted a platform of sixteen resolutions. The minority, having rejected the platform, seceded, and calling themselves North Americans, held a national convention at New York City, June 12, 1856, and nominated N. P. Banks (Mass.) and W. F. Johnson (Penn.). These gentlemen declining, the North Americans determined to unite with the Republicans in supporting Fremont and Dayton. At Cincinnati, June 2, 1856, the Demo- cratic party nominated James Buchanan (Penn.) and John C. Breckinridge (Ky.). The Republican nomi- nating convention was held at Philadelphia, June 17, 1856. John C. Fremont (Cal.) and William L. Daytop (N. J.) were unanimously chosen as candi- dates. A declaration of principles, containing eight resolutions, was adopted. The Silver Grays, and other Whigs who had not associated themselves with the influential parties, met in national convention at Baltimore, September 17, 1856, indorsed the Amer- ican ticket, and in a platform of eight resolutions gave their reasons for supporting Mr. Fillmore. Thus was completed the disintegration of the Whig party. Its pro-slavery members had joined the Democrats; its opponents of slavery, the Republicans; and now its remnsmts, opposing geographical parties, were absorbed by the Americans. The contest lay between Buchanan, Fremont and Fill more. Mr. Buchanan was elected, but he lacked 377,620 votes of obtaining a popular majority over his opponents. THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 81 The Democratic party had triumphed, but there were influences at work which were certain to bring about its disintegration. The people were aroused. The war cloud, still but a speck in the distance, was even then discernible. There were troublous times ahead. CHAPTER VII. THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. The Democratic platform adopted at Cincinnati June 6, 1856, was thoroughly characteristic of that party. It was a strong document, strong enough at least to win its way to success. Its essentials are here given : Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust in tbfe intelligence, the patriotism and the discriminating justice of the American people. Resolved, That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world as a great moral element in a form of government springing from and upheld by the popular will; and we contrast it with the creed and practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form, which seeks to palsy the will of the constituent and which con- ceives no imposture too monstrous for popular credulity. Resolved, therefore; That entertaining these views, the Demo- cratic party of the Union, through their delegates assembled in general convention, coming together in a spirit of concord, of devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free representative gov- ernment and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of their intentions, renew and assert before the American people, the declaration of principles avowed by them when on former occa- sions in general convention they have presented their candidates for the popular suffrage. That the constitution does not confer authority upon the Federal government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the several states, contracted for local and internal improve- ments or other state purposes; nor would such assumption be just or expedient. THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. 83 That justice and sound policy forbid the Federal government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion of our common country; that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and a complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence and foreign aggression. That it is the duty of every branch of the government to en- force and practice the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is re- quired to defray the necessary expenses of the government and gradual but certain extinction of the public debt. That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the constitution, and that we are opposed to any law for the distribution of such pro- ceeds among the states, as alike inexpedient in policy and re- pugnant to the constitution. That Congress has no power to charter a National Bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of this country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the busi- ness of the country within the control of a concentrated money power and above the laws and will of the people; and the re- sults of the Democratic legislation in this and all other financial measures upon which issues have been made between the two political parties of the country, have demonstrated to candid and practical men of all parties their soundness, safety, and utility in all business pursuits. That the separation of the moneys of the government from banking institutions is indispensable to the safety of the funds of the government and the rights of the people. That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified veto power, by which he is enabled, under restric- tions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits can not secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be ob- tained thereon, and which has saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical dominion of the Bank of the United States and from a corrupting system of general internal improve- ments. 84 THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the op- pressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the privilege of becoming citizens and owners of soil among us, ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute books. And whereas, Since the foregoing declaration was uniformly adopted by our predecessors in national conventions, an adverse political and religious test has been secretly organized by a party claiming to be exclusively Americans, and it is proper that the American democracy should clearly define its relations there- to; and declare its determined opposition to all secret political societies, by whatever name they may be called Resolved, That the foundation of this union of states having been laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and pre-eminent ex- ample in free government built upon, entire freedom of matters of religious concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank or place of birth, no party can justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental birth-place. And hence a political crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the United States of America, against Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justified by the past his- tory or future prospects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of toleration and enlightened freedom which peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular government. Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the well-considered declarations of former conventions upon the sectional issue of domestic slavery, and concerning the reserved rights of the states That Congress has no power under the constitution to inter- fere with or control the domestic institutions of the several states, and that all such states are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the hap- WILLIAM L. WILSON. Born in Jefferson County, Va., May 3, 1843; educated at the Charlestown Academy, Columbian College, and the University of Virginia; was elected president of the West Virginia Uni- versity in 1882, but resigned during the following year to take a seat in the Forty-eighth Congress; was a member of Con gress for twelve successive years; has taken an active part in many political campaigns; was permanent president of the National Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1892; during the winter of 1894 he devoted his entire time to his favorite tariff measure, the "Wilson bill"; was appointed Postmaster- General to succeed Mr. Bissell. RICHARD OLNEY. Born in Oxford, Mass., in 1835, and graduated from Brown University with high honors in 1856; graduated from the Har- vard Daw School in 1858, and began the practice of his profes- sion with Judge B. F. Thomas; twice declined the offer of a place on the supreme bench of Massachusetts; represented Roxbury in the State Legislature in 1874; was a candidate for Attorney-General of the State in 1876, when the Democratic party was defeated; was appointed Attorney-General of the United States by President Cleveland in 1893; became Secre^ tary of State upon the death of Walter Q. Gresham. THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. 87 piness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions. That the foregoing proposition covers and was intended to embrace the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, and therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national platform, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execu- tion of the acts known as the compromise measures, settled by the Congress of 1850 "the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor" included; which act, being designed to carry out an express provision of the constitution, can not, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, or so changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renew- ing in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made. That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and up- hold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia reso- lutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature in 1799; that it adopts these principles as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import. Resolved, That the administration of Franklin Pierce has been true to Democratic principles and therefore true to the great interests of the country; in the face of violent opposition he has maintained the laws at home and vindicated the rights of Amer- ican citizens abroad, and therefore we proclaim our unqualified admiration of his measure and policy. Here also will be found the strong features of the Republican platform adopted at Philadelphia June 17, 1856. This convention of delegates assembled in pursu- ance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present 88 THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory, in favor of admitting Kansas as a free state, of restoring the action of the Federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who propose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows: Resolved, That with our fathers we hold it to be a self- evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal government were, to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provi- sion of the constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in any territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or exten- sion therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a ter- ritorial legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States, while the present constitution shall be maintained. Resolved, That the constitution confers upon Congress sover- eign power over the territories of. the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism polygamy and slavery. Resolved, That while the constitution of the United States was ordained and established, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample provisions for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legis- lative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. 89 by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed, as a condition of exercis- ing the rights of suffrage and holding office; the right of an ac- cused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated; they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law; that the free- dom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; mur- ders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated or encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present national administration; and that for this high crime against the constitution, the Union, and hu- manity, we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the cpuntry and before the world; and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter. Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a state of the Union with her present free constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory. Resolved, That the highwayman's plea that "might makes right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanc- tion. Resolved, Ttiat a railroad to the Pacific ocean, by the most central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad. Resolved, That appropriations of Congress for the improve- 90 THE PLATFORMS OF 1856. ment of rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the constitution, and justified by the obligation of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and co-operation of the men of all parties, however differing from us in other re- spects, in support of the principles herein declared; and believ- ing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as the constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all proscriptive legislation affecting their security. CHAPTER VIII. THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. The strong current of public sentiment could not longer be restrained, and in 1860 the people placed the Republican party in power. The Republican national convention assembled at Chicago, on the 16th of May, and nominated Abraham Lincoln (111.), and Hannibal Hamlin (Me.). The plat- form was adopted with great enthusiasm. The Democratic national convention met on the 23d of April, in the City of Charleston, every state being represented. The committee on resolutions presented a majority and two minority reports. After an exciting debate, the principal minority report was adopted. This imposed upon the party a platform which caused the delegations from Alabama, Missis- sippi, Florida, Texas, and portions from Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, and North Carolina, to re- tire from the convention. Balloting then began, but fifty-seven having been cast without selecting a can- didate, the convention adjourned, to meet in Balti- more on the 18th of June. Those who had with- drawn decided to meet in Richmond on the llth of June. On reassembling at Baltimore, it was found that from several states there were contesting dele- gations. The subject was referred to the committee on credentials, which made three reports. The con- 92 THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. vention having- adopted the majority report, the entire delegations of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, California and Delaware, and parts of Maryland, Ken- tucky, and Massachusetts, withdrew. Stephen A. Douglas (111.) and Herschel V. Johnson (Ga.) were then nominated. The Democratic platform of 1856 was adopted, with seven explanatory resolutions. The delegates who had withdrawn met at the Mary- land Institute (June 28), and nominated John C. Breckinridge (Ky.) and Joseph Lane (Ore.). The Dem- ocratic platform of 1856 was reaffirmed, with six ex- planatory resolutions. The convention which assem- bled at Richmond adopted this ticket and platform. The Democratic party was now dismembered. A heated canvass followed these nominations. Mr. Lin- coln was elected, though he lacked nearly a million votes of receiving a popular majority. Below is the platform upon which Mr. Lincoln was elected : Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Re- publican electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following declarations: That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organi- zation and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are permanent in their na- ture, and now, more than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal con- stitution, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de- THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. 93 riving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions; and that the Federal constitution, the rights of the states, and the union of the states, must and shall be preserved. That to the union of the states this nation owes its unpre- cedented increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happi- ness at home and its honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may; and we congratulate the country that no Republican member of Congress has uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often made by Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause from their political associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as denying the vital principles of a free government, and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the im- perative duty of an indignant people sternly to rebuke and for- ever silence. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- sively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the per- fection and endurance of our political fabric depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion, by armed force, of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its des- perate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton constitution upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal relations between master and servant to involve an unqualified property in persons; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and of the Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power entrusted to it by a confiding people. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor im- provements of a national character, required for the accommo- dation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the constitution and justified by the obligations of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 94 THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. That a railroad to the Pacific ocean is imperatively demanded by the interest of the whole country; that the Federal govern- ment ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its con- struction; and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail should be promptly established. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however differ- ing on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance and support. The split in the Democratic party resulted in two platforms, one the Douglas and the other the Breck- inridge. Both these reaffirmed the platform of 1856, but each added a number of resolutions. Below are offered those of the Douglas faction: Resolved, "That we, the Democracy of the Union, in conven- tion assembled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform of principles by the Democratic convention at Cincinnati, in the year 1856, believing that Democratic principles are unchangeable in their nature when applied to the same subject-matters; and we recom- mend, as the only further resolutions, the following: Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress, under the constitution of the United States, over the institution of slavery within the territories: Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the deci- sions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the ques- tions of constitutional law. Resolved, That it is the duty of the United States to afford ample and complete protection to all its citizens, whether at home or abroad, and whether native or foreign. Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age, in a military, commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pacific states; and the Democratic party pledge such constitutional government aid as will insure the construction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest practicable period. WILSON S. BISSELL. Born in Rome, N. Y., December 31, 1847; after a two years' course in Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, Conn., entered Yale College and graduated in 1869; commenced the practice of law in Buffalo in 1872; in 1874 Grover Cleveland became a member cf the firm, which was then known as Bass, Cleveland & Bissell; Mr. Bass withdrew, but the other parties retained their association when Mr. Cleveland became Governor of New York; became elector-at-large in 1884; was earnestly solicited by Mr. Cleveland in 1885 to accept an official position, but declined; became a member of the Cabinet in 1893, but resigned in order to return to his law practice in Buffalo. JOHN M. PALMER. Born at Eagle Creek, Ky., September 13, 1817; completed his education at Shurtleff College in Alton, 111., and in 1839 settled in Carlinville, where he was admitted to the bar; was twice elected probate judge of Macoupin County; was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1847; served as county judge for forty years thereafter, and was a member of the State Senate from 1852 until 1856; was elected governor of Illinois in 1868 and held the office until 1873; was afterwards three times a candidate for the United States Senate as a Democrat, but failed of election; was elected United States Senator in 1890. THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. 97 Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisition of the island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be hon- orable to ourselves and just to Spain. Resolved, That the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in character, subversive of the constitution, and revolutionary in their effect. Resolved, That it is in accordance with the true interpreta- tion of the Cincinnati platform, that, during the existence of the territorial governments, the measure of restriction, whatever it may be, imposed by the Federal constitution, on the power of the territorial legislature over the subject of domestic relations as the same has been or shall hereafter be finally determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, shall be respected by all good citizens and enforced with promptness and fidelity by every branch of the general government. The seven resolutions added to the Cincinnati plat- form by the Breckinridge party were not .important. The main id'eas embraced were the favoring of the acquisition of Cuba; a claim that the enactments of state legislatures to defeat the execution of the fugi- tive slave law were hostile in character to the con- stitution and revolutionary in their effect, and a state- ment that the Democratic party would exert every power to secure the passage of some bill for the con- struction of a Pacific railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. When the election of Lincoln was ascertained, the South Carolina legislature called a convention to con- sider the necessity of immediate secession, and south- ern members began to resign their seats in Congress. The President denied the right of a state to secede, but did not believe the government had the constitu- tional power to prevent it. South Carolina seceded December 20, 1860. The next month, Mississippi, 6 98 THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana passed or- dinances of secession. Texas withdrew on the 1st of February. Three days afterward (February 4), dele- gates from these states met at Montgomery, Alabama, and organized the Confederate States of America. When a state withdrew, it seized the forts, arsenals, and other Federal property within its limits. Several attempts at conciliation were made in Congress, but certain members declared that "the day for compro- mises had passed." The long contest for the balance of power between "Slavery Extension" and "Slavery Restriction" was now culminating in war. The su- premacy of the South was lost. "Disunion was the only remedy, and this could be obtained only through war." Political distinctions were in a measure ob- literated, and this administration closed, not on con- tentions between the Republican and Democratic parties, but on a conflict between Union and Seces- sion. The first gun of the civil war was fired at Fort Sumter, on the morning of April 12, 1861, from a battery in Charleston harbor. On the 15th of April the President called for 75,000 volunteers, and the civil war began on both sides. The free states were warmly for the war and the repression of secession by force. The slave states, except the "border states," were as earnestly for seces- sion. The border states were divided, the Union feel- ing predominating, except in Virginia, and prevent- ing secession. But in them disunionists were strong, and sent representatives to the Confederate Congress, and a large force of volunteers to aid the South. The THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. 99 Republicans in all the states formed the distinctive "war party." The Democrats generally gave support to the war, but some denounced it. There was fre- quent Democratic opposition to war measures in Con- gress and the state legislatures, and occasional vio- lent demonstrations against it among disaffected people. On the night of the 15th of April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln was shot in a private box at Ford's Theater, Washing- ton City, by John Wilkes Booth, an actor. Mr. Lin- coln died the next morning, and was succeeded by the Vice-President. On his accession to the presidency, President Johnson expressed himself strongly in favor of the punishment of those who had seceded. "The American people must be taught to know that treason is a crime," he said, and his "past course must be the guaranty of his future conduct." It was gen- erally believed that his administration would be severe on the confederate states. His views appear to bave been modified soon afterward. The President's opinion of the condition of the seceded states was, that they had never left the Union, and could not, though they had broken their relations with it. All that was necessary to rehabilitate, or "reconstruct," them, as it was called, was the recog- nition of the national government. The Republicans in Congress, and throughout the country, dissented from the President's views, and thought the confed- erate states should be held in a territorial condition till Congress was satisfied that the rights of the freed- men were safe. The Democrats supported the Presi- dent. At first, the provisional government and the 100 THE REPUBLICANS IN POWER. general tenor of the President's policy were favored by the Republicans; but a decided difference was de- veloped within the year, and the President and the Republicans finally separated completely. On the 2d of March, 1867, a bill to reconstruct the confeder- ate states was passed over the President's veto. It divided those states into five military districts, each to be commanded by a general, and governed by civil tribunals, when military commissions were not deemed suitable. The states were allowed represen- tation in Congress, on the formation of a state govern- ment by "a convention of delegates, elected by all the citizens of whatever race, color, or previous condi- tion." This measure was vehemently resisted and denounced by the Democrats. Acts to perfect this system of reconstruction were afterward passed. A small number of Republicans adhered to the President after his separation from the party, and, with him, were brought into close connection with the Democrats. But there was little time for or interest taken in politics during the war. The history of the troubles between Mr. Johnson and the Republicans, his re- moval of Mr. Stanton, his impeachment by the Senate, his trial and acquittal, are all well known. So also is the history of reconstruction, the various amend- ments to the constitution, and the facts regarding negro suffrage. The Republicans remained in power, elected their tickets in 1864 and in 1868. CHAPTER IX. PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. The Republican national convention met in Chi- cago May 20, 1868, and nominated Gen. U. S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax for Vice-President. The Democrats met in New York City July 4 and nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair. The battle was made almost wholly upon issues grow- ing out of the war and the reconstruction policy of Congress. Gen. Grant and -Mr. Colfax were elected by an enormous popular majority and received 214 electoral votes. Seymour and Blair received 80, counting the nine of Georgia, which were contested. The Republican ticket won on the following plat- form: We congratulate the country on the assured success of the reconstruction policy of Congress as evidenced by the adoption, in a majority of the states lately in rebellion, of constitutions securing equal civil and political rights to all; and it is the duty of the government to sustain those institutions and to prevent the people of such states from being remitted to a state of anarchy. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and the national honor requires the payment of the public indebted- ness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter, but to the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt Is to so im- 102 PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. prove our credit that capitalists will see to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay and must continue to pay so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected. The government of the United States should be administered with the strictest economy; and the corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical reform. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of the campaign and cruise and imperiled their lives in the service of the country. The bounties and pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation are obligations never to be forgotten; the widows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards of the people a sacred legacy bequeathed to the nation's protecting care. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all oppressed people who are struggling for their rights. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and for- bearance with which nfen who have served in the rebellion, but who now frankly and honestly co-operate with us in restoring the peace of the country and reconstructing the southern state governments upon the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the disqualifications and restrictions im- posed upon the late rebels, in the same measure as the spirit of disloyalty shall die out, and as may be consistent with the safety of the loyal people. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the im- mortal Declaration of Independence, as the true foundation of democratic government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil. The Democratic platform adopted at the New York convention contained many interesting planks. It is here given in full: The Democratic party, in national convention assembled, re- posing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. 103 justice of the people, standing upon the constitution as the foun- dation and limitation of the powers of the government and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the ques- tions of slavery and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the war or the voluntary action of the southern states in constitutional conventions assembled, and never to be revived or reagitated, do, with the return of peace, demand 1. Immediate restoration of all the states to their rights in the Union under the constitution, and of civil government to the American people. 2. Amnesty for all past political offenses, and the regulation of the elective franchise in the states by their citizens. 3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is' requisite for the necessities of the govern- ment, economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment; and where the obligations of the government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. 4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including government bonds and other public securities. 5. One currency for the government and the people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder. 6. Economy in the administration of the government; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy; simplification of the system and dis- continuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue; that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened, and the credit of the government and the currency made good; the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the state militia into national forces in time of peace; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufacturers, and as will, without impairing the reve- nue, impose the least burden upon, and best promote and en- courage, the great industrial interests of the country. 7. Reform of abuses in the administration; the expulsion of 104 PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. corrupt men from office; the abrogation of useless offices; the restoration of rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive and judicial departments of the government; the sub- ordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. 8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native- born citizens, at home and abroad; the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights; and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crimes com- mitted beyond their jurisdiction. In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Rad- ical party for its disregard of right and the unparalleled oppres- sion and tyranny which have marked its career. After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the gov- ernment and the preservation of the Union under the constitu- tion, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the habeas corpus, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has over- thrown the freedom of speech and press; it has substituted ar- bitrary seizures and arrests, and military trials and secret star- chamber inquisitions, for the constitutional tribunals; it has dis- regarded, in time of peace, the right of the people to be free from searches and seizures; it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the private rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and letters, without any specific charge or notice of affidavit, as required by the organic law. It has converted the American capitol into a bastile; it has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort. It has abolished the right of appeal, on important constitutional questions, to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the constitution; JAMES E. CAMPBELL. Born in Middletown, Ohio, July 7, 1843; received a thorough education and adopted the legal profession; served in the United States navy during the Civil War, and after the restora- tion of peace resumed practice in Hamilton, Ohio, where in 1876 he became prosecuting attorney; in 1882 was elected to Congress as a Democrat; served in the Forty-eighth and Forty- ninth Congresses, and was re-elected to the Fiftieth; resigned his seat in order to become Governor of Ohio; at the end of his term as Governor failed of re-election, but at the National Democratic Convention of 1892 was a recognized leader. RICHARD W. THOMPSON. Born in Culpeper County, Virginia, June, 1809; after receiv- ing a good education removed to Kentucky in 1831; removed to Indiana, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834; served in the lower house of the Legislature in 1834-6, and in the upper house in 1836-8; was presidential elector in 1840; elected to Congress in 1841 and in 1847; was Republican presidential elector in 1864 and delegate to the National Con- ventions of 1868 and 1876; was Secretary of the Navy under President Hayes, but resigned in 1881 to become chairman of the American Committee of the Panama Company; was dele- gate-at-large for Indiana to the Republican National Conven- tion of 1896. PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. 107 while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies, merely because he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges pre- ferred against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have exceeded anything known in history; and, by its frauds and monopolies, it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created by the war. It has stripped the President of his constitutional power of appointment, even of his own cabinet. Under its re- peated assaults, the pillars of the government are rocking on their base; and should it succeed in November next, and inaugurate its President, we will meet, as a subjected and conquered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the con- stitution. And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several states, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclu- sively by the political power of each state respectively; and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to de- prive any state of this right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power which can find no warrant in the constitution, and, if sanctioned by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only end in a single, centralized, and consolidated government, in which the separate existence of the states will be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified despotism be established in place of a federal union of co-equal states. And that we regard the construction acts (so called) of Congress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void. That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country to victory against the most gallant and determined foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor must be faithfully carried into execution. That the public lands should be distributed as widely as pos- sible among the people, and should be disposed of either under the pre-emption of homestead lands or sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but actual occupants, at the minimum price estab- lished by the government. When grants of public lands may be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied. That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in exercising the power of his high office in resisting the aggres- 108 PRESIDENT GRANT'S FIRST TERM. sions of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the states and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole Amer- ican people; and, on behalf of the Democratic party, we tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard. Upon this platform, the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, including all the conservative element and all who de- sire to support the constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such, co-operating with us, as friends and brethren. Resolved, That this convention sympathizes cordially with the workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country. Resolved, That the thanks of the convention are tendered to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, for the justice, dignity, and im- partiality with which he presided over the court of impeachment on the trial of President Andrew Johnson. CHAPTER X. POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. The congressional scheme of reconstruction was prosecuted during Grant's administration with little resistance save the opposition of the Democrats in Congress and a good deal of local disturbance in the more strongly disaffected regions of the South. On February 25, 1869, Congress passed the Fifteenth amendment, conferring the right of suffrage on all citizens without distinction of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The measure was ratified by twenty-nine states, being the necessary three- fourths required by the constitution. The idea of civil service reform began under Mr. Grant. The interference of partisan influence in the appcintment of subordinate officers of the govern- ment, and clerks in the departments, attracted a good deal of attention and censure during General Grant's administration, and he sought to effect a reform of some of the abuses, by appointing a commission to devise a system of competitive examinations, and by conferring appointments and promotions on those who proved competent in such examinations, and to those whose service in office entitl'ed them to be ad- vanced to better positions. The commission dis- charged its duty by preparing a plan of civil service reform, and some effort was made, for a time, to enforce it; but it met with little favor among a large 110 POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. portion of the members of Congress, and gradually fell into disuse. More than the usual number of outside parties were formed during General Grant's term. Among them were the following: The Labor Reform party grew out of the combina- tions of workingmen, called " Trades' Union," which existed all over the country, and formed a body of voters of sufficient strength to command the attention of politicians. They had candidates of their own in several states, and elicited a good deal of discussion reduced the working day from ten to eight hours, in all of measures for the benefit of workingmen. Congress the national establishments. Combined with the workingmen were a good many of a communistic tendency, and the general tenor of the party's opinion was adverse to large accumulations of wealth, and in favor of reforms looking to a greater equality of con- dition among the people. The "Grangers," calling themselves the "Patrons of Husbandry," were probably the most important and influential order on existing political conditions. The local societies were called "granges," and' the objects of the order, primarily economical and moral, were to promote the higher development of farm life and labor to encourage co-operation among farmers for the restraint of exhorbitant railroad freights, on grain, especially to discourage the credit system, and borrowing on mortgages and generally to set farmers to improving their material and moral con- dition. The order, at first non-partisan, became POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. Ill largely mixed up with politics by designing men, and, as a consequence, its influence began to wane. The Temperance party was organized in 1872, and consisted of a national combination of local temper- ance organizations, which had been in existence for many years. In 1870 it received the name of Prohibi- tion Reform party. The National, or Greenback, party sprang up in the hard times following the financial crash in 1873, and held to the necessity of increasing the paper money of the government, to soften the rigor of the times, and prevent immense losses by the deprecia- tionof values. Many contended that the paper money issued by the government should never be redeemed, but should be, as they said, "coined paper," made, by the authority of the government, good for all debts, public and private. A large portion of the "Grang- ers" attached themselves to this party. One of the most important matters of this adminis- tration was the resumption of specie payment. A bill providing for the resumption of specie payments on the 1st of January, 1879, was passed and approved in 1875. It was opposed by most of the Democrats and some Republicans in Congress and in the country. Resumption was never unanimously opposed or ap- proved by either party, though the majority of the Democrats opposed it, and the majority of the Repub- licans supported it. Some held that the restriction of currency would make hard times and prostrate business, and others held that inflation would be far more disastrous. No harm came of it, however, and resumption was accomplished at the time fixed, and 112 POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. practically some months before, wthout any convul- sions or disturbance of business. General Grant was re-elected in 1872. In this year the Liberal Republicans met at Cincinnati in national convention, May 1, 1872, adopted a platform, and nominated Horace Greeley (N. Y.) and B. Gratz Brown (Mo.). The Democratic party held its national convention at Baltimore, July 9, and accepted the platform and candidates of the Liberal Republicans. The com- bination thus formed received the name of the Liberal Republican Democratic party. The action of the convention at Baltimore wan dis- tasteful to some of the more conservative of the party. These, called Straight-Out Democrats, met in conven- tion at Louisville, Ky., September 3, and adopted reso- lutions repudiating the action of the Baltimore con- vention. Charles O'Conor was nominated as Presi- dent, and John Quincy Adams as Vice-President. O'Conor declined, but was not permitted to withdraw. The national Republican convention assembled at Philadelphia, June 5, and nominated U. S Grant and Henry Wilson (Mass.). The Labor Reform party met in convention at Co- lumbus, Ohio, February 21, adopted a declaration of principles, and nominated David Davis for President and Joel Parker for Vice-President. In June these declined, in consequence of which a convention of Workingmen met at Philadelphia, August 22, and nominated Charles O'Conor as President. The national Temperance party selected James Black and A. H. Colquitt as candidates (February 22). POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. 113 The elections resulted in the success of the Repub- licans, and re-election of General Grant, 286 electoral votes to 60, of which 42 were given to Thomas A. Hen- dricks of Indiana, Mr, Greeley having died between the time of the popular election and that of the Elec- toral College. The beginning of the Democratic platform read: "We, the Democratic electors of the United States, in convention assembled, do present the following prin- ciples already adopted at Cincinnati as essential to just government." Then followed the platform of the Liberal Republicans adopted May 1. The Republican platform is appended: The Republican party of the United States, assembled in na- tional convention ih the city of Philadelphia on the 5th and 6th days of June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history, and announces its position upon the questions before the country: During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted, with grand courage, the solemn duties of the time. It suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for political offenses, and warmly welcomed all who proved their loyalty by obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neigh- bors. It has steadily decreased, with firm hand, the resultant disorders of a great war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians. The Pacific railroad and similar vast enter- prises have been generously aided and successfully conducted, the public lands freely given to actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged, and a full acknowledgment of the naturalized citizen's rights secured from European powers. A uniform na- tional currency has been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sustained under the most extraordinary bur- dens, and new bonds negotiated at lower rates. The revenues have been carefully collected and honestly applied. Despite an- nual large reductions of the rates of taxation, the public debt has been reduced during General Grant's presidency at the rate of a hundred millions, a year, great financial crises have been avoided, 114 POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. and peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menacing foreign difficulties have been peacefully and honorably compro- mised, and the honor and power of the nation kept in high respect throughout the world. This glorious record of the past is the party's best pledge for the future. We believe the people will not intrust the government to any party or combination of men composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of this beneficent progress. The recent amendments to the national constitution should be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are law, and should be carried out according to their spirit p by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be entrusted only to the party that secured those amend- ments. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and public rights should be established and ef- fectually maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appro- priate State and Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit any discrimination in respect to citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude. The national government should seek to maintain honorable peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sympathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. Any system of civil service under which the subordinate posi- tions of the government are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing; and we, therefore, favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and make honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifica- tions for public positions, without practically creating a life tenure of office. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to cor- porations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be set apart for free homes for the people. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of vio- lence and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, and for the protection of the ballot-box; and, therefore, they are entitled to the thanks of the nation. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduc- tion of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon WILLIAM C. ENDICOTT. Born in Salem, Mass., November 19, 1827; graduated at Har- vard in 1847 and after pursuing the study of law was admitted to the bar in 1850; elected a member of the Salem Common Council in 1852; became City Solicitor in 1857; retired from office in 1864 and resumed practice, but in 1873 was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; held this office for ten years, resigning at the end of that time on ac- count of ill health; was originally a Whig, but with the termi- nation of that party became a Democrat; in 1884 was an un- successful candidate for governor of Massachusetts; in 1885 was appointed Secretary of War by President Cleveland. THOMAS W. PALMER. Born In Detroit, Mich., January 25, 1830; after receiving an education made a pedestrian tour in Spain, traveled in South America, and then engaged in mercantile life in Wisconsin; became a successful lumber merchant in Detroit, finally be- coming interested in State politics; became State Senator in 1878; was elected United States Senator from Michigan for a term of six years, beginning March 4, 1883; was appointed Minister to Spain by President Harrison, but resigned and returned to Detroit; in June, 1890, was elected president of the national commission having charge of the World's Colum- bian Exposition in 1893. POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. 117 the balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of free- dom. Their admission to wider fields of usefulness is viewed with satisfaction; and the honest demand of any class of citizens for additional rights should be treated with respectful considera- tion. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending amnesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace and fraternal feeling throughout the land. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights reserved by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to the states and to the federal government. It disap- proves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils, by interference with rights not surrendered by the people to either the state or national government. It is the duty of the general government to adopt such meas- ures as may tend to encourage and restore American commerce and ship-building. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose, the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integrity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him to the heart of the American people; and with him at our head, we start to-day upon a new march to victory. Henry Wilson, nominated for the Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for liberty as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorruptible legislator and representative man of American institutions, is worthy to associate with our great leader and share the honors which we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon them. In 1876 the Republicans put in nomination Ruther- ford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, for Vice-President. The con- vention was held at Cincinnati June 14. The Demo- cratic convention, held at St. Louis, nominated Sam- uel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks. There were held several other conventions that year. The Na- 7 118 POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. tional or Greenback party nominated Peter Cooper and Samuel F. Gary. There was trouble after the election. A dispute occurred over the validity of cer- tain electors. Finally, January 29, 1877, an Electoral Commission was organized to settle the contest. It consisted of five members of the Supreme Court, Clif- ford, Field, Miller, and Strong, who selected Judge Bradley for the fifth; five senators, Edmunds, Frel- inghuysen, and Morton, Republicans, and Bayard and Thurman, Democrats. Senator Thurman subse- quently retired because of illness, and was replaced by Senator Keenan. Five representatives were on the commission, Abbott, Hunton and Payne, Demo- crats, and Garfield and Hoar, Republicans. The com- mission, by one majority, decided that the Republican certificates were valid, and that the twelve disputed electoral votes should be counted for Mr. Hayes, who was thus elected. The most prominent feature of the opening of the administration of President Hayes was his disposi- tion to conciliate the disaffected feeling in the South, and accomplish, by mild means, what force and re- pressive legislation had failed in. He appointed a former confederate officer, David M. Key, of Tennes- see, Postmaster-General, and made Carl Schurz, a leader of the Liberal Republicans in 1872, Secretary of the Interior. He, also, very early in his adminis- tration, removed the government troops from Louis- iana and other states, and left the latter to them- selves. During a tour of the southern states, soon afterward, he made several speeches, in which he de- clared his desire and purpose to bring about a better POLITICS UNDER GRANT AND HAYES. 119 state of feeling and a more cordial union. His in- augural address indicated his desire for such a state of things, and for the reform of some of the abuses of the civil service. He had foreshadowed these views in his letter of acceptance of the nomination. Some Republicans thought he carried .conciliation too far. These called themselves "stalwarts." A striking feature of the movements of 1879 was a very general negro emigration, usually called "exo- dus," from the lower Mississippi liiver states and from the Carolinas. The earlier emigrants, and the larger number, went to Kansas. Later, a considerable num- ber went to Indiana. A committee, to investigate the character and causes of the movement, was ap- pointed by the Senate; it ascertained that the causes were in some cases political, and in some pecuniary. On the 1st of January, 1879, specie payments were resumed, after about eighteen years of suspension. The certainty that resumption would take place at the appointed time, without any difficulty or derange- ment of business, set it in operation, practically, some months before the time. The premium on gold was very small, and many private business houses were paying specie when desired. All apprehensions and prophecies of evil proved chimerical. CHAPTER XI. THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. The election in 1880 was interesting from many points of view. General Grant had served two terms, but he was so popular that it was thought he could break the record and gain the nomination for a third term. John Sherman had also achieved no little pop- ularity, and at the convention held in Chicago June 2, 1880, James A. Garfield came to make a nominat- ing speech for Sherman. The friends of Grant stood solid in this famous convention. For many days there was a deadlock in the convention, and the ballots resulted every time in a vote for General Grant varying from 306 to 313. It was one of the most exciting conventions ever held in the United States. The platform of the Repub- lican party adopted at this convention indicates the quality of an interesting epoch in this political resume. The Republican party, in national convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the federal government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States this brief report of its administration. It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the national authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States, with freedom instead of slavery as its corner- stone. It transformed 4,000,000 human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to see THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. 121 that slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of our paper currency from 38 per cent, to the par of gold. It has restored upon a solid basis payment in coin for all the national obligations and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where 6 per cent, bonds sold at 86 to that where 4 per cent, bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. Under its administration railways have increased from 31,000 miles in 1860 to more than 82,000 miles in 1879. Our foreign trade has increased from $700,000,000 to $1,115,000,000 in the same time, and our exports, which were $20,000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were $265,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, de- frayed the ordinary expenses of government, besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and has disbursed annually more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' and sailors' pensions. It has paid $880,- 000,000 of the public debt, and by refunding the balance at lower rates has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $150,000,- 000 to less than $89,000,000. All the industries of the country have revived; labor is in demand; wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican party ask for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this convention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts: 1. We affirm that the work of the Republican party for the last twenty-one years has been such as to commend it to the favor of the nation; that the fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the union should be perpetuated, and that the liberty secured to this generation should be transmitted undiminished to other generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should be paid; that the debt so much reduced should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce already increasing should be steadily encouraged. 2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and not a mere contract. Out of confederated states it made a sover- eign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others 122 THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. are denied to the States; but the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national, and not by the State, tribunal. 3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but it is the duty of the national government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional power. The intelli- gence of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several States, and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one State, but by the aggregate genius of all. 4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting the establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against tne influence of secret sec- tarianism while each State is exposed to its domination. We, therefore, recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. 5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in 1876, that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor; that no further grant of the public domain should be made to any railway or other corporation; that slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must die in the Territories; that everywhere the protection accorded to citizens of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption; that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our water-courses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corporations must cease; that the obligations of the republic to the men who pre- served its integrity in the day of battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory to do them per- petual honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people. 6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of that power to restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane and reasonable provisions as will produce that result. 7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. 123 earlier career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to select him for a presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as chief executive, and that history will accord to his ad- ministration the honors which are due to an efficient, just and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his interpositions between the people and proposed partisan laws. 8. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage. That to obtain possession of the national and State governments, and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a majority of the States in the House of Representatives; have endeavored to oc- cupy, by force and fraud, the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legislation to appropria- tion bills, upon whose passage the very movements of government depend; have crushed the rights of the individual; have advocated the principle and sought the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have endeavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inestimably valuable results of national- ity, personal freedom, and individual equality. Equal, steady and complete enforcement of the laws, and protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of the nation. The danger of a solid South can only be averted by the faithful performance of every promise which the nation made to the citizen. The exe- cution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation makes the nation must perform, and the nation cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find free ex- pression, and to this end honest voters must be protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony 124 THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. which may be practicable; and we submit to the practical, sen- sible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country at this time to surrender the administration of the national government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy, under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence and hope. 9. The Republican party, adhering to a principle affirmed by its last national convention, of respect for the constitutional rule covering appointments to office, adopts the declaration of Presi- dent Hayes that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical, and complete. To this end it demands the co-operation of the legislative with the executive department of the govern- ment, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service; and that the power of removal for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment. Opposed to this was the Democratic platform, adopted at Cincinnati June 29, 1880, with General Plancock and William H. English as the party stan- dard bearers. The platform was as follows: The Democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, declare: 1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teach- ings and examples of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots and embodied in the platform of the last national con- vention of the party. 2. Opposition to centralization, and to that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism; no sumptuary laws; separation of the church and state for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected. 3. Home rule; honest money, consisting of gold and silver and paper convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public faith, State and national; and a tariff for revenue JOHN T. MORGAN. Born in Athens, Tenn., June 20, 1824; attended school in early life and later obtained an academic education; studied law in Alabama and commenced its practice in 1845; devoted fifteen years to the legal profession and in 1860 was elected presidential elector, and voted for Breckenridge and Lane; in 1861 was a delegate from Dallas to the State Convention that passed the ordinance of secession; entered the Confederate army as a private and came out as Brigadier-General; in 1876 became a presidential elector on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket, the same year was elected United States Senator; he was re-elected in 1883 and again in 1889. ROSWELL P. FLOWER. Born in Theresa, N. Y., August 7, 1835; became clerk in a store at the age of fourteen, but subsequently received a high- school education; worked in a brick yard; became a postoffice clerk; was a jeweler for ten years, learning the trade thor- oughly; became a broker in New York City, and soon became a prominent figure in Wall street; took an active interest in politics, and became a member of Congress in 1881; appointed one of the electric subway commissioners in New York City in 1886; elected to Congress in 1888; re-elected in 1890, serving on many important committees; in 1892 elected Governor of New York. THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. 127 only; the subordination of the military to the civil power; and a general and thorough reform of the civil service. 4. The right to a free ballot is a right preservative of all rights, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. 5. The existing administration is the representative of con- spiracy only; and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and deputy marshals to intimidate and obstruct the elections, and the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insults the people and imperils their institutions. We execrate the course of this administration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crime; and demand a reform, by statute, which shall make it forever impossible for a defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people. 6. The great fraud of 1876-7, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President, and, for the first time in American history, the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of representative government. The Democratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of a civil war, submitted for the time, in the firm and patriotic belief that the people would punish the crime in 1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every other. It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever iddressed the consciences of a nation of freemen. 7. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candi- date for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States with deep sensibility; and they declare their confi- dence in his wisdom, patriotism and integrity unshaken by the assaults of the common enemy; and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standard of the public morality, and adorning and purifying the public service, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his party. 8. Free ships-, and a living chance for American commerce upon the seas; and on the land, no discrimination in favor of trans- portation lines, corporations, or monopolies. 9. Amendments of the Burlingame treaty; no more Chinese 128 THE FAMOUS 306 CONVENTION. immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded. 10. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public land for actual settlers. 11. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the labor- ing man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cor- morants and the commune. 12. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expendi- ture $10,000,000 a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the national honor abroad; and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the government as shall insure a genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service. CHAPTER XII. WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? It was generally understood that Mr. Garfield was sent to the Chicago convention to nominate John Sherman. The following is the speech he made, and it should establish his sincerity in the matter: Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this convention with deep solicitude. Nothing touches my heart more quickly than a tribute of honor to a great and noble charac- ter; but as I sat in my seat and witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to me a human ocean in tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its peaceful surface, then the as- tronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not here, in this brilliant circle where 15,000 men and women are gathered, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed for the next four years. Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of 756 delegates, waiting to cast their lots into the urn and deter- mine the choice of the Republic; but by four millions of Re-pub- lican firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the 130 WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? future, and reverence for the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days gone by, burning in their hearts there God prepares the verdict which will determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence of deliberate judgment, will this question be settled. And now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want? A voice "We want Garfield." Mr. Garfield Bear with me a moment. "Hear me for my cause," and for a moment "be silent that you may hear." Twenty-five years ago this Republic was bearing and wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity with traffic in the bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a ma- jority of our people; the narrowing and disintegrating doctrine of State sovereignty had shackled and weakened the noblest and most beneficent powers of the national government, and the grasping power of slavery was seizing upon the virgin Territories of the West, and dragging them into the den of eternal bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which God has lighted in every human heart, and which all the powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish. The Republican party came to deliver and to save. It entered the arena where the beleaguered and assailed Territories were struggling for free- dom and drew around them the sacred circle of liberty, which the demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It made them free forever. Strengthened by its victory on the frontier the young party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this spot, twenty years ago, was made its chief, entered the national capi- tol and assumed the high duties of government. The light which shone from its banner illumined its pathway to power. Every slave-pen and the shackles of every slave within the shadow of the capitol were consumed in the rekindled fire of freedom. Our great national industries by cruel and calculating neg- lect had been prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in such feeble currents that the treasury itself was well-nigh empty. The money of the people consisted mainly of the wretched notes of two thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible State banking corporations, which were filling the country with a circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the life of business. WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? 131 The Republican party changed all this. It abolished the Babel of confusion and gave to the country a currency as na- tional as its flag, based upon the sacred faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around our great industries, and they stood erect with new life. It filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great functions of the government. It con- fronted a rebellion of unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, and, under God, fought the final battle of liberty until the victory was won. Then, after the storms of battle, were heard the calm words of peace spoken by the conquering nation, saying to the foe that lay prostrate at its feet: "This is our only revenge that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like stars forever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and justice that all men, white or black, shall be free, and shall stand equal before the law." Then came the questions of reconstruction, the national debt, and the keeping of the public faith. In the settlement of these questions the Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of glorious existence, and it has sent us here to prepare it for another lustrum of duty and of vic- tory. How shall we accomplish this great worl r? We cannot do it, my friends, by assailing our Republican orethren. God forbid that I should say one word or cast one shadow upon any name on the roll of our heroes. The coming fight is our Ther- mopylae. We are standing upon a narrow isthmus If our Spar- tan hosts are united we can withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can bring against us. Let us hold -our ground this one year and then "the stars in their courses" will fight for us. The census will bring reinforcements and con- tinued power. But in order to win victory now we want the vote of every Republican of every Grant Republican and every anti-Grant Republican in America of every Blaine man and every anti-Blaine man. The vote of every follower of every can- didate is needed to make success certain. Therefore I say, gen- tlemen and brethren, we are here to take calm counsel together and inquire what we shall do. We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, standing on a mountain height, traces the victorious footsteps of our party in the past, and carrying in his heart the memory of its glorious deeds, looks forward prepared to meet the dangers 132 WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? to come. We want one who will act in no spirit of unkindness towards those we lately met in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of the South the olive branch of peace, and invites them to renewed brotherhood, on this supreme condi- tion: That it shall be admitted, forever, that in the war for the union we were right and they were wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of this great Republic. Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a name for your consideration the name of one who was the com- rade, associate and friend of nearly all the noble dead, whose faces look down upon us from these walls to-night; a man who began his career of public service twenty-five years ago; who courageously confronted the slave power in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when first began to fall the red drops of that bloody shower which finally swelled into the deluge of gore in the late rebellion. He bravely stood by young Kansas, and, returning to his seat in the National Legislature, his pathway through all the subsequent years has been marked by labors worthily performed in every department of legislation. You ask for his monument. I point you to twenty-five years of national statutes. Not one great, beneficent law has been placed on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided in formulating the laws to raise the great armies and navies which carried us through the war. His hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that re- stored and brought back "the unity and married calm of states." His hand was in all that great legislation that created the war currency, and in the still greater work that redeemed the prom- ises of the government and made that currency equal to gold. When at last he passed from the halls of legislation into a high executive office, he displayed that experience, intelligence, firm- ness, and poise of character, which has carried us through a stormy period of three years, with one-half the public press crying "crucify him," and a hostile Congress seeking to prevent success. In all this he remained unmoved until victory crowned him. The great fiscal affairs of the nation, and the vast busi- ness interests of the country he guarded and preserved while executing the law of resumption, and effected its object without a jar, and against the false prophecies of one-half of the press and of all the Democratic party. He has shown himself able to meet with calmness the great emergencies of the government. WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? 133 For twenty-five years he has trodden the perilous heights of public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of "that fierce light that beats against the throne;" tout its fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain upon his shield. I do not present him as a better Republican or a better man than thousands of others that we honor; but I present him for your deliberate and favor- able consideration. I nominate John Sherman of Ohio. James A. Garfield was nominated on the thirty- sixth ballot, receiving the vote of 399 of the delegates. After the usual harangue over possible discrepancies had been listened to, the fact was announced, and then came the following speeches from various mem- bers of the delegation: The President. James A. Garfield, of Ohio, is nominated for President of the United States. Shall the nomination be made unanimous? Mr. Conkling, of New York. Mr. President: James A. Garfield, of Ohio, having received a majority of all the votes cast, I rise to move that he be unanimouslj presented as the nominee of the con- vention. The chair, under the rule, anticipates my motion; but, being on my feet, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican party of the United States upon the good nature and the well-tempered rivalry which has distinguished this ani- mated contest. Several delegates. Louder. Mr. Conkling. I would speak louder, but, having for hours sat shivering under the cold wind of these open windows, I find myself unable to do so. I was in the act to say that I trust the zeal, the fervor, and now the unanimity seen in this great assemblage will be transplanted to the field of the final conflict, and that all of us who have borne a part against each other will be found with equal zeal bearing the banner with equal zeal carrying the lance of the Republican party into the ranks of the enemy. Mr. Logan, of Illinois. Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention: We are to be congratulated that we have arrived at a conclusion in reference to presenting the name of a candidate to become the standard-bearer of the Republican party for Presi- dent of the United States. In union and harmony there is strength. 134 WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? Whatever may have transpired in this convention that may have momentarily marred the feelings of any one here, I hope that, in our conclusion, it will pass from our minds. I, sir, with the friends of, I think, one of the grandest men that graces the face of the earth, stood here to fight a friendly battle in favor of his nomination; but, sir, this convention has chosen another leader. The men who stood by Grant's banners will be seen in the front of this contest on the field. We will go forward in this contest, sir, not with tied hands, not with sealed lips, not with bridled tongues, but to speak the truth in favor of the grandest party that has ever been organized in this country; to maintain its prin- ciples, to maintain its power, to preserve its ascendency; and, sir, with the leader you have selected, my judgment is that vic- tory will perch upon our banners. I, sir, as one of the represen- tatives from the state of Illinois, second the nomination of James A. Garfield, of Ohio, and I hope it may be made unanimous. Mr. Beaver, of Pennsylvania. Mr. President: The state of Pennsylvania having had the honor of first naming in this con- vention the gentleman who has been nominated as the standard- bearer of the Republican party in the approaching national con- test, I rise to second the motion which has been made to make that nomination unanimous, and to assure this convention and the people of this country that Pennsylvania is heartily in accord with this nomination; that she gives her full concurrence to it, and that this country may expect from her the best majority that has been given for a presidential candidate in many years. Mr. Hale, of Maine. Mr. President: Standing here and re- turning heart-felt thanks to the many men in this convention who have aided us in the fight that we have made for the senator from Maine; and speaking, as I know that I do, for them here, I say this most heartily: We have not got the man we came up here hoping to nominate, but we have got a man in whom we have the greatest and most profound confidence. The nominee of this convention is no new or untried man, and in that respect is no "dark horse." He came here representing his state in the front of that delegation, and was seen here; every man knew him be- fore that, because of his record ; and because of that, and because of our faith in him, and becaure we were in the emergency glad to help make him candidate of the Republican party for President of the United States because of these things I stand here and pledge the Elaine forces of this convention to earnest effort from MATTHEW S. QUAY. Born in Dillsburgh, Pa., September 30, 1833; graduated from Jefferson College in 1850, and began the study of law; was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh in 1854; in 1856 elected pro- thonotary of Beaver County, and re-elected in 1859; became lieutenant in the Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves in 1861, and in 1862 colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsyl- vania Volunteers; elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1805; became State Treasurer of Pennsylvania in 1885; in 1887 elected United States Senator, but in 1888 became chairman of the Republican National Committee; re-elected Senator in 1893. J. STERLING MORTON. Born in Adams, N. Y., April 27, 1832; graduated at Ann Arbor University, and subsequently at the Union College of Law, New York; after a brief editorial period with the Detroit "Free Press" and Chicago "Times," he settled in Bellevue, Neb., in 1854; started the Nebraska City "News" in 1855, and was elected to the Territorial Legislature; was re-elected in 1857, and in 1858 was appointed Secretary of the Territory; in 1866 was defeated as the Democratic candidate for the first State Governorship of Nebraska; was a candidate for the Governor- ship in 1880, 1884, and 1892,, but failed of election; in 1893 President Cleveland appointed him Secretary of Agriculture. WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? 137 now until the ides of November, that shall make James A. Gar- field President of the United States. Mr. Pleasants, of Virginia. Mr. President: As New York, Illinois and Maine, along with Pennsylvania, have spoken, I stand here, sir, probably occupying a peculiar position to that of the majority of the people of this convention. I came here, sir, from Virginia, instructed by a state convention to vote for that peculiar and most distinguished man the most renowned of the world Ulysses S. Grant and I have proved it since I have been standing on this floor on all occasions casting my vote to the last for that man. But, sirs, as the convention has thought best to nominate James A. Garfield, of Ohio, for President of the United States, we will heartily support him. It may not be that we can promise to you Virginia, but we can promise you this, as humble men, and as men who have on all occasions shown devotion to the Republican principles of the country men who, as Virginian Republicans, on one occasion gave the electoral vote of Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant, that while a division exists in the Democratic party of that state, we shall endeavor, in November next, to carry Virginia for your nominee. Though it was said we had all to receive and nothing to give, we now receive James A. Garfield, and will endeavor to give him Virginia. I for one, and I speak for the Virginia delegation and for every Republican in the state, second the nomination of James A. Garfield, and second the motion to make that nomination unanimous. Mr. Campbell, of West Virginia. Mr. President: Already I have received from one of the central localities of West Virginia a dispatch which brings greeting to this convention, pledging their best efforts for James A. Garfield, the next President of the United States. Mr. Hicks, of Florida. Mr. President: I will not detain the convention for more than one word. It is well known that if those gentlemen who have imagined that the South has nothing to give, have themselves anything to give this time they owe it largely to the unity, fidelity and integrity of the Republican state of Florida. We have not nominated our Moses, 'but have placed him upon the Mount of Visions, from which, in the serene and cloudless rest of his well earned glory, he can look down over the conflict. We have placed the mantle of commandership upon the shoulders, and the sword of civil power into the hands of one of 138 WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? the bravest, noblest, most aggressive and wisest Joshuas in all the hosts of our Republican army. Mr. President, in the name of Florida, as in the past and ever since the garments dyed in blood have been rolled away we have given the electoral vote of Florida for the Republican nominee, so in this contest, sir, I pledge the state of Florida to deliver her four electoral votes for James A. Garfield, of Ohio. Mr. Norton, of Texas. Mr. President: Texas cordially re- sponds to the nomination that has just been made of James A. Garfield. Sir, we have been here for days in a most exciting con- test, reminding me of the great convention of the Whig party, when the glorious leader, Henry Clay, was defeated in that body by Zachary Taylor. Those of us who loved and honored Henry Clay, yet put our shoulders to the wheel and worked manfully in behalf of General Taylor. The friends of the great chieftain, General Grant, will be found in the coming contest in all portions of this Union doing battle in behalf of Garfield, of Ohio. He is not unknown to us. His history is familiar to us. We are proud of the nomination, and, sir, we hope that under his administration we will witness again in this country a union of hearts and of hands, a union of the most fraternal kind. In the wilds of the South we will stand to a man for the nominee. Mr. Foster, of Ohio. I hold in my hand a dispatch that I will have read to the convention. It shows that the Democratic House of Representatives, composed of the gentlemen with whom our distinguished nominee has battled and contended for years, holds him in the very highest regard. The dispatch reads as follows: "The House of Representatives has appointed a committee of five of its oldest members to congratulate James A. Garfield on his nomination William D. Kelley appointed chairman and ad- journed with three cheers for Garfield." I have another dispatch, that I desire to read, from a distin- guished gentlemen who has been a candidate before this conven- tion. It is as follows: "Whenever the vote of Ohio will be likely to assure the nom- ination of Garfield, I appeal to every delegate to vote for him. Let Ohio be solid. Make the same appeal in my name to every delegate. JOHN SHERMAN." Mr. Houck, of Tennessee: I want to say, for the Republicans of my section of the country, that there could not have been any selection made that would have pleased them better than that WHOM DID GARFIELD NOMINATE? 139 which has been made in the person of James A. Garfleld, of Ohio. I want to say further, sir, that, under the conditions under which we were sent to this convention, sixteen of us stood here for that great military hero, patriot and statesman, Ulysses S. Grant. I would willingly have gone over and supported this nomination before, but I belonged to this little Spartan band that stood by General Grant through all these thirty-odd ballots. I desire to add further, that I predict for General Garfield the same victory in November that I have witnessed him achieve over the rebel brigadiers upon the floor of Congress upon numerous occasions. I predict a similar victory for the nominee of this convention, to that to which, during the whole of the extra session, our leader, in the person of the present candidate, led with the Republican party, backed and sustained by the executive department, in the masterly vetoes that crushed out the Democracy of the South. Mr. Harrison, of Indiana. Mr. President: I am not in very good voice to address the convention. Indiana has been a little noisy within the last hour, and, though the chairman of this dele- gation, I forgot myself so much as to abuse my voice. I should not have detained the convention to add one word to what has been said in spirit of such commendable harmony over this nom- ination, if it had not been for the over-partiality of my Grant friends from Kentucky, with whom we have had a good deal of pleasant intercourse. They insist, sir, that as I am the only defeated candidate for thp presidency on the floor of this convention [laughter], having received one vote from some misguided friend from Pennsyl- vania, who, however, unfortunately for me, did not have "staying qualities," and dropped out on the next ballot. [Renewed laugh- ter.] I want to say to the Ohio delegation that they may carry to their distinguished citizen, who has received the nomination at the hands of this convention, my ungrudging support. I bear him no malice. [Laughter.] But, Mr. President, I will defer my speech until the campaign is hot, and then, on every stump in Indiana, and wherever else my voice can help this great Republican cause on to victory, I hope to be found. The President. The question before the convention is, "Shall the nomination be made unanimous?" The nomination of James A. Garfield was made unanimous. CHAPTER XIII. REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. The important feature of Garfield's administration was the putting in practice of civil service reform, a measure which had for years been under discussion, but which did not become a law until January, 1883. The President became so thoroughly identified with this measure that he irritated a powerful branch of the Republican party. Mr. Garfield has been very severely criticised for what is called his unfair treatment of Roscoe Conk- ling. It is generally known that Conkling and Elaine were bitter enemies, and it was taken as a blow at Mr. Conkling when the President made the Maine states- man Secretary of State. Mr. Conkling and his col- league resigned from the senate in a fit of indignation. They afterward were advanced by their friends to regain their seats, but were defeated. Garfield's tragic death was preceded by open acts of hostility on the part of members of his own party. There was a continual turmoil inside the lines, and every appointment he made seemed but to stir up the opposing faction to a bitter antag- onism. The unrest was in the air, and it incited the crazy Guiteau to do his murderous deed. July 2, 1881, Mr. Garfield was at the Pennsylvania Railroad depot in REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. 141 Washington about to start on a trip, when Guiteau shot him from behind. The story of President Gar- field's long struggle with death is known to all the world. Vice-President Arthur became President, and finished the term acceptably and well. At a con- vention held in Chicago June 5, 1884, the Republicans placed in nomination James G. Elaine for President and John A. Logan for Vice-President. The following platform was there adopted: The Republicans of the United States in National Conven- tion assembled renew their allegiance to the principles upon which they have triumphed in six successive Presidential elections, and congratulate the American people on the attainment of so many results in legislation and administration, by which the Republican party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render its institutions just, equal and beneficent, the safeguard of liberty, and the embodiment of the best thought and highest purposes of our citizens. The Republican party has gained its strength by quick and faithful response to the demands of the people for the freedom and equality of all men; for a united nation, assuring the rights of all citizens; for the elevation of labor; for an honest cur- rency; for purity in legislation, and for integrity and account- ability in all departments of the Government, and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform. We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound states- manship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a strong and successful administration, a promise fully realized during the short period of his office as President of the United States. His distinguished services in war and peace have endeared him to the hearts of the American people. In the administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country has been blessed with remarkable prosperity; and we believe his eminent services are entitled to and will receive the hearty approval of every citizen. It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights and promote the interests of its own people. 142 REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. The largest diversity of industry is most productive of general prosperity, and of the comfort and independence of the people. We, therefore, demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, not "for revenue only," but that in raising the requisite revenues for the government, such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our diversified industries and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer; to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity. Against the so-called economic system of the Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter our earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the inequalities of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such meth- ods as will relieve the tax-payer without injuring the labor or the great productive interests of the country. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the United States, the serious depression which it is now experiencing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity; and we therefore respect the demands of the representatives of this important agri- cultural interest for a readjustment of the duties upon fo'reign wool, in order that such industry shall have full and adequate protection. We have always recommended the best money known to the civilized world, and we urge that efforts should be made to unite all commercial nations in the establishment of an international standard which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver coinage. The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between the States is one of the most important prerogatives of the general government; and the Republican party distinctly announces its purpose to support such legislation as will fully and efficiently carry out the constitutional power of Congress over inter-state commerce. The principle of public regulation of railway corporations is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes of the people; and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust dis- REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. 143 crimination and excessive charges for transportation, and that shall secure to the people, and the railways alike, the fair and equal protection of the laws. We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor; the enforcement of the eight-hour law; a wise and judicious sys- tem of general education by adequate appropriation from the national revenues wherever the same is needed. We believe that everywhere the protection to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption; and we favor the settlement of national differences by international arbitra- tion. The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave labor, and a desire that all men may be truly free and equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offense against the spirit of American institutions; and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legis- lation as is necessary to carry out its purposes. Reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Repub- lican administration, should be completed by the further exten- sion of the reform system already established by law to all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appoint- ments, and all laws at variance with the objects of existing reform legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free institutions, which lurk in the power of official patronage, may be wisely and effectively avoided. The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United States, and should be reserved as far as possible for small hold- ings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts of these lands by corporations or individuals, espe- cially where such holdings are in the hands of non-resident aliens. And we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this evil. We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all land grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with acts of incorporation, in all cases where there has been no attempt in good faith to perform the conditions of such grants. The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the Union soldiers and sailors of the late war; and the Republican party stands pledged to suitable pensions fcr all who were dis- 144 REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. abled, and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the war. The Republican party also pledges itself to the repeal of the limitation contained in the arrears act of 1879, so that all invalid soldiers shall share alike, and their pensions begin with the date of disability or discharge, and not with the date of appli- cation. The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and which gives us the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from meddling in American affairs; a policy which seeks peace and trade with all powers, but especially with those of the Western Hemisphere. We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time strength and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the rights of Ameri- can citizens and the interests of American commerce; and we call upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed, so that it may again be true that we have a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored, and a navy which takes no law from superior force. Resolved, That appointments by the President to offices in the Territories should be made from the bona fide citizens and residents of the Territories wherein they are to serve. Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws as shall promptly and effectually suppress the system of polygamy within our Territories, and divorce the political from the eccle- siastical power of the so-called Mormon church; and that the laws so enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil authorities, if possible, and by the military, if need be. The people of the United States, in their organized capacity, constitute a Nation, and not a mere confederacy of States; the National Government is supreme within the sphere of its national duties; but the States have reserved rights which should be faith- fully maintained; each should be guarded with jealous care, so that the harmony of our system of government may be preserved and the Union kept inviolate. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We de- nounce the fraud and violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free institutions; and we sol- emnly arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipient of fruits of such fraud and violence. JOSEPH C. S. BLACKBURN. Born in Woodford County, Ky., October 1, 1838; attended the common schools and finally graduated from Centre College, Danville; after a course of legal study at Lexington, Ky., was admitted to the bar in 1858; practiced his profession in Chicago until the beginning of the Civil War, when he entered the Confederate Army; at the close of the war returned to Ken- tucky, where he resumed his legal duties; elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1871; elected to Congress in 1875, where he served until 1874, when he was elected to the United States Senate; at the expiration of his term, in 1891, was re-elected. J. DONALD CAMERON. Born in Micldletown, Pa., May 14, 1833; graduated from Princeton College in 1852, began life as clerk in the Middle- town Bank, subsequently becoming cashier; was president of the Northern Central Railway from 1866 to 1874; became an iron manufacturer and amassed a fortune; in 1876 became Secretary of War under President Grant; in 1877 was chosen United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by his father's resignation; was re-elected in 1878; in 1879 became chairman of the Republican National Committee; was re- elected United States Senator in the same year, and again in 1885 and 1891. REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN 1884. 147 We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and complete recognition, possession, and exercise of all civil and political rights. Mr. Elaine was defeated by a small majority. There were many influences at work to overthrow the Re- publican party. Mr. Cleveland was nominated on the free trade issue, and the people were ripe for a change. CHAPTER XIV. THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. July 10, 1884, the Democratic convention was held at Chicago, and Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks were nominated. The platform of the Democratic party adopted at this convention is given below : The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives in National Convention assembled, recognizes that, as the nation grows older, new issues are born of time and progress, and old issues perish. But the fundamental principles of the Democracy, approved by the united voice of the people, remain, and will ever remain, as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights; the equality of all citizens before the law; the reserved rights of the States; and the supremacy of the F.ederal Government within the limits of the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights and powers which enables a continent to be developed in peace, and social order to be maintained by means of local self- government. But it is indispensable for the practical application and enforce- ment of these fundamental principles, that the Government should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Otherwise abuses grow, and the Government, instead of being carried on for the genera! welfare, becomes an instru- mentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. 149 governed for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the country. Hence a change is demanded. The Republican party, so far as principle is con- cerned, is a reminiscence; in practice, it is an organization for enriching those who control its machinery. The frauds and job- bery which have been brought to light in every department of the Government are sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party; yet those in authority, made reckless by long possession of power, have succumbed to its corrupting influ- ence, and have placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore a change is demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then defeated by a fraud which can never be forgotten nor condoned. Again, in 1880, the change demanded by the people was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed by unscrupulous contractors and shameless jobbers who had bargained for unlawful profits or for high office. The Republican party during its legal, its stolen, and its bought tenures of power has steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its platform promises are now a list of its past failures. It demands the restoration of our navy. It has squandered hundreds of millions to create a navy that does not exist. It cills upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed. It imposed and has con- tinued those burdens. It professes the policy of reserving the public lands for small holdings by actual settlers. It has given away the people's herit- age till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between the two seas. It professes a preference for free institutions. It organized and tried to legalize a control of State elections by Federal troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor. It has subjected Ameri- can workingmen to the competition of convict and imported con- tract labor. It professes gratitude to all who were disabled, or died, in the war, leaving widows and orphans. It left to a Democratic House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both bounties and pensions. 150 THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of our tariff. It created and has continued them. Its own Tariff Commission confessed the need of more than 20 per cent reduction. Its Con- gress gave a reduction of less than 4 per cent. It professes the protection of American manufactures. It has subjected them to an 'increasing flood of manufactured goods and a hopeless competition with manufacturing nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It professes to protect all American industries. It has impov- erished many to subsidize a few. It professes the protection of American labor. It has depleted the returns of American agriculture an industry followed by half our people. It professes the equality of all men before the law. Attempt- ing to fix the status of colored citizens, the acts of its Congress were overset by the decisions of its Courts. It "accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reforms." Its caught criminals are permitted to escape through contrived delays or actual connivance in the prosecution. Honey- combed with corruption, outbreaking exposures no longer shock its moral sense. Its honest members, its independent journals, no longer maintain a successful contest for authority in its coun- sels or a veto upon bad nominations. That change is necessary is proved by an existing surplus of more than $100,000,000, which has yearly been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican party for having failed to relieve the people from crushing war taxes which have paralyzed business, crippled industry, and deprived labor of employment and of just reward. The Democracy pledges itself to purify the administration from corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to the preservation of the faith of the Nation to its creditors and pensioners. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting the opera- tions of the people should be cautious and conservative in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its demands, the Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests. But in making reduction in taxes it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. 151 growth. From the foundation of this Government taxes collected at the Custom House have been the chief source of federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. The process of reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of justice. All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of economical government. The necessary reduction in taxation can and must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Gov- ernment, economically administered, including pensions, interest, and principal of the public debt, can be got, under our present system of taxation, from custom-house taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury, and bearing light- est on articles of necessity. We therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff; and subject to the preceding limitations, we demand that federal tax- ation shall be exclusively for public purposes and shall not exceed the needs of the Government economically administered. The system of direct taxation known as the "internal revenue," is a war tax, and so long as the law continues the money derived therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war, and be made a fund to defray the expense of the care and comfort cf worthy soldiers disabled in the line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the payment of such pensions as Congress may from time to time grant to such soldiers, a like fund for the sailors having been already provided; and any surplus should be paid into the treasury. We favor an American continental policy based upon more intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen sister Republics of North, Central, and South America, but entangling alliances with none. We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage ot the Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss. Asserting the equality of all men before the law, we hold that 152 THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. it is the duty of the Government, in its dealings with the people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion religious or political. We believe in a free ballot and a fair count; and we recall to the memory of the people the noble struggle of the Democrats in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a reluc- tant Republican opposition was compelled to assent to legislation making everywhere illegal the presence of troops at the polls, as the conclusive proof that a Democratic administration will preserve liberty with order. The selection of Federal officers for the Territories should be restricted to citizens previously resident therein. We oppose sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and interfere with individual liberty; we favor honest civil-service reform; and the compensation of all United States officers by fixed salaries; the separation of Church and State; and the diffusion of free education by common schools, so that every child in the land may be taught the rights and duties of citizenship. While we favor all legislation which will tend to the equitable distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly, and to the strict enforcement of individual rights against corporate abuses, we hold that the welfare of society depends upon a scrupulous regard for the rights of property as defined by law. We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and most enlightened. It should therefore be fostered and cherished. We favor the repeal of all laws restricting the free action of labor, and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be incorporated, and of all such legislation as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true relations of capital and labor. We believe that the public lands ought, as far as possible, to be kept as homesteads for actual settlers; that all unearned lands heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corporations by the action of the Republican party should be restored to the public domain; and that no more grants of land shall be made to cor- porations, or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien ab- sentees. We are opposed to all propositions which upon any pretext would convert the general Government into a machine for collect- ing taxes to be distributed among the States, or the citizens thereof. In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic platform of 1856, that "the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. 153 Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith," we nevertheless, do not sanction the im- portation of foreign labor, or the admission of servile races, un- fitted by habits, training, religion, or kindred for absorption into the great body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer. American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed. The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of this Government to protect, with equal fidelity and vigilance, the rights of citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad, and to the end that this protection may be assured, United States papers of naturalization, issued by courts of competent jurisdiction, must be respected by the Executive and Legislative departments of our own Government and by all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty of this Government to efficiently pro- tect all the rights of persons and property of every American citizen in foreign lands, and demand and enforce full reparation for any invasion thereof. An American citizen is only responsible to his own Govern- ment for any act done in his own country, or under her flag, and can only be tried therefor on her own soil and according to her laws; and no power exists in 'this Government to expatriate an American citizen to be tried in any foreign land for any such act. This country has never had a well-defined and executed for- eign policy save under Democratic administration; that policy has ever been, in regard to foreign nations, so long as they do no act detrimental tp the interests of the country or hurtful to our citizens, to let them alone; that as the result of this policy we recall the acquisitions of Louisiana, Florida, California, and of the adjacent Mexican territory by purchase alone; and contrast these grand acquisitions of Democratic statesmanship with the purchase of Alaska, the sole fruit of a Republican administration of nearly a quarter of a century. The Federal Government should care for and improve the Mississippi river and other great waterways of the Republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tidewater. Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy, our mer- 154 THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. chant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of outstrip- ping that of Great Britain. Under twenty years of Republican rule and policy, our com- merce has been left to the British bottoms, and almost has the American flag been swept off the high seas. Instead of the Republican party's British policy, we demand for the people of the United States an American policy. Under Democratic rule and policy, our merchants and sailors, flying the stars and stripes in every port, successfully searched out a market for the varied products of American industry. Under a quarter century of Republican rule and policy, despite our manifest advantage over all other nations in high-paid labor, favorable climates, and teeming soils; despite freedom of trade among all these United States; despite their population by the foremost races of men and an annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and adventurous of all nations; despite our freedom here from the inherited burdens of life and industry in old-world monarchies their costly war navies, their vast tax-consuming, non-producing standing armies; despite twenty years of peace that Republican rule and policy have managed to surrender to Great Britain, along with our commerce, the control of the mar- kets of the world. Instead of the Republican party's British policy, we 'demand, in behalf of the American Democracy, an American policy. Instead of the Republican party's discredited scheme and false pretense of friendship for American labor, expressed by imposing taxes, we demand, in behalf of the Democracy, freedom for Ameri- can labor by reducing taxes, to the end that these United States may compete with unhindered powers for the primacy among nations in all the arts ef peace and fruits of liberty. With profound regret we have been apprised by the venerable statesman through whose person was struck that blow at the vital principle of republics (acquiescence in the will of the major- ity), that he cannot permit us again to place in his hands the leadership of the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the achievement of reform in the administration of the Federal Gov- ernment is an undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his life has been prolonged until the general judgment of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the United States we offer to him in his withdrawal from public CHARLES F. CRISP. Born in Sheffield, England, January 29, 1845, of American parents; educated in common schools of Savannah and Macon, Ga.; entered the Confederate army in May, 1861; studied law in Americus, Ga., and was admitted to the bar in 1866; prac- ticed in Ellaville; appointed Solicitor-General in 1872 and again in 1873; moved to Americus in 1873; appointed Judge of the Superior Court in 1876 and elected to same in 1878; re- elected Judge 1880; elected to Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fif- tieth, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses; elected Speaker of the House in the Fifty-second Congress after a long and exciting canvass; was elected to the Fifty-third Congress. ADLAI E. STEVENSON. Born in Christian County, Ky., in 1835; educated at Centre College, Danville; after practicing the profession of law in Bloomington, 111., until 1874, was elected to Congress on the Democratic ticket; failed of re-election in 1876, was again successful in 1878; in 1880 and 1882 he was defeated by a small majority; in 1885 President Cleveland appointed him First Assistant Postmaster-General; prior to the campaign of 1892 he was looked upon as a presidential possibility, but was instead nominated for the Vice-Presidency. THE FREE TRADE ISSUE. 157 affairs not only our respectful sympathy and esteem, but also that best homage of freemen the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden. With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes of the Democratic party, the great issue of reform and change in administration is submitted to the people in calm confidence that the popular voice will pronounce in favor of new men and new and more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, the extension of trade, the employment and due reward of labor and of capital, and the general welfare of the whole country. There were other tickets in the field in 1884. One was the Prohibition ticket, headed by John P. St. John, of Kansas. There was besides the People's party ticket, under which banner Benjamin F. Butler ran. Mr. Cleveland was elected, receiving 219 electoral votes to Mr. Elaine's 182, and once more, after many years, was the Democracy in the ascendency. Mr. Cleveland was elected on the free trade platform, and in his administration this became a well defined issue between the two parties. CHAPTER XV. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. While it is the intent of this work to give the most attention to the two great political parties, it must be understood that the influence of the other parties, at least such as became strong enough to put candi- dates in the field for the presidency, have had more or less influence upon the success of the Democrats or the Republicans. This was assuredly the case in 1884 The prohibition movement had been growing stronger and stronger every year, and the people who united under the banner of that party felt that it was a duty they owed to their principles to make a public showing even though there were no chance of win- ning. But in 1884 their hopes had become something tangible, largely through the notoriety of John Pierce St. John, of Kansas. Mr. St. John had been a soldier in the war, and had attained the rank of lieutenant- colonel. He was a lawyer, and at the close of hostili- ties he resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time beginning to dip into politics. He became famous as an orator, and in 1878 was elected governor of Kansas on the Republican ticket, and served until 1882. He was defeated in the race for a third term, and, having identified himself with the Prohibition party, was, in 1884, nominated by that party for Pres- OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. lod ident of the United States at a convention held in Pittsburg July 24. Mr. St. John made a warm can- vass and delivered many stirring prohibition speeches in various cities of the Union. The following is the platform adopted at the Pittsburg convention: 1. The Prohibition party, in National Convention assembled, acknowledge Almighty God as the rightful sovereign of all men, from whom the just powers of government a"re derived, and to whose laws human enactments should conform as an absolute condition of peace, prosperity, and happiness. 2. That the importation, manufacture, supply, and sale of alcoholic beverages, created and maintained by the laws of the National and State governments during the entire history of such laws, is everywhere shown to be the promoting cause of intem- perance, with resulting crime and pauperism, making large de- mands upon public and private charity; imposing large and un- just taxation for the support of penal and sheltering institutions upon thrift, industry, manufactures and commerce; endangering the public peace; desecrating the Sabbath; corrupting our poli- tics, legislation, and administration of the laws; shortening lives, impairing health, and diminishing productive industry; causing education to be neglected and despised; nullifying the teachings of the Bible, the church, and the school, the standards and guides of our fathers and their children in the founding and growth of our widely extended country; and which, imperiling the per- petuity of our civil and religious liberties, are baleful fruits by which we know that these laws are contrary to God's laws and contravene our happiness. We therefore call upon our fellow- citizens to aid in the repeal of these laws and in the legal sup- pression of this baneful liquor traffic. 3. During the twenty-four years jn which the Republican party has controlled the general government and many of the States, no effort has been made to change this policy. Territories have been created, governments for them established, States ad- mitted to the Union, and in no instance in either case has this traffic been forbidden or the people been permitted to prohibit it; that there are now over 200,000 distilleries, breweries, wholesale and retail dealers" in their products, holding certificates and claim- ing the authority of the government for the continuation of the 160 OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. business so destructive to the moral and material welfare of the people, together with the fact that they have turned a deaf ear to remonstrance and petition for the correction of this abuse of civil government, is conclusive that the Republican party is insensible to or impotent for the redress of these wrongs, and should no longer be intrusted with the powers and responsibilities of government; that, although this party, in its late National Convention, was silent on the liquor question, not so its candi- dates, Messrs. Elaine and Logan. Within the year past Mr. Elaine has recommended that the revenue derived from the liquor traffic be distributed among the States; and Senator Logan has, by bill, proposed to devote these revenues to the support of the public schools. Thus, both virtually recommend the perpetu- ation of the traffic, and that the States and their citizens become partners in the liquor crime. 4. That the Democratic party has, in its National deliver- ances of party policy, arrayed itself on the side of the drink- makers and sellers, by declaring against the policy of prohibition under the false name of "sumptuary laws"; that when in power in many of the States it has refused remedial legislation; and that in Congress it has obstructed the creation of a commission of inquiry into the effects of this traffic, proving that it should not be intrusted with power and place. 5. That there can be no greater peril to the nation than the existing competition of the Republican and Democratic parties for the liquor vote. Experience shows that any party not openly opposed to the traffic will engage in this competition; will court the favor of the criminal classes; will barter the public morals, the purity of the ballot, and every trust and object of good gov- ernment for party success. Patriots and good citizens should, therefore immediately withdraw from all connection with these parties. 6. That we favor reforms in the abolition of all sinecures with useless offices and officers, and in elections by -the people instead of appointments by the President; that as competency, honesty, and sobriety are essential qualifications for office, we oppose removals except when absolutely necessary to secure effectiveness in vital issues; that the collection of revenues from alcoholic liquors and tobacco should be abolished, since the vices of men are not proper subjects of taxation; that revenue fron custom duties should be levied for the support of the government economically administered, and in such manner as will foster OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 161 American industries and labor; that the public lands should be held for homes for the people, and not bestowed as gifts to cor- porations, or sold in large tracts for speculation upon the needs of actual settlers; that grateful care and support should be given to our soldiers and sailors disabled in the service of their country, and to their dependent widows and orphans; that we repudiate as un-American and contrary to and subversive of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, that any persons or people should be excluded from residence or citizenship who may desire the benefits which our institutions confer upon the oppressed of all nations; that, while these are important reforms, and are demanded for purity of administration and the welfare of the people, their importance sinks into insignificance when compared with the drink traffic, which now annually wastes $800,000,000 of the wealth created by toil and thrift, dragging down thousands of families from comfort to poverty, filling jails, penitentiaries, insane asylums, hospitals, and institutions for dependency, im- pairing the health and destroying the lives of thousands, lower- ing intellectual vigor, and dulling the cunning hand of the artisan, causing bankruptcy, insolvency, and loss in trade, and by its corrupting power endangering the perpetuity of free institutions; that Congress should exercise its undoubted power by prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages in the Dis- trict of Columbia, the Territories of the United States, and all places over which the Government has exclusive jurisdiction; that hereafter no State should be admitted to the Union until its Constitution shall expressly and forever prohibit polygamy and the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages; and that Congress shall submit to the States an amendment to the Consti- tution forever prohibiting the importation, exportation, manu- facture, and sale of alcoholic drinks. 7. We earnestly call the attention of the mechanic, the miner, and manufacturer to the investigation of the baneful effects upon labor and industry of the needless liquor business. It will be found the robber who lessens wages and profits, foments discon- tent and strikes, and the destroyer of family welfare. Labor and all legitimate industries demand deliverance from the taxation and loss which this traffic imposes; and no tariff or other legisla- tion can so healthily stimulate production, or increase the demand for capital and labor, or insure so much of comfort and content to the laborer, mechanic, and capitalist as would the suppression of this traffic. 162 OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 8. That the activity and co-operation of the women of. Amer- ica for the promotion of temperance has in all the history of the past been a strength and encouragement which we gratefully ac- knowledge and record. In the later and present phase of the movement for the prohibition of the traffic,' the purity of purpose and method, the earnestness, zeal, intelligence, and devotion of the mothers and daughters of the Women's Christian Temperance Union have been eminently blessed of God. Kansas and Iowa have been given them as "sheaves" of rejoicing, and the educa- tion and the arousing of the public mind, and the now-prevailing demand for the constitutional amendment are largely the fruit of their prayers and labors. Sharing in the efforts that shall bring the question of the abolition of this traffic to the polls, they shall join in the grand "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow," when by law victory shall be achieved. 9. That, believing in the civil and political equality of the sexes, and that the ballot in the hands of woman is her right for protection, and would prove a powerful ally for the abolition of the liquor traffic, the execution of law, the promotion of reform in civil affairs, and the removal of corruption in public life, we enunciate the principle and relegate the practical outworking of this reform to the discretion of the Prohibition party in the sev- eral states according to the condition of public sentiment in those states. 10. That we gratefully acknowledge the presence of the Divine Spirit guiding the counsels and granting the success which has been vouchsafed in the progress of the temperance reform, and we earnestly ask the voters of these United States to make the principles of the above declaration dominant in the government of the nation. Of course Mr. St. John had no chance of being elect- ed, but he and his party felt no little gratification at the result. The candidate received 151,002 votes, which, though small as compared with Mr. Cleve- land's 4,913,248 and Mr. Elaine's 4,848,150, was enough to give them encouragement. As Mr. Cleve- land's plurality was only 65,098 over Mr. Elaine, and as the 150,000 odd votes cast for Mr. St. John were OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 163 mainly drawn from the Republican side, it showed a considerable influence. The People's party also cut a figure of some import- ance in the election of 1884. Benjamin F. Butler was chosen as the standard-bearer, and while his nomina- tion was never taken seriously by the general public, it had its effect on the result. General Butler was nominated by the People's party at a convention eld in Indianapolis May 29, 1884, where the platform given below was adopted: We, the National party of the United States, in national con- vention assembled, this 29th day of May, A. D. 1884, declare: 1. That we hold the late decision of the Supreme Court on the legal-tender question to be a full vindication of the theory which that party has always advocated on the right and authority of Congress over the issue of legal-tender notes, and we hereby pledge ourselves to uphold said decision and to defend the con- stitution against alterations of amendments intended- to deprive people of any rights or privileges conferred by that instrument. We demand the issue of such money in sufficient quantities to supply the actual demands of trade and commerce in accordance with the increase of population and the development of our in- dustries. We demand the substitution of greenbacks for National Bank notes and the prompt payment of the public debt; we want that money which saved our country in times of war, and which has given it prosperity and happiness in peace. We condemn the retirement of fractional currency and small denominations of greenbacks and demand their restoration. We demand the issue of the hoards of money now locked up in the United States treas- ury by applying them to the payment of the public debt now due. 2. We denounce as dangerous to our republican institutions those methods and policies of the Democratic and Republican parties which have sanctioned or permitted the establishment of land, railroad, money, and other gigantic corporate monopolies, and we demand such governmental action as may be necessary to take from such monopolies the powers which they have cor- ruptly and unjustly usurped, and restore them to the people to whom they belong. 164 OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 3. The public lands being the natural inheritance of the peo- ple, we denounce that policy which has granted to corporations vast tracts of lands, and we demand that immediate and vigorous measures be taken to reclaim from such corporations for the peo- ple's use and benefit all such land grants as have been forfeited by reason of non-fulfillment of contract, or that may have been wrongfully acquired by corrupt legislation, and that such re- claimed lands and other public domain be henceforth held as a sacred trust, to be granted only to actual settlers in limited quan- tities, and we demand that alien ownership of land, individual or corporate, shall be prohibited. 4. We demand congressional regulation of interstate com- merce. We denounce "pooling," stock-watering, discrimination in rates and charges, and that Congress shall correct these abuses, even, if necessary, by the construction of national railroads. We also demand the establishment of a government postal telegraph system. 5. All private property, all forms of money, and obligations to pay money should bear their just proportion of public taxes. We demand a graduated income tax. 6. We demand an amelioration of the condition of labor by enforcing sanitary laws in industrial establishments, by the aboli- tion of the convict-labor system, by the rigid inspection of mines and factories, by a reduction of the hours of labor in industrial establishments, by fostering educational institutions, and by abolishing child labor. 7. We condemn all importations of contracted laftor, made with a view of reducing to starvation wages the workingmen of this country, and demand laws for its prevention. 8. We insist upon a constitutional amendment reducing the terms of United States senators one-half, and making them elective directly by the people; also making the President in- eligible to re-election. 9. We demand such rules for the government of Congress as shall place all representatives of the people upon an equal footing and take away from committees a veto power greater than that of President. 10. The question as to the amount of duties to be levied upon various articles of import has been agitated, quarreled over, and has divided communities for nearly a hundred years. It is not now, and never will be settled, unless by the abolition of indirect taxation. It is a convenient issue, always raised when the people AMOS J. CUMMINGS. Born in Conkling, N. Y., May 15, 1841; was educated in a district school and at the age of twelve years entered the printing office as an apprentice; during the Civil War was Sergeant-Major in the Twenty-sixth New Jersey Infantry; has filled editorial positions on the New York dailies, particularly the "Tribune," "Sun" and "Express;" was president of the New York Press Club when elected to the Fiftieth Congress; has served four terms in Congress and 'has been a member of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Chairman of the Committee on Library and Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs; is a champion of organized labor and carries a working card as a printer. GEORGE G. VEST. Born in Frankfort, Ky., December 6, 1830; graduated from Centre College at Danville in 1848; studied law and removed to Georgetown, Mo., to engage in its practice; in 1856 removed to Boonsville, and in 1861 was elected to the Legislature, but- later entered the Confederate army and afterwards became a member of the Confederate Congress; at the close of the war resumed the practice of law in Sedalia, Mo., and took an active part in Democratic politics; in 1877 was elected United States Senator; was re-elected in 1885 and again in 1890. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. 167 are excited over abuses In their midst. While we favor a wise revision of the tariff laws with a view of raising revenues from luxuries rather than necessities, we insist that, as an economic question, its importance is insignificant as compared with the financial issue; for, whereas we have suffered our worst panics under low, and also high tariffs, we have never suffered from a panic or seen our factories and work-shops closed while the volume of our money in circulation was adequate to the needs of commerce. Give our farmers and manufacturers money as cheap as you now give our bankers, and they can pay high wages to labor and compete with the whole world. 11. For the purpose of testing the sense of the people upon the subjects, we are in favor of submitting to a vote of the people an amendment to the constitution in favor of suffrage, regardless of sex, and also on the subject of the liquor traffic. 12. All disabled soldiers of the late war should be equitably pensioned; and we denounce the policy of keeping a small army of office-holders whose only business is to prevent, on technical grounds, deserving soldiers from obtaining justice from the gov- ernment they helped to save. 13. As our name indicates, we are a National party, knowing no East, no West, no North, no South. Having no sectional preju- dice, we can properly place in nomination for the high offices of state men from any section of the Union. 14. We appeal to all people who believe in our principles to aid us by voice and pen and votes. General Butler received something over '133,000 votes. This, too, had its influence on the more im- portant parties, CHAPTER XVI. REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. It is not the province of this history to enter into speculations as to the causes of Mr. Cleveland's defeat in 1888 and the establishment once more in power of the Republican party. Cleveland's administration was, on the whole, fairly satisfactory to his party, and many important events occurred during the four years he was in office. Senator Cullom's report on the In- ter-State Commerce Act was agreed to, both in the Senate and the House. The Mexican War Pension Act and the War of the Rebellion Dependent Parents' and Soldiers' Pension Bill was discussed in the Forty- ninth Congress, as was also the Electoral Count Act, the Tenure of Office Act Repeal, and the Redemption of the Trade Dollar. There was, however, little of paramount political importance occurred until the agitation incident to the election in 1888. The nation- al Republican convention was held in Chicago in 1888 and lasted from June 19 to 25, inclusive, resulting in the nomination of Benjamin Harrison for President and Levi P. Morton for Vice-President. The platform adopted was a strong one and faith- fully outlined the principles of the party. The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their dele- gates in national convention, pause on the threshold of their pro- REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. 169 ceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader the im- mortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people Abraham Lincoln; and to cover also with wreaths of imperishable remem- brance and gratitude the heroic names of our later leaders who have been more recently called away from our councils Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, Conkling may their memories be faith- fully cherished. We also recall with our greetings and with prayer for his re- covery the name of one of our living heroes whose memory will be treasured in the history both of Republicans and of the Republic the name of that noble soldier and favorite child of victory, Philip H. Sheridan. In the spirit of those great leaders and of our own devotion to human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican party, we send fraternal congratulations to our fellow-Americans of Brazil upon their great act of emancipation, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. We earnestly hope that we may soon con- gratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful re- covery of home rule for Ireland. We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national constitu- tion and to the indissoluble union of the states; to the autonomy reserved to the states under the constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the states and territories in the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all the people to be the foundation of our republican government, and demand effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the foundation of all public authority. We charge that the present administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the constitution and laws of the United States. We are unconditionally in favor of the American system of protection; we protest against its destruction, proposed by the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe; we will support the interests of America. We accept the issue and confidently appeal to the people for their judgment. The pro- tective system must be maintained. Its abandonment has always been followed by general disaster to all interests except those of 170 REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. the usurer and the sheriff. We denounce the Mills bill as de- structive to the general business, the labor, and the farming in- terests of the country, and we heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican representatives in Congress in opposing its passage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and adequate protection to that industry. The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the taxes upon tobacco, which are an annoyance and burden to agriculture, and the tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechanical purposes, and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check imports of such articles as are produced by our people, the production of which gives employ- ment to our labor, and release from import duties those articles of foreign production (except luxuries) the like of which cannot be produced at home. If there shall still remain a larger revenue than is requisite for the wants of the government we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system at the joint behest of the whisky trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers. We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of foreign contract labor and of Chinese labor, alien to our civili- zation and our constitution: and we demand the rigid enforce- ment of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our shores. We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital or- ganized in trusts or otherwise to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among 1 our citizens; and we recommend to Congress and the state legislatures in their respective jurisdictions such leg- islation as will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies, or by unjust rates for the transportation of their products to market. We approve the legislation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations between the states. We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers not aliens which the Republican party established in 1862 against the persistent opposition -of the Democrats in Congress, and which has brought our great western domain into such mag- nificent development. The restoration of unearned railroad land- REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. 171 grants to the public domain for the use of actual settlers, which was begun under the administration of President Arthur, should be continued. We deny that the Democratic party has ever re- stored one" acre to the people, but declare that by the joint action of Republicans and Democrats about fifty million acres of un- earned lands originally granted for the construction of railroads have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the con- ditions inserted by the Republican party in the original grants. We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute the laws securing to settlers titles to their homesteads, and with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law. The government by Congress of the territories is based upon necessity only to the end that they may become states in the Union; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, mate- rial resources, public intelligence, and morality are such as to in- sure a stable local government therein the people of such ter- ritories should be permitted as a right inherent in them to form for themselves constitutions and state governments and be admitted into the Union. Pending the preparation for statehood all officers thereof should be selected from the bona-fide residents and citi- zens of the territory wherein they are to serve. South Dakota should of right be immediately admitted as a state in the Union under the constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we heartily indorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice passing bills for her admission. The refusal of the Democratic House of Representatives, for partisan purposes, to favorably consider these bills is a willful violation of the sacred American principles of local self-government, and merits the condemnation of all just men. The pending bills in the Senate for acts to enable the people of Washington, North Dakota, and Montana territories to form constitutions and establish state governments should be passed without unnecessary delay. The Republican party pledges itself to do all in its power to facilitate the admis- sion of the territories of New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Arizona to the enjoyment of self-government as states, such of them as are now qualified as soon as possible, and the others as soon as they may become so. The political power of the Mormon church in the territories as exercised in the past is a menace to free institutions too dan- gerous to be long suffered. Therefore we pledge the Republican 172 REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. party to appropriate legislation asserting the sovereignty of the nation in all territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance of that end to place upon the statute books legisla- tion stringent enough to divorce the political from the ecclesias- tical power, and thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy. The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic ad- ministration in its efforts to demonetize silver. We demand the reduction of letter postage to 1 cent per ounce. In a republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign the people should possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us a free nation; there- fore the state or nation, or both combined, should support free institutions of learning sufficient to afford to every child growing in the land the opportunity of a good common-school education. We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Con- gress in the enactment of such legislation as will best secure the rehabilitation of our American merchant marine, and we protest against the passage by Congress of a free-ship bill as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged in preparing materials as well as those directly employed in our ship-yards. We demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our navy; for the construction of coast fortifications and mod- ern ordnance and other approved modern means of defense for the protection of our defenseless harbors and cities; for the pay- ment of just pensions to our soldiers, for necessary works of national importance in the improvement of harbors and the chan- nels of internal, coastwise, and foreign commerce for the en- couragement of the shipping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific states, as well as for the payment of the maturing public debt. This policy will give employment to our labor, activity to our various industries, increase the security of our country, pro- mote trade, open new and direct markets for our produce, and cheapen the cost of transportation. We affirm this to be far better for our country than the Democratic policy of loaning the govern- ment's money without interest to "pet banks." The conduct of foreign affairs by the present administration has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Hav- ing withdrawn from the senate all pending treaties effected by REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. 173 Republican administrations for the removal of foreign burdens and restrictions upon our commerce and for its extension into better markets, it has neither effected nor proposed any others in their stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen with idle complacency the extension of foreign influence in Central America and of foreign trade everywhere among our neighbors. It has refused to charter, sanction, or encourage any American organization for constructing the Nicaragua canal, a work of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doc- trine and of our national influence in Central and South America, and necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific ter- ritory, with South America, and with the islands and farther coasts of the Pacific ocean. We arraign the present Democratic administration for its weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question and its pusillanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, and which Canadian fishing vessels receive in the ports of the United States. We condemn the policy of the present administration and the Democratic majority in Congress toward our fisheries as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to destroy a valuable national industry and an indis- pensable resource of defense against a foreign enemy. The name American applies alike to all citizens of the republic and imposes upon nil alike the same obligation of obedience to the laws. At the same time that citizenship is and must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protect him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights. It should and must afford him protection at home and follow and protect, him abroad in whatever land he may be on a lawful errand. The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884 and continue to adhere to the Democratic party have deserted not only the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of free- dom, and purity of the ballot, but especially -have deserted the cause of reform in the civil service. We will not fail to keep our pledges because they have broken theirs, or because their candi- date has broken his. We, therefore, repeat our declaration of 1884 to wit: "The reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under the Republican administration, should be completed by the further extension of the reform system already established by law to all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The 174 REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all execu- tive appointments, and all laws at variance with the object of existing reform legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free institutions which lurk in the power of official patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided." The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the Union can- not be measured by laws. The legislation of Congress should conform to the pledges made by a loyal people, and be so enlarged and extended as to provide against the possibility that any man who honorably wore the Federal uniform shall become an inmate of an almshouse or dependent upon private charity. In the pres- ence of an overflowing treasury it would be a public scandal to do less for those whose valorous services preserved the government. We denounce the hostile spirit shown by President Cleveland in his numerous vetoes of measures for pension relief and the action of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even a consideration of general pension legislation. In support of the principles herewith enunciated we invite the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, and especially of all workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened by the free-trade policy of the present administration. [The following was added near the close of the convention:] The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. The Republi- can party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality. JAMES B. WEAVER. Born in Dayton, Ohio, June 12, 1833; graduated at the law school of Cincinnati College in 1854; served with distinction in the Union Army during the Civil War, attaining the rank of brigadier-general; in 1865 began the practice of law; elected District Attorney of the Second Judicial District of Iowa, and filled the position of Revenue Assessor; became editor of the "Iowa Tribune," published in Des Moines; elected to Congress in 1878, again in 1884, and re-elected in 1886; became the Greenback candidate for the Presidency in 1880; in 1892 ac- cepted the nomination of the People's party, receiving over a million votes for President. THOMAS F. BAYARD. Born in Wilmington, Del., October 29, 1828; was admitted to the bar in 1851, and two years later was appointed United States District Attorney for Delaware; in 1869 succeeded his father as United States Senator; was re-elected in 1875, and again in 1881; entered President Cleveland's Cabinet as Secre- tary of State in 1885; at the Democratic National Conventions of 1880 and 1884 was one of the principal competitors for the Presidency; after his retirement from the office of Secretary of State in 1889 held no public office until his appointment as Ambassador to the court of St. James in 1893. CHAPTER XVII. HARRISON'S NOMINATION. After all the preliminaries of the convention had been settled and the nominations began, various states gave complimentary votes to favorite sons. Mr. Leon- ard Swett made a rousing speech in favor of Walter Q. Gresham, and the nomination was seconded by Mr. Frank F. Davis, of Minnesota, and by gentlemen from other states. When Indiana was reached on the roll call Gov. A. G. Porter arose and said: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: When, in 1880, Roscoe Conlding visited Indiana to take part in the memor- able campaign of that year, he was asked on every hand: "How will New York go at the presidential election?" "Tell me," replied the great orator, "how Indiana will go in October, and then I can tell you how New York will go in November." In October, In- diana's majority of nearly 7,000 for the Republican candidate for governor informed the country how she would go, and in No- vember New York and the Nation echoed her October voice. In- diana is no longer an October state. Yet now, in 1888, as before in 1880, she seems largely to hold the key of the position. She is always regarded as being a close state; but when the Republi- can party is thoroughly organized, when it has done the pre- liminary work of the canvass well, and when its spirit is kindled into flame, Indiana seldom fails to elect the Republican candi- dates. She has never been better organized for a successful Re- publican contest than now; the preliminary work has never been more complete and thorough, and the Republican masses seem never to have been more highly roused and eager for the strug- 10 178 HARRISON'S NOMINATION. gle. Give General Benjamin Harrison your commission to lead them, and they will immediately fall into line and press forward with enthusiastic confidence to victory. The convention that lately met at St. Louis disappointed the Democracy of Indiana by refusing to place an Indiana candidate on their ticket. There is a tide in the affairs of parties, as well as of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. The present condition of Indiana is the Republican party's opportunity. Why risk shipwreck on any shallows when the full and welcoming sea invites your sails? Benjamin Harrison came to Indiana in 1854 at the age of twenty- one. He came poor in purse, but rich in resolution. No one ever heard him make a first reference to his ancestors. Self-reliant, he mounted the back of prosperity without the aid of a stirrup. The hospitality of his ancestors had given their property to those whom they had served. The core had gone to the people, the rind only to them and their families. He received, indeed, something from them their talents, their integrity, their fitness for public trusts, and what to some persons would have seemed a misfortune, but to a heart so stout as his was the highest good fortune, he received from them the inestimable legacy of penury. Upon his arrival in the state he entered at once upon the practice of law and immediately achieved success. Amplitude of prepara- tion, a large view of questions, a mind marvelously prompt in yielding up its stores, and so exhaustive in its power of reason- ing that no argument that would help his cause was ever found to have been omitted these gave him rank at once in his profes- sion. In union with these was found a fairness that sought no mean advantages and an integrity that never could be shaken. The young lawyer leaned on nobody's arm for help. Modest but self-confident, his manner seemed to say, "I am an honest tub, standing on its own bottom." It was perceived from the start that in web and woof he was of heroic stuff. While he was engaged in the practice of the law and was rapidly rising to distinction, the great rebellion raised its head to strike down the Union. Re- linquishing his profession, its emoluments, and the fame to which it was beckoning him, he yielded to the imperative demand of duty, raising a regiment and receiving from Morton the com- mission of a colonel. He marched with Sherman to the sea; he was in the thick of the fight at Resaca and Atlanta, and his gal- lantry and the efficiency of his well disciplined command were so conspicuous on those fields as to draw from the heroic Hooker, in a letter to the Secretary of War, the highest possible commen- HARRISON'S NOMINATION. 179 dations of his industry as a disciplinarian, and skill and in- trepidity as a soldier. He was not unknown to the people of Indiana before he entered the army. At a state election they had chosen him to the office of reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court. His opponents took the office from him while he was serving as a soldier in the field. The people, while he was yet in the field, re-elected him, and on returning home on the disband- ment of Sherman's forces he received his commission. On ac- count of his eloquence as a speaker and his extraordinary power as a debater, General Harrison was called upon at an uncom- monly early age to take part in the public discussions of the mighty questions that had begun to agitate the country, and was early matched against some of the most prominent speakers of the Democratic party. None who ever felt the point of his blade desired to engage with him again. Possessing oratorical powers of a high order, he has never spoken for mere rhetorical effect. He seems to have remembered the saying of the great Irish orator and patriot, O'Connell, that a good speech is a good thing, but that the verdict is the thing. He therefore pierced the core of every question he discussed, and fought to win in every contest in which he engaged. He has taken part as a public speaker in every presidential campaign since he came to Indiana, except the one that occurred during his service in the army, and he threw his sword into that. In recognition of his services in the ardent and prolonged struggles of the Republican party for the rights of man and for the restoration and integrity of the Union, the Re- publicans in the Legislature of 1881 chose him to be a Senator of the United States. I have not time to enter into any detailed nar- ration of his services in the Senate. His rank was among the highest. The delegates from Dakota will bear witness to the un- remitting energy of his efforts to have that territory admitted as a state into the Union, when, for the crime of being faithful to Republican principles, the Democratic party resolved to keep it out. Everybody will recall his complete exposure of the civil service reform sham in Indiana under the present administration. He possesses all that you should desire in a President sound- ness in Republican doctrine, a comprehensive grasp of mind, a calm judgment, firm principle, unquailing courage, and a pure character. The eloquent gentleman from Illinois has commended to your favor another distinguished citizen of Indiana. A state's place in civilization is denoted by the manner in which she treats those who have served her faithfully. I have always honored old 180 HARRISON'S NOMINATION. historic Massachusetts for the manner in which she cherishes the fame of those who, in whatever department of service, have re- flected honor upon the commonwealth; how she calls the roll with pride; how impatient she becomes when their names are unjustly aspersed or disparaged. I have not come here to dis- parage that honorable gentleman, brave and just judge, and heroic soldier whom the gentleman from Illinois has commended. If the roll of all of Indiana's sons were called who led in battle or carried the knapsack, she wculd bid me honor them all. There is no need that I should strive to dwarf others in order that General Benjamin Harrison may stand conspicuous. He stands breast to breast with the foremost of Indiana's soldiers; distin- guished also in civic trusts; heroically faithful to public duty; skillful in marshaling men, to the sound of whose bugle they quickly rally and fall into ranks, whom they have followed in fierce canvasses, and more than once to the desperate charge crowned with victory. Standing here, on behalf of a man who, disdaining all adventitious helps, has risen to distinction by the force of his own merits, I should regard myself unchivalric did I not recall, at least in brief review, some of the worthy public achievements of his ancestors. Whatever tends to show that a life which has been strong and useful has a foundation in traits that have long clung to the stock from which the man sprang, is in the nature of a guaranty that he may be trusted under all trials. It is something that the public, who are interested in being faithfully served, are entitled to know. We stand here to-day in the imperial city of the Northwest. The name of no family has ever been more identified with the Northwest than the family of General Benjamin Harrison. It is woven into the very fabric of the history of her people. I need only give a passing reference to that sturdy Benjamin Harrison from whom he takes his name, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was Governor of Virginia when the possessions of Virginia embraced the whole of the Northwest. When the Northwest was formed by Congress into a territory, William Henry Harrison was, first, its secretary, and afterward its delegate to Congress. When the Indian territory was formed, embracing all the territory of the Northwest except Ohio and a part of Michigan, he was appointed its first Governor. He held commissions as Governor successively from Adams, Jef- ferson and Madison. He was a man of deeds. While a delegate in Congress he obtained the passage of a law requiring the sale of public lands to be made in smaller subdivisions than had ever HARRISON'S NOMINATION. 181 been allowed before, so that for the first time a man of humble means might now buy from his government a home. The his- torian McMasters, in his admirable history of the people of the United States, has said with reference to this measure that it did far more for the good of the country than even his great vic- tory over the Prophet at Tippecanoe, or his defeat of Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames. He negotiated treaties with the In- dians, while Governor, by which their title to 70,000,000 acres of land was extinguished and the land was thus opened for settle- ment. In a single one of these treaties the Indians relinquished lands which embrace a third of Illinois and a vast section in Southern Wisconsin. He fought the battle of Tippecanoe, and, defeating the plans of the great statesman and warrior, Tecum- seh, kept the portals of the West open for the admission of the emigrant, and what, though less shining, was not less welcome to the settlers of the territory, scanty in means and struggling with difficulties, he procured the passage of laws that made the bur- dens of taxes lighter upon the poor. The language of the farm and the practice of hospitality were native to him. After the battle of Tippecanoe, when parting with a regiment of soldiers, he said: "If you ever come to Vincennes you will find a plate, and a knife, and a fork at my table, and I assure you that you will never find my door shut and the string of the latch pulled in." And what he promised he faithfully lived up to. We hear of civil service reform as if it were some quite new suggestion. But President Harrison, in a single month that he held office, directed the heads of several departments to give information to all their officers and agents that partisan interference by them in the popular elections, whether of state officers or the Federal government, or the payment of any contributions or assessments on salaries, or official compensation for party election purposes, would be regarded by him as cause for removal. The old Gov- ernor, the hero of Tippecanoe, having left Indiana in 1813, to enter a larger field of activity, the people did not forget the inestimable services which he had given them, and when, twenty-seven years afterward, he was a candidate for President of the United States, Indiana, though a Democratic state, gave him a majority of nearly 14,000 votes. He died in a month after he entered upon his great office, but not the memory of his services, which will ever remain fresh and imperishable. And now to-day in Indiana, among a people estimating highly the character and services of General Benjamin Harrison, and holding in affection the memory of "Old 182 HAHRISON'S NOMINATION. Tippecanoe," the latch strings of the people are hospitably out to you, and. their doors are waiting to fly open at your touch to let in the joyful air^that shall bear upon its wing the message that Benjamin Harrison, their soldier statesman, has been nominated for President of the United States. On the first ballot there was found to be in the field Alger, Allison, Depew, Fitler, Gresham, Harrison, Hawley, Ingalls, Phelps, Rusk, Sherman, Elaine, Lin- coln, and McKinley. The whole number of votes was 831, and 416 was necessary to a choice. On this ballot the highest number, 229, w r as received by John Sherman. The balloting continued until the eighth ballot, taken on the sixth day of the convention, when Mr. Harrison received 544 votes, and was declared the nominee. A motion was at once made to make the nomination unanimous. A number of highly complimentary speeches were made in this convention. Among them was the following from Chauncey M. Depew: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: As the only presidential candidate present in the convention I vote to make this nomination unanimous. [Cheers.] I knew when I came here that Ohio would carry away this prize. [Laughter and cheers.] I was perfectly willing to accede to it, because, in the experience of national elections, when an Ohio man is nominated he always wins. [Cheers.] This convention will adjourn in a different tem- per from any that has been held in a quarter of a century. No candidate before the convention expected to succeed, and no one is disappointed. [Cheers and laughter.] We go away without any heartburnings, but full of enthusiasm as we came here, for what- ever the result might be. New York is the cosmopolitan state of this Union, and men from every other state, as soon as they get too big for their own commonwealths, come to New York [Laughter] and when New York finds a man too large for his own commonwealth, and who won't move, she adopts him [Laughter], and New York adopted Benjamin Harrison, voted for him solid, HARRISON'S NOMINATION. 183 and you agreed to her view. The voice of New York and the voice of this convention will bo the voice of the American people next November. [Cheers.] You don't want a long speech. You don't want a statement of principles. You don't want anything except to feel in unity and in sympathy with any enthusiasm going from this convention and responding to every part of the country which, like the beat and throbs of the heart, sending blood every- where, shall come back again in one of the old-time victories for Republicanism, for Republican principles, for the salvation of the industrial interests of this country, headed by a soldier Gen- eral Harrison. [Cheers.] Finally the nomination was made unanimous by a rising vote, and then the convention proceeded to select a Vice-President. As a result Levi P. Morton was chosen from among a host whose names were pre- sented by admiring friends. CHAPTER XVIII. THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. The Democratic convention was held in St. Louis, June 7, 1888, and nominated Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman. The platform was fully in accord with Democratic ideas. In its adoption lay the hopes of the party. There was some reason to fear Mr. Cleveland's ultra free trade principles might work against him, and the plank touching upon this matter was left until the end, and then only touched upon the matter at issue in the most guarded manner. The following is the platform : The Democratic party of the United States, in national con- vention assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to the Demo- cratic faith and reaffirms the platform adopted by its representa- tives in the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by President Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress as the correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff reduction, and also indorses the efforts of our Democratic representatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation. Chief among its principles of party faith are the maintenance of an indissoluble union of free and indestructible states, now about to enter upon its second century of unexampled progress and renown; devotion to a plan of government regulated by a written constitution strictly specifying every granted power and expressly reserving to the states or people the entire ungranted residue of power, the encouragement of a jealous popular vigi- lance directed to all who have been chosen for brief terms to enact THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 187 and execute the laws and are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring equality, and establishing justice. The Democratic party welcomes an exacting scrutiny of the ad- ministration of the executive power, which four years ago was committed to its trust in the election of Grover Cleveland Presi- dent of the United States, and it challenges the most searching inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which then invited the suffrages of the people. During a most critical period of our financial affairs resulting from overtaxation, the anomalous condition of our currency, and a public debt un- matured it has, by the adoption of a wise and statesmanlike course, not only averted disaster but greatly promoted the pros- perity of the people. It has reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the Re- publican party touching the public domain and has reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and re- stored to the people nearly one hundred million acres of valu- able land, to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens. While carefully guarding the interests of the people, consis- tent with the principles of justice and equity, it has paid out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors of the repub- lic than was ever paid before during an equal period. It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations while scrupulous- ly maintaining all the rights and interests of our own govern- ment and people at home and abroad. The exclusion from our shores of Chinese laborers has been effectually secured under the provision of a treaty the operation of which has been postponed by the action of a Republican ma- jority in the Senate. Honest reform in the civil service has been inaugurated and maintained by President Cleveland, and he has brought the public service to the highest standard of efficiency, not only by rule and precept but by the example of his own untiring and unselfish ad- ministration of public affairs. In every branch and department of the government under Democratic control the rights and the welfare of all the people have been guarded and defended; every public interest has been protected, and the equality of all our citizens before the law, with- out regard to race or color, has been steadfastly maintained. Upon its record thus exhibited and upon the pledge of a con- tinuance to the people of the benefits of Democracy it invokes a 188 THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. renewal of popular trust by the re-election of a chief magistrate who has been faithful, able, and prudent, and invokes in addition to that trust the transfer also to the Democracy of the entire leg- islative power. The Republican party, controlling the Senate and resisting in both houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax laws which have outlasted the necessities of war and are now undermining the abundance of a long period of peace deny to the people equality before the law and the fairness and the justice which are their right. The cry of American labor for a better share in the rewards of industry is stifled with false pre- tenses, enterprise is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is discouraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be properly amended nor repealed. The Democratic part} will continue, with all the power confided to it, the struggle to reform these laws in accordance with the pledges of its last .plat- form, indorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the people, Of all the industrious freemen of bur land, the immense majority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased to all our people. .Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the people are betrayed when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and combinations are permitted to exist which, while unduly enriching the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens by depriving them of the benefits of natural competition. Every rule of gov- ernmental action is violated when, through unnecessary taxation, a vast sum of money far beyond the needs of an economical administration is drawn from the people, the channels of trade, and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in the national treas- ury. The money now lying idle in the Federal treasury resulting from superfluous taxation amounts to more than $125,000,000, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than $60,000,000 annually. Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Republican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant ap- propriations and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the ac- cumulation of extravagant taxation. The Democratic policy is THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 189 to enforce frugality in public expenses and abolish unnecessary taxation. Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not and need not be endangered by the reduction and correction of the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and careful revi- sion of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote and en- courage every branch of such industries and enterprises by giving them assurances of an extended market and steady and continuous operations. In the interests of American labor, which should in no event be neglected, the revision of our tax laws contemplated by the Democratic party should promote the advantage of such labor by cheapening the cost of necessaries of life in the home of every workingman and at the same time secure to him steady and remunerative employment. Upon this question of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national life, and upon every question involved in the problem of good government, the Democratic party submits its principles and professions to the intelligent suffrages of the Amer- ican people. The election was very exciting. The canvass had been a close one. Mr. Harrison received 233 electoral votes and Mr. Cleveland 168. The popular vote would have elected Mr. Cleveland, for he had 5,536,242, against 5,440,708 for Harrison. President Harrison's message was received by the public with much satisfaction. The silver question was made the subject of much discussion, and the McKinley bill was argued in the House. In 1890 the Hawaiian treaty came up for consideration, and the World's Fair bill was passed by Congress. Two new states were admitted to the Union, Idaho and Wyom- ing, and President Harrison signed both bills. A gloom was cast over the country by the death of the President's wife, October 25, 1892. She was taken to her Indianapolis home for burial. CHAPTER XIX. SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. In New York City there was held an Anti-Saloon Republican convention, May 3, 1888, at which was adopted the following platform: 1. We regard the saloon as the common and malignant foe of civilization and humanity. It is wasteful, vicious, and hostile to good government. It degrades the individual, ruins the family, debauches our youth, is destructive of Sunday as the people's day of rest, corrupts the ballot, fosters crime, and threatens the very existence of the republic. It has become a pernicious and demoralizing power in politics municipal, state, and national and is therein intrusive and aggressive. As a public enemy it ought to be abolished. 2. We have with great satisfaction witnessed the rapid growth of the anti-saloon sentiment in all parts of the country, as shown by constitutional amendments, legislative enactments, and by the fact that in thirty-four states and territories laws have been enacted requiring the giving of scientific instruction in public schools on the effects of alcohol upon the human system. The public conscience is aroused on this subject, and will be satisfied with nothing less than the suppression of this monstrous evil. The saloon is doomed and must go. 3. Recognizing the practical difficulties of legislation and en- forcement, we unite upon the broad ground of active hostility to the saloon without dictating methods of procedure. The people have the right and should have the opportunity of deciding how and when the saloon shall be suppressed. It should be destroyed with the weapons that are most effective and available. 4. As members of the Republican party we are proud of its glorious past, rejoice in its present vigor, and have an abiding confidence that it will prove to be the agent of divine Providence SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. 191 for the destruction of the saloon as it was for the overthrow of slavery. The saloon is moral slavery. 5. Speaking for an overwhelming majority of Republican voters and good citizens, we respectfully but most earnestly ask our brethren of the national Republican convention that is to meet in Chicago to incorporate in their platform of principles a declaration of hostility to the saloon as clear and emphatic as the English language can make it. We ask this because it is right. Right is might. 6. We earnestly invite the active co-operation of all friends of temperance in this plan of campaign, which has in it the promise and potency of the speedy overthrow of the saloon party in national affairs and the immediate crippling and ultimate extinction of the legalized liquor traffic. Resolved, That, recognizing the fact that during the early his- tory of the Republican party, when it made the most glorious portion of its record, it had the enthusiastic support of the best women of the land, and recognizing the further fact that the help of all good women is more needed in the warfare against the saloon, we appeal to them to give a hearty support to the Repub- lican party whenever and wherever it stands for protection of the home against the saloon. The Prohibition party met at Indianapolis on May 31, 1888. Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, was nom- inated for President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for Vice-President. The platform is here given : The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in gov- ernment, do hereby declare: 1. That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transporta- tion, and sale of alcoholic beverages shall be made public crimes, and punished as such. 2. That such prohibition must be secured through amendments of our national and state constitutions, enforced by adequate laws adequately supported by administrative authority, and to this end the organization of the Prohibition party is imperatively demanded in state and nation. 3. That any form of license, taxation, or regulation of the liquor traffic is contrary to good government; that any party 192 SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. which supports regulation, license, or tax enters into alliance with such traffic and becomes the actual foe of the state's welfare; and that we arraign the Republican and Democratic parties for their persistent attitude in favor of the licensed iniquity, whereby they oppose the demand of the people for prohibition, and, through open complicity with the liquor cause, defeat the enforce- ment of law. 4. For the immediate abolition of the internal-revenue sys- tem, whereby our national government is deriving support from our greatest national vice. 5. That, an adequate public revenue being necessary, it may properly be raised by import duties and by an equitable assessment upon the property and the legitimate business of the country, but import duties should be so reduced that no surplus shall be accumulated in the treasury, and that the burdens of taxation shall be removed from foods, clothing, and other comforts and necessaries of life. 6. That civil-service appointments for all civil offices chiefly clerical in their duties should be based upon moral, intellectual, and physical qualifications, and not upon party service or party necessity. 7. That the right of suffrage rests on no mere circumstance of race, color, sex, or nationality, and that wherever from any cause it has been withheld from citizens who are of suitable age and mentally and morally qualified for the exercise of an intelli- gent ballot it should be restored by the people through the legis- latures of the several states on such educational basis as they may deem wise. 8. For the abolition of polygamy and the establishment ol uniform laws governing marriage and divorce. 9. For prohibiting all combinations of capital to control and to increase the cost of products for popular consumption. 10. For the preservation and defense of the Sabbath as a civil institution without oppressing any who religiously observe the same on any other day than the first day of the week. That arbitration is the Christian, wise, and economic method of set- tling national differences, and the same method should, by judi- cious legislation, be applied the settlement of disputes between large bodies of employes and employers; that the abolition of the saloon would remove the burdens moral, physical, pecu- niary, and social which now oppress labor and rob it of its earn- ings, and would prove to be the wise and successful way of pro- SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. 193 moting labor reform, and we invite labor and capital to unite with us for the accomplishment thereof; that monopoly in the land is a wrong to the people, and public land should be reserved to actual settlers; and that men and women should receive equal wages for equal work. 11. That our immigration laws should be so enforced as to prevent the introduction into our country of all convicts, inmates of dependent institutions, and of others physically incapacitated for self-support, and that no person should have the ballot in any state who is not a citizen of the United States. Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor traffic has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to full party fellow- ship all those who on this one dominant issue are with us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and will remove sectional differences, promote national unity, and insure the best welfare of our native land. The Union Laborites convened at Cincinnati May 16, 1888, and on the platform which follows made these nominations: A. J. Streeter, of Illinois, for Pres- ident, and Charles E. Cunningham, of Arkansas, for Vice-President. This is the platform: 1. While we believe that the proper solution of the financial system will greatly relieve those now in danger of losing their homes by mortgage foreclosure and enable all industrious persons to secure a home as the highest result of civilization, we oppose land monopoly in every form, demand the forfeiture of unearned grants, the limitation of land-ownership, and such other legisla- tion as will stop speculation in land and holding it unused from those whose necessities require it. We believe the earth was made for the people, and not to enable an idle aristocracy to sub- sist through rents upon the toil of the industrious, and that "corners" in land are as bad as "corners" in food, and that those who are not residents or citizens should not be allowed to own land in the United States. A homestead should be exempt to a limited extent from execution or taxation. 2. The means of communication and transportation should be owned by the people, as is the United States postal system. 3. The establishing of a national monetary system in the 194 SOME OTHER PLATFORMS. - interest of the producers instead of the speculators and usurers, by which the circulating medium in necessary quantity and full legal tender should be issued directly to the people without the intervention of banks, or loaned to citizens upon land security at a low rate of interest. To relieve them from extortions of usury and enable them to control the money supply, postal sav- ings banks should be established. While we have free coinage of gold we should have free coinage of silver. We demand the immediate application of all idle money in the United States treasury to the payment of the bonded debt, and condemn the further issue of interest-bearing bonds either by the national gov- ernment or by states, territories, or municipalities. 4. Arbitration should take the place of strikes and other in- jurious methods of settling labor disputes. The letting of con- vict labor to contractors should be prohibited, the contract sys- tem be abolished in public works, the hours of labor in industrial establishments be reduced commensurate with the increased pro- duction by labor-saving machinery, employes be protected from bodily injury, equal pay given for equal work for both sexes, and labor, agricultural, and co-operative associations be fostered and encouraged by law. The foundation of a republic is in the intel- ligence of its citizens, and children who are drawn into work- shops, mines, and factories are deprived of the education which should be secured to all by proper legislation. 5. We demand the passage of a service-pension bill to pension every honorably discharged soldier and sailor of the United States. 6. A graduated income tax is the most equitable system of taxation, placing the burden of government upon those who are best able to pay, instead of laying it on the farmers and exempt- ing millionaire bondholders and corporations. 7. We demand a constitutional amendment making United States senators elective by a direct vote of the people. 8. We demand a strict enforcement of laws prohibiting the importation of subjects of foreign countries under contracts. 9. We demand the passage and enforcement of such legisla- tion as will absolutely exclude the Chinese from the United States. 10. The right to vote is inherent in citizenship, irrespective of sex, and is properly within the province of state legislation. 11. The paramount issues to be solved in the interests of humanity are the abolition of usury, monopoly, and trusts; and we denounce the Democratic and Republican parties for creating and perpetuating these monstrous evils. LEW WALLACE. Born in Brookville, Ind., April, 1827, and after receiving a thorough education studied law; during the Mexican War he entered the army as first lieutenant; thereafter practiced his profession at Covington and Crawfordsville until the begin- ning of the Civil War, when he entered the army; was com- missioned brigadier-general and then major-general of volun- teers; was Governor of Utah by Federal appointment from 1878 to 1881 and United States minister to Turkey from 1881 to 1885; was delegate at large to the National Republican Con- vention of 1896; as an author he has achieved universal pop- ularity and as a public speaker has gained great fame. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. Born in Peekskill, N. Y., April 23, 1834; was graduated at Yale in 1856 and shortly after was admitted to practice law; in 1861 and 1862 was a member of the New York Assembly and in 1863 was elected Secretary of State; held other political offices at a later date, but resigned them in order to devote himself to his profession; was attorney of the Harlem Rail- road Company from 1866 till 1869, and became counsel for the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company till 1882, when he became second vice-president; in 1872 was de- feated as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of New York; in 1874 was appointed regent of the State University; elected president of the New York Central in 1885. CHAPTER XX. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. The country was thrown into the usual state of excitement as the time for the election of 1892 ap- proached. The Republican convention was held in Minneapolis, Minn. It met in that city June 7. Jacob Sloat was the temporary chairman, and Governor McKinley, of Ohio, was chosen as the permanent pre- siding officer. Benjamin Harrison and James G. Blaine were the candidates for nomination for the presidency. There was but one ballot. The whole number of votes cast was 904 1-3, and 453 were neces- sary to a choice. Mr. Harrison received 533 1-6 votes on the first ballot, and was declared the nominee. The nomination was made unanimous, and at the evening session Whitelaw Reid was chosen as the candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The following was the platform adopted at the convention : The representatives of the Republicans of the United States assembled in general convention on the shores of the Mississippi river, the everlasting bond of an indestructible republic, whose most glorious chapter of history is the record of the Republican party, congratulate their countrymen on the majestic march of the nation under the banners inscribed with the principles of our platform of 1888, vindicated by victory at the polls and pros- perity in our fields, workshops, and mines, and make the follow- ing declaration of principles: We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call 11 198 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. attention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legis- lation of the Republican congress. We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, and that on all imports coming in competition with the products of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the differ- ence between wages abroad and at home. We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general consumption have been reduced under the operations of the tariff act of 1890. We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the house of representatives to destroy our tariff laws by piecemeal, as is manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and lead ores, the chief products of a number of states, and we ask the people for their judgment thereon. We point to the success of the Republican policy of reciprocity, under which our export trade has vastly increased, and new and enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our farms and workshops. We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Democratic party to this practical business measure, and claim that, executed by a Republican administration, our present laws will eventually give us control of the trade of the world. DECLARATION FOR BIMETALLISM. The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bi- metallism, and the Republican party demands the use of both gold and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the producers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the government shall be as good as any other. We commend the wise and patriotic steps already taken by our government to secure an international conference to adopt such measures as will insure a parity of values between gold and silver for use as money throughout the world. We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elec- tions, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. 199 that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right guaranteed by the constitution. The free and honest popular ballot, the just and equal representation of all the people, as well as their just and equal protection under the laws, are the foundation of our republican institutions, and the party will never relax its efforts until the integrity of the ballot and the purity of elections shall be fully guaranteed and protected in every state. We denounce the continued inhuman outrages perpetrated upon American citizens for political reasons in certain southern states of the union. FOREIGN RELATIONS. We favor the extension of our foreign commerce, the restora- tion of our merchant marine by home-built ships, and the creation of a navy for the protection of our national interests and the honor of our flag; the maintenance of the most friendly relations with all foreign powers, entangling alliances with none; and the protection of the rights of our fishermen. We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe doctrine and believe in the achievement of the manifest 'destiny of the republic in its broadest sense. We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and relations for the restriction of criminal, pauper and contract immigration. We f avor efficient legislation by congress to protect the life and limb of employes of transportation companies engaged in carrying on interstate commerce, and recommend legislation by the re- spective states that will protect employes engaged in state com- merce, in mining, and in manufacturing. The Republican party has always been the champion of the oppressed and recognizes the dignity of manhood, irrespective of faith, color, or nationality; it sympathizes with the cause of home rule in Ireland and protests against the persecution of the Jews in Russia. The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelli- gence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among men. We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought and conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and instrumentalities which contribute to the education of the chil- dren of the land, but while insisting upon the fullest measure of religious liberty we are opposed to any union of church and state. 200 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. OPPOSITION TO TRUSTS. We reaffirm our opposition declared in the Republican platform of 1888 to all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or other- wise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens. We heartily endorse the action already taken upon this subject and ask for such further legislation as may be required to remedy any defects in existing laws and to render their enforce- ment more complete and effective. We approve the policy of extending to towns, villages, and rural communities the advantages of the free delivery service now enjoyed by the larger cities of the country, and reaffirm the declaration contained in the Republican platform of 1888, pledg- ing the reduction of letter postage to one cent at the earliest possible moment consistent with the maintenance of the post- office department and the highest class of postal service. MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. Civil Service. We 'commend the spirit and evidence of reform in the civil service and the wise and consistent enforcement by the Republican party of the laws regulating the same. Nicaragua Canal. The construction of the Nicaragua canal is of the highest importance to the American people, but as a measure of national defense and to build up and maintain Ameri- can commerce it should be controlled by the United States gov- ernment. Territories. We favor the admission of the remaining terri- tories at the earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of the people of the territories and of the United States. All the federal officers appointed for the territories should be selected from bona fide residents thereof and the right of self- government should be accorded as far as practicable. Arid Lands. We favor cession, subject to the homestead laws, of the arid public lands to the states and territories in which they lie, under such congressional restrictions as to disposition, re- clamation, and occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum benefits to the people. The Columbian Exposition. The World's Columbian Exposi- tion is a great national undertaking and congress should promptly enact such reasonable legislation in aid thereof as will insure a discharging of the expense and obligations incident thereto, and THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1892. 201 the attainment of results commensurate with the dignity and progress of the nation. Intemperance. We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and pro- mote morality. Pensions. Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who saved the life of the nation, we pledge anew to the vete- ran soldiers of the republic a watchful care and recognition of their just claims upon a grateful people. Harrison's Administration. We commend the able, patriotic, and thoroughly American administration of President Harrison. Under it the country has enjoyed remarkable prosperity and the dignity and honor of the nation at home and abroad have been faithfully maintained, and we offer the record of pledges kept as a guarantee of faithful performance in the future. CHAPTER XXI. DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. The Democratic convention was held in Chicago June 22, and resulted in the nomination of Grover Cleveland and Adlai Stevenson. David B. Hill and Horace Boies, of Iowa, were opposing candidates for the nomination. The number necessary to a choice was 607, and Mr. Cleveland received 617. Mr. Steven- son was nominated by acclamation after a ballot had been taken in which Mr. Stevenson received 402 votes to 344 for Isaac P. Gray, 86 for Allen B. Moore, 50 for John L. Mitchell, and 26 for Henry Watterson. The following platform was adopted: The representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm their alleg- iance to the principles of the party as formulated by Jefferson and exemplified by the long and illustrious line of his successors in Democratic leadership, from Madison to Cleveland; we believe the public welfare demands that these principles be applied to the conduct of the federal government through the accession to power of the party that advocates them; and we solemnly declare that the need of a return to these fundamental principles of free popu- lar government, based on home rule and individual liberty, was never more urgent than now, when the tendency to centralize all power at the federal capital has become a menace to the reserved rights of the states that strikes at the very roots of our government under the constitution as framed by the fathers of the republic. FEDERAL CONTROL OF ELECTIONS. We warn the people of our common country, jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that tne policy of federal DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. 203 control of elections to which the Republican party has committed itself is fraught with the gravest dangers, scarcely less momentous than would result from a revolution practically establishing mon- archy on the ruins of the republic. It strikes at the north as well as the south, and injures the colored citizen even more than the white; it means a horde of deputy marshals at every polling place armed with federal power, returning boards appointed and controlled by federal authority, the outrage of the electoral rights of the people in the several states, the subjugation of the colored people to the control of the party in power, and the reviving of race antagonisms, now happily abated, of the utmost peril to the safety and happiness of all; a measure deliberately and justly described by a leading Republican senator as "the most infamous bill that ever crossed the threshold of the senate." Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would mean the dominance of a self-per- petuating oligarchy of officeholders, and the party first intrusted with its machinery could be dislodged from power only by an appeal to the reserved right of the people to resist oppression which is inherent in all self-governing communities. Two years ago this revolutionary policy was emphatically condemned by the people at the polls, but in contempt of that verdict the Repub- lican party has defiantly declared in its latest authoritative utter- ance that its success in the coming elections will mean the enact- ment of the force bill and the usurpation of despotic control over elections in all the states. Believing that the preservation of Republican government in the United States is dependent upon the defeat of this policy of legalized force and fraud, we invite the support of all citizens who desire to see the constitution maintained in its integrity with the laws pursuant thereto which have given our country a hundred years of unexampled prosperity; and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be intrusted with power, not only to the defeat of the force bill, but also to relentless opposition to the Republican policy of profligate expenditure which, in the short space of two years, squandered an enormous surplus and emptied an overflowing treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labor of the country. PROTECTION DENOUNCED. We denounce Republican protection as a fraud; a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic 204 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. party that the federal government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties except for the purpose of rev- enue only, and we demand that the collection of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the government when honestly and economically administered. We denounce the McKinley tariff law enacted by the LI con- gress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we indorse the efforts made by the Democrats of the present congress to modify its most oppressive features in the direction of free raw materials and cheaper manufactured goods that enter into general consumption, and we promise its repeal as one of the beneficent results that will follow the action of the people in intrusting power to the Democratic party. Since the McKinley tariff went into operation there have been ten reductions of the wages of laboring men to one increase. We deny that there has been any increase of prosperity to the country since that tariff went into operation, and we point to the dullness and distress, the wage reductions and strikes in the iron trade, as the best possible evidence that no such prosperity has resulted from the McKinley act. We call the attention of thoughtful Americans to the fact that after thirty years of restrictive taxes against the importation of foreign wealth, in exchange for our agricultural surplus, the homes and farms of the country have become burdened with a real estate mortgage debt of over $2,500,000,000, exclusive of all other forms of indebtedness; that in one of the chief agricultural states of the west there appears a real estate mortgage debt aver- aging $165 per capita of the total population; and that similar conditions and tendencies are shown to exist in other agricultural exporting states. We denounce a policy which fosters no indus- try so much as it does that of the sheriff. TRADE RECIPROCITY. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantages to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the Demo- cratic faith, but we denounce the sham reciprocity which juggles with the people's desire for enlarged foreign markets and freer exchanges by pretending to establish closer trade relations for a country whose articles of export are almost exclusively agri- cultural products with other countries that are also agricultural while erecting a custom-house barrier of prohibitive tariff taxes against the richest countries of the world that stand ready to take our entire surplus of products and to exchange therefor com- KNUTE NELSON. Born near the city of Bergen, Norway, February 2, 1843; came to the United States in 1849, living in Chicago until the fall of 1850, then in the State of Wisconsin until 1871; removed to Alexandria, Minn., where he has since resided; studied law after the war, and in 1867 admitted to the bar of the Circuit Court of Dane County; member of the Wisconsin Legislature in 1868-9; county attorney for Douglas County from 1872 to 1874; State Senator in the Minnesota Legislature from 1876 to 1878; elected in the Forty-eighth Congress from the Fifth District of Minnesota, and twice re-elected; nominated for Governor of Minnesota in 1892 and elected. PHILBTUS SAWYER. Born in Whitney, Vt, September 22, 1816; came to Wiscon- sin in 1847 and took up the work of his life in the pine forests of Northern Wsconsin, where 'he laid the foundation of his fortune; in 1857 was elected a member of the State Legisla- ture from Winnebago County, and was re-elected in 1861; served two terms as mayor of Oshkosh; was a member of the National House of Representatives from the Thirty-ninth to the Forty-third Congresses; was elected United States Senator in 1881, and was re-elected in 1887; was a delegate to several Republican National Conventions. DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. 207 modities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our own people. TRUSTS AND COMBINATIONS. We recognize in the trusts and combinations which are de- signed to enable capital to secure more than its just share of the joint product of capital and labor a natural consequence of the prohibitive taxes which prevent the free competition which is the life of honest trade, but believe their worst evils can be abated by law, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws made to prevent and control them, together with such further legislation in restraint of their abuses as experience may show to be neces- sary. LANDS FOR ACTUAL SETTLERS. The Republican party, while professing a policy of reserving the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, has given away the people's heritage till now a few railroad and non-resi- dent aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between the two seas. The last Democratic administration reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the Republican party touching the public domain, and reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and re- stored to the people nearly one hundred million (100,000,000) acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citi- zens, and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and restored to the neople. COINAGE. We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sher- man act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift fraught with possibilities of danger in the future, which should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver without dis- criminating against metal or charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value or be adjusted through international agree- ment or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin We insist upon this policy 208 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. as especially necessary for the protection of the farmers and laboring classes, the first and most defenseless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency. REPEAL OF STATE BANK TAX DEMANDED. We recommend that the prohibitory 10 per cent tax on state bank issues be repealed. CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declaration of the Democratic national convention of 1876 for the reform of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all laws regulating the same. The nomination of a president, as in the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely of his appointees, holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous satire upon free popular institutions and a startling illustration of the methods by which a president may gratify his ambition. We denounce a policy under which the federal officeholders usurp control of party conventions in the states, and we pledge the Democratic party to reform these and all other abuses which threaten individual liberty and local self-government. FOREIGN POLICY. The Democratic party is the only party that has ever given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, compelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While avoiding entangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly relations with other nations and especially with our neighbors on the American continent whose destiny is closely linked with our own, and we view with alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation and bluster which is liable at any time to confront us with the alter- native of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national defense and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the country abroad. THE OPPRESSED IN RUSSIA AND IRELAND. This country has always been the refuge of the oppressed from every land exiles for conscience's sake and in the spirit of the founders of our government we condemn the oppression practiced by the Russian government upon its Lutheran and Jewish sub- jects and we call upon our national government, in the interest of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means to use its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. 209 persecutions in the dominions of the czar and to secure to the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound and earnest sympathy to those lovers of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the great cause of local self-government in Ireland. IMMIGRATION. We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent the United States from being used as the dumping-ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe; and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigration and the importation of foreign workmen under contract to de- grade American labor and lessen its wages, but we condemn and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of the industrious and worthy of foreign lands. PENSIONS. This convention hereby renews the expression of appreciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the union in the war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pensions for all disabled union soldiers, their widows and dependents, but we demand that the work of the pension office shall be done industriously, impartially and honestly. We denounce the present administration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful, and dishonest. WATERWAY IMPROVEMENTS. The federal government should care for and improve the Mis- sissippi river and other great waterways of the republic, so as to secure for the interior states easy and cheap transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous work until perma- nent improvement is secured. NICARAGUA CANAL. For purposes of national defense and the promotion of com- merce between the states, we recognize the early construction of the Nicaragua canal and its protection against foreign control as of great importance to the United States. THE WORLD'S FAIR. Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a national undertaking of vast importance, in which the general government 210 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. has invited the co-operation of all the powers of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the invi- tation so extended and the broad and liberal efforts being made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of opinion that congress should make such necessary financial provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national honor and public faith. THE SCHOOL QUESTION. Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffrage, we recommend to the several states most liberal appropriations for the public schools. Free common schools are the nursery of good government, and they have always received the fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means of increas- ing intelligence. Freedom of education, being an essential of civil and religious liberty as well as a necessity for the develop- ment of intelligence, must not be interfered with under any pre- text whatever. We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government. ' ADMISSION OF THE TERRITORIES. We approve the action of the present house of representatives in passing bills for admitting into the union as states the terri- tories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early admis- sion of all the territories having the necessary population and resources to entitle them to statehood, and while they remain territories we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any territory, together with the District of Colum- bia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the territory or district in which their duties are to be performed. The democratic party believes in home rule and the control of their own affairs by the people of the vicinage. PROTECTION OF RAILWAY EMPLOYES. We favor legislation by congress and state legislatures to pro- tect the lives and limbs of railway employes and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inactivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican senate, DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 1892. 211 for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this class of wage-workers. THE SWEATING SYSTEM DENOUNCED. We are in favor of the enactment by the states of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract convict labor, and for prohibiting the employment in factories of children under 15 years of age. SUMPTUARY LAWS. We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interference with the individual rights of the citizen. AND ON THIS THE PARTY STANDS. Upon this statement of principles and policies the Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party in order that there may be a change of system and a change of methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institutions under which the republic has grown great and powerful. CHAPTER XXH. HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Washington, D. C., Sept. 3. The Hon. W. McKinley, Jr., and Others Gentlemen: I now avail myself of the first period of relief from public duties to respond to the notification which you brought to me on June 20, of my nomination for the office of presi- dent of the United States by the Republican national convention recently held at Minneapolis. I accept the nomination, and am grateful for the approval expressed by the convention of the acts of the administration. I have endeavored without wavering or weariness, so far as the direction of public affairs was committed to me, to carry out the pledges made to the people in 1888. If the policies of the administration have not been distinctly and progressively American and Republican policies, the fault has not been in the purpose but in the execution. I shall speak frankly of the legislation of congress and of the work of the executive depart- ments, for the credit of any successes that have been attained is in such measure due to others senators and representatives, and to the efficient heads of the several executive departments that I may do so without impropriety. A vote of want of confidence is asked by our adversaries; and this challenge to a review of what has been done we promptly and gladly accept. The great work of the List congress has been subjected to the revision of a Democratic house of representatives and the acts of the execu- tive department to its scrutiny and investigation. A Democratic national administration was succeeded by a Republican adminis- tration and the freshness of the events gives unusual facilities for fair comparison and judgment. There has seldom been a time, I think, when a change from the declared policies of the Repub- lican to the declared policies of the Democratic party involved such serious results to the business interests of the country. A HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 213 brief review of what has been done and of what the Democratic party proposes to undo will justify this opinion. DEVISED THE PRESENT CURRENCY. The Republican party during the civil war devised a national currency consisting of United States notes issued and redeemable by the government, and of national bank notes based upon the security of United States bonds. A tax was levied upon the issues of state banks, and the intended result, that all such issues should be withdrawn, was realized. There are men among us now who never saw a state bank note. The notes furnished directly or indirectly by the United States have been the only and the safe and acceptable paper currency of the people. Bank failures have brought no fright, delay, or loss to the bill holders. The note of an insolvent bank is as good and as current as a treasury note for the credit of the United States is behind it. Our money is all national money I might almost say international, for these bills are not only equally and indiscriminately accepted at par in all the states, but in some foreign countries. The Democratic party, if intrusted with the control of the government, is now pledged to repeal the tax on state bank issues, with a view to putting into circulation again, under such diverse legislation as the states may adopt, a flood of local bank issues. Only those who in the years before the war experienced the inconvenience and losses attendant upon the use of such money can appreciate what a return to that system involves. The denomination of a bi" was then often no indication of its value. The bank detector of yesterday was not a safe guide to-day as to credit or values. Merchants deposited several times during the day lest the hour of bank closing should show a depreciation of the money taken in the morning. The traveler could not use in a journey to the east the issues of the most solvent banks of the west, and in consequence a money-changer's office was the familiar neighbor of the ticket office and the lunch counter. The farmer and the laborer found the money received for their products or their labor depreciated when they came to make their purchases, and the whole business of the country was hindered and burdened. Changes may become necessary, but a national system of currency, safe and acceptable throughout the whole country, is the fruit of bitter experiences, and I am sure our people will not consent to the reactionary proposal made by the Democratic party. Few subjects have elicited more discussion or excited more 214 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. general interest than that of a recovery by the United States of its appropriate share of the ocean-carrying trade. This subject touches not only our pockets but our national pride. Practically all the freights for transporting to Europe the enormous annual supplies of provisions furnished by this country and for the large return of manufactured products have for many years been paid to foreign ship-owners. Thousands of immigrants annually seek- ing homes under our flag have been denied a sight of it until they entered Sandy Hook, while increasing thousands of Ameri- can citizens, bent on European travel, have each year stepped into a foreign jurisdiction at the New York docks. The mer- chandise balance of trade which the treasury books show is largely reduced by the annual tribute which we pay for freight and passage money. The great ships, the fastest upon the sea, which are now in peace profiting by our trade, are in a secondary sense warships of their respective governments and in time of war would, under existing contracts with those governments, speedily take on the guns for which their decks are already prepared and enter with terrible efficiency upon the "work of destroying our commerce. The undisputed fact is that the great steamship lines of Europe were built up and are now in part sustained by direct or indirect government aid, the latter taking the form of liberal pay for carry- ing the mails or of an annual bonus given in consideration of agreements to construct ships so as to adapt them for carrying an armament and to turn them over to the government on demand, upon specified terms. It was plain to every intelligent American that if the United States would have such lines a similar policy must be entered upon. The List Con- gress enacted such a law and under its beneficent influence sixteen American steamships of an aggregate tonnage of 57,400 tons and costing $7,400,000 have been built or contracted to be built in American shipyards. In addition to this it is now practically certain that we shall soon have, under the American flag, one of the finest steamship lines sailing out of New York for any European port. This contract will result in the construction in American yards of four new passenger steamships of 10,000 tons each, costing about $8.000,000, and will add to our naval reserve six steamships, the fastest upon the seas. A special interest has been taken by me in the establishment of lines our South Atlantic and Gulf ports; and, though my expectations have not yet been realized, attention has been called to the advantages possessed by these ports, and when their people WILLIAM B. ALLISON. Born in Perry, Ohio, March 2, 1829; educated at Allegheny College (Pa.) and at the Western Reserve College (Ohio), after which he took up the study of law and practiced his profession in Ohio until 1857; was a delegate to the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency in 1860; in 1862 elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress as a Republican and was re-elected to the three succeeding Congresses, serving continuously as a member of the body from December 7, 1863, until March 3, 1871; in 1873 elected United States Senator, and since has been three times re-elected. WILLIAM B. COCKRAN. Born in Ireland February 28, 1854; educated in his native country and in France; came to America in 1871; became a teacher in a private academy, and was later principal of a public school in Westchester County, N. Y. ; participated in Democratic conventions, and was soon recognized as a person of influence in the affairs of his party in New York City; soon became eminent as an orator, and at the convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for the Presidency in 1892, made a remarkable speech in opposition; was elected a member of the Fifty-second Congress, and was re-elected to the Fifty- third, HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 217 are more fully alive to their interests I do not doubt that they will be able to secure the capital needed to enable them to profit by their great natural advantages. The Democratic party has found no place in its platform for any reference to this subject and has shown its hostility to the general policy by refusing to expend an appropriation made during the last administration for ocean mail contracts with American lines. The patriotic people, the workmen in our shops, the capitalists seeking new enter- prises must decide whether the gieat ships owned by Americans which have sought American registry shall again humbly ask a place in the English naval reserve; the great ships now on the designers' tables go to foreign shops for construction and the United States loses the now brightening opportunity of recover- ing a place commensurate with its wealth, the skill of its con- structors, and the courage of its sailors in the carrying trade of all the seas. Another related measure as furnishing increased ocean traffic for our ships and of great and permanent benefit to the farmer and manufacturer as well is the reciprocity policy declared by section 3 of the tariff act of 1890 and now in practical operation with five of the nations of Central and South America, San Domingo, the Spanish and British West India Islands and with Germany and Austria, under special trade arrangements with each. The removal of the duty on sugar and the continuance of coffee and tea upon the free list, while giving great relief to our own people by cheapening articles used increasingly in every household, were also of such enormous advantage to the coun- tries exporting these articles as to suggest that in consideration thereof reciprocal favors should be shown in their tariffs to ar- ticles exported by us to their markets. Great credit is due to Mr. Elaine for the vigor with which he pressed this view upon the country. We have only begun to realize the benefit of these trade arrangements. The work of creating new agencies and of adapting our goods to new markets has necessarily taken time, but the re- sults already attained are such, I am sure, as to establish in popu- lar favor the policy of reciprocal trade based upon the free im- portation of such articles as do not injuriously compete with the products of our own farms, mines or factories, in exchange for the free or favored introduction of our products into other countries. The obvious efficacy of this policy in increasing the foreign trade of the United States at once attracted the alarmed attention of European trade journals and boards of trade. The British Board 12 218 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. of Trade has presented to that government a memorial asking for the appointment of a commission to consider the best means of counteracting what is called "the commercial crusade of the United States." At a meeting 1 held in March last of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain the president reported that the exports from Great Britain to the Latin American countries dur- ing the last year had decreased $23,750,000, and that this was not due to temporary causes, but directly to the reciprocity policy of the United States. Germany and France have also shown their startled appreciation of the .fact that a new and vigorous con- testant has appeared in the battle of the markets and has already secured important advantages. The most convincing evidence of the tremendous commercial strength of our position is found in the fact that Great Britain and Spain have found it necessary to make reciprocal trade agreements with us for their West India colonies and that Germany and Austria have given us important concessions in exchange for the continued free importation of their beet sugar product. A few details only as to the increase in our trade can be given here. Taking all the countries with which arrangements have been made, our trade to June 30, 1892, had increased 23.78 per cent. With Brazil the increase was nearly 11 per cent; with Cuba, during the first ten months, our exports increased $5,702,193, or 54.8 per cent, and with Porto Rico, $590,599, or 34 per cent. The liberal participation of our farmers in the benefits of this policy is shown by the following report from our consul-general at Havana under date of July 26th last: "During the first half of 1891 Havana received 140,056 bags of flour from Spain, and other ports of the island about an equal amount, or approximately 280,112 bags. During the same period Havana received 13,976 bags of American flour, and other ports approximately an equal amount, making about 28,000 bags. But for the first half of this year Spain has sent less than 1,000 bags to the whole island and the United States has sent to TT -!v'vi. alone iu_vlo<~ bags and about an equal amount to other ports ui the island, making approximately 337,000 for the first half of 1S92." Partly by reason oi the reciprocal trade agreement, but more largely by reason of the removal of sanitary restrictions upon American pork, our exports of pork products to Germany increased during the ten months ending June 30 last $2,025,074, or about 32 per cent. The British Trade Journal of London, in a recent issue, HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 219 speaking of the increase of American coal exports and of the fall- ing off of the English coal exports to Cuba, says: "It is another case of American competition. The United States now supplies Cuba with about 150,000 tons of coal annually, and there is every prospect of this trade increasing as the forests of the island become exhausted and the use of steam machinery on the estates is developed. Alabama coal especially is securing a repu- tation in the Spanish West Indies, and the river and rail im- provements of the southern states will undoubtedly create an im- portant gulf trade. The new reciprocity policy by which the United States is enabled to import Cuban sugar will, of course, assist the American coal exporters even more effectively than the new lines of railway." The Democratic platform promises a repeal of the tariff law containing this provision and especially denounces as a sham reciprocity that section of the law under which these trade ar- rangements have been made. If no other issue were involved in the campaign this alone would give it momentous importance. Are the farmers of the great grain growing states willing to sur- render these new, large and increasing markets for their surplus? Are we to have nothing in exchange for the free importation of sugar and coffee and at the same time to destroy the sugar planters of the South, and the best sugar industry of the Northwest, and of the Pacific coast; or are we to have the taxed sugar and coffee, which a "tariff for revenue only" necessarily involves, with the added loss of the new markets which have been opened? As I have shown, our commercial rivals in Europe do not regard this reciprocity policy as a "sham," but as a serious threat to a trade supremacy they have long enjoyed. They would rejoice and if prudence did not restrain, would illuminate their depressed manu- facturing cities over the news that the United States had aban- doned its system of protection and reciprocity. They see very clearly that restriction of American products and trade and a corresponding increase of European production and trade would follow, and I will not believe that what is so plain to them can be hidden from our own people. The declaration of the platform in favor of "the American doc- trine of protection" meets my most hearty approval. The con- vention did not adopt a schedule but a principle that is to control all the tariff schedules. There may be differences of opinion among protectionists as to the rate upon particular articles neces- sary to effect an equalization between wages abroad and at home. 220 HARRISON'S LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. In some not remote national campaigns the issue has been or, more correctly, has been made to appear to be between a high and a low protective tariff both parties expressing some solicitous regard for the wages of our working people and for the prosperity of our domestic industries. But, under a more courageous leader- ship, the Democratic party has now practically declared that if given power it will enact a tariff law without any regard to its effect upon wages or upon the capital invested in our great in- dustries. The majority report of the committee on platform to the Democratic national convention at Chicago contained this clause: "That when custom-house taxation is levied upon articles of any kind produced in this country the difference between the cost of labor here and abroad, when such a difference exists, fully measures any possible benefit to labor and the enormous addi- tional impositions of the existing tariff fall with crushing force upon our farmers and workingmen." Here we have a distinct admission of the Republican conten- tion that American workmen are advantaged by a tariff rate equal to the difference between home and foreign wages and a declara- tion only against the alleged "additional impositions" of the ex- isting tariff law. Again this majority report further declared: "But in making reduction in taxes it is not proposed to injure any domestic in- dustries, hut rather to promote their healthy growth. * * Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon legislation for successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step regardful of the labor and the capital thus involved." Here we have an admission that many of our industries depend upon protective duties "for their successful continuance" and a declaration that tariff changes should be regardful of the work- men in such industries and of the invested capital. The over- whelming rejection of these propositions, which had before re- ceived the sanction of Democratic national conventions, was not more indicative of the new and more courageous leadership to which the party has now committed itself than the substitute which was adopted. This substitute declares that protective duties are unconstitutional high protection, low protection all uncon- stitutional. A Democratic Congress holding this view cannot enact, nor a Democratic President approve, any tariff schedule, the purpose or effect of which is to limit importations or to give any advantage to an American workman or producer. A bounty might, I judge, be given to the importer under this view of the HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 221 constitution in order to increase important importations, and so the revenue for "revenue only" is the limitation. Reciprocity, of course, falls under this denunciation, for its object and effect are not revenue, but the promotion of commercial exchanges, the profits of which go wholly to our producers. This destructive, un- American doctrine was not taught or held by the historic Demo- cratic statesmen whose fame as American patriots has reached this generation certainly not by Jefferson nor Jackson. This mad crusade against American shops, the bitter epithets applied to American manufacturers, the persistent disbelief of every re- port of the opening of a tin-plate mill or of an increase of our foreign trade by reciprocity, are as surprising as they are dis- creditable. There is not a thoughtful business man in the country who does not know that the enactment into law of the declaration of the Chicago convention on the subject of the tariff would at once plunge the country into a business convulsion such as it has never seen; and there is not a thoughtful workingman who does not know that it would at once enormously reduce the amount of work to be done in this country by the increase of importations that would follow, and necessitate a reduction of his wages to the European standard. If anyone suggests that this radical policy will not be executed if the Democratic party attains power what shall be thought of a party that is capable of thus trifling with great interests? The threat of such legislation would be only less hurtful than the fact. A distinguished Democrat rightly described this move- ment as a challenge to the protected industries to a fight of exter- mination, and another such rightly expressed the logic of the situation when he interpreted the Chicago platform to be an in- vitation to all Democrats, holding even the most moderate pro- tection views, to go into the Republican party. And now a few words in regard to the existing tariff law. We are fortunately able to judge of its influence upon production and prices by the market reports. The day of the prophet of calamity has been succeeded by that of the trade reporter. An examination into the effect of the law upon the prices of protected products and of the cost of suoh articles as enter into the living of people of small means has been made by a Senate committee composed of leading senators of both parties, with the aid of the best statis- ticians, and the report, signed by all the members of the com- mittee, has been given to the public. No such wide and careful 222 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. inquiry has ever been before made. These facts appear from the report: 1. The cost of articles entering into the use of those earning less than $1,000 per annum has decreased, up to May, 1892, 3.4 per cent, while in farm products there has been an increase in prices, owing in part to an increased foreign demand and the opening of new markets. In England during the same period the cost of liv- ing increased 1.9 per cent. Tested by their power to purchase articles of necessity, the earnings of our working people have never been as great as they are now. 2. There has been an average advance in the rate of wages of .75 of 1 per cent. 3. There has been an advance in the price of all farm products of 18.67 per cent, and of all cereals 33.99 per cent. The ninth annual report of the chief of the bureau of labor statistics of the state of New York, a Democratic officer, very re- cently issued strongly corroborates as to that state the facts found by the Senate committee. His extended inquiry shows that in the year immediately following the passage of the tariff act of 1890 the aggregate sum paid in wages in that state was $6,377,975 in excess and the aggregate production $31,315,130 in excess of the preceding year. In view of this showing of an increase in wages, of a reduc- tion in the cost of articles of common necessity and of a marked advance in the prices of agricultural products it is plain that this tariff law has not imposed burdens, but has conferred benefits upon the farmer and the workingman. Some special effects of the act should be noticed. It was a courageous attempt to rid our people of a long-maintained foreign monopoly on the production of tin-plate, pearl buttons, silk plush, linens, lace, etc. Once or twice in our history the production of tin-plate had been attempted and the prices obtained by the Welsh makers would have enabled our makers to produce it at a profit. But the Welsh makers at once cut prices to a point that drove the American beginners out of the business and when this was accom- plished again made their own prices. A correspondent of the In- dustrial World, the official organ of the Welsh tin-plate workers, published at Swansea, in the issue of June 10, 1892, advises a new trial of these methods. He says: "Do not be deceived. The victory of the Republicans at the polls means the retention of the McKinley bill and means the rapidly accruing loss of the 80 per cent of the export American HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 223 trade. Had there been no Democratic victory in 1890 the spread of the tin-plate manufacture in the United States would have been both rapid and bona fide. * * * It is not yet too late to do something to reduce the price of plates. Put them down to 11 shillings per box of 100, 14x20, full weight basis. Let the work- men take half-pay for a few months and turn out more, then let the masters forego profits for the same time." And again that paper says: "It is clearly the interest of both (employer and workman) to produce these plates, tariff or no tariff, at a price that will drive all competition from the field." But, in spite of the doubts raised by the elections of 1890, and of the machinations of foreign producers to maintain their monopoly, the tin-plate industry has been established in the United States, and the alliance between the Welsh producers and the Democratic party for its destruction will not succeed. The official returns to the treasury department of the production of tin and terne-plates in the United States during the last fiscal year show a total pro- duction of 13,240,830 pounds, and a comparison of the first quar- ter, 826,922 pounds, with the last, 8,000,000 pounds, shows the rapid development of the industry. Over 5,000,000 pounds during the last quarter were made from American black plates; the re- mainder from foreign plates. Mr. Ayer, the treasury agent in charge, estimates as a result of careful inquiry that the produc- tion of the current year will be 100,000,000 pounds, and that by the end of the year our production will be at the rate of 200,000,000 pounds per annum. Another industry that has been practically created by the Mc- Kinley bill is the making of pearl buttons. Few articles coming to us from abroad were so distinctly the product of starvation wages. But without unduly extending thi* lettei annoi in detail the influences of the tariff I>\" c ^ planted several important industries and established them hare, and has revived or enlarged all others. The act gives to the miners protection against foreign silver-bearing lead ores, the free in- troduction of which threatened the great mining industries of the Rocky Mountain states, and to the wool-growers protection for their fleeces and flocks, which has saved them from a further and disastrous decline. The House of Representatives at its last session passed bills placing these ores and wool upon the free list. The people of the West well know how destructive to their pros- perity these measures would be. This tariff law has given employment to many thousands of 224 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. American men and women and will each year give employment to increasing thousands. Its repeal would throw thousands out of employment and give work to others only at reduced wages. The appeals of the free-trader to the workingman are largely ad- dressed to his prejudices or to his passions and not infrequently are pronouncedly communistic. The new Democratic leadership rages at the employer and seeks to communicate his rage to the employe. I greatly regret that all employers of labor are not just and considerate and that capital sometimes takes too large a share of the profits. But I do not see that these evils would be ameliorated by a tariff policy the first necessary effect of which is a severe wage-cut and the second a large diminution of the ag- gregate amount of work to be done in this country. If the injustice of his employer tempts the workman to strike back he should be very sure that his blow does not fall upon his own head or upon his wife and children. The workmen in our great industries are, as a body, remarkably intelligent and are lovers of home and country. They may be roused by injustice or what seems to them to be such or be led for the moment by others into acts of passion; but they will settle the tariff con- test in the 'calm light of their November firesides and with sole reference to the prosperity of the country of which they are citi- zens and of the homes they have founded for their wives and children. No intelligent advocate of a protective tariff claims that it is able of itself to maintain a uniform rate of wages without regard to fluctuations in the supply of and demand for the products of labor, but it is confidently claimed that protective duties strongly tend to hold up wages and are the only barrier against a reduc- tion to the European scale. The southern states have had a liberal participation in the benefits of the tariff law and, though their representatives have been generally opposed to the protection policy, I rejoice that their sugar, rice, coal, ores, iron, fruits, cotton cloths and other products have not been left to the fate which the votes of their representatives would have brought upon them. In the construc- tion of the Nicaragua canal, in the new trade with South and Cen- tral America, in the establishment of American steamship lines, these states have also special interests and all these interests will not always consent to be without representation at Washington. Shrewdly but not quite fairly our adversaries speak only of the increased duties imposed upon tin, pearl buttons and other ar- ARTHUR P. GORMAN. Born in Howard County, Md., March 11, 1839; appointed Senate page in 1852, and continued in service, becoming Senate Postmaster in 1866; served as Collector of Internal Revenue for Fifth Maryland District from 1866 to 1869; elected as a Democrat to the Maryland Legislature November, 1869; re- elected in 1871 and became Speaker of the House; elected to State Senate in 1875, re-elected in 1879; elected to United States Senate in 1880; re-elected in 1886 and 1892; was a member of the Committees on Appropriations, Commerce, Inter-State Commerce and Printing; was a director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Born in New York City October 27, 1858; graduated from Harvard; elected to the New York Assembly in 1882; re- elected, and in the face of bitter opposition carried through the State Civil Service Reform Law, securing improvement iv the management of city affairs; chairman of the New York delegation to the National Republican Convention in 1884; unsuccessful candidate for mayor of New York; appointed a member of the United States Civil Service Commission in 1889; as police commissioner effected a radical reconstruction of the police system of New York City; a successful author, as well as a politician. HARRISON'S -LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 227 tides by the McKinley bill, and omit altogether any reference to the great and beneficial enlargement of the free list. During the last fiscal year $458,000,722 worth of merchandise or 55.35 per cent of our total importations came in free (the largest percentage in our history), while in 1889 the percentage of free importations was only 34.42 per cent. The placing of sugar upon the free list has saved to the consumer in duties in fifteen months, after paying the bounties provided for, $87,000,000. This relief has been sub- stantially felt in every household, upon every Saturday's purchase of the workingman. One of the favorite arguments against a protective tariff is that it shuts us out from a participation in what is called, with swell- ing emphasis, "the markets of the world." If this view is not a false one how does it happen that our commercial competitors are not able to bear with more serenity our supposed surrender to them of the "markets of the world," and how does it happen that the partial loss of our market closes foreign tin-plate mills and plush factories that still have all other markets? Our natural advantages, our protective tariff and the reciprocity policy make it possible for us to have a large participation in the "markets of the world" without opening our own to a competition that would destroy the comfort and independence of our people. The resolution of the convention in favor of bimetallism de- clares, I think, the true and necessary conditions of a movement that has, upon these lines, my cordial adherence and support. I am thoroughly convinced that the free coinage of silver at suck a ratio to gold as will maintain the equality in their commercial uses of the two coined dollars would conduce to the prosperity of all the great producing and commercial nations of the world. The one essential condition is that these dollars shall have and retain an equal acceptability and value in all commercial transactions. They are not only a medium of exchange, but a measure of values; and when unequal measures are called in law by the same name commerce is unsettled and confused and the unwary and ignorant are cheated. Dollars of unequal commercial value will not circu- late together. The better dollar is withdrawn and becomes mer- chandise. The true interest of our people, and especially of the farmers and working people, who cannot closely observe the money market, is that every dollar paper or coin issued or au- thorized by the government shall at all times and in all its uses be the exact equivalent, not only in debt-paying but in purchasing power, of any other dollar. I am quite sure that if we should 228 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. now act upon this subject independently of other nations we would greatly promote their interests and injure our own. The monetary conditions in Europe within the last two years have, I think, tended very much to develop a sentiment in favor of a larger use of silver, and I was much pleased and encouraged by the cordiality, promptness, and unanimity with which the in- vitation of this government for an international conference upon this subject was accepted by all the powers. We may not only hope for but expect highly beneficial results from this conference, which will now soon assemble. When the result of the conference is known we shall then be able intelligently to adjust our financial legislation to any new condition. In my last annual message to Congress I said: "I must yet entertain the hope that it is possible to secure a calm, patriotic consideration of such constitutional or statutory changes as may be necessary to secure the choice of the officers of the government to the people by fair apportionments and free elections. I believe it would be possible to constitute a commis- sion, non-partisan in its membership and composed of patriotic, wise, and impartial men, to whom a consideration of the questions of the evils connected with our election systems and methods might be committed with a good prospect of securing unanimity in some plan for removing or mitigating those evils. The consti- tution would permit the selection of the commission to be vested in the Supreme Court, if that method would give the best guaran- tee of impartiality. This commission should be charged with the duty of inquiring into the whole subject of the law of elections as related to the choice cl officers of the national government, with a view to securing to every elector a free and unmolested exercise of the suffrage and as near an approach to an equality of value in each ballot cast as is attainable. * * * The demand that the limitations of suffrage shall be found in the law, and only there, is a just demand and no just man should resent or resist it." It seemed to me that an appeal to our people to consider the question of readjusting our legislation upon absolutely fair non- partisan lines might find some effective response. Many times I have had occasion to say that laws and election methods designed to give unfair advantages to the party making them would some times be used to perpetuate in power a faction of a party against the will of the majority of the people. Of this we seem to have an illustration in the recent state election in Alabama. There was no Republican ticket in the field. The contest was between white HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 229 Democrats. The Kolb party say they were refused the representa- tion guaranteed by law upon the election 'boards; and that when the courts by mandamus attempted to right this wrong, the ap- peal could not be heard until after the election made the writs ineffectual. Ballot boxes were thrown out for alleged irregular- ities, or destroyed, and it is asserted on behalf of one-half, at least, of the white voters of Alabama, that the officers to whom certificates have been given were not honestly elected. There is no security for the personal or political rights. The power of the states over the question of the qualification of electors is ample to protect them against the dangers of an ignorant or depraved suf- frage, and the demand that every man found to be qualified under the law shall be made secure in the right to cast a free ballot and to have that ballot honestly counted cannot be abated. Our old Republican battle cry, "A free ballot and a fair count," comes back to us, not only from Alabama but from other states and from men who, differing from us widely in opinions, have come to see that parties and political debate are but a mockery if, when the debate is ended, judgment of honest majorities is to be reversed by bal- lot-box frauds and tally-sheet manipulations in the interest of the party or party faction in power. These new political movements in the states and the recent de- cisions of some of the state courts against unfair apportionment laws encourage the hope that the arbitrary and partisan election laws and practices which have prevailed may be corrected by the states, the law made equal and non-partisan, and the elections free and honest. The Republican party would rejoice at such a solu- tion, as a healthy and patriotic local sentiment is the best assur- ance of free and honest elections. I shall again urge upon Con- gress that provision be made for the appointment of a non- partisan commission to consider the subject of apportionments and elections in their relation to the choice of Federal officers. The civil service system has been extended and the law en- forced with vigor and impartiality. There has been no partisan juggling with the law in any of the departments or bureaus, as had before happened, but appointments to the classified service have been made impartially from the eligible lists. The system now in force in all the departments has for the first time placed promotions strictly upon the basis of merit, as ascertained by a daily record, and the efficiency of the force thereby greatly in- creased. The approval so heartily given by the convention to all those 230 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. agencies which contribute to the education of the children of the land was worthily .bestowed and meets my hearty approval, as does also the declaration as to liberty of thought and conscience, and the separation of church and state. The safety of the Re- public is in intelligent citizenship; and the increased interest manifested* in the states in education, the cheerfulness with which the necessary taxes are paid by all classes, and the renewed in- terest manifested .by the children in the national flag are hope- ful indications that this coming generation will direct public affairs with increased prudence and patriotism. Ovr interest in free public schools open to all children of suitable age is supreme and our care for them will be jealous and constant. The public-school system, however, was not intended to re- strain the natural right of the parent, after 'contributing to the public-school fund, to choose other educational agencies for his children. I favored aid by the general government to the public schools, with a special view to the necessities of some of the southern states. But it is gratifying to notice that many of these states are, with commendable liberality, developing their school systems and increasing their school revenues to the great advan- tage of the children of both races. The considerate attention of the farmers of the whole country is invited to the work done through the state and agricultural departments in the interest of agriculture. Our pork products had for ten years been not only excluded by the great continental nations of Europe, but their value discredited by the reasons given for this exclusion. All previous efforts to secure the re- moval of these restrictions had failed, but the wise legislation of the Fifty-first Congress, providing for the inspection and official certification of our meats and giving to the President power to forbid the introduction into this country of selected products of such countries as should continue-to refuse our inspected meats, enabled us to open all the markets of Europe to our products. The result has been not only to sustain prices by providing new markets for our surplus, but to add 50 cents per 100 pounds to the market value of the inspected meats. Under the reciprocity agreement special favors have been secured for agricultural prod- ucts, and our exports of such products have been greatly in- creased, with a sure prospect of a further and rapid increase. The agricultural department has maintained in Europe an agent whose special duty it is to introduce there the various preparations of corn as articles of food, and his work has been very successful. HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 231 The department has also sent skilled veterinarians to Liver- pool to examine in connection with the British veterinarians the live cattle from the United States landed at that port, and the re- cult, in connection with the sanitary methods developed at home, has been that we hear no more about our cattle being infected with pleuro-pneumonia. The judicious system of quarantine lines has prevented the infection of northern cattle with the Texas fever. The tariff bill of 1890 gives better protection to the farm products subject to foreign competition than they ever had before, and the home markets for such products have been enlarged by the establishment of new industries and the development of others. We may confidently submit to the intelligent and candid judgment of the American farmer whether in any correspond- ing period as much has been done to promote his interests, and whether in a continuance and extension of these methods there is not a better prospect of good to him than in the invitation of the Democratic party to give our home market to foreign manu- facturers and to abandon the reciprocity policy, and better also than the radical and untried methods of relief proposed by other parties which are soliciting his support. I have often expressed my strong conviction of the value of the Nicaragua ship canal to our commerce and to our navy. The project is not one of convenience but of necessity. It is quite possible, I believe, if the United States will support the enter- prise, to secure the speedy completion of the canal without taxing the treasury for any direct contribution, and at the same time to secure to the United States that influence in its management which is imperative. It has been the purpose of the administration to make its for- eign policy not a matter of partisan politics but of patriotism and national honor, and I have very great gratification in being able to state that the Democratic members of the committee of foreign affairs responded in a true American spirit. I have not hesitated to consult freely with them about the most confidential and delicate affairs, and I frankly confess my obligation for needed co-operation. They did not regard a patient but firm in- sistence upon American rights and upon immunity from insult and injury for our citizens and sailors in foreign ports as a policy of "irritation and bluster." They did not believe, as some others seem to believe, that to be a Democrat one must take the foreign side of every international question if a Republican adminstra- tion is conducting the American side. I do not believe that a 232 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. tame submission to insult and outrage by any nation at the hands of any other can ever form the basis of a lasting friendship the necessary element of mutual respect will be wanting. The Chilean incident, now so happily and honorably adjusted, will, I do not doubt, place our relations with that brave people upon a more friendly basis than ever before. This already ap- pears in the agreement since negotiated by Mr. Egan for the settle- ment by commission of the long-unsettled claims between the two governments. The work of Mr. Egan has been highly ad- vantageous to the United States. The confidence which I refused to withdraw from him tias been abundantly justified. In our relations with the great European powers the rights of the United States and of our citizens have been insisted upon with firmness. The strength of our cause and not the strength of our adversary has given tone to our correspondence. The Samoan question and the Bering, sea question, which came over from the preceding administration, have been, the one settled and the other submitted to arbitration upon a fair basis. Never be- fore, I think, in a like period have so many important treaties and commercial agreements been concluded, and never before I am sure have the honor and influence, national and commercial, of the United States been held in higher estimation in both hemi- spheres. The Union soldiers and sailors are no-w veterans of time as well as of war. The parallels of age have approached close to the citadels of life and the end for each of a brave and honorable struggle is not remote. Increasing infirmity and years give the minor tone of sadness and pathos to the mighty appeal of service and suffering. The ear that does not listen with sympathy and the heart that does not respond with generosity are the ear and heart of an alien and not of an American. Now soon again the surviving veterans are to parade upon the great avenue of the national capital and every tribute of honor and love should at- tend the march. A comrade in the column of the victors' parade in 1865, I am not less a comrade now. I have used every suitable occasion to urge upon the people of all sections the consideration that no good cause can be pro- moted upon the lines of lawlessness. Mobs do not discriminate and the punishments inflicted by them have no repressive or salutary influence. On the contrary, they beget revenges and perpetuate feuds. It is especially the duty of the educated and influential to see that the weak and ignorant when accused of HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 233 crime are fairly tried before lawful tribunals. The moral senti- ment of the country should be aroused and brought to bear for the suppression of these offenses against the law and social order. The necessity for a careful discrimination among the immi- grants seeking our shores becomes every day more apparent. We do not want and should not receive those who by reason of bad character or habit are not wanted at home. The industrious and self-respecting, the loVers of law and liberty, should be discrim- inated from the pauper, the criminal, and the anarchist, who come only to burden and disturb our communities. Every effort has been made to enforce the laws and some convictions have been secured under the contract-labor law. The general condition of our country is one of great prosperity. The blessing of God has rested upon our fields and upon our people. The annual value of our foreign commerce has increased more than $400,000,000 over the average for the preceding ten years, and more than $210,000,000 over 1890, the last year un- affected by the new tariff. Our exports in 1892 exceeded those of 1890 by more than $172,000,000, and the annual average for ten years by $265,000,000. Our exports of breadstuffs increased over those of 1890 more than $144,000,000; of provisions over $4,000,000, and of manufactures over $8,000,000. The merchandise balance of trade in our favor in 1892 was $202,944,342. No other nation can match the commercial progress which those figures disclose. Our compassion may well go out to those whose party necessities and habits still compel them to declare that our people are oppressed and our trade restricted by a protective tariff. It is not possible for me to refer even in the briefest way to many of the topics presented in the resolutions adopted by the convention. Upon all that have not been discussed I have before publicly expressed my views. A change in the personnel of a national administration is of comparatively little moment. If those exercising public functions are not able, honest, diligent and faithful, others possessing all these qualities may be found to take their places. But changes in the laws and in administer- ing policies are of great moment. When public affairs have been given a direction and business has adjusted itself to those lines, any sudden change involves a stoppage and new business ad- justments. If the change of direction is so radical as to bring the commercial turn-table into use, the business changes involved are not readjustments but reconstructions. The Democratic party offers a programme of demolition. The 234 HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. protective policy to which all business, even that of the importer, is now adjusted, the reciprocity policy, the new merchant marine, are all to be demolished not gradually, not taken down, but blown up. To this programme of destruction it has added one constructive feature, the re-establishment of state banks of issue. The policy of the Republican party is, on the other hand, dis- tinctively a policy of safe progression and development of new factories, new markets and new ships. It will subject business to no perilous changes, but offers attractive opportunities for expansion upon familiar lines. Very respectfully yours, BENJAMIN HARRISON. JOHN SHERMAN. Born in Lancaster, Ohio, May 10, 1823; after receiving an education, studied law in Mansfield, where he practiced for ten years; in 1855 was elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress in the interest of the Free Soil party, and was re-elected to the three succeeding Congresses; in 1861 was sent to the United States Senate; after the close of the Civil War, in conjunction with Thaddeus Stevens, prepared a bill for the reconstruction of the Southern States, which was passed by Congress in 1866; became Secretary of the Treasury in 1877; re-entered the Senate in 1881; was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1880 and again in 1888; his present term in the Senate expires in 1899. WILLIAM M. EVARTS. Born in Boston, Mass., February 6, 1818; graduated at Yale in 1837. and admitted to the bar of New York in 1841; in the Republican National Convention of 1860 proposed the name of William H. Seward for the Presidency; became Attorney- General of the United States in 1868; acted as counsel before the tribunal of arbitration in the Alabama claims in 1872; senior counsel for Henry Ward Beecher in 1875; Secretary of State during the administration of President Hayes; in 1881 went to Paris as a delegate of the United States to the Inter- national Monetary Conference, and from 1885 to 1891 was United States Senator from New York. CHAPTER XXIII. CLEVELAND'S LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. To the Hon. William L. Wilson and Others, Committee, etc. Gentlemen: In responding to your .formal notification of my nomination to the presidency by the national Democracy I hope I may be permitted to say at the outset that continued reflec- tion and observation have confirmed me in my adherence to the opinions which I have heretofore plainly and publicly declared touching the questions involved in the canvass This is a time, above all others, when these questions should be considered in the light afforded by a sober apprehension of the principles upon which our government is based and a clear understanding of the relation it bears to the people for whose benefit it was created. We shall thus be supplied with a test by which the value of any proposition relating to the maintenance and administration of our government can be ascertained and by which the justice and honesty of every political question can be judged. If doctrines or theories are presented which do not satisfy this test loyal Americans must pronounce them false and mischievous. The protection of the people in the exclusive use and enjoy- ment of their property and earnings concededly constitutes the especial purpose and mission of our free government. This design is so interwoven with the structure of our plan of rule that failure to protect the citizen in such use and enjoyment, or their unjusti- fiable diminution by the government itself, is a betrayal of the people's trust. We have, however, undertaken to build a great nation upon a plan especially our own. To maintain it and to furnish through its agency the means for the accomplishment of national objects, the American people are willing, through federal taxation, to surrender a part of their earnings and income. Tariff legislation presents a familiar form of federal taxation. 13 238 CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Such legislation results as surely in a tax upon the daily life of our people as the tribute paid directly into the hand of the tax- gatherer. We feel the burden of these tariff taxes too palpably to be persuaded by any sophistry that they do not exist or are paid by foreigners. Such taxes, representing a diminution of the property rights of the people, are only justifiable when laid and collected for the purpose of maintaining our government and furnishing the means for the accomplishment of its legitimate purposes and functions. This is taxation under the operation of a tariff for revenue. It accords with the professions of American free institutions and its justice and honesty answer the tests supplied by a correct appreciation of the principles upon which these institutions rest. This theory of tariff legislation manifestly enjoins strict econ- omy in public expenditures and their limitation to legitimate public uses, inasmuch as it exhibits as absolute extortion any exaction, by way of taxation, from the substance of the people beyond the necessities of a careful and proper administration of government. Opposed to this theory the dogma is now boldly presented that tariff taxation is justifiable for the express purpose and intent of thereby promoting especial interests and enterprises. Such a proposition is so clearly contrary to the spirit of our constitution, and so directly encourages the disturbance by selfishness and greed of patriotic sentiment, that its statement would rudely shock our people if they had not already been insidiously allured from the safe landmarks of principle. Never have honest desire for national growth, patriotic devotion to country, and sincere regard for those who toil been so betrayed to the support of a pernicious doctrine. In its behalf the plea that our infant indus- tries should be fostered did service until discredited by our stal- wart growth; then followed the exigencies of a terrible war, which made our people heedless of the opportunities for ulterior schemes afforded by their willing and patriotic payment of un- precedented tribute; and now, after a long period of peace, when our overburdened countrymen ask for relief and a restoration to a fuller enjoyment of their incomes and earnings, they are met by the claim that tariff taxation for the sake of protection is an American system, the continuance of which is necessary in order that high wages may be paid to our workingmen and a home market be provided for our farm products. These pretenses should no longer deceive. The truth is that CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 239 such a system is directly antagonized by every sentiment of justice and fairness of which Americans are pre-eminently proud. It is also true that while our worldngmen and farmers can the least of all our people defend themselves against the harder home life which such tariff taxation decrees, the workingman suffering from the importation and employment of pauper labor instigated by his professed friends, and seeking security for his interests in organized co-operation, still waits for a division of the advan- tages secured to his employer under cover of a. generous solicitude for his wages, while the farmer is learning that the prices of his products are fixed in foreign markets, where he suffers from a competition invited and built up by the system he is asked to support. The struggle for unearned advantage at the doors of the gov- ernment tramples on the rights of those who patiently rely upon assurances of American equality. Every governmental concession to clamorous favorites invites corruption in political affairs by encouraging the expenditure of money to debauch suffrage in support of a policy directly favorable to private and selfish gain. This, in the end, must strangle patriotism and weaken popular confidence in the rectitude of republican institutions. Though the subject of tariff legislation involves a question of markets, it also involves a question of morals. We cannot with impunity permit injustice to taint the spirit of right and equity, which is the life of our republic; and we shall fail to reach our national destiny if greed and selfishness lead the way. Realizing these truths the national Democracy will seek by the application of just and sound principles to equalize to our people the blessings due them from the government they support, to promote among our countrymen a closer community of inter- est, cemented by patriotism and national pride, and to point out a fair field where prosperous and diversified American enterprise may grow and thrive in the wholesome atmosphere of American industry, ingenuity and intelligence. Tariff reform is still our purpose. Though we oppose the the- ory that tariff laws may be passed having for their object the granting of discriminating and unfair governmental aid to pri- vate ventures, we wage no exterminating war against any Ameri- can interests. We believe a readjustment can be accomplished, in accordance with the principles we profess, without disaster or demolition. We believe that the advantages of freer raw material should be accorded our manufacturers, and we contem- 240 CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. plate a fair and careful distribution of necessary tariff burdens, rather than the precipitation of free trade. We anticipate with calmness the misrepresentation of our motives and purposes, instigated by a selfishness which seeks to hold in unrelenting grasp its unfair advantage under present tariff laws. We will rely upon the intelligence of our fellow- countrymen to reject the charge that a party comprising a major- ity of our people is planning the destruction or injury of Ameri- can interests, and we know they cannot be frightened by the specter of impossible free trade. The administration and management of our government depend upon popular will. Federal power is the instrument of that will not its master. Therefore the attempt of the opponents of Democracy to interfere with and control the suffrage of the states through federal agencies develops a design which no explanation can mitigate, to reverse the fundamental and safe relations be- tween the people and their government. Such an attempt cannot fail to be regarded by thoughtful men as proof of a bold deter- mination to secure the ascendency of a discredited party in reck- less disregard of a free expression of the popular will. To resist such a scheme is an impulse of democracy. At all times and in all places we trust the people. As against a disposition to force the way to federal power we present to them as our claim to their confidence and support a steady championship of their rights. The people are entitled to sound and honest money, abundantly sufficient in volume to supply their business ne t eds. But whatever may be the form of the people's currency, national or state whether gold, silver, or paper it should be so regulated and guarded by governmental action, or by wise and careful laws, that no one can be deluded as to the certainty and stability of its value. Every dollar put into the hands of the people should be of the same intrinsic value or purchasing power. With this condi- tion absolutely guaranteed both gold and silver can be safely utilized upon equal terms in the adjustment of our currency. In dealing with this subject no selfish scheme should be allowed to intervene and no doubtful experiment should be attempted. The wants of our people, arising from the deficiency or imperfect distribution of money circulation, ought to be fully and honestly recognized and efficiently remedied. It should, however, be con- stantly remembered that the inconvenience or loss that might arise from such a situation can be much easier borne than the universal distress which must follow a discredited currency. CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 241 Public officials are the agents of the people. It is therefore their duty to secure for those whom they represent the best and most efficient performance of public work. This plainly can be best accomplished by regarding ascertained fitness in the selection of government employes. These considerations alone are suffi- cient justification for an honest adherence to the letter and spirit of civil-service reform. There are, however, other features of this plan which abundantly commend it. Through its operation worthy merit in every station and condition of American life is recognized in the distribution of public employment, while its application tends to raise the standard of political activity from spoils-hunting and unthinking party affiliation to the advocacy of party prin- ciples by reason and argument. The American people are generous and grateful, and they have impressed these characteristics upon their jovernment. There- fore all patriotic and just decisions must command liberal con- sideration for our worthy veteran soldiers and for the families of those who have died. No complaint should be made of the amount of public money paid to those actually disabled or made dependent by reason of army service. But our pension roll should be a roll of honor, uncontaminated by ill desert and unvitiated by demagogic use. This is due to those whose worthy names adorn the roll and to all our people who delight to honor the brave and the true. It is also due to those who in years to come should be allowed to hear, reverently and lovingly, the story of American patriotism and fortitude illustrated by our pension roll. The preferences accorded to veteran soldiers in public employment should be secured to them honestly and without evasion, and, when capable and worthy, their claim to the helpful regard and gratitude of their countrymen should be ungrudgingly acknowl- edged. The assurance to the people of the utmost individual liberty consistent with peace and good order is a cardinal principle of our government. This gives no sanction to vexatious sumptuary laws which unnecessarily interfere with such habits and customs of our people as are not offensive to a just moral sense and are not inconsistent with good citizenship and the public welfare. The same principle requires that the line between the subjects which are properly within governmental control and those which are more fittingly left to parental regulation should be carefully kept in view. An enforced education, wisely deemed a proper prepara- tion for citizenship, should not involve the impairment of whole- 242 CLEVEDAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. some parental authority nor do violence to the household con- science. Paternalism in government finds no approval in the creed of Democracy. It is a symptom of misrule, whether it is manifested in unauthorized gifts or hy an unwarranted control of personal and family affairs. Our people, still cherishing the feeling of human fellowship which belonged to our beginning as a nation, require their gov- ernment to express for them their sympathy with all those who are oppressed under any rule less free than ours. A generous hospitality, which is one of the most prominent of our national characteristics, prompts us to welcome the worthy and industrious of all lands to home and citizenship among us. This hospitable sentiment is not violated, however, by careful and reasonable regulations for the protection of the public health, nor does it justify the reception of immigrants who have no appreciation of our institutions and whose presence among us is a menace to peace and good order. The importance of the construction of the Nicaragua ship canal as a means of promoting commerce between our states and with foreign countries, and also as a contribution by Americans to the enterprises which advance the interests of the world of civiliza- tion, should commend the project to governmental approval and indorsement. Our countrymen not only expect from those who represent them in public places a sedulous care of things which are directly and palpably related to their material interests, but they also fully appreciate the value of cultivating our national pride and maintaining our national honor. Both their material interests and national pride and honor are involved in the success of the Columbian Exposition, and they will not be inclined to condone any neglect of effort on the part of their government to insure in the grandeur of this event a fitting exhibit of American growth and greatness and a splendid demonstration of American patriot- ism. In an imperfect and incomplete manner I have thus endeavored to state some of the things which accord with the creed and inten- tions of the party to which I have given my life-long allegiance. My attempt has not been to instruct my countrymen or my party, but to remind both that Democratic doctrine lies near the prin- ciples of our government and tends to promote the people's good. I am willing to be accused of addressing my countrymen upon trite topics and in homely fashion, for I believe that important CLEVELAND'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 243 truths are found on the surface of thought and that they should be stated in direct and simple terms. Though much is left unwrit- ten, my record as a public servant leaves no excuse for misunder- standing my belief and position on the questions which are now presented tc the voters of the land for their decision. Called for the third time to represent the party of my choice in a contest for the supremacy of Democratic principles, m^ grate- ful appreciation of its confidence less than ever effaces the solemn sense of my responsibility. If the action of the convention you represent shall be indorsed by the suffrages of my countrymen I will assume the duties of the great office for which I have been nominated, knowing full well its labors and perplexities, and with humble reliance upon the divine Being, infinite in power to aid and constant in a watch- ful care over our favored nation. Yours very truly, GROVER CLEVELAND. CHAPTER XXIV. CAMPAIGN OF 1892. The result of the election in 1892 was to once more put the reins of government into the hands of the Democrats. Cleveland and Stevenson were elected, each receiving 277 electoral votes, against 145 given to Harrison and Reid. The contest had been a hot one, and though the Prohibitionist, the People's, and the Socialistic parties were in the field, it was only the People's party that cut much figure in the fight. This party was able to poll 1,055,424 votes, but the force was drawn nearly alike from both the Repub- licans and Democrats. Mr. Weaver, the People's candidate, received 22 electoral votes, a fact which gave great encouragement to the adherents of the party. Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4, 1893, and delivered the following address, which in a measure outlined the policy he has since pursued : My Fellow-Citizens: In obedience to the mandate of my coun- trymen I am about to dedicate myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has called me to this service, I. am sure my gratitude can make no better return than the pledge I now give, before God and these witnesses, of unre- served and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those who have honored me. I deem it fitting on this occasion, while indicating the opinions HENRY CABOT LODGE. Born in Boston, Mass., May 12, 1850; graduated from Har- vard University in 1871; adopted the legal profession, and later became editor of the "North American Review;" was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1880 and re-elected in 1881; served two years as Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee and was delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880 and 1884; became a candidate for Congress in 1881, but was defeated; was elected in 1888, served in the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses; is well known as a man of letters as well as a politician. DAVID B. HILL. Born in Havana, N. Y., August 29, 1843; studied law in Elmira; was admitted to the bar in 1864; appointed city at- torney, and afterward was many times a delegate to the Democratic State Conventions; was prominent in the Demo- cratic National Conventions of 1876 and 1884; was elected mayor of Elmira in 1882, and in the same year was elected Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket headed by Grover Cleve- land, succeeded Mr. Cleveland as Governor of New York, and in 1885 was elected Governor for the full term of three years; in 1888 was re-elected, and in 1891 was chosen United States Senator to succeed William M. Evarts. CAMPAIGN OF 1892. 247 I hold concerning public questions of present importance, to also briefly refer to the existence of certain conditions and tendencies among our people which seem to menace the integrity and use- fulness of their government. While every American citizen must contemplate with the ut- most pride and enthusiasm the growth and expansion of our country, the sufficiency of our institutions to stand against the rudest shocks of violence, the wonderful thrift and enterprise of our people and the demonstrated superiority of our free govern- ment, it behooves us to constantly watch for every symptom of insidious infirmity that threatens our national vigor. The strong man who, in the confidence of sturdy health, courts the sternest activities of life and rejoices in the hardihood of constant labor, may still have lurking near his vitals the unheeded disease that dooms him to sudden collapse. It cannot be doubted that our stupendous achievements as a people and our country's robust strength have given rise to a heedlessness of those laws governing our national health which we can no more evade than human life can escape the laws of God and nature. Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to the beneficent purposes of our government than a sound and stable currency. Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity the most enlightened statesmanship; and the danger of depreciation in the purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the strongest incentive to prompt and conservative precaution. In dealing with our present embarrassing situation as related to this subject, we will be wise if we temper our confidence and faith in our national strength and resources with the frank con- cession that even these will not permit us to defy with impunity the inexorable laws of finance and trade. At the same time, in our efforts to adjust differences of opinion, we should be free from intolerance or passion and our judgment should be unmoved by alluring phrases and unvexed by selfish interests. I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far as the executive branch of the government can intervene, none of the powers with which it is invested will be withheld when their exercise is deemed necessary to maintain our national credit or avert financial disaster. Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's greatness which tends to a disregard of the rules of national safety, another danger confronts us, not less serious. I refer 248 CAMPAIGN OF 1892. to the prevalence of a popular disposition to expect from the operation of the government especial and direct individual advan- tages. The verdict of our voters which condemned the injury of maintaining protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are the unwholesome progeny of paternal- ism. This is the bane of republican institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people. It degrades to the pur- poses of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiment of our countrymen and tempts them to a pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from their government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon gov- ernmental favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies every ennobling trait of American citizenship. The lessons of paternalism ought to be learned and the better lesson taught that, while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people. The acceptance of this principle leads to a refusal of bounties and subsidies which burden the labor and thrift of a portion of our citizens to aid languishing enterprises in which they have no concern. It leads also to a challenge of wild, and reckless pension expenditure, which overleaps the bounds of grateful recognition of patriotic service and prostitutes to vicious uses the people's prompt and generous impulse to aid those dis- abled in their country's defense. Every thoughtful American must realize the importance of checking at its beginning any tendency in public or private station to regard frugality and economy as virtues which we may safely outgrow. The toleration of this idea results in the waste of the people's money by their chosen servants and encourages prodi- gality and extravagance in the home life of our countrymen. Under our scheme of government waste of public money is a crime against the citizen; and the contempt of our people for economy and frugality in their personal affairs deplorably saps the strength and sturdiness of our national character. It is a plain dictate of honesty and good government that public expenditures should be limited by public necessity and that this should be measured by the rules of strict economy, and it is equally clear that frugality among the people is the best guaranty of a contented and strong support of free institutions. CAMPAIGN OF 1892. 249 One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the fitness and competency of appointees to office and to remove from political action the demoralizing madness for spoils, civil-service reform has found a place in our public policy and laws. The benefits already gained through this instrumentality, and the further usefulness it promises, entitle, it to the hearty support and encouragement of all who desire to see our public service well performed, or who hope for the elevation of political sentiment and the purification of political methods. The existence of immense aggregations of kindred enterprises and combinations of business interests formed for the purpose of limiting production and fixing prices is inconsistent with the fair field which ought to be open to every independent activity. Legitimate strife in business should not be superseded by an enforced concession to the demands of combinations that have the power to destroy; nor should the people to be served lose the benefit of cheapness which usually results from wholesome competition. These aggregations and combinations frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people, and in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our Ameri- can sense of fairness. To the extent that they can be reached and restrained by federal power the general government should relieve our citizens from their interference and exactions. Loyalty to the principles upon which our government rests positively demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship wherever found, and, unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for recognition to American manliness and fairness. Our relations with the Indians located within our borders impose upon us responsibilities we cannot escape. Humanity and consistency require us to treat them with forbearance and in our dealings with them to honestly and considerately regard their rights and interests. Every effort should be made to lead them through the paths of civilization and education to self-supporting and independent citizenship. In the meantime, as the nation's wards, they should be promptly defended against the cupidity 250 CAMPAIGN OP 1892. of designing men and shielded from every influence or temptation that retards their advancement. The people of the United States have decreed that on this day the control of this government in its legislative and executive branches shall be given to a political party pledged in the most positive terms to the accomplishment of tariff reform. They have thus determined in favor of a more just and 'equitable system of federal taxation. The agents they have chosen to carry out their purposes are bound by their promises, not less than by the com- mand of their masters, to devote themselves unremittingly to this service. While there should be no surrender of principle, our task must be undertaken wisely and without vindictiveness. Our mission is not punishment, but the rectification of wrongs. If, in lifting burdens from the daily life of our people, we reduce inordinate and unequal advantages long enjoyed, this is but a necessary incident of our return to right and justice. If we exact from unwilling minds acquiescence in theory of an honest distri- bution of the fund of governmental beneficence, treasured up for all, but insist upon a principle which underlies our free institu- tions, when we tear aside the divisions and misconceptions which have blinded our countrymen to their condition under vicious tariff laws, we but show them how far they have been led away from the paths of contentment and prosperity. When we proclaim that the necessity for revenue to support the government fur- nishes the only justification for taxing the people, we announce a truth so plain that its denial would seem to indicate the extent to which judgment may be influenced by a familiarity with per- versions of the taxing power; and when we seek to reinstate the self-confident and business enterprise of cur citizens by dis- crediting an abject dependence upon governmental favor we strive to stimulate those elements of American character which support the hope of American achievement. Anxiety for the redemption of the pledges which my party has made, and solicitude for the complete justification of the trust the people have reposed in us, constrain me to remind those with whom I am to co-operate that we can succeed in doing the work which has been especially set before us only by the most sincere, harmonious and disinterested effort. Even if insu- perable obstacles and oppositions prevent the consummation of our task, we shall hardly be excused; and if failure can be traced to our fault or neglect, we may be sure the people will hold us to a swift and exacting accountability. CAMPAIGN OF 1892. 251 The oath I now take to preserve, protect and defend the con- stitution of the United States not only impressively defines the great responsibility I assume, but suggests obedience to consti- tutional commands as the rule by which my official conduct must be guided. 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 state and the people. Fully impressed with the gravity of the duties that confront me, and mindful of my weakness, I should be appalled if it were my lot to bear unaided the responsibilities which await me. I am, however, saved from discouragement when I remember that I shall have the support and the counsel and co-operation of wise and patriotic men who will stand at my side in cabinet places or will represent the people in their legislative halls. I find also 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 forbear- ance and approval. Above all I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men, and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people; and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His power- ful aid. CHAPTER XXV. A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF UNITED STATES TERRITORY. One of the most important incidents of the latest administration of President Cleveland had its bear- ing in our relations with the government of the Sand- wich Islands. There had been a monarchy there, grown up from the old barbarism, and there had be- come established in a business way upon the island a large number of American, English and Japanese. With the development of modern institutions and the development of modern and more intelligent ideas than those possessed by the natives, came necessarily a new condition of things on the island. The result of it all was that the so-called queen, Liliaukalani, was deposed, and that a government of a repub- lican character was established in place of the toy monarchy, which government was in effect American, and the tenor of which was in a general way J:o secure the attachment of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States. In the estimation of President Cleveland- and it is but fair to say here that in the matter of foreign relations, whether this expression be Re- publican or Democratic, Mr. Cleveland's administra- tion was generally broad and successful it was not advisable to accept the proposition of those who had obtained a control of affairs in these islands. The islands lie in the Southern Pacific, and some- what indirectly in the route both from here to Aus- A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF U. S. TERRITORY. 253 tralia and from here to Japan. They are possessed of a charming climate, and are prolific in fruits and vegetables. The original natives, like our own Amer- ican Indians, have become a force hardly to be con- sidered in any national relations. The islands neces- sarily form a strategic position, supposing the United States were to adopt the course of other nations and seek coaling points and places of vantage, the full value of which could be realized only in case of war with some foreign country. The advances of those in control of the Hawaiian affairs were not favor- ably received by the executive branch of the govern- ment of the United States, and there was a great deal of contradicting testimony, angry talk in Congress, and a resultant period of stagnation, which still ex- ists as regards this question. It appeared to be an un- derstood thing that in event of a Republican success in the coming election the Sandwich Islands would be annexed to the United States, either as a new territory, as a county of California, or as a new state. It w r as apparent that those in control of the affairs of the island were in favor of this. There was an unde- fined sentiment which amounted to a practical ad- mission that the Republican party and this not the expression of any one of its great leaders, but simply a description of what was in the air was in favor of annexation. There have been many curious inci- dents in connection with our Hawaiian relations, in several of which a more than ordinary degree of acerbity has been manifested, but all had drifted on into a state of political coma, awaiting the result of the struggle of 1896 in the United States. It was 254 A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF U. S. TERRITORY. not likely, in any event, that any foreign power would be allowed to seize upon the islands. Toward the close of President Cleveland's adminis- tration there came to the surface again a problem which had before attracted very seriously the atten- tion of American statesmen. The great Island of Cuba, lying just southeast of the United States, an island with a varied but an almost entirely un-Amer- ican and un-English population, arose in revolt against the monarchy of Spain. The rich island had been for a long period a source of great revenue to the monarchial government to which it appertained. The natives of the island made the claim, which the facts seem to justify, that they were but convenient appendages of the monarchy, and, in short, little more than slaves, made to pay immense taxes and given nothing in return; counted but as a convenient source of revenue by the officials of the elder country. To such a condition of things it was but natural that at least an attempt at an end must come. The Cuban rebellion supplied no inconsiderable portion of the world's history in the year 1896. It supplied also no inconsiderable portion of the history of the United States for the same period, at least considered diplomatically. From the beginning of the rebellion the sympathy of the masses of the United States was with the Cuban rebels. The result of acts consequent upon this feeling evolved numerous complications. During the later administration of President Grant there was developed a sentiment toward annexation, which almost crystalized into action, as regards cer- tain territory in the West Indies. When the final WILLIAM R. MORRISON. Born in Monroe County, 111., September 14, 1825; after re- ceiving an education at McKendree College served as a private in the Mexican War, and subsequently studied law and was admitted to the bar; was clerk of Monroe County from 1852 to 1856, served in the Legislature for tne next three years, and in 1861 entered the army as Colonel of the Forty-ninth Illinois Regiment; was elected to Congress as a Democrat and served from 1863 to 1865, but was defeated for the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses; was again chosen in 1872, and served continuously until 1887; in 1887 President Cleveland appointed him a member of the Inter-State Commerce Commission for five years, and at the end of that time he was re-appointed. WILLIAM J. NORTHBN. Born in Jones County, Georgia, July, 1835; graduated from Mercer University in 1853; began teaching school in 1854; in 1858 assumed charge of the Mt. Zion school; when the war broke out enlisted as a private in a company commanded by his father; at the close of the war resumed school teaching and continued in the work until 1874; was elected a member of the State Democratic Convention in 1867; was a state legislator in 1877, and again in 1880; was State Senator and chairman of the educational committee of the General As- sembly in 1884; was elected Governor of Georgia in 1890 and served until 1894. A. POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF U. S. TERRITORY. 257 test came it was found that the feeling of the people, through its representatives, was not sufficiently in favor of this addition of territory to allow the prog- ress to completion of diplomatic trading existing at the time. The area of the United States was not extended southeast into the sea. The temper of some sixty odd millions of people seemed to be different just preceding and following the advent of the year 1896. There was no definite idea of annexation expressed either in public speeches or in the public press, but the fact that the Cubans w T ere suffering from the grasp of the machinery of a monarchial government was distinctly felt, and it is but the truth to say that the general sentiment of the people of the United States was with revolting Cuba, as against the monarchy so long owning the island. The attitude of the government of the United States was necessarily a delicate one. On good terms with Spain, as with other foreign" powers, it must neces- sarily observe the laws of nations, and preA^ent, so far as such laws required, the extension of any aid to the Cuban insurgents. It is but fair to say that the gov- ernment, as it should have done, observed those laws most scrupulously. It is but true to add that these laws were overridden by private individuals, and that to the revolting Cubans has flowed an unsteady stream of assistance from the United States. The sudden, unavoidable obtrusion of these prob- lems relating to the extension of the territory of the United States outside of the limits of the continent upon which it exists resulted in such demon- strations of public opinion as make statesmen ex- 14 258 A POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF U. S. TERRITORY. tremely thoughtful and apprehensive. With the enormous aggregation of ignorant men in great cities, with the vantage offered unscrupulous dema- gogues, with the race prejudice to play upon and utilize, a sinister condition seems possibly to have de- veloped. The too eager response to the possibility of war with anybody anywhere seems to indicate that there already exists in the United States an irre- sponsible flamboyant "jingoism," which might pos- .sibly, under certain conditions, control the action of the nation. It would be unthoughtful, though, to ex- aggerate the quality of the situation. The "jingoism" exists chiefly in the large cities; in Chicago and New York and other great accumulations of the restless from everywhere. There are some other sixty mil- lions, or thereabouts, of men and women living in the United States who are not affected by the sudden im- pulse who control the more unthinking people of the four or five great cities. Ever there is this court of last resort in the United States, and in this is the safety of the nation; ever, even with this problem of our relations with other nations staring us in the face, with its delicate issues to be considered, exists this thoughtful jury. The man in jeans is but a farmer, but a farmer who reads and knows more than any other farmer in the world; the woman in calico reads and knows what her husband does. Eventu- ally to this jury must be loft the verdict as to the attitude of this nation. It is a jury not exceeded in quality, nor exceeded in the power to enforce its verdicts, by any other upon the face of the civilized globe. CHAPTER XXVI. THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. It is not intended in this work to go into an elabo- rate disquisition on the Monroe Doctrine, or of how it is considered by the experts of different nations in international law. In a previous chapter has been given the brief utterance of President Monroe, in which, in a general way, the idea was set forth that no foreign power could be allowed to obtain a strong foothold, not merely upon this continent, but upon this hemisphere. This enunciation, while to an ex- tent accepted and demonstrated, was largely in abey- ance until the end of the War of the Rebellion. France was then endeavoring to subjugate Mexico, or, rather, Napoleon III was seeking to establish a European monarchy upon this continent. With the termina- tion of the Civil War this country stood foot-loose with at least half a million veterans at its command, than which a greater army or more capable one never existed in all history. Very short would have been the shrift of Napoleon III, at least so far as America was concerned, had he ventured to oppose the ulti- matum given him then by the government of the United States. As it was, Napoleon's protege, Maxi- milian, was left, unsupported, to his fate, and the end came very soon, Mexico going to the Mexicans. The existence of our sister republic to the south, a repub- lic made up of people of a different race and different THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. 261 creed from us, is literally due to the threatened move- ment of the half million trained soldiers of the Civil War. The great arm of the great republic was reached protectingly about its troubled neighbor, and Mexico took a place among free and progressive nations. Then the Monroe Doctrine went to sleep again. Until recently the Monroe Doctrine had not been recalled to life, but it was recalled in the last month of the year 1895 in such manner that its reappearance affected the diplomacy of all the world. It appeared in connection with the famous Venezuelan question. Venezuela is a South American republic lying on the eastern coast of South America about the mouth of the great Orinoco river. Adjacent to it is British Guiana, a province of Great Britain. The boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana has never been defined with absolute correctness, and there has been a lingering debate between Great Britain and Venezuela as to where the line should be. The differ- ence became acute when gold deposits were foimd in the debatable land and Anglo-Saxon adventurers be- gan flocking to the region. There have in the past been different surveys of the line, and what is known as the "Schomburg Line," not itself necessarily the right one, has been accepted as a sort of basis from which the right or wrong of other lines should be estimated. Under the new conditions, with the gold fever affecting men of a race who may not be checked, some settlement had to come, and Great Britain and Venezuela alike claimed a certain area of territory. This territory, aside from its possibly 262 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. valuable gold fields, is nothing particularly desirable. Its climate is tropical and miasmatic, it is a flat jun- gle, but the quality of the land could not of course af- fect one way or another the international principle involved. Great Britain is one of the most powerful nations known in history; Venezuela is a weak repub- lic, one among- the many states of Latin intermixed with natives existing upon the South American con- tinent. Great Britain gave what was practically an ultimatum; Venezuela had no choice but to accede to anything demanded of her, unless the great repub- lic of the North American continent should come to her relief. There was much diplomatic correspond- ence, and it was the final consensus of opinion of the President of the United States and his advisers that the Monroe Doctrine should be again enunciated and the assertion again made that there should be no extension of monarchial power in the Western Hem- isphere. Lord Salisbury, the British premier, seems hardly to have represented the real spirit of his coun- try. In the correspondence between the governments he was disposed to be a trifle arrogant. As subse- quent events have proved, the British public was not with him. The end of the preliminary controversy, as between the two great powers, came in what created an inter- national sensation. December 3, 1895, the President of the United States sent a message to Congress, relat- ing largely to financial problems then of extraor- dinary moment, but including one paragraph preg- nant with possibilities as to the attitude of the United States should any great foreign power endeavor to THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. 263 secure further foothold upon the hemisphere. This paragraph was as follows: It being apparent that the boundary dispute between Great Britain and the Republic of Venezuela concerning the lim- its of British Guiana was approaching an acute stage, a definite statement of the interest and policy of the United States as re- gards the controversy seemed to be required bo'th on its own account and in view of its relations with the friendly powers directly concerned. In July last, therefore, a dispatch was ad- dressed to our ambassador at London for communication to the British government, in which the attitude of the United States was fully and distinctly set forth. The general conclusions therein reached and formulated are in substance that the traditional and established policy of this government is firmly opposed to a forci- ble increase by any European power of its territorial possessions on this continent; that this policy is as well founded in principle as it is strongly supported by numerous precedents; that as a consequence the United States is bound to protest against the en- largement of the area of British Guiana in derogation of the rights and against the will of Venezuela; that, considering the dis- parity in strength of Great Britain and Venezuela, the territorial dispute between them can be reasonably settled only by friendly and impartial arbitration, and that the resort to such arbitration should include the whole controversy, and is not satisfied if one of the powers concerned is permitted to draw an arbitrary line through the territory in debate and to declare that it will submit to arbitration only the portion lying on one side of it. In view of these conclusions, the dispatch in question called upon the British government for a definite answer to the question whether it would or would not submit the territorial controversy between itself and Venezuela in its entirety to impartial arbitration. The answer of the British government has not yet been received, but is ex- pected shortly, when further communication on the subject will probably be made to Congress. The answer of the British government was at least dilatory, and when it came did not convey an idea that the British premier was in sympathy with the attitude of the United States. The result was an- 264 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. other message to Congress of the following remark- able tenor: To the Congress: In my annual message addressed to the Con- gress on the 3d inst. I called attention to the pending boundary controversy between Great Britain and the Republic of Vene- zuela and recited the substance of a representation made by this government to her Britannic majesty's government suggest- ing reasons why such dispute should be submitted to arbitration for settlement and inquiring whether it would be so submitted. The answer of the British government, which was then awaited, has since been received, and, together with the dispatch to which it is a reply, is hereto appended. Such reply is embodied in two communications addressed by the British prime minister to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British ambassador at this capital. It will be seen that one of these communications is devoted ex- clusively to observations upon the Monroe doctrine and claims that in the present instance a new and strange extension and de- velopment of this doctrine is insisted on by the United States; that the reasons justifying an appeal to the doctrine enunciated by President Monroe are generally inapplicable to the state of things in which we live in the present day, and especially inap- plicable to a controversy involving the boundary line between Great Britain and Venezuela. Without attempting extended arguments in reply to these posi- tions, it may not be amiss to suggest that the doctrine upon which we stand is strong and sound because its enforcement is im- portant to our peace and safety as a nation and is essential to the integrity of our free institutions and the tranquil maintenance of our distinctive form of government. It was intended to apply to every stage of our national life and cannot become obsolete while our republic endures. If the balance of power is justly a cause for jealous anxiety among the governments of the old world and a subject for our absolute non-interference, none the less is an ob- servance of the Monroe doctrine of vital concern to our people and their government. Assuming, therefore, that we may properly insist upon this doctrine without regard to the state of things in which we live, or any changed conditions here or elsewhere, it is not apparent why its application may not be invoked in the present controversy. If a European power, by an extension of its boundaries, takes GEORGE W. PECK. Born in Henderson, N. Y., September 28, 1840; apprenticed to the printer's trade when fifteen years of age; in 1860 pur- chased a half interest in the "Jefferson County Republican," at Jefferson, Wis.; in 1863 enlisted as a private in the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry; served two and a half years, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant; in 1866 went to Ripon, Wis., and started a newspaper called the "Representa- tive," and afterward owned the La Crosse "Democrat"; in 1874 founded the "Sun" at La Crosse, removed it to Milwaukee in 1878 and called it "Peck's Sun"; became mayor of Milwaukee and was elected Governor of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket in 1892. JOSEPH B. FORAKER. Born near Rainsborough, Ohio, July 5, 1846; worked on a farm in his boyhood; when sixteen years old enlisted in the Eighty-ninth Ohio Regiment; served in the Army of the Cum- berland until the end of the war; made sergeant in 1862; spent two years at Wesleyan University; graduated from Cornell in 1869; admitted to the bar; elected Judge of the Superior Court in Cincinnati in 1879; elected Governor of Ohio in 1885; re-elected in 1887; defeated by James E. Campbell, the Demo- cratic candidate, in 1889, but is still a prominent figure in Republican affairs; elected Senator to succeed Calvin S. Brice in 1890. THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. 267 possession of the territory of one of our neighboring republics against its will and in derogation of its rights, it is difficult to see why, to that extent, such European power does not thereby at- tempt to extend its system of government to that portion of this continent which is thus taken. This is the precise action which President Monroe declared to be dangerous to our peace and safety, and it can make no difference whether the European sys- tem is extended by an advance of frontier or otherwise. It is also suggested in the British reply that we should not seek to apply the Monroe doctrine to the pending dispute, because it does not embody any principle of international law, which "is founded on the general consent of nations," and that "no states- man, however eminent, and no nation, however- powerful, are competent to insert into the code of international law a novel principle which was never recognized before and which has not since been accepted by the government of any other country." Practically the principle for which we contend has peculiar, if not exclusive, relation to the United States. It may not have been admitted in so many words to the code of international law, but since in international councils every nation is entitled to the rights belonging to it, if the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine is something we may justly claim it has its place in the code of international law as certainly and as securely as if it were speci- fically mentioned, and when the United States is a suitor before the high tribunal that administers international law the question to be determined is whether or not we present claims which the justice of that code of law can find to be right and valid. The Monroe doctrine finds its recognition in those principles of international law which are based upon the theory that every nation shall have its rights protected and its just claims enforced. Of course, this government is entirely confident that under the sanction of this doctrine we have clear rights and undoubted claims. Nor is this ignored in the British reply. The prime min- ister, while not admitting that the Monroe doctrine is applicable to present conditions, states: "In declaring that the United States would resist any such en- terprise if it was contemplated, President Monroe adopted a policy which received the entire sympathy of the English gov- ernment of that date." He further declares: "Though the language of President Mon- roe is directed to the attainment of objects which most English- men would agree to be salutary, it is impossible to admit that 268 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. they have been inscribed by any adequate authority in the code of international law." Again he says: "They [her majesty's government] fully con- cur with the view which President Monroe apparently enter- tained that any disturbance of the existing territorial distribu- tion in that hemisphere by any fresh acquisition on the part of any European btate would be a highly inexpedient change." In the belief that the doctrine for which we contend was clear and definite; that it was founded upon substantial considerations and involved our safety and welfare; that it was fully applicable to our present conditions and to the state of the world's progress and that it was directly related to the pending controversy, and without any conviction as to the final merits of the dispute, but anxious to learn in a satisfactory and conclusive manner whether Great Britain sought, under a claim of boundary, to extend her possessions on this continent without right, or whether she merely sought possession of territory fairly included within her lines of ownership, this government proposed to the government of Great Britain a resort to arbitration as the proper means of settling the question, to the end that a vexatious boundary dispute between the two contestants might be determined and our exact standing and relation in respect to the controversy might be made clear. It will be seen from the correspondence herewith submitted that this proposition has been declined by the British govern- ment upon grounds which, under the circumstances, seem to be far from satisfactory. It is deeply disappointing that such an appeal, actuated by the most friendly feelings toward both na- tions directly concerned, addressed to the sense of justice and to the magnanimity of one of the great powers of the world and touching its relation to one comparatively weak and small, should have produced no better results. The course to be pursued by this government in view of the present condition does not appear to admit of serious doubt. Hav- ing labored faithfully for many years to induce Great Britain to submit this dispute to impartial arbitration and having been now finally apprised of her refusal to do so, nothing remains but to accept the situation, to recognize its plain requirements and deal with it accordingly. Great Britain's present proposition has never thus far been regarded as admissible by Venezuela, though any adjustment of the boundary line which that country may deem for her advan- tage and may enter into of her own free will cannot, of course, be THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. 269 objected to by the United States. Assuming, however, that the attitude of Venezuela will remain unchanged, the dispute has reached such a state as to make it now incumbent upon the United States to take measures to determine with sufficient certainty for its justification what is the true division line between the Re- public of Venezuela and British Guiana. The inquiry to that end should, of course, be conducted care- fully and judicially, and due weight should be given to all avail- able evidence, records and facts in support of the claims of both parties. In order that such an examination should be prosecuted in a thorough and satisfactory manner, I suggest that the Congress make an adequate appropriation for the expenses of a commis- sion to be appointed by the executive, who shall make the neces- sary investigation and report upon the matter .with the least pos- sible delay. When such report is made and accepted it will, in my opinion, be the duty of the United States to resist by every means in its power as a willful aggression upon its rights and interests the ap- propriation by Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of gov- ernmental jurisdiction over any territory which, after investiga- tion, we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela. In making these recommendations I am fully alive to the re- sponsibility incurred and keenly realize all the consequences that may follow. I am nevertheless firm in my conviction that, while it ie a grievous thing to contemplate the two great English speak- ing peoples of the world as being otherwise than friendly com- petitors in the onward march of civilization, and strenuous and worthy rivals in all the arts of peace, there is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's safety and greatness. GROVER CLEVELAND. Executive Mansion, December 17. The result of this somewhat extraordinary message was remarkable. It brought into close inspection the relations between the two great English speaking forces of the world and subjected to a test the atti- 270 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. tude of the great masses of those two nations. What followed was what might have been expected from Anglo-Saxons. Congress, regardless of party fealty, supported the President in the attitude which he hac taken. Englishmen, Tory or Liberal, united and were ready for anything that might come. For a few days the situation was strained, and then the tide of brotherhood began to exert itself. The Commission nominated by President Cleveland was composed of sensible men, and the fact was recognized abroad. The so-called interference with the affairs of another continent with which the United States was charged was recognized first of all by England as something justifiable in a self -protective sense. The jingoes of both nations that is, the irresponsible and clamor- ous wanted war and wanted it immediately. But the more thoughtful were in the ascendant, and out of this great and suddenly threatening difference came what promises to be one of the great steps toward the advancement of humanity. The cause of arbitration instead of war as a means for settling dif- ferences between English speaking peoples received an impetus which has already resulted in real action. Hundreds of the greatest British authors and other thinking men of that vast empire united in an appeal for a court of arbitration instead of war whenever differences should arise between English speaking nations. A similar response came quickly from men of the same type on this side of the Atlantic. Politi- cians and statesmen joined in the movement, which is extending and will inevitably grow until there is a great bond, a great mutual understanding and agree- THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. 271 merit, between the English speaking nations of the world to the effect that, when they differ among them- selves, the matter at issue shall be settled not by war, but by a court of arbitration. As to the Monroe Doctrine and its application there is yet no definite understanding as between the United States and the other nations of the world. But with its acceptance in a general way by Great Britain and a mutual understanding and compact between Great Britain and the United States the doctrine must nec- essarily be accepted by the rest of the world. Presi- dent Monroe, when he wrote those few lines in one of his messages, could have had no idea of their vast consequences. They have accidentally formed the text for one of the great drifts of civilization. At this juncture, when the two great nations speak- ing the same language and coming from the same grandfathers, were, in the estimation of the ill-in- formed, almost upon the verge of war, it was a study for the statesman to observe the attitude of the press and of the masses. It must be admitted that, after the first burst of loyalty, the attitude of the English press was less jingoish than that of the United States, the former being perhaps less affected by immediate political contingencies. It was interesting to note the manner in which the sober second thought of brothers in blood affected all action of the men really dominant. The wild folly of war between England and the United States dawned upon even the dull in- telligence. The enormous cost of such a struggle, the inevitable horror of it, the absolute lack of any good to anybody to result from it, became apparent every- 272 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND VENEZUELA. where. Yet there was a laggard instinct in being sensible. Anglo-Saxons are fighters naturally, and there was a reluctance on each side of the Atlantic to "back down," or to be even reasonable. However, good thought prevailed, practical reasoning had its force, and, above all, the tie of brotherhood, first, and, secondly, the enormous advantage of making common cause, had effect and were apparent to all the family, and the result was quiescence for a season, and, final- ly, the agreement, not yet fully defined as to its details, which has been decided upon. The incident was in many ways one of the most remarkable in the history of diplomacy, rugged in its aspects at the be- ginning and burdened with good in its eventualities. It called the attention of the two great Anglo-Saxon forces to the fact that a partnership would be profit- able. At the present time the thinking men of the two great English speaking nations are engaged in gath- ering together a force which will work toward the attainment of arbitration instead of war between these races. The good end is inevitable. The men who were engaged in advancing this step in civ- ilization include many of the greatest minds of both countries, and only the shallow statesman or the spec- ulators interested in war from a money standpoint are really opposed to them. It is possible that from this Venezuelan incident may be fairly traced the beginning of a new advance in civilization. CHAPTER XXVII. THE MONETARY QUESTION SILVER AND GOLD AS AN ISSUE IN POLITICS. The question of what should be the medium of exchange in the United States has in the last few years grown into a problem of such magnitude that it has resulted in the formation of what is practically a political party. For centuries, all over the world, the metals gold and silver have been accepted as the medium from which should be made the money which the world uses; and this has been because of the difficulty of securing an abundance of either metal in unlimited quantities. In the past the prod- uct of gold has been so limited, and yet so regular, that there seems almost to have been a prescience in the instinct of those who in the old ages adopted this metal as the standard of value. Silver, later, came in as a necessity and an adjunct, and has run parallel with gold. So, civilized nations have adopted gold and silver as the medium from which their coins should be made and as the representative metals jfrom which the standard of values should be esti- mated. - Soon after the beginning of the Civil War, the greatest war of its kind in all history, it became neces- 274 THE MONETARY QUESTION. sary for the government of the United States to resort to extraordinary means for raising extraordinary revenue. The result was the issuance of different forms of promises to pay, which forms were put upon printed pieces of paper, and conveyed the prom- ise of the United States to meet its obligations in metal acceptable to the other nations of the earth. After the conclusion of the war there came, of course, a thoughtful adjustment of monetary rela- tions, and there came, eventually, a resultant differ- ence between the politcial parties as to what was the best financial course to pursue. What was known as the "Greenback Party" be- came prominent, and within the last year or two, what is known as the "Silver Party" has attained con- siderable proportions, and includes among its advo- cates, many men of enterprise and energy. The atti- tude of this party, which has become already pretty clearly defined, is one which will be, a quarter of a century hence, a most interesting study to the stu- dent of finance. Those composing this new party of finance are known in politics as "Free Silverites." They include several of the Senators from the silver- producing states and a number of- men more or less prominent in politics in other states. The theory of the Free-Silverites is that the government should accept silver as produced in the various parts of the country and coin it into money, and make it by legis- lation acceptable to all at the ratio of 1G to 1 as com- pared with gold. The development of new mines in different parts of the Avorld, has resulted in the pro- duction of silver in enormous quantities, and other HORACE BOIES. Born near Buffalo, N. Y., in 1827; worked on a farm until 1843; went West, but returned to New York, took an academic course, and then studied law; in 1852 began practice, and in 1867 removed to Waterloo, Iowa; was elected Governor of the State in 1889; was re-elected in 1891, but was defeated for a third term; was the choice of the Iowa and several other State delegations for the Presidency in the Democratic National Con- vention of 1892; takes an active part in political affairs. THOMAS B. REED. Born in Maine October 18, 1839, and was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1860, after which he studied law; in 1864 entered the navy as acting assistant paymaster, but after one year of service resigned; was elected to the lower branch of the Maine Legislature in 1868, and was State Senator the fol- lowing session; was elected Attorney-General of the State, and became city solicitor for Portland for a term of four years; was elected a member of Congress in 1876, and has since been continuously re-elected; in the Fifty-first Congress elected Speaker of the House, and re-elected in the Fifty-fourth Congress. THE MONETARY QUESTION. 277 thinking men have decided that it would be injurious and with bankruptcy as a resultant to thrust our sil- ver on the world on a 16 to 1 standard. This latter group of thinkers has, apparently, the support of the European nations. The nations of Europe are not in accord as yet with the Free-Silverite idea, though this fact does not necessarily indicate its value. The Free-Silverite idea is, in fact, a promulgation of the. theory that the United States, considered as an isolated nation, can manage its own finances regardless of its monetary relations with the rest of the world. This idea is opposed by those who say that the United States, and England, and France, and Ger- many, and other nations should decide together what shall be the thing that represents a standard of value. European nations are willing to accept gold have of course already accepted it for centuries as the primary standard of value, but are disinclined to ac- cept silver in the relations demanded by the ultra silver party of the United States. So far as the financial question is concerned and this is apart from Republican and Democratic or other parties those who are earnest in their efforts regarding the financial question may be divided into three classes: Silverites, Goldites and Bimetallists. In the year 1895 there came a sudden and phenom- enal expansion of the party in favor of free silver at the ratio indicated of 16 to 1. It was an ebullition as phenomenal as the Tulip Craze in Holland, or the sudden advent and disappearance of the hoop skirt It was not really a part of the program of the 15 278 THE MONETARY QUESTION. more sensible of the Free Silver party. It was but a sudden, premature up-boiling of the less thoughtful forces of the party. A book issued in the interests of the Free-Silverites had an enormous run and then fell flat; there were debates, the memory of which is almost forgotten they were so premature with regard to the presidential campaign of 1896. This particular form of political expression "burned itself out" because of the inappropriateness of the time of its most forcible exhibition, but there still remains a host of earnest Free-Silverites who believe that the adoption of a 16 to 1 standard means the salvation of the monetary interests of the United States, and there still remain opposed to them a great mass of thoughtful business men who hold views exactly opposite. It became evident early in the campaign that the force of the Silverites was not upon the side of the Republican party. The silver states were, as a rule, Republican states, but the Republican states west of the silver-producing area were, almost without ex- ception, opposed to the 16 to 1 party. The result of this contention was of course that the Democratic leaders or at least certain of them, honest no doubt in their opinions saw the opportunity of retrieving party fortunes, which had been more or less in a bad way. After the recent elections, indicating the trend of public opinion throughout the United States, they saw that there had grown up a new and potent force as represented by the advocates of free silver, advo- cates in apparent control of the political force of cer- tain states, who had representatives in both branches THE MONETARY QUESTION. 279 of Congress, particularly in the Senate, and who had the political merit of being adroitly bold in the po- litical course ventured upon. The Free-Silverites, haA r ing a balance of power in the United States Senate, checked legislation alike acceptable to Republicans and Democrats, and so demonstrated their influence under the conditions at the time existing. The effect of this demonstra- tion was to make the candidates of either party throughout the country accept the influence of those in favor of the use of silver, at the ratio of 16 to 1 as a more potent factor than ever in the politics of the country. The drift of things drew the Republican party together in favor of what has the political name of "honest money." The drift of affairs in the Demo- cratic party resulted in a division between the Free- Silverites and those in favor either of gold as an ab- solute standard of value or of a broader determina- tion, to be arranged by the intelligent financiers of the different nations with the result of the adoption of what is referred to as a proper "bimetallic" stan- dard. Then came a material revelation. Almost as if Na- ture wanted to interfere with the course of American politics, there has suddenly developed, all over the world, an enormous production of both gold and sil- ver. Not only is this a fact, but it is a fact that the development is to a great extent in the North Ameri- can continent. Cripple Creek, the new gold field of the United States, is turning out its millions, and other fields are in competition with it. Though there has been less demand for the production of silver, be- 280 THE MONETARY QUESTION. cause of its drop in price, yet the development of the enormous field possessed by the United States has gone on, and the condition is such that the resources of enormous mines may be developed rapidly. Of course everything is relative as between the produc- tion of gold and silver, and between the attitude of those who advocate the coining of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, and those who oppose such coinage. The in- termediate group, the Bimetallists, may perhaps be quoted as indicative, in their expression of opinion, of a sort of average on the financial question. In the recent issue of a volume in their interest, it is de- clared that there must be a subsidiary currency, "a real and practical bimetallism, and silver promises to be a thing which-must always be used. In all the relations which affect its production it holds the at- titude it has maintained for centuries, and, aside from that, there is the natural sentiment which has come from its use for centuries, the fact that it is utilized by all races and nations, and that any change of pro- gram would be not only expensive but inexpedient from almost any point of view. The Free-Silverites would have the United States announce that there is but one God, with silver as its prophet. Others claim that real bimetallism must be such an adjustment of the use, as coined together, of the two metals, as the wisest financiers of the various civilized nations of the world may agree upon. Then, the governments working together, with financial thinkers of all na- tions united and earnest and helpful in experiment for the good of all mankind, it is possible there may THE MONETARY QUESTION. 281 be produced a monetary system which will be for the benefit of every human being." In a general way it might be said that the views have been ^resented of the absolute Free-Silverites; those in favor of gold as a single standard, and those who have determined that there should be an inter- national agreement, with both silver and gold used as the material for coins, and an absolute agreement as to their relative values. There is an uncertainty as to whether or not an agreement could be reached as to any standard which could be fixed absolutely, because some sudden discovery in any country, any- where, might result in a sudden great development of the silver product or in the gold product, and then ratios would be destroyed immediately. Of course an adjustment could be made only through interna- tional agreement, but the absolute bimetallists are in favor of an agreement between the nations that they should work as one great country, rather than as iso- lated forces opposing each other for any temporary advantage; and it is argued that this adjustment of things, as to what metal shall be taken as a material for the coins of the civilized world, may be made easy and simple and efficacious, and tending toward the welfare of every country interested. The Bimetal- lists do not, however, form a party so distinct as those either in favor of gold being given all dignity as a primary standard, with silver as but an adjunct, or of those who shout for 16 to 1, and declare that this will be the right ratio, regardless of production, or of the attitude of other nations. CHAPTEK XXVIII. SOUND MONEY. BY HON. JOHN Or. CARLISLE. It is the poor man and the man of moderate means, the man who has not been fortunate enough to accumulate property or money, but who depends upon his wages or upon the products of his own labor for the means of supporting himself and his family, that always feels the first and most disas- trous effects of a business or industrial depression, no matter whether it results from a depreciated and fluctuating currency or from other causes. Such a man has nothing to dispose of but his labor, and nothing with which to support himself or his family but his wages or the proceeds of his own labor, and any policy that even temporarily suspends or obstructs the industrial progress of the country, by diminishing the demand for the products of labor, or by impairing the capacity or disposition of capi- tal to employ labor, must be injurious to his inter- ests and inflict more or less suffering upon all who are dependent upon him. Labor cannot be hoarded; the idle day is gone forever; lost wages are never reimbursed; and therefore steady employment and good pay in good money are essential to the comfort and happiness of the American laborer and his wife and children, and he will be unfaithful to himself and to them if he does not insist upon the adoption SOUND MONEY. 283 and maintenance of such a policy as will most cer- tainly preserve the value and stability of all our cur- rency and promote the regular and profitable conduct of all our industrial enterprises. He cannot prosper when the country is in distress, when its industries are prostrated, its commerce paralyzed, its credit broken down, or its social order disturbed; nor can he prosper when the fluctuations of the currency are such that he cannot certainly know the value of the dollar in which his wages are paid, or estimate in ad- vance the cost of the necessaries of life. Whether we shall or shall not have a long period of financial, commercial and industrial disturbance in this country, and whether labor shall be deprived of permanent employment or be partially employed and inadequately paid, are questions directly and necessarily involved in the demand now seriously made by many of our fellow-citizens, that the United States, without the co-operation of any other gov- ernment in the world and in opposition to the estab- lished policy of every other great civilized and com- mercial nation, shall authorize the free and unlim- ited coinage of full legal tender silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, notwithstanding the true market ratio be- tween the two metals is about 31 to 1; or, in other words, that the United States alone shall declare by law that sixteen ounces of silver are equal in value to one ounce of gold, when it is an indisputable fact everywhere recognized that in all the markets of the world, in silver standard countries as well as in gold standard countries, sixteen ounces of silver are worth only about one-half as much as one ounce 284 SOUND MONEY. of gold and will purchase only about one-half as much of the necessaries of life. The naked proposition is that the United States shall coin, at the public expense, for the exclusive benefit of the individuals and corporations owning the bullion, all the silver that may be presented at the mints into dollars containing 371^ grains of pure silver, or 412^ grains of standard silver, worth in- transically about 51 or 52 cents, deliver the coins to the depositors of the bullion and compel all the other people in the country to receive these coins at a valuation of 100 cents each in the payments of debts due them for property sold, for labor and ser- vice of all kinds, for pensions to soldiers and sailors and their widows and children, for losses sustained under policies issued by life and other insurance companies, for deposits in savings banks, trust com- panies, building associations, and other institu- tions, for debts due to widows and orphans by guardians, executors and administrators of estates, and other trustees, for salaries of all civil, military and naval officials, and the com- pensation of private soldiers and seamen, and, in short, for every kind of obligation recognized by the laws of the land, except only in cases where the prudent capitalist has taken the precaution in advance to contract for payment in gold or its equivalent. To say nothing of the gross partiality and mani- fest injustice of such a policy, its immediate effect would be to contract our currency to the extent of about |620,000,000 by stopping the use of gold as JOHN G. CARLISLE. Born in Kenton County, Ky., September 5, 1835; admitted to the bar in 1858; became member of the Kentucky State Leg- islature in 1859; elected to State Senate in 1871; elected to Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty- ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses; presided as Speaker of House in Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses; elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, to succeed Senator Beck, in 1890; was a member of the Committees on Finance, Territories, Canadian Relations, Indian Depredations and Woman's Suffrage; resigned his seat to become Secretary of the Treasury. WILLIAM F. VILAS. Born at Chelsea, Vt., July 9, 1840; removed to Wisconsin in 1851 and graduated from the Wisconsin State University In 1858; afterward receiving a legal education at Albany, N. Y.; entered the Union army at the outbreak of the war and rose to the rank of colonel; at the close of the war resumed the practice of law in Wisconsin, and became a member of the State Legislature in 1884; became a delegate to the Demo- cratic National Convention held in Chicago that year, and was made president; was appointed Postmaster-General in President Cleveland's Cabinet in 1885 and served until 1888, when he became Secretary of the Interior; was elected United States Senator from Wisconsin in 189], SOUND MONEY. 287 money and putting a premium upon the coins of that metal, or about equal, to the difference between the intrinsic value of the gold dollar and the in- trinsic value of the silver dollar. Gold coins would at once become a commodity and would be bought and sold by speculators in the market just as they were during the war when we had a depreciated paper currency. The value of the silver dollar would fluctuate from day to day, moving up and down with the rise and fall of the commercial price of the bullion contained in it, as the Mexican dollar does now, and the premium on the gold dollar would of course fluctuate to the same extent, thus afford- ing an opportunity to bullion brokers and specu- lators to buy and sell it at a profit. It would cease to be used as money, because no man would pay his debt in gold dollars or in paper redeemable in gold dollars, worth 100 cents, when the law permitted him to pay it in silver dollars worth only 51 or 52 cents each. The sudden withdrawal of f 620,000,000 from the volume of currency in the country would undoubtedly produce a financial and industrial dis- turbance far more disastrous to the interests of labor than has ever been experienced in our history, and no man who has a particle of sympathy for workinginen and women and their dependent fam- ilies can contemplate the possibility of such a calamity without feeling that it is his duty, whether he occupies a public or private station, to employ every honorable means at his command to avert it. While the sudden expulsion of |620,000,000 in gold from our stock of money would itself be suf- 288 SOUND MONEY. flcient to create a financial disturbance unparalleled in the history of this or any other country, the situ- ation would be very greatly aggravated by the fact that the purchasing power of all the remainder of our currency would be suddenly reduced about one- half; we should have only about two-thirds as much currency as we have now, and at the same time it would be so depreciated in value that it would re- quire about twice as much as we have now to trans- act the business of the country, provided there should be any business to transact. The attempt to maintain what is called the double standard of value, that is, the attempt to keep the legal tender coins of the two metals, gold and sil- ver, in use as money at the same time upon the ratio of value fixed by law, has repeatedly been made by kings and parliaments in every civilized country in the world, and it has failed again and again in every one of them; and it requires no gift of prophecy to foresee that it must continue to fail so long as self-interest constitutes a controlling fac- tor in the business affairs of men. We have now about $620,000,000 in gold, and $413,000,000 in full legal tender silver, besides $78,- 216,677 in subsidiary silver coins, which are legal tender in payments not exceeding $10.00, and the real question for the people to decide is whether they will continue to use the coins of both metals or adopt a monetary system which ahvays has and always will drive one of them out of the country. I do not advocate the exclusive use of gold coin as money, or to oppose a conservative and safe use SOUND MONEY. 289 of silver coin as money along with gold, and at a parity with gold, but I insist that we shall not abandon the present legal standard of value, expel all the gold from the country and adopt silver monometallism, with free coinage of a nominal dol- lar worth intrinsically only 51 or 52 cents. I insist that the mints of the United States, which were constructed and maintained and operated at the expense of all the people, shall not be used for the exclusive benefit of the owners of silver bullion under a law giving them the right to have 51 or 52 cents' worth of their silver coined free of charge and stamped as a dollar, and compelling you and all others to receive it from them as a dollar. All the mints of the United States, operated to their full capacity, and doing no other work, could not coin into standard silver dollars two-thirds of the annual production of silver in our own country, but, not- withstanding this, it is seriously proposed to offer free coinage to all the silver in the world at a legal valuation almost double its commercial value in the markets of the foreign countries where it is produced. The annual production of silver in the world is about f 216,000,000 at our coining rate, and the actual capacity of our mints to coin standard silver dollars is only about f 40,000,000. Last year we coined $43,933,475 in gold, $9,069,480 in silver; so that if our mints were devoted exclusively to the free coinage of standard silver dollars the addition to our stock of metallic money would be about $15,000,000 less every year than it is now; and it would not be good money after it was coined. 290 SOUND MONEY. More than fifty years would elapse before we could at this rate coin enough depreciated silver dollars to supply the place of the good gold dollars expelled from the country, and, in the mean time, a complete revolution would have to be effected in our commercial relations with other nations, and in all our domestic business affairs, including a re- adjustment of the wages of labor, the prices of com- modities, the rates of municipal, State and Federal taxation, charges for transportation, and every other matter involving the use of money or credit. We should descend by a single step from the highest standard of value to> silver monometallism with a contracted and at the same time a depreciated cur- rency, a financial experiment which has no prece- dent in the monetary history of the world. Money received for wages, like money received on every other account, is valuable only to the ex- tent that it can be exchanged for other commodi- ties, and it is scarcely necessary to suggest that a dollar worth 50 cents will not purchase as much in the markets as a dollar worth 100 cents. If the solu- tion of this question affected only the character and amount and purchasing power of the future earn- ings of the American laborer, it would still be a subject of the greatest importance to him; but its importance is greatly increased by the fact that the safety and value of a very considerable part of his past earnings are also involved. The thrifty and provident workingman, anticipating a time when he may be disabled or deprived of employ- ment, has endeavored to save something out of his SOUND MONEY. 291 earnings, in order to provide for the comfort of his wife and children in the future, and has laid it away at home or deposited it in a bank or building association, or invested it in a life insurance policy, or loaned it to some friend in whom he has confi- dence. The banks, trust companies, building associations, and other similar institutions owe the people of the United States to-day $5,353,138,521 for money actually deposited, a sum nearly eight times greater than the total capital of all the national banks in the country; while the life insurance policies held by the people in the various kinds of corporations and associations and in force to-day amount to f 10,- 213,804,357, a larger sum than has been actually invested in all our railroads, and about fifteen times larger than the capital of all the national banks. In view of these facts, which cannot be successfully disputed, I submit that you ought seriously to con- sider all the consequences to yourselves and your fellow citizens before you agree to the free and un- limited coinage of legal tender silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, in order that these great corporations and associations may have the privilege of discharging their debts to the people by paying 51 or 52 cents on the dollar, for that is exactly what it means. But if free and unlimited coinage of legal tender silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 is established in this country a very large part of the money deposited in these various kinds of savings institutions will not even be repaid in depreciated silver, but will be wholly lost, because such a reckless monetary 292 SOUND MONEY. system would precipitate a financial panic, which very few, if any, of the depositories could survive. It cannot be possible that in the closing years of the nineteenth century and in this great and free republic, the people themselves, will imitate the bad example set by the corrupt potentates of Europe, who havfe made their names forever odious in his- tory by debasing the money of their subjects and robbing the industrious poor of the just rewards of their labor.* * Extracts from the famous speech of Hon. John (r. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury, delivered at the Auditorium, Chicago, April 15th, 1896. CHAPTER XXIX. FREE SILVER. BY HON. HENRY M. TELLER. I do not suppose there has ever been a time in our history when the productive enterprises of the country were less remunerative than at this hour. But this has been our condition now for a number of years. It is morally certain that something is wrong; it is morally certain that we cannot continue in this condition much longer. The President of the United States and the Secre- tary of the Treasury tell us that the entire difficulty arises from a lack of confidence in the money of the country. If that be true, then it behooves us to address ourselves without delay to changing this condition and to securing a proper financial system. I do not, myself, agree that the trouble which has arisen in this country has grown out of the distrust of the currency. I deny that there is anything which indicates that the people of the United States distrust the money in circulation ; and the statement so made is opposed to the entire history of money. What condition are we in now? We have been told we must maintain the public credit, we must keep gold in circulation and maintain the country upon a gold standard. In every city in the United States to-day gold is at a premium; it is a commod- ity ; it is now bought and sold like wheat and corn. 294 FEEE SILVER. There is not a bank in the city of New York or in the country outside, unless it be in the extreme west, which, if I ^am rightly advised, has not practically suspended gold payments. It is true that the premium is not large; but it is too large to allow any man to take a greenback and get gold out of any bank in New York. He can go to the Treasury and get it; but the greenback, which represents the currency of the country for many years, has now practically disappeared from circulation. It can only be obtained, as I understand, in any suitable quantities, just as gold can be, by being bought. If there is a premium upon gold it follows., of course, the one being exchangeable for the other, that there must be equally a premium on the green- back. A premium on one kind of money may or may not be a depreciation of the other. In this case it does not mean a depreciation of the other. I state this as an inflexible rule of the philosophy of money, which no man has ever seen contradicted in practical experience, that whenever money depre- ciates prices rise. I challenge any man, it matters not who he may be, to cite a single instance in the history of the world where the depreciation of money was not followed by a rise in prices. The way to determine, and the only way to determine the depreciation of money is by the rise of prices. There is, then, no depreciation of the silver dol- lar; there is no depreciation of the bank-note. There is an appreciation of gold. That appreciation which has existed heretofore with referencee to the com- modities, now reaches the point where it is with ref- HENRY WATTERSON. Born in Washington, D. C., February 16, 1840; entered the profession of journalism in 1858, and in 1861 went to Nash- ville, Tenn.; after the war went to Louisville, Ky., to reside, and in 1867 became editor of the "Journal," and the following year united the "Courier" and the "Times" with that paper and founded the "Courier- Journal;" is usually a delegate to the National Democratic Conventions and presided over the one held in St. Louis in 1876; has frequently served as chair- man of the platform committee; under his management the "Courier-Journal" has become a recognized power in politics. BENJAMIN T. CABLE. Born in Georgetown, Ky., in 1853; entered the freshman class of the University of Michigan in 1872, where he grad- uated with the class of 1876; after a prolonged European tour he began the manufacturing business at Rock Island, 111.; was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1884; in 1890 was nominated for the Fifty-second Congress from the Eleventh Illinois district; although this district had been considered Republican, he was elected by nearly 2,000 major- ity; declined renomination; was a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1892 and was chairman of the Western branch of the Democratic National Committee for the same year. FREE SILVER. 297 erence to the remainder of the money of the country. That has been the great bugbear which has been held up before the American people for the main- tenance of the gold standard with all that it costs. You have reached it in spite of the gold-standard people; you have reached it without the aid of silver legislation ; you have reached it because it was as in- evitable as the night to follow the day. I do not believe in depreciating money. I believe in a stable money, and I believe that money is the best which maintains a uniform rate of prices. But if I am to take the two, I shall be in accord with the best minds of the people when I say that a depreci- ating standard is infinitely better for us than an ap- preciating one. An appreciating standard means a paralysis of business, a cessation of enterprise, a destruction of the energies of the country. The other means a stimulus. So of the two it is much better that there should be a depreciation than an appreciation. For fifteen years we have been laboring to secure what we believed to be a proper financial system and during that time there never has been offered to us by those who contend for a gold standard, a system which they, themselves, dared to endorse. Our first mistake was in 1873, when we deprived ourselves of one-half the money metal of the world. I do not care to go into that, I want to say here that I have never wasted any time over the question as to how it was done. I never regarded that question as a matter of very much consequence. I know the American people did not ask it Whether it was 16 298 FREE SILVER. done in fraud of their rights or whether it was not, I have never concerned myself about, have never discussed that question. But the question is, what has been its influence upon this country? The great mistake was when the Bland bill came into the Senate from the House of Kepresentatives as a free coinage measure, with then a divergency of only eight per cent between silver and gold in the markets of the world, that the Senate did not accept the House bill and give to the world the benefit of free coinage in the United States. If you had done that there would have been no silver question here to trouble you. There would have been no silver question to trouble the world. The United States would have taken care of the surplus of silver until the silver of the world, temporarily depressed by the action of Germany, had reached its proper and original mint value. It seems to me that we have reached a point where something must be done. It seems to me we have reached what may be said to be the parting of the ways. I am not insisting now that there is no other remedy except free coinage, although I do not be- lieve there is; but I am begging my associates in the Senate, who do not believe in free coinage, whether they be on this side or the other, to pre- sent to the American people in this hour of their distress some common sense system that the honest people of the country will believe is right, some sys- tem that shall prevent this government from run- ning in debt. When a nation runs in debt in time of peace it FREE SILVER. 299 either argues that it has entered upon a decay, that it is deteriorating, or it argues that the administra- tion of public affairs is in the hands of incompetent men. A national debt is a national curse, and, if made in time of peace, it is a national disgrace, one that ought to make every American blush. A national debt is inevitable if you are to maintain the gold standard. The President of the United States said a year ago, and so did his Secretary of the Treasury, that in December $32,000,000 of gold went out of the Treasury and that $45,000,000 went out the next month, but a small portion of it, comparatively, went abroad. And then they argue from that that it is distrust of the currency that took the gold out The gold was taken out for the purpose of compell- ing, what it subsequently did compel, an issue of 162,000,000 of bonds. I am not speaking of the character of that issue, except to say that the ?62,- 000,000 of bonds bear to the holders 3f cents. There is no other business in this country to be compared with the purchase of bonds, unless it is the mining of gold. You have reached a point when it is not profitable to invest money in com- mercial enterprises, in 'industrial pursuits. There is no money for that, but there is abundance of money to buy bonds. You see a great banker in a neigh- boring city go to work and in a few days accumulate ^200,000,000 in gold. Why? To buy securities, the very best securities in the world, at prices lower than the securities of the Austrailian colonies are selling in the eitv of .London. I do not wonder 300 FREE SILVER. that they want to accumulate their gold to buy these 1200,000,000 of gold. If that $200,000,000 could be put into industrial pursuits and give labor an opportunity it would be infinitely better, to say nothing of the wickedness of putting our funds in bonds and putting a debt upon the unborn as well as those now living. We ought to pursue a policy which would bring into active life and use the money of the country, and not allow it to be used simply for the purpose of purchasing Government bonds and holding them free from all the obligations which ought to rest upon the holder of money and wealth in every community in the world. Our interests are not with the men who own the money, not with the men who own the bank capital, not with the men who have $600,000, 000 in bank stock. The product of the farmers of this country, who produce chickens and turkeys, and geese and eggs, is every year equal to the entire bank capital. What is the bank capital of this country worth? If it should be sunk to-morrow we should be better off. I do not mean to say we should be better off in sinking it; I mean we should be better off than to follow the present system to its logical results. I do not want to make any ob- jection to banks. I have no objection to banks of deposit and discount, but I am opposed to banks of issue. Our gold is being exported to Europe and will continue to be so exported. It will go in spite of us, and every day we seem to be putting ourselves in a worse position than heretofore. If we attempt FREE SILVER. 301 to maintain the gold standard we must maintain it with the knowledge of what it is going to cost I want the American people to know what it is going to cost, and if the American people, when they know what it is going to cost, shall be in favor of its main- tenance, I, as one who recognizes the right of major- ity rule in this country, shall have to submit; but I do not believe the American people understand what it costs to maintain the gold standard. I do not be- lieve the American people understand the danger which threatens not only their industrial pursuits, but the very existence of this nation as a free peo- ple by the gold standard. The enslavement of the world in the future will not be by armies and by force, but it will be through the agency of money. It is the most potent and the easiest instrumentality to use. You will have no war, unless the great capitalists of the world will consent. T yield to no man in devotion to the doctrine that the Government of the United States is bound so far as it can to assist in maintaining the wages of American labor. I would have a tariff duty, if I had my way, just high enough to> give to the Amer- ican manufacturer the markets of his own country, just high enough that if he attempted to impose upon the consumer the profits would be such that the importer could compete with him. That is my doctrine. I know that you cannot maintain the price of American labor in this country on that principle now. I know that American labor is threatened with Asiatic prices. To-day the manu- 302 FREE SILVER facturers of Christendom are being threatened by the manufacturers of heathendom; to-day the man- ufacturers of the United States are in jeopardy and in peril by the manufacturers growing up with Asi- atic capital in Asiatic countries, where the people can live on a few cents a day, where few of the obli- gations that are put upon us are put upon them, where the citizenship of those countries carries with it no burden such as citizenship carries with us, and where they can live, as they have been living for thousands of years, in what they call comfort and happiness, in a manner that would send our people to the grave or to revolution. This is not a fanciful sketch; this is not theory, nor the statement of an enthusiast, it can be dem- onstrated beyond question that there is great dan- ger that the manufactures of Europe and the manu- factures of the United States will be transplanted to Asiatic lands ;. when once transplanted nothing can take them away. Those people are cunning and skillful, and patient and enduring, and unac- customed to the civilization that we rejoice in; they will continue to become competitors to a degree which will absolutely destroy American and Euro- pean laborers. Yet the men who profess here the greatest interest in our industries, the men who pro- fess the greatest interest in labor, are absolutely silent when this great question confronts the Amer- ican people. If the gold standard is desirable, it is not sufficiently desirable to have it maintained at the great cost at which it is being maintained.* * Extracts from speech delivered by Hon. Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States, January 22d, 1896. CHAPTER XXX. THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. BY HON. EOGEE Q. MILLS. Here at our doors is an island which our fathers called the key to the Gulf of Mexico. It locks and unlocks the door to that great inland sea, whose waters wash the shores of five of our States. Into its basin the Mississippi River and all its tributa- ries pour their accumulated floods. With that gulf open to the fleets of a great naval power, and its key in the hands of that power, not only would our im- mense commerce going down the Mississippi and gathered on the gulf shores be imperiled, but the lives and property of our people would be subjected to the same danger. Cuba is not only the key that locks and unlocks that door, but it is the fortress that defends it Mr. Jefferson thought that our system of States was not complete without the addition of Cuba. He said, " He had ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition that could ever be made to our Union." Many of our statesmen have advo- cated its annexation, many have opposed it, but all have agreed as with one voice that it never should go from Spain to any power except the United States. We have made the world understand that we would resist the transfer of that island with the whole armed power of the United States. We have so held for a hundred years, and we are ready to-day to re- 304 THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. deem that pledge if any European power thinks proper to put us to the test. If we have kept Cuba from going to France, if we have kept Cuba from going to England, and we have, and no man is so blind as not to know that within the last one hundred years, if it had not been for the people of the United States asserting the superior right to control the destinies of that island, either England or France would have had it and given it a better government than it has, and yet we have stood still and said, " You shall not go." If we intend to keep them within the sovereignty of Spain, is it not our moral duty to protect them and see that they are not destroyed by the government into whose hands we commit them? I say again that wherever there are rights there are corresponding duties, and I say the people of the United States owe it to the oppressed and down- trodden people of Cuba to say to Spain : " The time has come when you must take your heel off the necks of the people of Cuba. We are responsible for their slavery; we are responsible for the despotism in that island; we are responsible for every drop of blood that you shed; we are responsible for every dollar's worth of property that your mercenaries have stolen; our consciences and our character as a people are involved in this crime. Cuba has a right to appeal to us, and we intend that you shall give her just government." What sort of government does Spain give to Cuba? The taxation imposed, not by the people of Cuba WILLIAM C. WHITNEY. Born in Conway, Mass., July 15, 1841; graduated from Yale in 1863 and from the Harvard Law School in 1865; was ad- mitted to the bar and began practice in the city of New York; in 1871 became identified with the Young Men's Democratic Club; took an active part in the famous fight upon the Tweed ring; was made inspector of public schools in 1872; took part in the Tilden campaign, and in 1875 was appointed corpora- tion counsel in New York; was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Cleveland. RICHARD P. BLAND. Born near Hartford, Ky., August 19, 1835; orphaned at an early age, and worked during the summer months to obtain the means for an academic education; studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar; in 1855 removed to Missouri and then to California; settled in Virginia City, Nev., and became inter- ested in mining operations; returned to Missouri in 1865; in 1873 was elected to Congress as a Democrat and has since been regularly re-elected; introduced in the Forty-fourth Congress the well-known "Bland Silver Bill;" introduced the Seignior- age Bill in the Fifty-third Congress, which was passed by the House, but vetoed by the President. THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. SOT but by the people of Spain, takes from the people of Cuba nearly f 50,000,000 a year. Have you stopped to inquire what a monstrous iniquity this is? Th? whole annual produce of all the labor in Cuba does not exceed two hundred and fifty millions, and one- fifth of that is taken every year by Spain. These immense exactions are extorted from the people of Cuba to pay the army that crushes out their life on the land and the navy that guards the shores so that no relief can come and no victim escape. In a very able article in one of the leading papers in Texas I see the different items of expenditure given, and the sum total is $8,000,000 in one year; and yet there are comparitively no schools; 75 per cent of the entire population can, neither read nor write. There are no roads, bridges, or ferries; no public buildings; nothing but despotism and deso- lation, and that by the authority of the United States! Besides the enormous and exhausting taxation, the plunder of the people is without a parallel in history. One of the prominent Spanish officers now in Cuba with a military command said in the Con- gress of Deputies, March 2, 1890, that the frauds, thefts, and misappropriations of money by the offi- cers sent out from Spain to govern Cuba, amounted to $40,000,000. Forty millions wrung from a million and a half of people is a monumental robbery. Taxes by duties on imports are levied in Spain for Cuba, and levied so as to enrich not the Cubans but the Spaniards in Spain. The tax on flour is levied enormously high to keep out the flour of the United 308 THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. States and compel Cubans to import Spanish flour, and on that was so high a duty that bread costs 25 cents a pound. And the starving people complain to us that bread is a luxury in Cuba, and yet we say that Cuba shall not leave Spain! Why should not the people of Cuba have a government of their own? Why should not the question of taxation be placed in the hands of the representatives of the people who pay the taxes? For what did our fathers fight in 1776? One of our greatest statesmen has said that our Revolution was fought on a preamble. We had suffered no despotism. We declared that taxation and repre- sentation should go together. Such has been our fundamental principle ever since. The taxpayers through their representatives, must vote the taxes under our Government. But under the despotic barbarism we have forced on the people of Cuba the amount of taxes is prescribed by the tax receiver. It was said here the other day that Cuba had 30 representatives in the cortes of Spain, while Spain has 700 representatives. How are these 30 so-called representatives chosen? Twenty thousand Span- ish merchants and manufacturers in Cuba elect 27 representatives, while 90,000 Cuban farmers elect 3 representatives, and several hundred thousand Cuban male adults are disfranchised. But if the Cuban people elected the whole 30, what protection would that give to Cuban taxpayers in a body of more than 700 Spanish representatives? What they require for their protection is a government of Cubans for Cuba, No power has the right to im- THE FREEDOM OP CUBA. 309 pose taxes on the people of Cuba but themselves. Spanish taxation for Cuba makes flour so dear that Cubans only consume 54 pounds per head per year, while Spanish taxation on the Spanish people in Spain is so light that in Spain the people consume 400 pounds per head per year. If the people wish to meet and humbly petition the military com- mander who has them in his keeping for more bread or for more mercy, they must first obtain a permit. Without it no meeting can be held, and even with it under the supervision of a deputy sent by the com- mander. And we are guarding the brutal monsters while they are carrying on their iniquity. I speak and feel as an American citizen. There is not a drop of Spanish blood in my veins. I speak for liberty, I speak for the right, and I feel and speak for the honor of my country. We hold Cuba in vassalage to Spain. For a hundred years we have declared, and reiterated the declaration, that Cuba shall stay under the dominion of Spain. We have shut in her face the door of hope for release from that despotism, and having the responsibility which even an equitable right would give, we should demand of Spain that just government should be given to Cuba. If necessary we should enforce the demands with the whole military strength of the nation. Suppose the suffering people of Cuba should say to us: " You have forsaken us; we have appealed to you time and again. Every generation that has come from the womb has appealed to you, and gone down to the grave marked by Spanish 310 THE FREEDOM OP CUBA. blood and dishonor. So farewell; we are going now to appeal to England; she will give us the mild government she gives to Canada. She will let us govern ourselves in all our domestic affairs; she will let us raise what taxes we are willing to pay and expend our revenues on educating our children and building up our country, and protect us against invasion from Spain or any other power." What would be our response? Columbia would come out w r ith her mighty heart throbbing, her flags flying, and her drums beating, and answer in tones of thunder , " England shall not assume sovereign rights over one square foot of Cuba. We will see that Spain keeps Cuba against all the world except ourselves." Then if we have fixed the destiny of Cuba we owe it to our own honor, we owe it to hu- manity, to protect the wretched and misgoverned people of that island against Spanish barbarity. The other day I read in the press dispatches from Cuba where a Spanish column, after having an en- gagement with the troops under Maceo's command, attacked a house where a father, a daughter, and an infant were sheltered. The father stepped out with the child in his arms and cried, "Stop firing; we are peaceful citizens;" but they drew nearer, took deadlier aim, shot to death the father and the child. The daughter sprang forward to protect her wounded father and to plead for her own life. The appeal was answered by shots from their rifles and thrusts from their bayonets, and the girl fell on the dead body of her father and brother, riddled with bullets and gashed with bayonets. This is the kind THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. 311 of government Spain is giving to Cuba. It is the pro- tection that the hawk gives to the dove, the panther to the hind. And all this is by the authority of the United States! We stand guard over Spain while she tears Cuba limb from limb, while the victim is crying to us to deliver her from the jaws of the monster. Our fathers said that everybody had the inalien- able right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness, and they said they had a right to institute government such as they might think proper that would secure those rights. Yet we stand in the way and prevent those poor people from instituting any government of their own. They plead and in agony groan and lift their piteous appeal to us, and their cries die on the air while we are the most powerful military people in the world, and the most advanced in civilization. We are right at their door. We have this little ewe lamb in our bosom that God has put here and made us the guardians for its pro- tection. We have assumed that duty, and we still see her day by day and year by year tortured upon the rack. Ah, the day is coming when Cuba will arise and when there will be a voice that will speak to her like the voice of the apostle who saw the poor man lying at the Beauti&il gate to ask for alms and an invalid from his birth, begging alms to those who passed by him. The apostle told him he had no money; he could give no alms, but he gave that which was bet- ter. He said, " In the name of Jesus Christ of Naz- areth arise up and walk." 312 THE FREEDOM OP CUBA. Here is another poor beggar lying at the beauti- ful gate, lying at the gate of the fortress that guards the rights and liberties and safety of the American people; she has been lying there for a century, lift- ing up her shrunken hands and hollow cheeks and citing with salty tears to us, " Help us, oh help us, to get out of this dungeon. The American people will say after awhile in the name of the mighty re- public, "Arise to your feet and walk." She will ex- tend to the poor mendicant her powerful right arm and lift her to her feet and enable her to stand. A great many of our fathers have wanted and longed for the annexation of Cuba, a great many others have not, they have all agreed that Cuba should never go to a power that was strong enough to imperil our rights and liberties. They have all agreed that she shall be under our protection. I am not asking for the annexation of Cuba and I am not longing for her admission as a State into our Union. I would say to Spain: " You can give her local self-government, you can keep your paramount sovereignty over her, but you must protect her people and give them the power to control their do- mestic affairs. If you do not do it then I will take possession of the island and with the armed forces of the United States I will see that they have the opportunity to organize a government and arm them- selves for its security and I will hold it until they are able to stand alone." If Cuba says : " 1 cannot stand alone; I want to go with you; all these powers are ready to spring upon me; Spain will invade me, perhaps a combination of European powers will com- THE FREEDOM OF CUBA. 313 bine and assail me; I do not want to stay alone, I want your help/' Then I would say to her in the language of that sweet Irish poet: " Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer, Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here; Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast, And the heart and the hand all thy own to the last. Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss, And thy angel I'll be 'mid the horrors of this Through the furnace unshrinking, thy steps to pursue, And shield thee, and save thee, or perish there too." * * Extracts from a speech delivered by Hon. Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, in the Senate of the United States, March 4th, 1896. CHAPTER XXXI. TARIFF FOR REVENUE. BY HON. WILLIAM L. WILSON. Tariff reform has been fought out as no other eco- nomic issue ever was fought out before the Ameri- can people. For years it has been the chief subject of political controversy in every congressional dis- trict, in the press of the country, on the hustings, at the school house, and at the country store. Of all the reductions made in this bill there are none in their benefit to the consumer, none in their benefit to the laborer that can be compared with the removal of the taxes from the materials of industry. We have felt that we could not begin a thorough reform of the existing system, built up story by story until it has pierced the clouds, except by removal of all taxation on the great materials that lie at the basis of modern industry, and so the bill proposes to put on the free list, wool, iron ore, coal and lumber. Free wool has become an acknowledged and well understood part of the Democratic scheme of tariff reform. I, myself, believe that if every other item in this bill were stricken out and we could carry through a bill, putting wool on the free list, reduc- ing the duties on woolen goods, we should make a great beneficent revolutionary step in the work of tariff reform that would justify all the efforts we have put forth. If ever a protective tariff had full CLAUDE MATTHEWS. Born in Bethel, Ky., in 1845; entered Centre College and graduated in June, 1867; in 1868 removed to Vermillion County, Ind., and engaged in farming; elected a member of the Legis- lature of Indiana in 1876 as a Democrat in a strong Republican county; was a candidate for the convention in 1880 for Lieu- tenant-Governor, but withdrew; in 1890 entered the Democratic ticket as candidate for Secretary of State, and was elected by a plurality of nearly twenty thousand; in 1892, although a candidate for renomination as Secretary of State, he was asked to become a candidate for Governor; he was elected by a large plurality. ROBERT E. PATTISON. Born in Quantico, Md., in 1850; removed to Philadelphia, attended the high school, graduated, became a law student in 1869 and began practice in 1872; was elected comptroller of Philadelphia in 1877 and 1880; was nominated by the Demo- crats for governor and elected in 1882; shortly afterwards sent a message to the Legislature recommending a policy of re- trenchment and urging the modification of laws which re- sulted in the multiplication of useless officers; his policy was successful; was appointed a member of the Pacific Railway Commission in 1887, and was re-elected governor in 1890. TARIFF FOR REVENUE. 317 scope to display its beneficent working this tariff on wool and woolen goods lias had that scope. From 1867 down to the present day the wool grower on the one hand and the woolen manufacturer on the other have, in union and in accord, made their own tariff, regardless of the interests of all the other people of the country, and yet he would be a bold man who would say that the wool grower has prospered under all the favorit- ism of the tariff He would be a bold man who would assert that the McKinley bill, with its in- crease of taxes on wool and woolens and its prohib- itory taxes on every imaginable substitute for wool, has been of any benefit to the American wool grower. I think I ought to add that the manufacturer is not altogether to blame for his inability to produce the goods consumed by our people at any- thing near the rates at which light goods can be had by the people of England and other countries, ex- cept as he has himself contributed to that inability by combining with those who demanded these duties on wool. He has been excluded by our tariff from two-thirds of the wools of the world, and, while every other branch of American industry has advanced with resistless step the woolen industry, coddled and protected and made the pet of tariff leg- islation, has lagged in the rear. I have no doubt, speaking in the light of experience, with wool on the free list. and moderate duties on finished products, we shall have such a growth of manufacturing in this country as will steadily improve the market for 17 318 TARIFF FOR REVENUE. American wool, and greatly cheapen the cost of woolen goods to the American people. If there is one great industry as to which we could throw down our tariff walls and defy the world's competition, it is the great iron and steel industry of this country. The consumption of iron and steel is a test of civilization. The consumption of iron and steel is a test of the material progress of any country. All the other countries of the world put together have not kept up with the progress of the United States in the last few years in the production of iron and steel. The world's product of pig-iron in 1878 was but little more than fourteen million tons. The United States alone produced in 1892 over nine million tons. In 1878 our product was little more than two million tons. That has been due to the fact that in this great undeveloped country of ours, where we are as yet but running to and fro to find out its re- sources, we have found along the Appalachian ranges of the South, around the Great Lakes of the North, deposits. of iron ore, so rich, so easily worked, so accessible to other materials, and so convenient to our cheapest systems of transportation, that we can now find the ore and make the pig at less cost than anywhere else in the world. With the rich deposits upon the surface, with the improved methods of mining, with the aid of electricity and the steam shovel, with all the inventions and im- provements, that accompany the march of a great developing American industry, we can load iron ore upon the boats on the Lakes, or upon the cars in TARIFF FOR REVENUE. 319 Alabama, at less than the cost of getting it to the pit's mouth, in the countries from which we have been fearing competition. So true is it, then, that the tax on iron ore is no longer needed to protect us who have, the largest product of all the world; so true is it that any little stream of foreign ore that might come from Cuba, or elsewhere, would only increase the use of do- mestic ore by combination with it; so true is all this, that but for the timidity and selfishness that come from thirty years leaning on the tariff, the iron masses of this country might to-day boldly say, " Throw down the barriers ; we will not only supply our own country, but we will go out and build up other great countries with, our products." To-day two hundred millions of people use nearly all the iron produced in the world; the people of the United States, France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain consume near four-fifths of nearly all the iron and steel produced and the other twelve- hundred millions of people use only the remaining fifth. We use steel as well as iron, not only in build- ing our great railway systems, not only in building our great ships for transportation on the lake and on the sea, but as the common structural material of both public and private buildings, as the bridge material of our country roads. In South America, in Asia, in Africa, as in Eussia, and other parts of Europe, among all the other twelve hundred mill- ions the coming of the iron age is at hand. Out of our boundless supply we can get the ma- terial with which to go forth into all these countries 320 TARIFF FOR REVENUE. and build their railroads, build their cities, build their ships, contribute to their growth and pros- perity and call forth their power to consume not only the fabric of iron and steel but the other unlimited products of American industry. So as to coal. There is now a duty of 75 cents a ton on bitrminous coal. The ^Republican platform of 1892 called for duties on foreign imports to com- pensate for the wages paid in their production in this country as compared with the countries from which they come. The majority report on the Mc- Kinley bill said: "We have recommended no duty above the point of difference between the normal cost of production here, including labor, and the cost of production in the countries which seek our mar- kets." Here is a duty of 75 cents per ton which is in excess of the entire cost of production, either in the United States or elsewhere. We have 192,000 square miles of territory under- laid with coal, of which 120,000 square miles can to-day be profitably worked. With such exhaust- less supplies, so close to the surface that the cost of mining has been reduced to a minimum, to less than is possible in Nova Scotia, to less than is actually paid in England, the question of a tariff on coal is neither a question of protection nor a question of revenue, but simply a question of subsidy to the great railroad corporations of the country. As to lumber, another article put on the free list, I need to say but a few words. Here again we are large exporters. Our export of dressed and fin- ished lumber is one of the growing, as it is to-day TARIFF FOR REVENUE. 321 one of the largest items in our export trade. If we can send our lumber to Europe, to the West Indies, South America, we can certainly compete, we can certainly hold our home market without the aid of a tariff. I have already said that I believed no tariff bill could carry any benefit to the American people com- parable to the proposed release from taxation to the materials of industry. Better give a working man untaxed materials to work with than give him untaxed clothing to wear. Better give him untaxed materials on which to exercise his industry than untaxed and cheapened necessaries of life. His wages depend upon the products of his labor. What- ever goes as a tax into the material he uses is a diminution of the wages of the laboring man. As you cheapen his materials you widen the market for his product. With untaxed iron and steel in its cruder form, or even in the humbler beginning of the ore, with untaxed wool and coal and lumber you enable him to put his finished products on the market at prices that w r ill rapidly and indefinitely increase the number of his consumers, and in this way you secure to him steady employment, increas- ing wages, and that personal independence he can never enjoy in a closed, high tariff market. The question of wages is, in my judgment, the vital question of tariff reform. We have higher wages in the United States than are attainable elsewhere, first, because we are a great new country with all the elements of production and of industrial su- premacy in unsurpassed abundance; for whose de- 322 TARIFF FOR REVENUE. velopment we command all the resources of art and skill of science and invention; and secondly, be- cause we have the most intelligent and the freest laboring men in all the world. In such a country any industry that cannot maintain itself except by taxes imposed on the people, instead of increasing, diminishes productiveness; instead of raising, di- minishes by the extent of that taxation the wage re- turn of all the laboring people of the country. Now if there be one fact demonstrated by the ex- perience of our own country,- it is this: that that labor which is the most intelligent and has the highest productive capacity, which consequently receives and ought to receive the highest wages, is in every way able to overcome the labor that is weak and ignorant and has a low productive capacity. So true is this, that it has become a canon of political econ- omy that high wages mean low cost of production, and low wages mean high cost of production. It is in the very products where we pay the highest wages that we are to-day exporters and are able to hold our own against the producers in other parts of the world. Not only is this true of our great farm products, our breadstuffs, provisions, and meat products of all kinds, but the edge of American manufacturers is penetrating foreign markets and needs but some lightening of the taxes on raw ma- terials to make great headway in those ever grow- ing markets. If our minds had not been biased and darkened by thirty years' experience of the protective system, no man to-day would have the effrontery to come TARIFF FOR REVENUE. 323 to Congress demanding 50, 60, 70, or even 80 per cent protection to the article that he produces. Yet, men come to the committee on Ways and Means boldly, defiantly, demanding that we should put 50 per cent, nay, even 100 per cent on imported articles competing with their products. A duty of 50 per cent means that a man must labor one day and a half for that which he can otherwise get by one day's labor. A duty of 100 per cent means that he must labor two days to get that which he could otherwise get by one day's labor. Yet so extreme have grown the views of those who carry on the protected in- dustries, so blinded are they by the concessions of the past thirty years that they think it is nothing to ask us to make the laboring people of this country work every third day for them, instead of for their own comfort and the support of their own families. Let us not disappoint the expectations and the long deferred hope of the American people, of the silent masses, who do not vex us with their angry outcries, the farmers and laborers scattered, unable to organize, who plod their weary way pressed by the burden of taxes. Even if they are voiceless, even if our halls and our corridors are thronged with representatives of the monopolists, and our petition boxes filled with protests of the trust, let us be true to our faith and our pledges, let us go forward until we make this a country in which every man shall see the gateway of opportunity opening before him, in which the great avenues of industry shall no longer be the private possession of the 324 TARIFF FOR REVENUE. wealth of the country, but every youth in its borders shall be inspired to rise by his own merits and his own efforts, not born to labor for others, not beaten back in contempt by those who speak of him as rebel when he seeks his own right. Let this be a country free to all, equal for all, with the golden ladder of opportunity planted in every cabin, in every home, and at every humble fireside in the land.* * Extracts from a speech delivered by Hon. William L. Wilson, of West Vir- ginia, in the House of Representatives, January 8th and 9th, 1894, upon the occasion of the introduction of the measure known as the Wilson Bill. JOHN WANAMAKER. Born near Philadelphia, Pa., July 11, 1838; attended a coun- try school till he was fourteen and then obtained employment in the city as a messenger boy; in 1861 opened a small store which grew to be the largest retail clothing house in America; was connected with the financial management of the Centen- nial Exposition of 1876; was for eight years president of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association; many times declined public office, but in 1889 accepted the portfolio of Postmaster-General in President Harrison's Cabinet. JOHN M. HARLAN. Born in Boyle County, Ky., June 1, 1833, and graduated from Centre College in 1850; began the practice of law at Prank- fort, and in 1858 was elected County Judge; was an unsuc- cessful Whig candidate for Congress; removed to Louisville and entered the Union Army as colonel of the Tenth Kentucky Infantry; in 1863 was elected Attorney-General of Kentucky; was a Republican nominee for Governor in 1871, and his name was presented to the convention of 1875 for the Vice-Presidency of the United States; was chairman of the Kentucky delega- tion to the Republican National Convention in 1876; in 1877 was commissioned an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. CHAPTER XXXII. PROTECTION. BY HON. THOMAS B. KEED. The history of protection has been most remark- able. Fifty years ago the question seemed to be closed. Great Britain had adopted free trade, the United States had started in the same direction, and the whole world seemed about to follow. To-day the entire situation seems to be reversed. The whole civilized world except Great Britain has become pro- tectionist, and the very year last passed has wit- nessed the desertion of English principles by the last English colony which held out. This has been done in defiance of the opinions of every political econo- mist in England who wrote prior to 1850, and of most of those who have written since. Whether the universal sentiment in favor of pro- tection as applied to every country is sound or not, I do not stop to discuss. Whether it is best for the United States of America alone concerns me now, and the first thing I have to say is, that after thirty years of protection, undisturbed by any serious menace of free trade, up to the very year now last past, this country was the greatest and most flourishing nation on the face of this earth. During that period of growth, which lifted us from a position so low that we actually had human slavery within our borders, to our present condition of freedom and prosperity, 328 PROTECTION. we struggled through a dreadful war which deso- lated one-half of the country and so strained the re- sources of the other half, both in money and in men, that its impress to-day is visible every year on our tremedous pension roll, although almost oblit- erated from our public debt After the war ceased our prosperity was clouded with a six-years' strug- gle with a disordered currency and the reconstruc- tion of labor and industry in the South. No nation in the world's history ever passed through in so short a time two ordeals so trying and so severe. In spite of both these misfortunes not only have we studded the country east of the Mississippi all over with mills and work shops, factories and fur- naces, covered it with railroads, exploited the oil and gas fields of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio, and turned into light, heat, and production the fierce, imprisoned energy of a thousand mines of coal, but beyond the Mississippi, that, mighty country which some day will astonish the world with its exceed- ing riches, we have built four great trans-continental lines across the Rocky Mountains, and have driven the great American desert off the maps and off the face of the earth. Of course, we are not to change the history of the last thirty years and the principles of a hundred years, because some gentlemen specially gifted with sonorous voices have distributed epithets. We are not going to risk our all upon fragments of ancient platform speeches, upon loud outcries and abusive language. There must be addressed to us some solid argu- PROTECTION. 329 ments, or at least the opinions of wise men who have proved their wisdom by the actual test of human life. Surely we are not going to venture into the unknown because political economists bid us do so while they still leave unproved every principle upon which they found their advice. So long as they can- not agree among themselves on any of their propo- sitions, they cannot be cited as a body to force our conclusions. On no trackless future will we ven- ture unless the prospect of increased happiness is large enough to justify risk and exposure. Is there any example in the history of the world of any nation situated like ours who has taken the step to which we are invited? Some say that England affords us the needed ex- ample; that we have but to turn to her history and find all that we need by way of examples, just as in the statements of her political economists we shall find all that is necessary for advice, for guidance and instruction. I have looked there, and I am amazed to find how little the example of England can teach. According to the usual story that is told England had been engaged in a long and vain struggle \vith the demon of protection and been year after yea.r sink- ing further into the depths until at a moment whe'n she was in her deepest distress and saddest plight, her manufacturing system broken down ; "Protection having destroyed home trade by reducing," as Mr. Atkinson says, " the entire population to beggary, destitution and want," Mr. Oobden and his friends providentially appeared, and after a hard struggle established a principle for all time and for all the 330 PROTECTION. world, and straightway England enjoyed the sum of human happiness. Hence all good nations should do as England has done and be happy ever after. This fairy tale has not the slightest resemblance to history. England after three centuries of station- ary life, during which the wages of its laborers re- mained without change, at the beginning of this century began to feel the pulses of a new life. Wages then commenced to rise, and in 1840 were 80 per cent higher in money than in 1800, and, meas- ured by purchasing power, were 90 per cent higher than ever before. Coming as this did right after three centuries of stagnation it showed the great power of two things, protection and the establish- ment of the factory system. For England was enor- mously protected not only by duties such as we have, but by the laws which forbade the exportation of machinery, whereby she obtained or sought to ob- tain a monopoly of steam-driven methods. To sum all up, England when she became free trade was a workshop wherein was manufactured the raw material of the rest of the world. Of raw material she herself had none. Her coal and iron and the invention of the steam engine had devel- oped her manufactures, so out of proportion to the wages of her workmen that she must have a larger market. At that time the only idea of a larger market was one that had more consumers. The notion that the market could be entered by those who were already consumers had not entered into the popular thought, yet her workmen were clamoring for more pay. * PROTECTION. 331 Suppose England instead of being a little island in the sea, had been the half of a great continent full of raw material, capable of an internal commerce which would rival the commerce of all the rest of the world. Suppose every year new millions were flocking to her shores and every one of these new millions in a few years, as soon as they tasted the delights of a broader life, would become as great a consumer as any one of her own people. Suppose that these millions and the 70,000,000 already gathered under the folds of her flag were every year demanding and receiving a higher wage and therefore broadening her market as fast as her machinery could furnish production. Suppose she had produced cheap food beyond all her wants, and that her laborers spent so much money that whether wheat was GO cents a bushel or twice that sum hardly entered the thoughts of one of them, except when some Democratic tariff bill was paralyzing his business. Suppose that she was not only but a cannon shot from France, but that every country in Europe had been brought as near to her as Baltimore is to Wash- ington, for that is what cheap ocean freights mean between us and European producers. Suppose all those countries had her machinery, her skilled work- men, her industrial system, and labor 40 per cent cheaper. Suppose under that state of facts, with all her manufacturers proclaiming against it, frantic in their disapproval, England had been called upon by Cobden to make the plunge into free trade, would 332 PROTECTION. she have done it? Not if Cobden had been backed by the Angelic Host. History gives England credit for great sense. We are nominally 70,000,000 people. That is what we are in mere numbers. But as a market for manufacturers and choice foods we are potentially 175,000,000 as compared with the next best nation on the globe. Nor is this difficult to prove. When- ever an Englishman earns one dollar an American earns one dollar and sixty cents. I speak within bounds. Both can get the food that keeps body and soul together and the shelter which the body must h'ave for 60 cents. Take 60 cents from a dollar and you have 40 cents left. Take that same 60 cents from the dollar and sixty and you have a dollar left, just two and a half times as much. That surplus can be spent in choice foods, in house furnishings, in fine clothes, and all the comforts of life; in a word, in the products of our manufactures. That makes our population as consumers of products as com- pared with the English population, 200,000,000. Their population is 37,000,000 as consumers of prod- ucts which one century ago were pure luxuries, while our population is equivalent to 175,000,000. If this is our comparison with England what is the comparison with the rest of the world whose markets our committee are so eager to have in ex- change for our own. The population of the world is 1,500,000,000, of which we have 70,000,000, which leaves 1,430,000.000 for the rest of mankind. We use all our manufact- ures, or the equivalent of them. Hence we are equal PROTECTION. 333 to one-half of the whole globe outside of ourselves, England included, and compared as a market with the rest of the world our population is equal to about 700,000,000. Instead of increasing this market by leaving it to the steady increase of wages it is proposed to lower wages and so lessen the market and then divide that market with somebody else, and all on the chance of getting the markets of the world. Just think a moment what wages are. They are the devourers of consumable wealth. In order to have niore consumable wealth you must have an incentive for its creation. Wealth will never be made unless a consumer stands ready. More con- sumable wealth, therefore, depends upon a broad- ening market. But how can you make more wealth with the same number of workers? By using the forces of nature and by utilizing human brains. Therefore I say that the great forces of nature and the wisest inventions are alike unprofitable except for a. large consumption. Hence, large consump* tion is at the basis of saving in manufacture, and hence high wages contribute their share to progress. If you once accept the idea that necessity is the mother of invention, instead of regarding invention as coming from heaven knows where, you can see how high wages stimulate. But what do you say about the farmer? Well, on that subject I do not profess any special learning, but there is one simple statement I wish to make and leave the question there. If with cities grow- ing up like magic, manufacturing villages dotting 334 PROTECTION. every eligible site, each and all swarming with mouths to be filled, the producers of food are worse off than when half of this country was a desert, I abandon sense in favor of political economy. We are charged with having claimed that the tariff alone will raise wages, and we are pointed tri- umphantly to the fact that the wages of France and Germany, protected by a tariff, are lower than Eng- land, free of all tariff, and to America with a tariff and still higher wages. We have never made such a claim in any such form. What we do say is that where two nations have equal skill and equal appli- ances and a market of nearly equal size and one of them can hire labor at one half less, nothing but a tariff can maintain the higher wages and that we can prove. If there be two bales of goods side by side made by the same kind of machinery and with the labor of the human being in both of the same degree of skill, and if the labor of one bale cost only half as much as the other, that other bale can never be sold until the extra cost of the costliest labor is squeezed out of it, provided that there is an abun- dant supply of the product of the cheaper labor. If the bale with the cheaper labor of England in it meets the bale with the dearer labor of America in it, which will be bought at cost or production? I leave that problem just there. The sale of the Eng- lish bale will be only limited by England's produc- tion. \Ve are the only rival that England fears, for we alone have in our borders the population and the wages, the raw material, and within ourselves the DAVID R. FRANCIS. Born in Richmond, Ky., October 1, 1850; at the age of sixteen went to St. Louis, where he graduated at the Washington University in 1870; entered mercantile life, becoming one of the leading grain merchants of the city; became president of the Merchants' Exchange in 1883; was a delegate to the Na- tional Democratic Convention in 1884; in 1885 was nominated for mayor of St. Louis and elected over his Republican op- ponent; in 1888 he was elected Governor of Missouri. JOHN P. ST. JOHN. Born in Franklin County, Ind., February 25, 1833; began life as a farmer and later was a clerk in a grocery store; in 1853 went to California and afterwards made voyages to South America, Mexico, Central America and Sandwich Islands; removed to Charleston, 111., in 1860, and enlisted in the Sixty-eighth Illinois Regiment in 1862; after the war resumed the practice of law, removing finally to Kansas, in 1869; served in the State Senate in 1873, was elected governor of Kansas in 1878; held the office until 1882; in 1884 became a candidate of the Prohibition party for the presidency and received one hundred and fifty-one thousand eight hundred and nine votes. PROTECTION. 337 great market which insures to us the most improved machinery. Our constant power to increase our wages insures us also continuous progress. If you wish to follow the example of England, I say yes, with all my heart, but her real example and nothing less. Let us keep protection, as she did, until no rival dares to invade our territory, and then we may take our chances for a future which by that time will not be unknown.* * Extracts from a speech delivered by Hon. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, in the House of Representatives, February 1st, 1894. The House at that time had under discussion the " Wilsoii Bill." IS CHAPTER XXXIII. THE DEVELOPMENT 'OF A CAMPAIGN. There were many features in the development of the campaign of 1896, which are most interesting to the student of politics. There had been occa- sions previous to this in the political history of the United States, when the conditions were some- what the same, but never an occasion on which the possible issues were so> transitory, and yet when pas- sions so really violent were aroused, and when the campaign began to develop something like the heat of the ancient fights when " Tippecanoe and Tyler Too " met their opponents and when good sense was to a degree lost in the temporary enthusiasm. Previous to somewhat late in the spring of 1896, the earnest belief of certain people, who were con- vinced that what they called the u demonetization '' of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 as compared with gold, was the only good thing for the country at the present time, had been looked upon as something arbitrary and as a fad that had affected certain masses. Be- ginning with those, including the Western silver mine owners who would profit, and extending thence- forth to those who had in a vague way an inclina- tion for a more generally diffused currency for the people, there was a somewhat energetic outbreak of THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. 3& this demand for free silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 as compared with gold, and the forces of those who be- came known as the Free-Silverites, attained a na- tional importance. Not only did they attain it, but they maintained it, as has already been told, through the importance of their representatives in Congress. The influence of this idea of what silver should be in the making of the coin of the world, did not dis- appear, but rather increased with more effect at the beginning of the political campaign in the United States of the year 189G. One effect of the increased importance of the Free Silverite idea was to diminish the importance of the Populist forces, so strong within a recent period, and as well also the temperance and laborite forces. The Populists had become so strong in a few states that they had elected senators as well as represent- atives, and had exerted a by no means intangible influence, if only as a negative force, in legislation affecting the affairs of the nation. The Laborite in- fluence had become exceedingly strong, and had an undefined affiliation on the politics, and it was thought would certainly nominate a candidate in 1896. The Temperance people, prominent for many years, were also expected to nominate a candidate, but appeared suddenly to be lost in the mist of the many political evolutions. Here was a situation at least novel and somewhat complex which im- mediately preceded the Republican nomination. The result of all that had developed, was that there was an evident silver force in the St. Louis Convention. As state delegation after state delega- 340 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. tion had been named to attend the National Repub- lican Convention, the situation had suddenly and strongly developed as for McKinley against any other Republican Candidate, but there had been no absolutely definite attitude taken either by those who supported or opposed him, as to the action which must follow his nomination. Major McKinley was supposed to be in favor of those supporting the gold standard of what they called " absolutely honest money." There was a claim that he was not com- mitted to a single gold standard. Meanwhile he made no declaration as to his attitude in the matter, though in most of the states supporting him, the platform of his party contained a distinct declara- tion to the effect that no allowance must be given to the principle of the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 as compared with the value of gold. This was the Republican situation when the National Republican Convention convened in St Louis, July 16, 1896. Meanwhile the forces of the Democratic party had been uncertain in many matters; when some action came, it was not unanimous. The advanced idea of certain states, that a fight on free silver was the best issue for the campaign, had impressed it- self upon many prominent Democrats, as it had upon many Republicans, and in certain of the Mid- dle and Southern States, as well as in the silver producing Republican States in the West, there had come a declaration that the making of silver coin under the conditions named, was the best thing for the country. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. 341 Kentucky followed the example of Colorado; the Democratic Conventions of the states of Indiana, Illinois and other states imitated the Democrats of the Silver States, in declaring for Free Coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. There suddenly ap- peared a group of possible leaders who were willing to make the national quadriennial fight upon this issue and they included among their numbers, many of the great men of the party. At the time of the Republican Convention in St. Louis, the indications were not merely that a great number of the promi- nent Democrats would accept the silver issue, but there might possibly be a combination of the Demo- cratic party with the Populists and the generally unrestful blending themselves together on the sil- ver issue, and making that the issue of the campaign. Of course there was within the Democratic ranks, a violent opposition to this course regarding the cur- rency or to this affiliation with what were counted, or had been previously counted, the more dreamy and impulsive and ignorant portion of the voters of the country. Such men as Senator Hill, of New York, and men equally prominent in other states, opposed bitterly the idea of having the party adopt a measure which they deemed could result only in financial ruin for the country, and declared them- selves as readily to break the old affiliations and old obligations, or even to go so far as to join with the Republicans 1 in defeating what they esteemed a financial project as wild as that of John- Law with his Mississippi scheme, or of those who benefited by the tulip craze in Holland. The acerbity of the rela- 342 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. tions between the two branches of the Democratic party in Chicago and New York seemed even to surpass that which exists between the two great parties of the country, counted all alone. There had come no definite result up to the time of the Re- publican Convention, of this attitude of a great number of the Democratic party in favor of the Free-Silverite idea. Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, and his forces had thrown the state, supposedly, into line with the new movement, and so had Gov- ernor Matthews, of Indiana, and Senator Blackburn, of Kentucky, while over half a hundred other equally potent Democrats, scattered throughout the United States were supporting these pioneers in the novel political movement. It looked at the time of the Republican Convention as if this convention would possibly have a vigorous platform in favor of gold as a standard, with silver as an assistant, while the Democratic platform would have a declaration for gold in use as money, with the collateral use of silver also employed as money, and used weight for weight in this connection, at a ratio of 16 to 1. Very delicate and very important were the respect- ive attitudes on the money question of the Repub- lican and Democratic parties at the time just pre- ceding the Republican Convention held in St. Louis in 1896. With the gathering of the Republican forces in St. Louis proceeding the convention of June 16th, the importance of the monetary issue ranked almost with that of the nominations. It was foreseen that McKinley would be nominated for the presidency, THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. 343 the debate so far as nominations went thus being narrowed down to the vice-presidency. At once the issue became marked, not so immediately between the so-called " Sound Money Men," and the " Free Silverites," as between the Eastern and Western sound money representatives. The question raised was whether or not the convention should declare for a gold standard, using the word " gold," or whether it should declare for bimetallism with gold as a basis. As a matter of fact there was no great difference of opinion on the matter of coinage as be- tween the contending forces, but merely a difference as to what would be the best wording of the plat- form, for effect in the campaign. It was argued by the Eastern delegates, that the single gold stand- ard should be made as distinct as possible, and that the word " gold " should be made most prominent. It was argued by the Western delegates, that the use of the word " gold" in the connection described would convey a wrong idea to the mass of the peo- ple, and that it would be better to otherwise phrase this plank of the platform so as to express the firm attitude of the party with respect to the coinage only of money which would be worth its face value anywhere in the world, but referring to silver as an adjunct more at length. So the debate continued until the opening of the convention. Numerous forms of this plank of the platform were devised, and many were received from prominent people throughout the country. Major McKinley, to whose home in Ohio a telegraph wire led, was conferred with frequently, but there was no authorized an- S44 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. nouncement of his definite attitude previous to the opening of the convention. It was understood how- ever that his wishes would have great weight in the formation of this plank. Meanwhile the Free Silver Men, in a hopeless minority, had very little to say. Senator Teller of Colorado, the acknowledged leader of this wing of the party, did not arrive to lead his forces until a day or two before the convention assembled. What the Free Silverites would do in the convention, was a matter of national speculation. June 15th it was announced that the Free Silverites would concede nothing, and would demand in the convention a reso- lution favoring the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 as compared with gold. So far as the ac- tions of the delegates from Nevada, Idaho Colorado and Utah was concerned, it was declared that after their inevitable defeat, they would withdraw from the convention. There was an intimation also that they might be joined by the representatives from the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Sena- tors Teller and Dubois, Idaho, were the leaders of this group. Meanwhile the tendency of the sound money wing seemed nearly in the direction of mak- ing the plank even more emphatic than at first indi- cated. Such was the financial situation on the eve of the convention. The prospects of the vice-presidential nomination were lost in a mist. There were efforts made to secure the assent of Ex-Speaker Thomas B. Reed to accept the nomination, and the same efforts were made in favor of Gov. Morton, of New York. H. JOHN M. THURSTON. Born in Montpelier, Vt., August 21, 1847; graduated from Wayland University and took up the study of law; went to Omaha, Neb., in 1869, and began the practice of his profession; became city attorney for Omaha and in 1872 became chair- man of Douglas County delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1875; was presidential elector in 1880; was elected a member of the Nebraska Legislature in 1884; was chosen chairman of the National Republican Convention in 1888; in 1895 was elected United States Senator for a full term of six years, beginning March 4, 1895. CUSHMAN K. DAVIS. Born in Henderson, N. Y., June 16, 1838; graduated from the University of Michigan in 1857; studied law and began practice in Waukesha, Wis.; at the beginning of the Civil War became a lieutenant in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Regiment; was promoted to assistant adjutant-general on the staff of General Gorman; in 1865 removed to Minnesota and resumed the practice of law in St. Paul; elected to the Minnesota Legisla- ture in 1867, and in 1868 was appointed United States Attorney for Minnesota; was elected Governor of the State on the Re- publican ticket in 1874; was elected United States Senator in 1887, and again in 1893. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAMPAIGN. 347 Clay Evans, of Tennessee, was talked of in the same connection, as were also Ex-Gov. D. Russell Brown, of Rhode Island; Gov. D. H. Hastings, of Pennsyl- vania; Ex-Senator John J. Ingalls; Ex-Gov. M. G. Bulkeley, of Connecticut; Garrett A. Hobart, of New Jersey; Nelson Dingley, Jr., of Maine, and many other men of equal prominence, though no one had at- tained a distinctive lead or could be considered as overshadowing the others with his chances. So the situation stood on the eve of June 15th regarding the outside issues of the hour. Many interesting communications were received. Perhaps the most important of these was one from Prof. Goldwin Smith, and other prominent Canadians, who sent to their friends in St. Louis a resolution in favor of Continental Union which they desired to have adopted by the Republican Convention. They did this, it was declared, not only with the belief that it would meet with popular response from the people of the United States, but that such an expression of geographical fraternalism would greatly aid the Liberal party in Canada in the election which was soon to come. This communication would attract attention, from the fact that it was the first ex- pression of its kind ever made from Canada under such authoritative auspices. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. The Republican Convention of 1896 was called to order in the great building erected in St. Louis for this special occasion a little after 12 o'clock on Tuesday, June 16. The fact that there was slight prospect of a struggle over the presidential nomination had its effect upon the character of the convention, and the opening proceedings were as quiet as those of the convention of 1872, when General Grant was renominated in Philadelphia. The convention was called to order by the Hon. Thomas Car- ter, of Montana, chairman of the National Committee. There was prayer by Mr. Samuel Sale, a distinguished Jewish rabbi, and then the Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, took his place as temporary chairman. Mr. Fairbanks delivered an address, a eulogy on the party and its prospects, but without any definite declaration indicating the financial plank to be introduced by the majority wing of the party. Only the temporary organi- zation was accomplished, and the convention adjourned for the next day. Later in the day the Committee on Resolutions selected Senator John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, for permanent chairman of the convention. Meanwhile the Committee, of which Senator Josepk B. Foraker, of Ohio, was the head, met, and a sub-com- mittee composed of Senator Foraker, R. W. Patterson, THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. 349 Samuel Fessenden, Edward Lauterbach, A. F. Bur- leigh, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Henry C. Warmoth, Senator Henry M. Teller and ex-Grov. W. R. Merriam conferred together and adopted the platform to be sub- mitted to the convention the next day. The convention was called to order at 10:45 A. M. the following morning. After the usual routine business had been transacted and the Committee on Permanent Organ- ization had made its report Chairman John M. Thurston was conducted to the chair amid great applause. When quiet had been secured he delivered an address which electrified the audience. The Committee on Credentials, it was announced, was not yet ready to report and an ad- journment was made until the afternoon. The afternoon session was not eventful and little was accomplished save in the way of preliminaries. The re- port of the Committee on Credentials was presented and it seemed that the McKinley forces wished to make of this something in the nature of a test of strength. The first ballot taken, wherein something like a controversy was involved, resulted in a vote of 568^ for the McKin- leyites, as against 339 for the opposition. It was not a correct test vote, for something like over fifty acknowl- edged McKinley ites voted in the negative. The episode was enlivened by the cheers of different state delegations as the leader of individual states rose to cast the vote. Nevertheless the session on the whole was a tame one. It became gradually evident that nothing would be accom- plished during the afternoon session; there was an effort made to adjourn until 8 o'clock, but the final sense of the convention was that the adjournment should be until 10 o'clock of next day. 350 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. The work of the evening was devoted largely to the question of the vice-presidency, the financial plank hav- ing apparently become already something like an issue of the past, although, of course, it was thought probable that there would be a scene in the convention when Sen- ator Teller and his cohorts declared their attitude. Governor Morton of New York, H. Clay Evans of Ten- nessee and Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey appeared during the evening to be the most conspicuous candi- dates. It was asserted in the hotel lobbies that the friends of McKinley had decided upon the support of Hobart; the New York forces, under the leadership of Platt, seemed to be concentrating upon Governor Morton and drawing a strong New England allegiance, while there was a southern and western influence in favor of H. Clay Evans, the Tennessean candidate. So ended the second day of the convention. The convention began the work of the third day at 10:32 A. M. The Committee on Platform made its report, which was read by Senator Foraker. At the con- clusion of the reading, Senator Foraker, addressing the President, said: " I move you, sir, that the resolutions, as they have been read, be adopted by this convention as the Repub- lican National Platform for 1896." The Chairman then said: " The adoption of the report has been moved and seconded. Are you ready for the question?" At this point Senator Teller appeared upon the plat- form and was recognized by the chairman, who announced that the Senator from Colorado moved the substitution of a financial plank as embodied hi the THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. 351 minority report of the committee. Thereupon the Sec- retary read the following: "We, the undersigned, members of the Committee on Resolu- tions, being unable to agree with a portion of the majority which treats of the subject of coinage and finances, respectfully submit the following paragraph as a substitute therefor: "The Republican party authorizes the use of both gold and sil- ver as equal standard money, and pledges its power to secure the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at our mints at the ratio of 16 parts silver to i of gold. After the reading of the substitute plank Senator Foraker made a motion that it be laid upon the table which was seconded by Senator Lodge. The Chairman then said: " It is moved that the substitute offered by the gen- tleman from Colorado be laid upon the table. The state of Colorado demands that the roll be called and a record made of the vote. Is that demand seconded by any other state?" The state of Montana seconded the demand and the roll was called. The vote resulted as follows: Yeas, 818-J, nays, 105^. After the result, which was greeted with great applause, had subsided, Senator Foraker moved the previous question on the motion to adopt the' resolutions as read from the platform. Senator Dubois of Idaho then requested permission to ask a question, and when Senator Foraker had with- drawn his motion he requested that a separate vote be taken upon the financial plank. The result of the vote was as follows: Yeas, 812^, nays, 110-|. Immediately after the announcement of the adoption of the platform, Senator Teller appeared on the rostrum and informed the chairman that he had a communication to make to the convention from the silver delegates. Thereupon Sena- tor Cannon of Utah read the following: 352 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. "In announcing the purpose asserted in this paper it is due to pur constituents and to ourselves that there shall be a public show- ing of vindicating facts. "The sole authorized expression of national Republican faith from June g, 1892, until the present date has been the platform adopted in national convention at Minneapolis. Neither the utter- ances of State conventions nor the attitude of individuals could change the tenor of that platform or abate the sanctity of its bind- ing force. Every delegate to this convention was elected as its ad- herent and its advocate. True, one of its most important para- graphs has been subjected to such a divergence of construction as to make its language unsatisfactory during the intervening time, and dangerous if continued in the future; but of the intent con- tained within that language there has never been a doubt. "It is the rightful province of this convention to revise the party tenets and to announce anew the party purpose. The major- ity of this convention in the exercise of such authority has this day made official enunciation of Republican law and gospel. With much of the platform we agree, believing that in many essential par- ticulars it compasses the needs of humanity, affirms the mainte- nance of right, and proposes the just remedy for wrong. But it de- clares one elemental principle, not only in direct contravention of the expression of party faith in 1892, but in radical opposition to our solemn conviction. We recognize that in all matters of mere method it is but just and helpful that the minority shall yield to the will of the majority, lest we have chaos in parties and in govern- ment. "But as no pronouncement by majorities can change opposing knowledge or belief sincerely entertained, so it cannot oblige minor- ities to abandon or disavow their principles. As surely as it is requisite for peace and progress that minorities shall yield to ma- jorities in matters of mere method, just so surely is it necessary for that same peace and progress that minorities shall not yield in matters of fundamental truth. "The Republican platform of 1892 affirmed that the American people, from tradition and interest, favored bimetallism and de- manded the use of both gold and silver as standard money. This was accepted by us as a declaration in behalf of the principle upon which rests the interest of every citizen and the safety of the United States. In such terms the platform was then satisfactory to the be- lievers in bimeta41ism within our party, but because of equivocal construction and evasion it has since been demonstrated to be in- sufficient. "As the declaration of 1892 has been by a majority of the party construed to justify a single gold standard for our monetary basis, and as the recent trend of the official power of that party has been in that direction, we cannot but assume that the money plank of the new platform, being much more favorable to perpetuate gold mon- ometallism, will be determinedly used in behalf of that idea. The Republican party has won its power and renown by pursuing its purposes courageously and relentlessly; it is, therefore, only in ac- THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. 353 cordance with the party's history to assume that if it shall come to present authority in the United States it will crystallize into law and administration under this tempting platform the perpetual single gold standard in our finances. This, if long continued, will mean the absolute ruin of the producers of the country, and finally of the nation itself. "The American people not only favor bimetallism from tradi- tion and interest, but from that wise instinct which has always been manifest in the affairs of a people destined for the world's leader- ship. Under the operation of our great demand for advancement we have become to other nations the greatest debtor nation of the world. We pay the vast charges which every year accumulate against us in the clearing-house of the world with the money of the world procured by the disposal of our commodities in the mar- kets of the world. "We are a nation of producers. Our creditors are nations of consumers. Any system of international or national finance which elevates the price of human product makes our burden lighter and gives promise of that day when it shall be entirely lifted and our country freed financially, as it is politically, from the domination of monarchy and foreign autocracy. Any system of finance which tends to depreciate the price of human productions, which we must sell abroad, but so far adds to the burden of our debt and conveys athreatof the perpetual servitude of the producers of our debtor na- tion to the consumers of creditor nations. To use it is a folly with- out a parallel that this country or any political party therein should deliberately accept a money system which enriches others at our cost. History, philosophy, morals, all join with the commonest in- stinct of self-preservation in demanding that the United States shall have a just and substantially unvarying standard, composed of all available gold and silver, and with it our country will progress to financial enfranchisement. But with a single gold standard the country will go on to worse destruction; to continued falling prices; until our people would become the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the consumers in creditor nations of the earth. "To such an unholy end we will not lend ourselves. Dear as has been the Republican name to its adherents, that name is not so dear as the faith itself. And we do not sacrifice one jot or tittle of the mighty principles by which Republicanism has uplifted the world when we say that at the parting of the ways we cling to the faith, let the name go where it will. We hold that this convention has seceded from the truth; that the triumph of such secession would be the eventual destruction of our freedom and our civiliza- tion. To that end the people will not knowingly follow any polit- ical party, and we choose to take our place in the ranks of the great mass of citizens who realize that the hour has come for justice. Did we deem this issue less important to humanity we would yield, since the asociations of all our political lives have been intertwined with the men and the measures of this party of past mighty achieve- ments. But the people cry aloud for relief; they are bending be- neath a burden growing heavier with the passing hours; endeavor 354 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. no longer brings its just reward; fearfulness takes the place of cour- age and despair usurps the throne of hope; and unless the laws of the country and the policies of political parties shall be converted into mediums of redress the effect of human desperation may some time be witnessed here as in other lands and in other ages. "Accepting the fiat of this convention as the present purpose of the party, we withdraw from this convention to return our constitu- ents the authority with which they invested us, believing that we have better discharged their trust by this action, which restores to them authority unsullied, than by giving cowardly and insincere indorse- ment to the greatest wrong ever willfully attempted within the re- publican party once redeemer of the people, but now about to be- come their oppressor, unless providentially restrained by the votes of free men." This document was signed by Senators Teller of Colo- rado, Dubois of Idaho, and Cannon of Utah, Congress- man Hartman of Montana, and Mr. Cleveland of Nevada, as the representatives of their respective states on the Committee on Resolutions. Senator Teller then stepped from the platform and spoke as follows: "Gentlemen of the Convention: I will not attempt to inflict upon you a discussion of the great financial question which is divid- ing the people, not only of this country, but of the whole world. The few moments allotted to me by the convention will not enable me to more than state in the briefest possible manner our objec- tions to the financial plank proposed for our consideration. I am a practical man, and I recognize the conditions existing in this con- vention foreshadowed as they were by the action of the committee selected by the representatives assembled from different states. "This plank or the proposition was presented to the whole committee, and by it rejected. Loyalty to my own opinion, con- sideration of great interest that is felt in this country, compels me in the face of unusual difficulties to present this for your considera- tion, not with that bounding hope or with that courage that I have presented this in other bodies with greater measure of success than I can hope for here. The great and supreme importance of this question is alone my excuse for the few words that I shall say to you. "I represent a State that produces silver, but I want to say to you here and now that my advocacy is not in the slightest degree influenced by that fact. I contend for it because I believe there can be no sound financial system in any country in the world that does not recognize this principle. I contend for it because since 1873, when it was ruthlessly stricken from our statutes, there has been a continued depreciation of all products of human labor and human BENJAMIN HARRISON. Born in North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833; graduated at Miami University, studied law in Cincinnati, and in 1854 re- moved to Indianapolis; entered the war in 1862 as second lieutenant, and in 1865 was brevetted brigadier-general; in 1876 ran for Governor, but was defeated by the Democratic candidate; chairman of the Indiana delegation at the National Convention in Chicago in 1880, when General Garfield was nominated for the Presidency; chosen United States Senator the same year, holding the office until 1887; nominated for President in 1888, and subsequently elected; was a candidate for re-election in 1892, but was defeated by the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland. HENRY M. TELLER. Born in Granger, N. Y., May, 1830; received an academic education; came West in 1858, after being admitted to the bar; began the practice of his profession at Morrison, 111., where he resided until 1861, when he went to Colorado; never held any office until Colorado was admitted as a state; was elected to the United States Senate in 1876; was re-elected to serve a full term from 1877 to 1883, when he was made Secretary of the Interior and served until 1885; was re-elected to the Senate at the end of President Arthur's administra- tion as the successor of N. P. Hill; was re-elected in 1891 for the term ending March 3, 1897. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OP 1896. 357 energy. I contend for it because in this year of 1896 the American people are in greater distress than they ever were in their history. I contend for it because this is, in my judgment, the great weight, the great incubus that has weighed down enterprises and destroyed prices in this favored land of ours. I contend for it because I be- lieve the progress of my country is dependent on it. I contend for it because I believe the civilization of the world is to be determined by the rightful or the wrongful solution of this financial question. "I am tolerant of those who differ from me. I act from my judgment, enlightened as best I have been able to enlighten it by my years of study and my years of thought. In my judgment the American people in the whole line of their history have never been called upon to settle a question of greater importance to them than this. The great contest in which many of you participated to de- cide whether we should have two flags or one was not more im- portant to the American people than the question of a proper solu- tion of what shall be the money system of this land. "I have said enough to show that I think this is not a question of policy, but a question of principle. It is not a mere idle thing, but one on which hangs the happiness, the prosperity, the morality, and the independence of American labor and American producers. Confronted for the first time in the history of this glorious party of ours confronted, I say, for the first time with a danger of a finan- cial system that in my judgment will be destructive of all the great interests of this land, we are called upon to give to this provision of our platform our adhesion or rejection. "Mr. President, I do not desire to say unkind or unfriendly things, and I will touch in a moment, and only a moment, upon why I object to this provision of this platform. The Republican party has never been the party of a single standard. It was a bi- metallic party in its origin, in all its history. In 1888 it declared for bimetallism; in 1892 it declared for bimetallism. In 1896 it de- clared for a single gold standard. In 1888 we carried the State that I here represent for the republican nominee; we carried it on a bimetallic platform. We carried it with a majority that equals, con- sidering our vote, that of any State in the Union. It has been a Republican State from the hour of its admission. It has kept in the Senate Republican senators and in the House Republican mem- bers. "Mr. President, I promised you I would not discuss the silver question, and I will not, except to say that this platform is such a distinct departure from everything heretofore done by the party that it challenges our Republican name to accept it. The platform contains some platitudes about international conferences. It pro- vides that we will maintain the gold standard in this country until the principal nations of the world shall agree that we may do other- wise. This is the first gathering of Republicans since this party was organized that has declared the inability of the American peo- ple to control their own affairs. 19 358 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. All the silver delegates rose in a body at this and shouted their approval of the sentiment. "Do you believe that the American people are too weak to actually maintain a financial system commensurate with the business of the country of their own fruition? Gentlemen of the conven- tion, you will have no bimetallic agreement with all the great com- mercial nations of the world, and it cannot be obtained. So this is a declaration that the gold standard is to be put upon this country and kept here for all time. Do you believe that Great Britain, that great commercial nation of the world, our powerful competitor in commerce and trade, will ever agree to open her mints to the coin- age of silver, or that we shall open ours? "We are the great debtor nation of the world. Great Britain is the great creditor. We pay for every year millions and hun- dreds of millions of dollars as income on her investments in this country on her loans. "The gold standard, in my judgment, lowers prices and de- creases values. And she buys of us millions and millions more than she sells us. She buys upon a gold standard, a lowering and de- preciating standard. How long do you think it will be before she will agree to a system of values that raises the price of the farm product or the products of our mines in this country? It is a solemn declaration that the Republican party intends to maintain low prices and stagnated business for all time to come. There is a beautiful provision in the platform about the tariff. I subscribe to that. I believe in a protective tariff. I have advocated it for forty years, but it is my solemn conviction that a protective tariff cannot be maintained upon a gold standard. The tariff of protection prin- ciple is for the raising of pries of human toil; it is for the good of the producer. The gold standard, on the contrary, everywhere that it is enforced, reduces values. "I will call your attention to one other fact and then leave it to your judgment whether this platform shall be adopted or rejected. Under existing conditions we undoubtedly have the gold stand- ard. I do not deny that. But what I have sought for twenty years is to change it to the bimetallic system. I have believed, and yet believe, that when the Almighty created these twin metals He in- tended that the world should use them for the purposes for which they were created. "When He blessed this land with more gold and more silver than any other country in the world He meant that we should use them for the purposes for which they were intended to-wit: the use of the people as standard money. We to-day reverse the tra- ditions of our country and declare we will use only one. If the American people are in favor of that I have nothing to say. I must submit to the majority vote and the majority voice in this country of ours. I do not believe this party of ours, if it could be polled, is in favor of the gold standard. I believe that 50 per cent of the people are in favor of bimetallism of the old-fashioned system that existed in this country up to 1873. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OP 1896. 359 "Mr. President and gentlemen of the convention, I promised that I would take but a few minutes, and I believe I am allowed only a few in which I can rapidly address you. But I want to say a few things that may seem to you to be personal and that they ought not to be introduced in an audience like this. I must beg your indulgence if I seem to transcend the proprieties of this occa- sion if I shall say something personal to myself. I have formed my convictions on this great question after twenty years of study, after twenty years of careful thought and careful, reading. I have been trained in a school that it seems to me ought to fit me fairly well for reaching just conclusions from established facts. I have formed my conclusions to such an extent that it has become binding on my conscience. "I believe that the adoption of the gold standard will produce hardships; it will increase the distress, and that no legislation touching the tariff can remove the difficulties that now all admit prevail in this land. I believe the whole welfare of my race is de- pendent upon a rightful solution of this question; that the morality, the civilization, nay, the very religion of my country is at stake in this contest. I know, you know, that men in distress are neither patriotic nor brave. You and I know that hunger and distress will destroy patriotism and love of country. To have love of country, patriotic fervor, and independence you must have your citizens comfortably fed and comfortably clothed. "That is what made me a Republican; that is what has made me a Republican during all these years, because I believed that the Re- publican party was made for the masses of men; that its legislation was intended to lift up and elevate and hold up and sustain the dis- tressed and give every citizen opportunities before the law. I do not believe that it can be had with the gold standard. You may doubt my argument, and many of you will, but shall I doubt it? I must act upon my judgment and not upon yours. I must answer to my conscience and not my neighbor's. I must do my duty as it is pre- sented to me, and not as presented to you. "I say to you now that with the solemn conviction upon me that this gold plank means ultimate disaster and distress to my fol- lowers, I cannot subscribe to it, and, if adopted, I must, as an hon- est man, sever my connection with the political organization which makes it one of the main articles of its principles. I repeat here what I said yesterday in the committee. I would not upon my judgment alone, carefully as I have attempted to prepare it, dare to take this step alone. My friends, I am sustained in my view of the danger that is coming to us and coming to the world by the adop- tion of the gold standard by the intelligence of the world. "Let me tell you that the best part of the world is with the ad- vocates of bimetallism. All the great political teachers of Europe, with the exception of five or six, are the pronounced advocates of bimetallism, unrestrained bimetallism. All of the great teachers of political economy in the European colleges without exception are in favor of bimetallism. My own judgment, based, as I have said to you , on careful preparation and careful study for twenty years, 360 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. bears me out and puts me in accord with them, and I would be recreant to my trust if I failed to protest here, and if I failed when the Republican party makes this one of the tenets of its faith to sever my connection with that party. "Mr. President, I ask your kind permission to say a few things personal to myself, and when I have said them, having told you what my conscience demands that I should do, I will leave this question for your consideration. Do you suppose that I and my associates who act with me and take the same vjew of this question as I do do you suppose that we can take this step without dis- tress? Do you suppose that we could take it for any personal ad- vantage or any honor that could be conferred upon us? We say it is a question of duty. "You may nominate in this convention any man you choose. If you nominate on the right kind of a platform I will vote for him. You may take any methods to nominate him that you think proper. I will defer to your judgment and support him if the platform is right, but when you ask me to surrender to you my principles as an honest man I cannot do that. I realize what it will cost us. I real- ize the gibes and sneers and the contumely that will be heaped upon us, but, my fellow citizens, I have been through this before before the political party to which you belong had a being. I have ad- vocated a cause more unpopular than the silver cause. I have stood for the doctrine of free homes and free speech. I am used to detraction. I am used to abuse, and I have had it heaped upon me without stint. When the Republican party was organized I was there. With its distinguished leaders, its distinguished men of forty years I have been in close communion and close friendship. I have shared in its honors and in its few defeats and disasters. Do you think that we can sever our connection with a party like this unless it be a matter of duty a duty to all people of this great land? "Mr. President, there are few men in a political party that have been honored more than I have by the people of the State in which they live There are few men in this convention or anywhere else that have been longer connected with this organization than I. There are few men in it who have been more active, and none in it no, not one who ha's been more attached to the great principles of this party than I have been, and I cannot go out of it without heart-but nings and a feeling that no man can appreciate who has not endured it; and yet I cannot before my country and my God agree to that provision that shall put upon this country a gold standard, and I will not. "I do not care what may be the result. If it takes me out of political life I will go*out with a feeling that at least I maintained my consistency and my manhood, and that my conscience is clear, and that my country will have no right to find fault with me. "I beg your pardon for saying things so personal, but yet if a personal act that to some implies perfidy and dishonor is about to be taken I think it but just to myself and my associates that I should proclaim to you that we take this step not in anger, not in pique, not because we dislike the nominee prospectively or other- THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. 361 wise, but because our conscience requires, as honest men, that we should make this sacrifice, for sacrifice we feel that it is. "Thanking you, gentlemen, for your kind attention, retiring from you as I do perhaps never again to have an opportunity of ad- dressing a Republican convention, I cannot do it without saying that, after all, I have in my heart a hope nay, I have an expecta- tion that if you should be foolish enough to adopt this platform and force us to retire, better counsel will prevail and ultimately, on a true Republican platform, sustaining Republican principles, I shall have the inestimable privilege of again addressing you." At the close of Mr. Teller's speech the applause, es- pecially from the silver states, was tremendous. The next order of business was the presentation of names for the nomination of candidates for President. The name of Senator William B. Allison of Iowa was placed before the convention by John M. Baldwin of Council Bluffs. After an eloquent speech which was received with great applause Senator Henry Cabot Lodge took the stand and nominated Thomas B. Reed amid much enthusiasm. The clerk proceeded with the call of the roll until the state of New York was reached when William A. Sutherland of that delegation arose and said that the claims of New York and her favorite son would be presented by her other favorite son, Chauncey M. Depew. The speech of Mr. Depew was vigorous and stirring, and at the mention of the name of Levi P. Morton the New York delegation gave three cheers which were echoed from the galleries. When the applause which followed Mr. Depew's speech had subsided the Secretary proceeded with the calling of the roll and when Ohio was reached the long pent up enthusiasm burst forth. When it was announced that Senator Joseph B. Foraker would speak for Ohio and her candidate the tumult began with renewed force but ceased when the distinguished 364 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. William McKinley by J. Madison Vance, of Louisiana, and N. H. Alexander, of Alabama. The next order of business Ijjeing the call of the roll of states for the nomination of a candidate for President, the delegates were requested to take their seats and the roll call proceeded. The total number of votes cast was 922, of which McKinley received 661J; Reed, 84 J; Quay, 61J; Morton, 58, and Allison 35. The nomination of William McKinley having been accomplished on the first ballot Senator Lodge moved that it be made unanimous and Governor Hastings sec- onded the motion. At the conclusion of Governor Hast- ings' remarks Mr. Depew made a short but brilliant address again seconding the nomination. He was fol- lowed by Mr. Platt, of New York, and Mr. Henderson, of Iowa. In response to urgent calls Mr. M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland, arose and made a modest speech. The Chairman then said: "The question now is shall the nomination of William McKinley be made unanimous? All of you who are in favor of making the nomination unanimous will rise." After the delegates had risen to their feet the Chair- man continued: " By authority of your unanimous vote as chairman of this convention I declare that William McKinley of the State of Ohio is the nominee of the Republican party for President of the United States." The next in order was the nomination of Vice- Presi- dent. After preliminary speeches in support of the various candidates the roll was called and the result announced The names of Morgan G. Bulkeley, of Connecticutt, Gar- rett A. Hobart, of New Jersey, Charles Warren Lippitt, JOHN C. SPOONER. Born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., January 6, 1843; removed to Wisconsin and settled in Madison in 1859; graduated from the State University in 1864; was a private in the Fortieth Wis- consin Regiment, and became captain of Company A, Fiftieth Wisconsin Regiment; was brevetted major at the close of the service: was private secretary to Gov. Fairchild; admitted to the bar in 1867 and served as Assistant Attorney-General of the State until 1870; was elected a member of the Assembly of St. Croix County in 1872; was elected United States Senator to succeed Angus Cameron in 1885, serving until 1891. 364 THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OP 1896. William McKinley by J. Madison Vance, of Louisiana, and N. H. Alexander, of Alabama. The next order of business ^eing the call of the roll of states for the nomination of a candidate for President, the delegates were requested to take their seats and the roll call proceeded. The total number of votes cast was 922, of which McKinley received 661; Reed, 84J; Quay, 61^; Morton, 58, and Allison 35. The nomination of William McKinley having been accomplished on the first ballot Senator Lodge moved that it be made unanimous and Governor Hastings sec- onded the motion. At the conclusion of Governor Hast- ings' remarks Mr. Depew made a short but brilliant address again seconding the nomination. He was fol- lowed by Mr. Platt, of New York, and Mr. Henderson, of Iowa. In response to urgent calls Mr. M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland, arose and made a modest speech. The Chairman then said: " The question now is shall the nomination of William McKinley be made unanimous? All of you who are in favor of making the nomination unanimous will rise." After the delegates had risen to their feet the Chair- man continued: " By authority of your unanimous vote as chairman of this convention I declare that William McKinley of the State of Ohio is the nominee of the Republican party for President of the United States." The next in order was the nomination of Vice-Presi- dent. After preliminary speeches in support of the various candidates the roll was called and the result announced. The names of Morgan G. Bulkeley, of Connecticutt, Gar- rett A. Hobart, of New Jersey, Charles Warren Lippitt, JOHN C. SPOONER. Born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., January 6, 1843; removed to Wisconsin and settled in Madison in 1859; graduated from the State University in 1864; was a private in the Fortieth Wis- consin Regiment, and became captain of Company A, Fiftieth Wisconsin Regiment; was brevetted major at the close of the service: was private secretary to Gov. Fairchild; admitted to the bar in 1867 and served as Assistant Attorney-General of the State until 1870; was elected a member of the Assembly of St. Croix County in 1872; was elected United States Senator to succeed Angus Cameron in 1885, serving until 1891. WILLIAM E. CHANDLER. Born in Concord, N. H., December 28, 1835; after being admitted to the bar in 1856 was appointed reporter of the New Hampshire Supreme Court; in 1862 was elected by the Re- publicans to the Legislature; in 1865 was appointed first So- licitor and Judge Advocate-General of the Navy Department; became First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1865; in 1881 was again elected to the New Hampshire Legislature, and in 1882 was appointed Secretary of the Navy; was elected United States Senator in 1887, and re-elected in 1889, and again in 1895. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1896. 367 of Rhode Island, Henry Clay Evans, of Tennessee, and James A. Walker, of Virginia, were presented and the roll was called. With the exception of a few scattering votes the result was as follows: Hobart, 533^; Evans, 280 J; Bulkeley, 39; Walker, 24; Lippitt, 8. The nom- ination of Mr. Hobart was then made unanimous, after which the convention adjourned. THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. William McKinley, the Republican candidate for President of the United States, is a splendid type of American manhood. The force and determination which he inherited from his sturdy ancestors and his own vigor- ous character has enabled him to forge his way to the front rank of eminent statesmen. Believing implicitly in the principles of protection, he has pursued a course which marks him as one of the most consistant political leaders this country has ever known. The paternal ancestors of William McKinley came originally from Scotland, where for years they had been persecuted because, like others, they objected to worship- ing God according to the ritual of the Church of Eng- land. They were simple sturdy people and desired a gosperthat was unpretentious. So they fled to Ireland where they hoped to find the freedom denied them in Scotland . In 1750 James and William McKinley came to America. The latter settled in the South but James Mc- Kinley went to Pennsylvania. Here he married and his son David was one of the first to enlist in the Continental Army. David McKinley was the great-grandfather of the famous advocate of protection. After the war of 1812 David McKinley removed to Columbiana county, Ohio. LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 369 James, his second son, married Mary Kose, whose an- cestors came from Holland, where they had fled to escape religious persecution in England. William, the second son of James McKinley, was the father of the man who, to- day, stands before the people as the embodiment of Republican principles. The present William McKinley 's father married Nancy Campbell Allison, in 1827, at New Lisbon, Ohio. Major McKinley's mother is still living, a lovely old lady, strong and sturdy beyond her years and full of pride for her distinguished son. The old saying that blood will tell is exemplified in the fact that William B. Allison, of Iowa, who was a rival candidate for the Presidency, is a distant relative of Major McKinley. Major McKinley's father, William McKinley, Sr., was a well known iron founder, and was one of the most prominent business men in Ohio. He died in 1892, at the age of eighty-four. William McKinley, Jr., was born February 26, 1843, in the town of Niles, Ohio. He entered the village school but later his parents removed to Poland, in order that the children might avail themselves of the better educational facilities which the larger town afforded. At the age of seventeen he entered Alleghany College, where his studies were suddenly interrupted by the breaking out of the Civil War. All thoughts of a brilliant career were forgotten in the desire to fight for the cause of the Union. He enlisted as a private in the Twenty-third Ohio regiment. William S. Rosecrans was its colonel, although Rutherford B. Hayes, who became President of the United States, was afterwards its com- manding officer. McKinley enlisted as a private and served throughout 370 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. the entire war. After fourteen months of hard service he became quartermaster and finally was promoted to the staff of General Hayes. For bravery at Antietam he was made lieutenant. McKinley was then commissary sergeant, and General Hayes thus describes the part which he took in this famous battle and how the young soldier came to receive his promotion. " The battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were in the ranks and preparing for it. Without break- fast, without coffee, they went into the fight, and it con- tinued until after the sun had set. Early in the after- noon, naturally enough, with the exertion required of the men, they were famished and thirsty, and to some extent broken in spirit. The commissary department of that brigade was under Sergeant McKinley 's administra- tion and personal supervision. From his hands every man in the regiment was served with coffee and warm meats, a thing that had never occurred under similar cir- cumstances in any other army in the world. He passed under fire and delivered with his own hands these things so essential to the men for whom he was laboring. Com- ing to Ohio and recovering from wounds, I called upon Governor Todd and told him this incident. With the emphasis that distinguished that great war governor, he said: 'Let McKinley be promoted from sergeant to lieu- tenant.' And that I might not forget, he requested me to put it upon the roster of the regiment, which I did, and McKinley was promoted." McKinley took part in a great many battles, dis- tinguishing himself for bravery on all occasions. In the skirmish at Opequan, near Winchester, McKinley, as aide-de-camp, brought a verbal order to General Duval, LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 371 who commanded the second division, instructing him to assume a new position. General Duval inquired by what route he should move his command, and McKinley offered a suggestion, but Duval refused to move without more definite orders. But the young captain was not to be daunted. Turning to General Duval he said: " By command of General Crook, I order you to move your command up this ravine to a position on the right of the army." The order was obeyed, and McKinley received the thanks of his commanding officer for the admirable manner with which the movement was accom- plished. Soon after this battle he went on the staff of General Crook and afterward served with General Hancock. In 1864 President Lincoln made him major by brevet, although McKinley at that time was only twenty -one years of age. At the close of the war he decided to study law, and entered the office of Judge Gidden, after which he took a brief course at the Albany Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1867, and began his practice in the town of Canton. In 1871 he married Miss Ida Saxton, the daughter of James A. Saxton, a wealthy banker of the town. Mrs. McKinley is a charming woman, confident in her husband's abilities and proud of his success. Her face reflects the refinement and gentleness of her nature, and she charms every one with her hospitality and graciousness. She is very fond of children, although she lost her own two little girls many years ago. Mrs. McKinley enjoyed many advantages when young. She was educated first at Cleveland, and later at Media, Pa., in the Brook Hall Seminary. In 1869 she made a trip 372 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. through Europe with a party of friends, and about two years after her return she was married to William Mc- Kinley. On the 25th of January, 1896, the McKinleys celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary in their Canton home where they had begun life a quarter of a century before. To Mr. and Mrs. McKinley were born two daughters named Kate and Ida, both of whom died early. After the loss of their children the bereaved parents left their home and went to live in the house where Mrs. McKinley had spent her girlhood. There they lived until Major McKinley departed for Washington to take his seat in the Forty-fifth Congress. Mrs. McKinley was very beauti- ful as a young woman, but for many years she has suffered with an incurable nervous disease. His wife's affliction has only served to show the true nobility of McKinley 's character. He lavishes upon her all the tenderness and solicitude possible. A Democratic congressman once said of him: "McKinley is a splendid fellow pleasant, com- panionable, and a lovable man. And he takes such good care of his wife, who is a great invalid and a severe sufferer; why, McKinley nurses her like a lover, and everybody who knows their home life cannot but admire him." The public career of Major McKinley is familiar to all. In 1876 he was elected to Congress, where he re- mained four terms by successive re-elections. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and re-elected in 1893 by a majority of over 80,000. His administration re- ceived the commendation of even his political enemies. The sequence of the story of this strong American, LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 373 after the history of his earliest boyhood, of his faithful- ness, of the exhibitions of his gallantry as a young man in the war of the Rebellion, was to be expected in what he later accomplished as an active citizen, as a man inter- ested in public affairs, and as one to whom later should come honors of the highest class, bestowed upon him by his fellow Americans. Once fairly embarked in the affairs of his state and of the country, it is but fair to say of this great Ohioan that he exhibited always the same consistency, and relative conservatism that had marked his earlier career. He never became a political " Boss " in what is the modern acceptance of the word. On the other hand he was never idle in politics, nor timid when the time came for any action which might result in grave consequences one way or the other. He was never of the " resonant voice " type of men, who exploit themselves upon the stump upon every occasion. He spoke but seldom, and then spoke carefully upon those pregnant matters of the moment, which he had digested carefully, and spoke ever with such effect that those who listened to him went away impressed with the honestness and above all with the ability and the soundness of thought of the man to whom they had listened and later found in the words he had uttered something which clung to them and affected their political action when the time for voting came. This was the way in which the present Repub- lican candidate for the Presidency grew into strength and popularity in Ohio. The Major McKinley of Congress was the same Major McKinley he was in Ohio before his own constituents. He was a grave, thoughtful, earnest man, with a reserve force of effort, never exhausted. His service in Congress 3t4 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEtf. during the years he represented a great Ohio constituency, became matter for the public, intensified into something of national interest when he became recognized as the father of the great bill forming the protective policy, and with which his name has become identified. Other strong men and other good men in both houses of Con- gress assisted him in the preparation of this measure. There has never been a grave measure adopted by Con- gress which was, strictly speaking, the work of one man, but one man's earnestness and persistence has not infre- quently resulted in the connection of his name with the new course of legislation adopted. Mr. McKinley worked with his great friends, but became in the popular mind, identified with the measure which was representative of the ideas of a great class of voters of the country. It is of course through his identification with this measure that he became counted as the figurehead of protection, and when the time came for public expression of the relative standing of the Presidential aspirants that he so swiftly and suddenly outranked all others in the race. There had been a time of business depression. Depart- ure from the policy of protection seemed a failure, and as Mr. McKinley was recognized as the foremost advocate of protection, it was a natural sequence that he should be accepted as a Presidential candidate of those who saw in protection a remedy for existing evils. The expression of the Kepublican forces of the United States was almost a matter of course. There were matters aside from his standing as the foremost representative of protection which made him popular with the masses. He had been strong on more than one occasion without exercising his strength toward ANDREW D. WHITE. Born in Homer, N. Y., November 7, 1832; studied one year at Hobart College, New York, and passed the remainder of his collegiate course at Yale, where he was graduated in 1853; in 1862 returned to Syracuse, N. Y., and was elected to the State Senate; was re-elected in 1864; in 1867 became the first presi- dent of Cornell; was president of the Republican State Con- vention in New York in 1871; was United States Minister to Germany from 1879 to 1881; in 1892 was appointed by President Harrison Minister to Russia, and was retained as such by President Cleveland; his latest important public service was to become a member of the Commission, of Inquiry on the Venezuelan boundary. ROGER Q. MILLS. Born in Todd County, Ky., March 30, 1832; after receiving a common school education he removed to Palestine, Texas, in 1849, where he studied law, supporting himself in the mean- time by clerical work; was elected engrossing clerk of the Texas House of Representatives in 1850, and in 1852 by a special act of the Legislature, for* he was still a minor, he was admitted to the bar; practiced his profession at Corsi- cana and in 1859 was elected to the Legislature; in 1873 elected to Congress from the state at large as a Democrat and served until he resigned to accept the position of United States Senator in 1892. LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 377 securing a presidential nomination prematurely. His course in the Republican Convention of 1888 when Gen- eral Harrison was a candidate, was such as gave him the reputation of a man who could not be influenced by cir- cumstances, even in a tempting emergency. Again, in the Republican Convention of 1892, when General Harrison was a candidate, and when Major McKinley was chair- man of the convention, there was evinced a disposition by some to promote the chairman's candidacy, when it was found that no such venture would meet with his consent. He was, at least in the estimation of those who know all the circumstances, those who are the leading Republicans of the United States, a simple, straightforward American citizen, who would not accept a possible success at the sacrifice of even his implied word. The knowledge of this of course promoted his standing among the good men of his own party, and doubtless had a marked effect upon the actions of those strong men in each state who sent delegates in his favor to the St. Louis Convention. Doubtless what added no little to Major McKinley's strength during his terms in congress was his faithful- ness to his constituents in attending to the smaller duties of a representative. No constituent so poor or weak but what a letter to his congressman brought prompt reply, and none with a request to proffer so insignificant, were it but a proper one, that attention would not be paid to it. Very well did the members of the cabinet know this strong congressman from Ohio; they saw him too often in person not to know him very well. He could be seen at all departments, as early as they were opened, inquiring into the facts, and getting all the data as to certain matters, learning all that had any bearing upon some 20 378 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. question relative to Ohio, and bringing all the weight of his strength and influence to bear in securing what was justified in his constituent's request. It is doubtful if there has ever been in Congress a really harder work- ing man than Major McKinley, and his working was always effective. He knew what he wanted for his constituency, and generally he got it. But while he held his duties to his own district so pressing, he never gave evidence that they were pressing enough to interfere with the greater obligations of a member of Congress in recognizing above all, what is best for the general welfare of the entire country. The broader was not lost in the lesser. The distinguished Ohio representative did not confine his efforts alone to what was best for his constit- uency. His efforts in Congress indicated above all that he was laboring to secure such enactments as would be best for the welfare of the entire people of the United States, else could never have come the prominence which attended him in his candidacy, in a measure not only national but international. Major McKinley is a very religious man and has lived a sincere and earnest Christian life. "No man gets on so well in this world as he whose daily walk and conversation are clean and consistent, whose heart is pure and whose life is honorable," he recently said. " A religious spirit helps every man. It is at once a comfort and an inspiration, and makes him stronger, wiser and better in every relation of life." Prior to his nomination many people criticised him for refusing to express an opinion regarding the issues involved in the campaign of 1896. Many unjustly at- tributed his silence to a fear of prejudicing delegates LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 379 against him. Major McKinley acted conscientiously and with a firm belief that the platform adopted by the con- vention would represent the true principles of the Repub- lican party. In his address at the Lincoln banquet, delivered in Chicago, February 12, 1896, he said: "No one need be in any doubt about what the Repub- lican party stands for. Its own history makes that too palpable and clear to admit of any doubt. It stands for a reunited and recreated nation, based upon "free and honest elections in every township, county, city, district and state in this great American Union. It stands for the American fireside and the flag of the nation. It stands for the American farm, the American factory, and the prosperity of all the American people. It stands for a currency of gold, silver, and paper with which to measure our exchanges, that shall be as sound as the Government and as untarnished as its honor. It stands for a reciprocity that reciprocates and which does not yield up to another country a single day's labor to the American workingman. It stands for international agree- ments which get as much as they give, upon terms of mutual advantage. It stands for an exchange of our sur- plus home products for such products as we consume but do not produce. It stands for the reciprocity of Blaine, for the reciprocity of Harrison, for the restoration and extension of the principle embodied in the reciprocity provision of the Republican tariff in 1890." The name of William McKinley is indelibly associated with protection, and his famous speech in presenting the tariff bill of 1890 affords a clear illustration of the prin- ciples he advocates. 380 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. THE M'KINLEY TARIFF OF 1890. " I do not intend to enter upon any extended discus- sion of the two economic systems which divide parties in this house and the people throughout the country. For two years . we have been occupied in both branches of Congress and in our discussions before the people with these contending theories of taxation. "At the first session of the Fiftieth Congress the House spent several weeks in an elaborate and exhaustive discussion of these systems. The Senate was for as many weeks engaged in their investigation and in debate upon them, while in the political contest of 1888 the tariff in all its phases was the absorbing question, made so by the political platforms of the respective parties, to the exclu- sion, practically, of every other subject of party division. It may be said that, from the December session of 1887- 88 to March 4, 1889, no public question ever received, in Congress and out, such scrutinizing investigation as that of the tariff. It has, therefore, seemed to me that any lengthy general discussion of these principles at this time, so soon after their thorough consideration and de- termination by the people, is neither expected, required nor necessary. * If any one thing was settled by the election of 1888, it was that the protective policy, as promulgated in the Republican platform and heretofore inaugurated and maintained by the Republican party, should be secured in any fiscal legislation to be had by the Congress chosen in that great contest and upon that mastering issue. I have interpreted that victory to mean, and the majority in this House and in the Senate to mean, that a revision LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 381 of the tariff is not only demanded by the votes of the people, but that such revision should be on the line and in full recognition of the principle and purposes of pro- tection. The people have spoken; they want their will registered and their decree embodied in public legislation. The bill which the Committee on Ways and Means has presented is their answer and interpretation of that vic- tory and in accordance with its spirit and letter and purpose. We have not been compelled to abolish the internal revenue system that we might preserve the protective system, which we were pledged to do in the event that the abolition of the one was essential to the preservation of the other. That was unnecessary. "It is asserted in the views of the minority, submitted with the report accompanying this bill, that the operation of the bill will not dimmish the revenues of the Govern- ment; that with the increased duties we have imposed upon foreign articles which may be sent to market here we have increased taxation, and that, therefore, instead of being a diminution of the revenues of the government, there will be an increase in the sum of $50,000,000 or $60,000,000. Now, that statement is entirely misleading. It can only be accepted upon the assumption that the importation of the present year under this bill, if it becomes a law, will be equal to the importations of like articles under the existing law, and there is not a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, there is not a member of the minority of that Committee, there is not a member of the House on either side, who does not know that the very instant that you have increased the duties to a fair protective point, putting them above the 382 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. highest revenue point, that very Instant you diminish importations and to that extent diminish the revenue. Nobody can well dispute this proposition. Why, when the Senate bill was under consideration by the Com- mittee on Ways and Means, over which my friend from Texas presided in the last Congress, the distinguished chairman of that committee (Mr. Mills) wrote a letter to Secretary Fairchild inquiring what would be the effect of increased duties proposed under the Senate bill, and this is Mr. Fairchild's reply: " ' Where the rates upon articles successfully produced here are materially increased, it is fair to assume that the imports of such articles would decrease and the revenue therefrom diminish." 1 He further states that where the rate upon an article is so increased as to deprive the foreign producer of the power to compete with the domestic producer, the revenue from that source will cease altogether. Secretary Fair- child only states what has been the universal experience in the United States wherever increase of duties above the revenue point has been made upon articles which we can produce in the United States. Therefore, it is safe to assume that no increase of the revenues, taking the bill through, will arise from the articles upon which duties have been advanced. Now as to the schedules: " The bill recommends the retention of the present rates of duty on earthen and china ware. No other industry in the United States either deserves or requires the fos- tering care of government more than this one. It is a business requiring technical and artistic knowledge, and the most careful attention to the many and delicate proc- esses through which the raw material must pass to the LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 383 completed product. For many years, down to 1863, the pottery industry of the United States had very little or no success and made but slight progress in a practical and commercial way. At the close of the low-tariff period of 1860 there was but one pottery in the United States, with two small kilns. There were no decorating kilns at the time. In 1873, encouraged by the tariff and the gold premium which was an added protection, we had in- creased to 20 potteries, with 68 kilns, but still no decorat- ing kilns. The capital invested was $1,020,000, and the value of the product was $1,180,000. In 1882 there were 55 potteries, 244 kilns, 26 decorating kilns, with capital invested of $5,076,000, and an annual product of $5,299,140. The wages paid in the potteries in 1882 were $2,387,000, and the number of employes engaged therein 7,000; the ratio of wages to sales in 1882 was 45 per cent. In 1889 there were 80 potteries, 401 kilns, and decorating kilns had increased from 26 in 1882 to 188 in 1889. The capital invested in the latter year was $10,- 957,357, the value of the product was $10,389,910, amount paid in wages $6,265,224, and the number of em- ployes engaged 16,900. The ratio to sales was 60 per cent, of decorated ware and 50 per cent, of white ware. The per cent, of wages to value of product, it will be ob- served, has advanced from 45 per cent, it 1882 to 60 per cent, in 1889. This increase is not due, as might be sup- posed, to an advance in wages, but results in a reduction in the selling price of the product and the immense in- crease in sales of decorative ware in which labor enters in greater proportion to materials. The total importation for 1874 and 1875 of earthenware was to the value of $4,441,216, and in 1888 and 1889 it ran up to $6,476,190. 384 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. The American ware produced in 1889 was valued at 389,910. The difference between the wages of labor in this country and competing countries in the manufacture of earthenware is fully 100 per cent. "The agricultural condition of the country has re- ceived the^careful attention of the committee, and every remedy which was believed to be within the power of tariff legislation to give has been granted by this bill. The depression in agriculture is not confined to the United States. The reports of the Agricultural depart- ment indicate that this distress is general; that Great Britain, France and Germany are suffering in a larger degree than the farmers of the United States. Mr. Dodge, statistician of the department, says, in his report of March, 1890, that the depression in agriculture in Great Britain has probably been more severe than that of of any other nation; which would indicate that it is greater even in a country whose economic system differs from ours, and that this condition is inseparable from any fiscal system, and less under the protective than the revenue tariff system. "It has been asserted in the views of the minority that the duty put upon wheat and other agricultural prod- ucts would be of no value to the agriculturists of the United States. The committee, believing differently, has advanced the duty upon these products. As we are the greatest wheat producing country of the world, it is habitually asserted and believed by many that this prod- uct is safe from foreign competition. We do not appre- ciate that while the United States last year raised 490,- 000,000 bushels of wheat, France raised 316,000,000 bushels, Italy raised 103,000,000 bushels, Russia 189,- HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY JR., REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. IDA SAXTON McKINLEY, WIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY JR. LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 387 000,000 bushels, and India 243,000,000 bushels, and that the total production of Asia, including Asia Minor, Persia and Syria, amounted to over 315,000,000 bush- el . Our sharpest competition conies from Russia and India, and the increased product of other nations only serves to increase the world's supply, and diminish proportionately the dem and for ours ; and if we will only reflect on the difference between the cost of labor in pro- ducing wheat in the United States, and in competing countries, we will readily perceive how near we are to the danger line, if indeed we have not quite reached it, so far even as our own markets are concerned. " Prof. Gold win Smith, a Canadian and political econ- omist, speaking of the Canadian farmers and the effect of this bill upon their interests, says: " ' They will be very much injured if the McKinley bill shall be adopted. The agricultural schedule will bear very hardly on the Canadian farmers who particularly desire to find a market in the United States for their eggs, their barley, and their horses. The European market is of little value to them for their horses. If there shall be a slow market in England all the profit will be consumed on a cargo of horses and great loss will entail. I do not see how the Canadian farmers can export their produce to the United States if the McKinley bill shall become a law.' " If that be true, Mr. Chairman, then the annual ex- ports of about $25,000,000 in agricultural products will be supplied to the people of the United States by the American farmer rather than the Canadian farmer; and who will say that $25,000,000 of additional demand for American agricultural products will not inure to the 388 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. benefit of the American farmer; and that $25,000,000 dis- tributed among our own farmers will not relieve some of the depression now prevailing, and give to the farmer con- fidence and increased ability to lift the mortgages from his lands? " The duty recommended in the bill is not alone to correct this inequality, but to make the duty on foreign tin plate enough to insure its manufacture in this country to the extent of our home consumption. The only reason we are not doing it now, and have not been able to do it in the past, is because of inadequate duties. We have demonstrated our ability to make it here as successfully as they do in Wales. We have already made it here. Two factories were engaged in producing tin plate in the years 1873, 1874 and 1875, but no sooner had they got fairly under way than the foreign manufacturer reduced his price to a point which made it impossible for our man- ufacturers to continue. When our people embarked in the business foreign tin plate was selling for $12 per box, and to crush them out, before they were fully established, the price was brought down to $4.50 per box; but it did not remain there. When the fires were put out in the American mills, and its manufacture thought by the foreigners to be abandoned, the price of tin plate ad- vanced, until in 1879 it was selling for $9 and $10 per box. Our people again tried it and again the prices were depressed., and again our people abandoned temporarily the enterprise, and, as a gentleman stated before the com- mittee, twice they have lost their whole investment through the combination of the foreign manufacturers in striking down the prices, not for the benefit of the con- sumer, but to drive our manufacturers from the business; LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 389 and this would be followed by an advance within six months after our mills were shut down. " We propose this advanced duty to protect our manu- facturers and consumers against the British monopoly, in the belief that it will defend our capital and labor in the production of tin plate until they shall establish an industry which the English will recognize has come to stay, and then competition will insure regular and reasonable prices to consumers. It may add a little temporarily to the cost of tin plate to the consumer, but will eventuate in steadier and more satisfactory prices. At the present prices for foreign tin plate, the proposed duty would not add anything to the cost of the heavier grades of tin to the consumer. If the entire duty was added to the cost of the can it would not advance it more than one-third or one-half of one cent, for on a dozen fruit cans the addition would properly only be about three cents. "Mr. Chairman, gentlemen on the other side take great comfort in a quotation which they make from Daniel Webster. They have thought it so valuable that they have put it in their minority report. It is from a speech made by Mr. Webster in Faneuil Hall in 1820, when he condemned the protective policy. I want to put Daniel Webster in 1846 against Daniel Webster in 1820. Listen to an extract from his speech of July 25, 1846, the last tariff speech, and probably the most elaborate tariff speech that he ever made in his long public career. He then said: " ' But, sir, before I proceed further, I will take notice of what appears to be some attempt, latterly, by the repub- lication of opinions and expressions, arguments and 390 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. speeches of mine, at an earlier and a later period of my life, to place me in a position of inconsistency on this subject of the protective policy of the country. Mr. Presi- dent, if it be an inconsistency to hold an opinion upon a subject of public policy to-day in one state of circum- stances, and to hold a different opinion on the same subject of public policy to-morrow in a different state of circumstances, if that be an inconsistency, I admit its applicability to myself.' " And then, after discussing the great benefits of the protective tariff, he added: " ' The interest of every laboring community requires diversity of occupations, pursuits, and objects of industry. The more that diversity is multiplied or extended the better. To diversify employment is to increase employ- ment and to enhance wages. And, sir, take this great truth ; place it on the title page of every book of political economy intended for the use of the government, put it in every farmer's almanac, let it be the heading of the column in every mechanic's magazine, proclaim it every- where, and make it a proverb, that where there is work for the hands of men there will be work for their teeth. Where there is employment there will be bread. It is a great blessing to the poor to have cheap food; but greater than that, prior to that, and of still higher value, is the blessing of being able to buy food by honest and respectable employment. Employment feeds, and clothes and instructs. Employment gives health, sobriety, and morals. Constant employment and well-paid labor produce in a country like ours general prosperity, con- tentment, and cheerfulness. Thus happy have we seen the country; thus happy may we long continue to see it,' LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 391 "In this happy condition we have seen the country under a protective policy. It is hoped we may long con- tinue to see it, and if he had lived long enough he would have seen the best vindication of his later views. Then he continued, and I commend this especially, in all kind- ness and with great respect, to the gentlemen of the minority of the committee : " ' I hope I know more of the constitution of my coun- try than I did when I was twenty years old. " ' I hope I have contemplated its great objects more broadly. I hope I have read with deeper interest the sen- timents of the great men who framed it. I hope I have studied with more care the condition of the country when the convention assembled to form it. * * * < And now, sir, allow me to say that I am quite indifferent, or rather thankful, to those conductors of the public press who think they cannot do better than now and then to spread my poor opinions before the public.' "What is the nature of the complaint against this bill, that it shuts us out of the foreign market ? No, for what- ever that is worth to our citizens will be just as accepta- ble under this bill as under the present law. We place no tax or burden or restraint upon American products going out of this country. They are as free to seek the best markets as the products of any commercial power, and as free to go out as though we had free trade. Sta- tistics show that protective tariffs have not interrupted our export trade, but that it has always steadily and largely increased under them. "In the year 1843, being the first year after the pro- tective tariff of 1842 went into operation, our exports 392 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. exceeded our imports $40,392,229, and in the following year they exceeded our imports $3,141,226. In the two years following the excess of exports over imports was $15,475,000. " The last year under that tariff the excess of exports over imports was $34,317,249. So during the five years of the tariff of 1842 the excess of exports over imports was $62,175,000. Under the low tariff of 1846, this was reversed, and with the single exception of the year 1858, the imports exceeded the exports (covering a period of fourteen years) $465,553,625. "We have now enjoyed twenty -nine years continu- ously of protective tariff laws the longest uninterrupted period in which that policy has prevailed since the form- ation of the federal government, and we find ourselves at the end of that period in a condition of independence and prosperity the like of which has never been witnessed at any other period in the history of our country, and the like of which has no parallel in the recorded history of the world. " In all that goes to make a nation great and strong and independent we have made extraordinary strides. In arts, in science, in literature, in manufactures, in inven- tion, in scientific principles, applied to manufacture and agriculture, in wealth and credit and national honor we are at the very front, abreast with the best and behind none. "In 1860, after fourteen years of a revenue tariff, just the kind of a tariff that our political adversaries are advocating to-day, the business of the country was pros- trated, agriculture was deplorably depressed, manufact- uring was on the decline, and the poverty of the Gov- LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 393 ernment itself made this nation a byword in the financial centers of the world. We neither had money nor credit. Both are essential ; a nation can get on if it has abundant revenues but if it has none it must have credit. We had neither, as the legacy of the Democratic revenue tariff. We have both now. We have a surplus revenue and a spotless credit. I need not state what is so fresh in our minds, BO recent in our history as to be known to every gentleman who hears me, that from the inauguration of the protective tariff laws of 1861, the old Morrill tariff which has brought to that veteran statesman the highest honor, and will give to him his proudest monument this condition changed. Confidence was restored, courage was inspired, the Government started upon a progressive era under a system thoroughly American. " With a great war on our hands, with an army to enlist and prepare for service, with untold millions of money to supply, the protective tariff never failed us in a single emergency, and while money was flowing into our treasury to save the Government, industries were spring- ing up all over the land the foundation and corner- stone of our prosperity and glory. With a debt of over $2,750,000,000 when the war terminated, holding on to our protective laws, against Democratic opposition, we have reduced that debt at an average rate of more than $62,000,000 each year, $174,000 every twenty-four hours for the last twenty-five years, and what looked to be a burden almost impossible to bear has been removed, under the Kepublican fiscal system, until now it is less than $1,000,000,000, and with the payment of this vast sum of money the nation has not been impoverished. The individual citizen has not been burdened or bank- 394 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. rupted. National and individual prosperity have gone steadily on, until our wealth is so great as to be almost incomprehensible when put into figures. " First, then, to retain our own market, under the Democratic system of raising revenue by removing all protection, would require our producers to sell at as low a price and upon as favorable terms as our foreign com- petitors. How could that be done? In one way only by producing as cheaply as those who would seek our markets. What would that entail? An entire revolution in the methods and condition and conduct of business here, a leveling down through every channel, to the low- est line of our competitors ; our habits of living would have to be changed, our wages cut down fifty per cent, more, our comfortable homes changed for hovels, our independence yielded up, our citizenship demoralized. These are conditions inseparable to free trade; these would be necessary if we would command our own market among our own people; and if we would invade the world s markets, harsher conditions and greater sacrifices would be demanded of the masses. " Talk about depression we would have it in its full- ness. We would revel in unrestrained trade. Every- thing would, indeed be cheap, but how costly when measured by the degradation which would ensue ! When merchandise in the cheapest, men are the poorest, and the most distressing experiences in the history of our country aye, in all human history, have been when every- thing was the lowest and cheapest, measured by gold ; for everything was the highest and the dearest, measured by labor. We want no return of cheap times in our own country. We have no wish to adopt the conditions of LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 397 other nations. Experience is demonstrated that for us and ours and for the present and the future, the protect- ive system meets our wants, our conditions, promotes the national design, and will work out our destiny better than any other. " With me, this position is a deep conviction, not a theory. I believe in it and thus warmly advocate it be- cause enveloped in it are my country's highest develop- ment and greatest prosperity ; out of it come the greatest gains to the people, the greatest comforts to the masses, the widest encouragement for manly aspirations, with the largest rewards, dignifying and elevating our citizenship, upon which the safety and purity and permanency of our political system depend."* * Speech delivered by Hon. William McKinley in the House of Representa- tives, May 7, 1890. 21. THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. For many years Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey has been a power in the politics of his state. Modest and retiring by nature he has nevertheless made himself felt not only in local political movements but in the more important issues of the day. He has won for himself an established place in the Republican party where he is acknowledged as a leader of marked ability. When New Jersey had been given over to the Democratic party, his skill as an organizer was plainly shown. At the last gubernatorial election in that State, he led the Repub- lican party to victory against overwhelming odds. Mr. Hobart has never sought political honors and for that reason, when he was nominated for Vice-President, it was a surprise to many, who did not know the man, who for many years has been recognized as possessing the qualities which make a great statesman. He is a man of education and refinement, a scholar as well as a politician. Not only has he had advantages which do not fall to the lot of many, but he has made the most of them. As a boy he was studious and industrious, and at an early age he showed a brilliancy which became more marked in his later years. As a man he has ever been LIFE OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. 399 prominent in the political world, although he has never pushed himself forward in order to make capital for himself. Soon after he was admitted to the bar he became famous as a forceful, eloquent speaker, always logical, and sound in all his arguments. When only twenty-seven years of age he became speaker of the House of the New Jersey Legislature. Soon he began to be recognized as a leader of men, and when he was called upon by the Republican party to rescue the state from Democratic rule he responded willingly and effectively. Not only in New Jersey has he been looked upon as a man of destiny, and when the delegates to the Republican National Convention scanned the field of brill- iant candidates they could find no better man on whom to bestow the Vice-Presidency than Garrett A. Hobart. He was born on a farm in Monmouth, N. J., in 1844. After receiving a common school education he attended Rutger's College, where he was graduated in 1864. The following year he commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He at once entered upon the practice of his profession in Paterson, where he has since resided. In 1870 he was chosen city councilor of Paterson. In 1872 he was elected Assemblyman, and in his second term was made Speaker of the Assem- bly. He represented Passaic County as state Senator in 1877, and in 1881 he was chosen President of the Senate. In 1884 he was nominated by the Republican caucus of the Legislature for United States Senator, but was not elected, as the Legislature was Democratic, and John R. McPherson was chosen. In 1884 he became 400 LIFE OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. a member of the National Republican Committee. He is the President of the Passaic Water Company, the Acquackanock Water Company, the Paterson Railroad Company's consolidated lines, the Morris County Rail- road, and the People's Gas Company. He is the director in several national banks, includ- ing the First National Bank of Paterson and the Pater- son Savings Institution. He is also on the directory boards of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Rail- road, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad, the Bar- bour Bros. Company, the Barbour Flax Spinning Com- pany, the Pioneer Silk Company, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the American Cotton Oil Com- pany, and some forty or more additional corporations. With many of these concerns he holds the position of legal adviser. Hon. J. F. Fort, in presenting the name of Garrett A. Hobart to the Republican National Convention, said: "We are proud of our public men. Their Republic- anism and love of country have been welded in the fur- nace of political adversity. That man is a Republican who adheres to the party in a state where there is no hope for the gratification of personal ambitions. There are no camp followers in the minority party of any state. They are all true soldiers of the militant army, doing valiant service, without reward, gain, or the hope thereof, from principle only. " A true representative of this class of Republicans New Jersey will offer you to-day. He is in the prime of life, a never-faltering friend, with qualities of leadership unsurpassed, of sterling honor, of broad mind, of liberal views, of wide public information, of great business LIFE OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. 401 capacity, and withal a parliamentarian who would grace the Presidency of the Senate of the United States. A native of our state, the son of a humble farmer, he was reared to love of country in sight of the historic field of Monmouth, on which the blood of our ancestors was shed that the Republic might exist. From a poor boy, unaided and alone, he has risen to his renown among us. "In our state we have done for him all that the polit- ical condition would permit. He has been Speaker of our Assembly and President of our Senate. He has been the choice for United States Senator of the Republican minority in the Legislature, and had it been in our power to have placed him in the Senate of the United States he would long ere this have been there." " His capabilities are such as would grace any position of honor in the Nation. Not for himself, but for our state; not for his ambition, but to give to the Nation the highest type of public official do we come to this conven- tion, by the command of our state and in the name of the Republican party of New Jersey unconquered and un- conquerable, undivided and indivisible with our united voices speaking for all that counts for good citizenship in our state, and nominato to you for the office of Vice- President of the Republic Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey. " Mr. Hobart has displayed great talent as an organizer in the management of political affairs. He was mainly instrumental in the election of Governor Griggs who is the first Republican Governor of New Jersey in thirty years. Mr. Hobart has done more for the Republican party in his state than any other man, never hesitating to giving thousands of dollars to the cause he advocates. 402 LIFE OF HON. GARRETT A. HOBART. His achievement in New Jersey was certainly a remarkable one. In 1894 for the first time since the Republican party came into existence the state sent to Congress a delegation of eight Republicans and elected a Republican for the United States Senate. In the follow- ing year under the management of Mr. Hobart the Republican party elected the Governor by a majority of 28,000. It is no wonder then that Judge Fort in speaking for New Jersey and her favorite son should utter these words : " We believe that the Vice-Presidency in 1896 should be given to New Jersey. We have reasons for our opin- ion. We have ten electoral votes. We have carried the state in the elections of 1893, 1894 and 1895. We hope and believe we can keep the state in the Republican column for all time." "If the party in any state is deserving of approval for the sacrifice of its members to maintain its organiza- tion then the Republicans of New Jersey, in this the hour of their ascendency, after long years of bitter defeat feel that they have not come to this convention in vain." The selection of a candidate for Vice- President is a most important matter. Such a man should not only possess marked abilities and attainments for such an office but he should have the qualities which will make him a social as well as a political leader. Garrett A. Hobart is in every way qualified for the office. Active and vigorous, but at the same time quiet and dignified, with a personal magnetism that wins him many friends, he richly deserves the honor that has been given him. CHAPTER XXXV. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1896. The following is the full text of the platform presented to and adopted by the Republican National Convention: " The republicans of the United States, assembled by their rep- resentatives m national convention, appealing for the popular and historical justification of their claims to the matchless achievements of thirty years of republican rule, earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration of facts and principles: " For the first time since the civil war the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted demo- cratic control of the government. It has been a record of unparal- leled incapacity, dishonor and disaster. In administrative manage- ment it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien syndi- cates, and reversed all the measures and results of successful republican rule. In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted enterprise and crippled American production while stimulating foreign production for the American market. Every consideration of public safety and indi- vidual interest demands that the government shall be rescued from the hands of those who have shown themselves incapable to conduct it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it with unequaled success and prosperity. " We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of pro- tection as the bulwark of American industrial independence and the foundation of American development and prosperity. This true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home indus- try; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American producer; it upholds the Ameri- can standard of wages for the American workingman; it puts the factory by the side of the farm and makes the American farmer less dependent on foreign demand and price; it diffuses general thrift and founds the strength of all on the strength of each. In its rea- sonable application it is just, fair and impartial, equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sectional discrimination and individual favoritism. 404 THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1896. "We denounce the present democratic tariff as sectional, injuri- ous to the public credit and destructive to business enterprise. We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports which come into competition with American products as will not only furnish ade- quate revenue for the necessary expenses of the government, but will protect American labor from degradation to the wage level of other lands. We are not pledged to any particular schedules. The ques- tion of rates is a practical question, to be governed by the conditions of the time and of production; the ruling and uncompromising prin- ciple is the protection and development of American labor and industry. The country demands a right settlement and then it wants rest. " We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements negoti- ated by the last republican administration was a national calamity, and we demand their renewal and extension on such terms as will equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restrictions which now obstruct the sale of American products in the ports of other countries, and secure enlarged markets for the products of our farms, forests and factories. " Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of republican policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly struck down both and both must be re-established. Protection for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life which we do not produce; reciprocal agreements of mutual interests which gain open markets for us in return for our open market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and trade and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus. " We condemn the present administration for not keeping faith with the sugar producers of this country. The republican party favors such protection as will lead to the production on American soil of all the sugar which the American people use, and for which they pay other countries more than $100,000,000 annually. " To all our products to those of the mine and the field as well as to those of the shop and the factory to hemp, to wool, the prod- uct of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the finished woolens of the mill we promise the most ample protection. "We favor restoring the early American policy of discriminating duties for the upbuilding of our merchant marine and the protection of our shipping in the foreign carrying trade, so that American ships the product of American labor employed in American shipyards, sailing under the stars and stripes and manned, officered and owned by Americans may regain the carrying of our foreign commerce. " The republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payments in 1879; since then every dollar has been as good as gold. " We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver except by interna- tional agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can GABRETT A. HOBART, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. THE BEPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1896. 407 be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obliga- tions of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth. " The veterans of the union army deserve and should receive fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable they should be given the preference in the matter of employment, and they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as are best calculated to secure the fulfillment of the pledges made to them in the dark days of the country's peril. We denounce the practice in the pension bureau, so recklessly and, unjustly carried on by the present adminis- tration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the rolls as deserving the severest condemnation of the American people. "Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous and dignified, and all our interests in the western hemisphere carefully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be permitted to interfere with them; the Nicaraguan canal should be built, owned and operated by the United States; and by the purchase of the Danish islands we should secure a proper and much-needed naval station in the West Indies. " The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey, American residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers and American property destroyed. There and everywhere American citizens and American property must be absolutely protected at all hazards and at any cost. " We reassert the Monroe doctrine in its full extent, and we rearrirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine effect by responding to the appeals of any American state for friendly inter- vention in case of European encroachment. We have not interfered, and shall not interfere, with the existing possessions of any European power in this hemisphere, but those possessions must not on any pre- text be extended. We hopefully look forward to the eventual with- drawal of the European powers from this hemisphere and to the ultimate union of all English-speaking parts of the continent by the free consent of its inhabitants. " From the hour of achieving their own independence the people of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other American peoples to free themselves from European domi- nation. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their determined contest for liberty. " The government of Spain, having lost control of Cuba, and being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American citizens, or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that the government of the United States should actually use its influence 408 THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1896. and good offices to restore peace and give independence to the island. " The peace and security of the republic and the maintenance of its rightful influence among the nations of the earth, demand a naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility. We, therefore, favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a com- plete system of harbor and sea coast-defences. " For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition of low-priced labor, we demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced, and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read nor write. " The civil-service law was placed on the statute book by the republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable. "We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast. " We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized and barbarous practice, well known as lynching or killing of human beings, suspected or charged with crime, without process of law. "We favor the creation of a national board of arbitration to settle and adjust differences which may arise between employers and employed engaged in interstate commerce. " We believe in an immediate return to the free homestead policy of the republican party, and urge the passage by congress of the satisfactory free homestead measure which has already passed the house and is now pending in the senate. "We favor the admission of the remaining territories at the earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of the people of the territories and of the United States. All the federal officers appointed for the territories should be elected from bona- fide residents thereof, and the right of self-government should be accorded as far as practicable. " We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation in the congress of the United States to the end that needful legislation may be intelligently enacted. " We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality. " The republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women. Protection of American industries includes equal oppor- tunities, equal pay for equal work and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and we need their co-operation in rescuing the country from democratic and populist mismanagement and misrule. " Such are the principles and policies of the republican party. By these principles we will abide, and these policies we will put into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment of the American people. Confident alike in the history of our great party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and our candi- dates in the full assurance that the election will bring victory to the republican party and prosperity to the people of the United States." GROVER CLEVELAND. Born in Caldwell, N. J., March 18, 1837; became a clerk and assistant teacher in the New York Institute for the Blind, but in 1855 commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859; from 1863 till 1866 was District Attorney for Erie County; was Sheriff for Erie County in 1870; the firm of Bass, Cleveland & Bissell was formed in 1873, and in 1881 Mr. Cleve- land was elected Mayor of Buffalo; was made Governor of New York in 1882 and in 1884 was elected President of the United States on the platform of tariff reform; was defeated for a second term in 1888, but in 1892 again became President. JOHN W. DANIEL. Born in Lynchburg, Va., September 5, 1842; received his early education at Lynchburg College and at Dr. Harrison's Univer- sity; served in the Confederate army during the war; studied law after the war and entered immediately upon its practice; entered public life in 1869 and served two terms in the Vir- ginia House of Delegates; was a member in the Virginia Sen- ate from 1875 to 1881; was elected to Congress in 1885 and during his first session was elected United States Senator for the term ending in 1893; was re-elected for the term expiring in 1899, CHAPTER XXXVI. PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. The National Prohibition Convention was called to order in the great hall prepared for the occasion in Pitts- burg on the morning of May 27, by Chairman Samuel Dickie. The address of welcome was given by Homer L. Castle of Pittsburg, after which Chairman Dickie introduced Mr. A. A. Stevens as temporary chairman of the convention. Mr. Stevens made a speech tracing the history of the party and pleading for prohibition as the dominant issue. The remainder of the session was devoted, to the unimportant matters and the convention adjourned until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. On the call to order in the afternoon the Committee on Credentials reported Albert W. Rodgers of Connecti- cut as chairman, and Lena Morrow as secretary. The report showed 810 delegates present and no contests. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar presented a report of the com- mittee on permanent organization naming Oliver W. Stewart of Illinois for permanent chairman and Alonzo E. Wilson as secretary. Mr. Ferguson of New York then made a minority report substituting the name of A. A. Stevens of Pennsylvania for that of O. W. Stewart. A long argument followed, which was ended by Mr. Stevens himself, who took the floor and withdrew his name. The majority report was adopted and Samuel 410 PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. Dickie and George C. Christian were appointed to escort Mr. Stewart to the platform, who was received with great applause. After the Committee on Resolutions had been reported Mrs. Gougar moved that inasmuch as the con- vention could do no further business until the Committee on Platform was ready to report, the evening session should be devoted to a mass meeting. The motion was carried, and after Ex-Governor John P. St. John and John G. Wooley had been selected as speakers, the convention adjourned. In the evening the big convention hall was crowded with a large and enthusiastic audience. John G. Wooley was first introduced; he began his speech by saying that there is a medium of exchange more precious to the country than its money. It is Christian conscience, which cannot be degraded and is always of unshrinkable value. The prohibition party is an effort to express the con- science of good people. Congress and legislatures sit for party purposes and not for party good. The prohibition- ists will build a party that will be the bane and antidote of party ism. Continuing he said: The men are not yet born who will split the prohibition party. They may take themselves out of it if they will, but the party will survive until the iniquity of the liquor traffic shall go down before the sword of the spirit. We are building the first permanent polit- ical party in American kistory, that shall gather out of chaos the best, bravest and truest, and solve every public problem in the name of God. Eventually it should be called the Liberal party, and should enter into such fusions as may properly solve great problems. Prohibition has failed in Maine, Kansas, Iowa, Rhode Island, Ver- mont and the Dakotas because its foundations were built no lower than the Republican party. The newspapers sneer at us because we have no great men, but it doesn't take great men to dig. Let us lay the foundations and the master builders will finish the work. I deny that we are expecting or hoping to get the offices. We will never win the fight until we win the church of Christ. PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. .411 In 1900 we may charge the twentieth century and carry it in the name of God. Economic questions are for legislatures and con- gresses. I have watched a light in the faces of prohibitionists that never came from discussing questions of silver or gold. We want no ragged regiments under different flags in the battle of 1896, but a solid phalanx. Let each state fight out its economic theories, but let us plant our feet on the eternal rock of righteousness and thrash out the liquor traffic. Surrender to one another on the one thing you agree on, and when the white flag of prohibition waves from the capitol the men and women who placed it there will deal with silver and gold and the tariff. Mr. St. John was next introduced. He said in part: We are here not as a Methodist campmeeting, a Salvation Army or a church. We are holding a political convention that has to do with shaping the destinies of the nation. As long as we say that we don't expect to come into power soon we shall never come into power. God never did anything for us that we could do for ourselves. No party ever arose to power upon a single issue. We want control of the government to enforce prohibition, and to do that we must go to the ballot boxes. For 25 years the party has been controlled by a narrow gauge committee, and in that time we have mustered 270,000 votes. The nation is almost in the throes of dissolution because 9 per cent, of the families own 71 per cent, of the wealth accumulated by labor. This is a wrong for us to right. Robbery is robbery whether perpetrated by the saloon keeper or Wall street. If we have a 5O-cent dollar today we have a 5O-cent govern- ment back of it, and somebody has been robbed out of 50 cents. If I was putting a detective on the track of the robber I would send him to Wall street. We never had anything but fiat money. The stamp of the government has nothing to do with the value of the coin on which it is placed. The law fixes the value. The dol- lar of our fathers is worth less than it was 40 years ago because the law is no longer back of it and it has been driven from the mints. If we should enact a law making wheat worth $i a bushel it would be worth $i. The cry that free silver would drive out gold was nonsense. We have been on a gold basis for 23 years and never has it been so difficult to keep gold in the United States. If other countries should make this the dumping ground for their silver, what would they do for money at home? All the silver in the world would give us a circulation of less than $60 per capita, and other countries would struggle along on gold with $3 per capita. Let us make a financial system of pur own and let England help herself if she can. If the prohibitionist party is ever to come into power it must get nearer the hearts of the people. Men in the East, stand with us on this matter, and we will roll up such a vote in the West as shall make these hills and valleys resound with rejoicing. 412 m PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. Shortly after the convention had been called to order on the morning of the second day, the Committee on Resolutions made its report. The following platform was offered by the majority of the committee: The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled at Pittsburg, Pa., May 27, 1896, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in government, do hereby declare: First We hold, with the United States supreme court, that the statistics of every state show a greater amount of crime and misery attributable to the use of ardent spirits obtained at retail liquor saloojis than to any other source. We maintain that the liquor dealers corrupt legislation, debauch voters, bribe officials, intimidate public men, control political parties and make good government in the centers of population impossible. Second We are unalterably opposed to the alcoholic drink traffic, and declare for the suppression of the manufacture, sale, importation; exportation and transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes. We utterly reject all plans for regulating or compromising with this traffic, whether such plan be local op- tion, taxation, license or public control. Third We call the attention of wage earners to the fact that the enormous waste caused by the liquor traffic is inevitably at the cost of production, and we maintain that success for the Prohibi- tion party will remove this great burden from industry. Fourth We stand unequivocally for good government hon- estly and economically administered in every detail. We stand for fullest protection of the elective franchise, which is the basis of our civil liberties. With the destruction of the liquor power, the great- est corruptor and debaucher of votes and voters will have disap- peared, and the people and their representatives will be free to promote the best interest of all. Fifth There is no greater evil to the nation than the compe- tition of political parties for the liquor vote, and any party not openly opposed to the saloon will engage in such competition, court the favor of the criminal classes, and barter away public morals and the purity of the ballot. Sixth We call upon voters to enforce the declaration of the churches against the liquor traffic by supporting the Prohibition party, which aims to settle the only political question upon which the churches make deliverances, and we maintain that a new era of political righteousness will come when the voting members of the churches stand at the ballot boxes in state and national elec- tions for the principles and candidates of the Prohibition party. Seventh We call attention to the fact that every political revolution in our country has been brought about by the concen- tration of thought upon some great issue. We hold that the time is now ripe for a successful political movement against the liquor traffic, and we invite the co-operation of all citizens who are in PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. 413 sympathy with this purpose, whatever their opinions may be upon other questions, confident that a party which works in righteous conflict with the saloon, will have intelligence and conscience enough to settle other problems of government and maintain the interests of the republic. Eighth No citizen should be denied the right to vote on ac- count of sex. Ninth Suffrage should not be denied to any citizen on ac- count of sex. Tenth All citizens should be protected in their right to one day's rest without opposing anyone who conscientiously observes any other than the first day of the week. Eleventh American public schools taught in the English lan- guage should be maintained, and no public funds should be applied to sectarian institutions. Twelfth The president, vice-president and senators of the United States should be elected by the vote of the people. Thirteenth Ex-soldiers and sailors should be granted pen- sions graded upon disability and time of service, not merely as a debt of gratitude, but for service rendered in the preservation of the Union. Fourteenth Our immigration laws should be so secure as to exclude paupers and criminals; immigrants wishing to become citizens should be required to register in a court, and the right of franchise should not be granted until five years thereafter. Fifteenth None but citizens should be allowed to vote in any state, and naturalized citizens should not be allowed to vote for one year after naturalization papers are issued. The minority report was presented by Mr. St. John and was as follows: Resolved, That all money be issued by the government only and without the intervention of any private citizen, corporation or banking institution. It should be based upon the wealth, sta- bility and integrity of the nation, and be a full legal tender for all debts, public or private, and should be of sufficient volume to meet the demands of the legitimate business interests of the country; and for the purpose of honestly liquidating all our outstanding obligations payable in coin, we demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to i, without consult- ing any other nation. The other points on which the minority asked action were as follows: Seventeenth Preserving public lands from monopoly and speculation. Eighteenth Government control of railroads and telegraphs. Nineteenth Favoring an income tax and imposing only such import duties as are necessary to secure equitable commercial re- lations with other nations. 414 PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. Twentieth Favoring the adoption of the initiative and refer- endum as a means of obtaining free expression of the popular will. Governor St. John then moved that the minority re- port be incorporated in the majority report and acted on item by item. This caused great discussion, and a motion to lay on the table was lost by a vote of 492 to 310. It was finally decided to adopt the motion to act on each plank separately. This at the time was considered a great victory by the advocates of free silver. The first six planks of the majority report were quickly adopted without discussion. The suffrage plank caused some dis- cussion but was adopted almost unanimously. The con- vention then adjourned until 2:30 P. M. When the convention reassembled the money plank was at once taken up. Chairman Stewart made the re- quest that the supporters of the majority and minority reports should alternate in the discussion, thus giving each side a fair hearing. Many eminent representatives of the prohibition party took part in the debate. The roll was then called on the final vote for the adoption of the money plank. It stood 327 in favor of silver and 427 against. The seventh-day plank was then taken up, but at this point R. H. Patton, of Illinois, offered the follow- ing as a substitute for the whole platform: The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, de- clares its firm conviction that the manufacture, exportation, im- portation and sale of alcoholic beverages has produced such social, commercial, industrial and political wrongs, and is now so threat- ening the perpetuity of all our social and polilical institutions, that the suppression of the same by a national party, organized therefor, is the greatest object to be accomplished by the voters of our country, and is of such importance as that it of right ought to con- trol the political action of all our patriotic citizens until such sup- pression is accomplished. The urgency of this cause demands the union, without further delay, of all citizens who desire the prohibition of the liquor traf- fic. Therefore, be it HON. JOSHUA LEVERING, PROHIBITION CANDIDATE FOE PRESIDENT. HON. HALE JOHNSON ^PROHIBITION CANDIDATE FOB VICE-PRESIDENT. PROHIBITION CONVENTION AND PLATFORM. 417 Resolved, That we favor the legal prohibition, by state and national legislation, of the manufacture, importation, exportation, inter-state transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. That we declare our purpose to organize, and invite all the friends of prohibition into our party, and in order to accomplish this end we declare it but right to leave every prohibitionist the freedom of his own conscience upon all other political questions as the changes occasioned by prohibition, and the welfare of the whole people shall demand. When Mr. Patton moved the adoption of his reso- lution the convention broke into an uproar, but it was carried by an overwhelming majority. A motion to recon- sider was laid on the table, after which the convention adjourned. The convention met again in the evening, and nominated Joshua Levering, of Maryland, for Presi- dent, and Hale Johnson, of Illinois, for Vice -President. The delegates favoring free silver bolted the con- vention early in the evening; and, repairing to another hall, organized a new party, which was christened the National. Chas. E. Bentley and J. H. Southgate, of North Carolina, were named as the standard bearers, and a plat- form was adopted, which, among other things, embodied a financial plank favoring the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to 1. 22 LIFE OF HON. JOSHUA LEVERING. The Prohibition nominee for President of United States was born in Baltimore, September 12, 1845. His school life. began at an early age, and he devoted himself to his studies until 1861, when the Civil War broke out, when he commenced his business career. At twenty-one years of age he went into partnership with his father in the coffee importing business, under the name of E. Levering & Co. The firm is widely known in business circles, and although Eugene Lever- ing, Sr., died in 1870, the business has since been ably conducted by his sons under the original name. In politics Mr. Levering was an independent democrat, but became a prohibitionist in 1884, when he voted for John P. St. John. He was chairman of the State Prohi- bition Convention of 1887 and again in 1893. He was a delegate to the national conventions of 1888 and 1892. He refused to allow his name to go before these conven- tions as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. In the lat- ter year, however, his friends insisted, and in the first bal- lot he received a majority of the votes, although he was not elected. Mr. Levering has been vice-president of the state executive committee for many years, but has always refused to accept the nomination for any office except in 1891, when he ran for state comptroller LIFE OP HON. JOSHUA LEVERING. 410 Mr Levering is president of the Young Men's Christian Association of Baltimore and is an active religious worker. He was one of the originators of the American Baptist Educational Society and has held the office of treasurer ever since this organization has been in existence. For a number of years he was vice-president of the American Baptist Publication Society and has held the position of vice-president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is now acting chairman of the Southern Baptist Theplogical Seminary, located at Louisville, Ky. He has been president of the Maryland House of Refuge since 1887 and has given largely to charity. " Joshua Levering is a man of affairs and of high character and ability," said Hon. W. Frank Tucker in his speech before the convention, " and these are the elements wanted in a prohibition candidate. He has helped the party with purse and mind and he will accept the nomina. tion with the idea of letting everybody know that he is its standard bearer. He comes from Maryland, the gateway of the South, and it is in the South where the sentiment against the liquor traffic is strong." The standard bearer of the prohibition party is a man of pronounced views, especially upon the money question. He is in favor of the present monetary standard and pre- vious to his nomination declared positively that he would not allow his name to go before the convention on a free silver platform. His name was presented upon these conditions and he was nominated by acclamation. LIFE OF HON. HALE JOHNSON. An unyielding enemy to the evil of intemperance, Hale Johnson has achieved a reputation for loyalty and devotion to the cause of prohibition which his party has finally recognized by promoting him to the honored posi- tion of standard bearer. The Prohibition candidate for Vice-President is in every way deserving of the honor which has been bestowed upon him. He is a man of marked ability and whether as the soldier fighting for the cause of the Union or as a Prohibitionist he has won recognition as a brave and gallant leader. He was born in Indiana in 1847. Although only a boy when the Rebellion broke out he entered the service and served gallantly throughout the war. He afterward took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar. He is a past commander of the G. A. R. and a colonel in the Veteran Legion. In 1884 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention, but shortly after became a Prohibitionist, and has been prominent in its councils ever since. He left the Republican party because it would not submit a constitutional amendment relating to prohibition. He was placed on the Prohibition ticket in 1884 for State Auditor. He now resides in Newton, 111. CHAPTEK XXXVII. DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. The Republican Convention, with its sensational inci- dents, was followed by a season of extraordinary activity within the lines of the Democratic party. The Prohibi- tion and Populist elements were for the time less objects of consideration among the politicians than was the grow- ing divergence of opinion between the factions of the Democratic party. As Democratic state convention after state convention was held, it became more and more evi- dent that the silverite wing of that party was extending its influence. In the East this influence was not so prominent, but in the West and South it spread with astonishing rapidity. It became evident some time before the convention was to be held in Chicago, July 7, that the silverites that is those in favor of the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 would have a majority of the convention, and it became later apparent that they might possibly secure the two-thirds, which, according to the time-honored Democratic precedent, were necessary for a nomination. The assembling was dramatic in every feature. There had lately been erected in Chicago a vast structure known as the Coliseum, intended for the accom- modation of such great gatherings as this, and the incom- ing multitude of delegates and alternates found the most 422 DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. complete arrangements for the reception and for the holding of a convention on a grand scale ever known in the political history of the country. Before the arrivals of the various state delegations it was understood that the nominee would be almost to a certainty a Free Silver man, and a fierce rivalry for precedence had arisen among the candidates. Most prominent among these was the Hon. Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, known as the father of the Free Silver movement, and for many years most prominent in Congress in advocacy of the white metal. He was looked upon as the logical candidate and led easily in the beginning. Ex-Gov. Horace Boies, of Iowa, was the candidate counted second in strength, while Gov. Claude Matthews, of Indiana; Ex-Governor Pattison, of Pennsylvania; Senator Joseph Blackburn, of Kentucky; Ex-Governor Russell, of Massachusetts; and John R. McLean, of Ohio, were other candidates recognized as having more than possibilities. The representatives of Ex-Governor Boies were first in the field, and were fol- lowed swiftly by those of Bland and Matthews, Bland having apparently the lead in the contest and retaining it till the last day of the convention. After the gathering of the delegates and before the convention opened, it was evident that the Free Silver men constituting the majority were resolved to exercise the power they possessed to the utmost to secure any action of the convention in accordance with their princi- ples and beliefs, It was doubtful whether or not they had a two-thirds majority in the convention and so sufficient votes to nominate a President in accordance with Democratic precedent. It was determined in caucus that if necessary to secure control of the convention in the DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. 423 degree required, the majority should exert its force and abandon the two-thirds rule. There were two contesting delegations of importance, one from Nebraska, and the other from Michigan, Were the Free Silver delegates from these two states to be seated, it appeared possible that it would not be necessary to abrogate the rule referred to and thus violate the provision of the Demo- cratic party. Steps were taken by the Silver majority to meet all contingencies in this respect. The majority of the Democratic National Committee was composed of many opposed to the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. There was a minority holding an opposite view. It had been usual in the past for the National Com- mittee to attend to all preliminaries and to designate those from chairman down, who should be given an official place during the temporary organization of the convention. The National Committee followed the usual precedent, and after different conferences with the silver men exer- cised this technical right and named temporary officials of the convention, designating for the temporary chair- man the Hon. David B. Hill, of New York. At the various conferences held, fiery speeches had been made, and it had become a certainty that the difference between eastern and western delegates was likely to be something irreconcilable. The convention finally assembled, with a prevailing sentiment that there might come a disruption of the Democratic party. There had been a few hours before the convention a meeting of the opposing forces, in which the leading men of either branch had participated. These included, among the so-called " sound money " men, Senator Hill, of New York; Senator Vilas, of Wisconsin; 424 DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. Senator Grey, of Delaware, and Hon. William C. Whit- ney, the latter being looked upon as the immediate representative of the existing Democratic administration. On the other hand, Governor John P. Altgeld, of Illinois, who controlled the Illinois delegation absolutely and unpledged, arisen suddenly to an extraordinary influ- ence in Democratic council, and looked upon by many as a possible dominating force in the convention, assisted by other silverite Democrats of relative prominence in other states, took an equally vigorous part, with the con- fidence of having ultimately all the power in their hands. This latest conference resulted in nothing. It separated with an implied declaration of political war to the knife, and with a practical assurance that the Free Silver majority of the convention, in order to assure itself of control of the convention, course would disregard precedent, reject, at least, in part, the nominations of the National Committee for temporary organization, and substitute for the chairman, selected by that committee, a chair- man of its own choice. Meanwhile, as a side issue, the Illinois delegation, counted the controlling one in an emergency, had held a meeting, and upon instigation of Governor Altgeld, had decided that an abrogation of the two-thirds rule was justified and necessary. The convention was called to order after the usual manner by the Chairman of the National Committee, who then announced the list of temporary officials, with Senator Hill, of New York, as temporary Chairman. Scarcely had the Chairman of the National Committee submitted the report, when the Hon. H. D. Clayton, of Alabama, stepped upon the platform to submit the minority report of the National Committee. It made no other change GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. Born in Richmond, Vt., February 1, 1828; after becoming a lawyer removed to Burlington and practiced his profession; in 1854 to 1859 was a Representative in the Legislature, serving three years as Speaker; was elected to the State Senate in 1861; in 1866 became United States Senator, and remained in office until he resigned in 1891; was a member of the Electoral Commission of 1876; was President pro tempore of the Senate during President Arthur's administration, when he was mem- ber of many important committees; at the National Repub- lican Conventions he received thirty-four and ninety-three votes respectively each on the first ballot for the presidential nomination. MORRIS M. ESTEE. Born in Warren County, Pa., November 23, 1833; educated at Waterford Academy; in 1853 went to California during the gold craze; in 1854 began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1857 and began its practice at Sacramento; in 1862 was elected a member of ' the Legislature from Sacra- mento County; in 1864 was elected district attorney; in 1866 removed to San Francisco; in 1872 was elected a member of the Legislature, of which he was chosen speaker; was a mem- ber at large of the Constitutional Convention of 1879; was nominated for governor in 1884 but was defeated; in 1885 was named United States Senator in the California Legislature, but was defeated by Gov. Stafford. DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. 431 in the list of officials than to substitute for Chairman Senator Daniel, of Vermont, in place of Senator David B. Hill, of New York. Immediately the convention was in an uproar. It was apparent that the Silverites had decided to exert their strength ruthlessly from the beginning. Hardly had the Chairman made his announcement before a fierce debate began upon the subject. Speeches were made by A. L. McDermott, of Missouri; ex-Governor Thomas H. Waller, of Connecticut; Hon. Charles H. Thomas, of Colorado; Hon. John R. Fellows, of New York, and Hon. Ladd, of Illinois; McDermott, Waller, and Fellows supporting the action of the National Com- mittee, and Thomas Ladd and Clayton opposing it vigor- ously. As an illustration of the different views advanced, the addresses made by Hon. Charles S. Thomas and Hon. John R. Fellows will perhaps afford the best idea. Said Mr. Thomas: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Democratic National Convention: I shall not detain you long in saying something on behair of the minority of the democratic national committee, and I would say nothing but for the speech of the distinguished gen- tleman who has just taken his seat. You are told that the major- ity of this convention, overriding precedent and disturbing tradi- tion, proposes by revolutionary methods to force upon this conven- tion an unheard-of procedure. I desire to call your attention to the fact that although in the past history of democratic national conventions there have been no minority reports, nevertheless it is a fact that that which the committee does is simply a recommenda- tion to be adopted or rejected as the convention declares itself. And a convention which has the power to adopt, necessarily, if it sees fit to exercise it, has the power to reject "We have no desire whatever to extinguish discussion or to suppress debate, but I will say to my friend from Connecticut that when he, in connection with other distinguished easterners, by the papers, through the Associated press, declared that their purpose was to come to this convention and capture it without yield- ing an inch to any one, we felt that a duty was consequently imposed upon the members of the national committee to carry out, as far as possible, what we concede to be the wish of the assembled 428 DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. majority of the delegates of the democracy of the union. We knew that the committee, if constituted to represent that sentiment, would have reported in favor of the Hon. John W. Daniel, of Vir- ginia. "My friend asks what republicans will say of our action. Dem- ocrats who have fought in the west as I have for twenty-five years have long ago become indifferent to what republicans say. But we do know that if precedents were necessary they furnished us one by their own action in this magnificent city in 1880, and those who are so fearful of republican public opinion ought to pay some deference to republican precedents. "My friends I desire to repel the charge that the democrats of the United States desire to inflict indignity and disgrace on the senior senator of New York. Nothing can be further from our in- tention. I recall that four years ago I stood in the convention as his friend, while his new-found friends declared him to be unworthy of the respect of a democratic convention. I stood here with others asking a hearing for his advocates, which hearing was denied by the very men who say to-day that he should preside over this con- vention. I say with my whole heart, God bless him. I hope to see him in this campaign with us. If we are to judge his future by his past, his utterances upon the great question which now con- fronts us warm the hearts of the free-coinage men of the countrv. "Now, my fellow citizens, every speaker who has preceded me upon this platform has declared, one of them pointing to the por- trait of the immortal Washington which looks down in benedic- tion upon us . Well, Washington is a good name in a demo- cratic convention, anyhow. They are both immortal democratic names. They have said, and they have said truly, that it is a mat- ter for the majority to determine. Now, my fellow citizens, why did we take this action? One word more and I am through. We took this action because we have been told in the public prints of this and other cities, where we have no voice and through which we cannot be heard, where everything that we do seems to be mis- reported, for the purpose, I presume, of creating improper im- pressions we were told that your purpose was to assume control of this convention, if possible, and we made up our minds that if the battle must come, the sooner it came the better, and if, as a matter of fact, we are not acting within the line of democratic precedent, so far as majorities are concerned, then I submit to the calm and deliberate judgment of this convention whether they, and they alone, are not to determine who shall be their presiding officer. I appeal to you, fellow-delegates, to stand by the minority report. Let it not be said that in the first skirmish the pickets which you yourselves threw out were driven back into the lines. I ask you to adopt the minority substitute upon this question." Hon. John R, Fellows followed, with the subjoined address : "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: Ordinarily DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. 429 it would be a comparatively immaterial question as to which of these two distinguished, capable and deserving democrats occupied the position at this table of temporary chairman during your delib- erations. The fact of rejection may be pregnant with a good deal of significance. I recognize here, and my voice fails me in the power of utterance in speaking of the splendid ability and the almost unparalleled elegance of language and devotion to democ- racy which characterize the senator from Virginia, and had he been named for a position in this convention, or upon our ticket, New York would gladly have responded to the expression and given to him its enthusiastic democratic support. But a great deal more than that is involved in this question to-day. I have yet to hear upon the part of these gentlemen who have addressed you any ex- pression or argument, any logical statement as to why you should trample under foot the immemorial usages of your party, why you should violate all of its precedents and adopt hitherto unheard-of modes of procedure. What is the reason for it? What is con- cealed behind it? What purposes undeveloped in the fact itself are to be accomplished by its consummation? "Is it that you dare not trust the gentleman whom the majority of your national committee has presented for your temporary offi- cer? No, you repel with indignant scorn that imputation. His whole life behind him, exposed to the full glare of the public gaze, always in the light of public observation, repels an insinuation of that character. No right of the majority of this convention would be assailed, no restrictions placed in the way of the completion of the purpose they have in view. "Now, what is our attitude here to-day? Let us think it over for a moment, at least, before we proceed to this unheard-of, this unnecessary act. The national committee is the only organization existing for four years of interregnum that represents the entire body of the party. When, each four years, your convention assem- bles it then takes matters in its own hands, so far as the formula- tion of its policy and the selection of its candidates is concerned. But there is no power authorized to call this body together, and there is no power authorized to ascertain the presence of a conven- tion, save this national committee, and hitherto, for a longer period than is covered by the lives of any of the delegates who sit before me, the national committee has presented for purposes of organi- zation alone and not with reference to deciding the policy of the party it has presented officers temporarily to fill the chair. The gentleman from Colorado was unfortunate in his political remi- niscence. It would have been better had he left unsaid that which he said, because for the first time in all the history of our demo- cratic party you are going back of its old traditions; you are vio- lating its time-honored usages, and you are accepting a thing that was done for the first time in the history of parties in this republic by a republican convention. "The gentleman from Colorado told us with powerful force of expression that they of the west who had been fighting the battles of democracy so long had learned to be somewhat indifferent to 430 DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. the views or wishes of the republican party. And yet you begin the proceedings of this convention by accepting a republican prece- dent, disowned, denounced, flouted and spit upon by every demo- cratic body of the country. And against whom have you done it? Ah, gentlemen, you will neither question the democracy, the fealty nor the fairness of the gentleman whom the national committee in accordance with precedents has presented here. But go fur- ther. Go further, and see what precedent you ask us to establish, and see what the significance of your action is. You tell me this is not a personal affront, this is not a thrust at an individual or a section? "Now, gentlemen of the majority, for we perfectly well under- stand that there is a majority of this convention large, pro- nounced, honest in conviction and decided in purpose that stands opposed to some of us from the eastern part of the country, we rec- ognize your right to control. You will go on, whoever is chair- man here, and through your appropriate mediums you will formu- late and present to the country your policy. It cannot be changed by the selection of a temporary officer. It will not be affected by anything that may be done during the temporary organization. It is the work of the permanent convention after it is ascertained and through its committees. Now, I want to tell you that there is a precedent, and a powerful one, for your accepting here to-day the action of the national committee, although it is not in accord with the majority sentiment of this convention. Four years ago we met here, on the part of New York and some other portions of the country, to oppose the candidacy of the present president of the United States, whom we all knew had an exceedingly large ma- jority of the delegates elected, but whom we did not believe at the time, perhaps, had the requisite two-thirds. But the sentiment of the majority was overwhelmingly in favor of the nomination of Mr. Cleveland, and we all knew it. "And yet, gentlemen, and yet think of it lor a moment when in the national committee it was suggested that a person known to be friendly to Mr. Cleveland's nomination and in sympathy with the majority was named for temporary officer it was voted down and Mr. Owens of Kentucky, who was an opponent of Mr. Cleve- land's and voted against him in the convention, was selected as the temporary officer, and every member of the convention accepted the action of the committee. Then when the majority came to its own it put in the chair a permanent officer of its choice. It made up its committees in accordance with this sentiment, had its rightful way in the rest of the convention. Gentlemen, don't do this thing. Don't do this thing. It rudely shatters all customs and ancient usages. There is much sentiment that clings around us; there is much that appeals to those who have grown wrinkled and gray in the service of the party, that appeals for perpetuation; we may do all that you ask of us for the sake of the perpetuation of the party, but at least do it along the paths over which the fathers walked and in accordance with the usages that have grown sacred for years. DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. 431 "I do not know why you should do this thing. The gentleman has told us that for twenty-five years the eloquent gentleman from Alabama that for twenty-five years they have been giving it to New York. Very well. It is true that we have been more than honored and favored beyond our deserts. We are grateful in the name of the common democracy for your generous action, but remember this, and let it ring like the notes of the coronation hymn through your hearts and brains, that although you gave us the candidate New York gave you the only democratic president we have had. Do not strike this blow at our love now. Indiana has been named for a place upon your temporary organization. Indiana has been accepted. Other states have been named by the choice of gentlemen who shall participate in this temporary organi- zation. You consent to accept them, but you turn against him and you strike a big democrat, whom every democrat loves, I believe. You single him out for humiliation and sacrifice, and you present in its name a gentleman we love, revere and honor, and yet he fought four years ago upon the platform of a democratic national convention, and he fought by the utterance of one of the most ele- gant speeches to which I ever listened, for David B. Hill as the rightful. "This man seconded the nomination of David B. Hill for the office of president of these United States for four years, who now seems to believe that he is unworthy to occupy that position. Ah, gentlemen, gentlemen. 'Methinks you do protest too much or not at all.' You have gone far enough. If you do not desire to approve of the expression of the national committee then reject all of this 'report and name other officers, the secretaries, the ser- geant-at-arms and other officers who are upon that list. The sig- nificance of this is that you abandon all precedent by your action. You select one man out of this entire list upon whom to heap this indignity. I make no threats. I shall regret any such action by this convention. It is not a question of what we will do. We are democrats, desiring to march with our party, to do what we can toward making its perpetuity and its ascendency successful, but don't humiliate us; don't seek to inflict what seeems to be a mark of punishment upon us, and, especially, if you must select a victim to drag to the altar, throwing the creed of your past and custom you have followed away, at least select a victim not so hallowed to the people, not so beloved by the democracy, and not so nec- essary to its success as the one you have selected to-nay. The action of the convention, after the debate was immediate and arbitrary. A ballot was taken, and the Silverites exhibited a preponderating force in the conven- tion. The name of the Hon. John W. Daniel, of Virginia, was by this vote substituted for that of Hon. David B. Hill, of New York, as designating the temporary chair- 432 DEMOCRATIC DIFFERENCES. man of the convention. The vote stood: Yeas, 556; Nays, 349. It was recognized by the forces opposed to the Free Silverites that they were a minority in the convention and a minority which must inevitably be overridden. They began after the session, which ended with little more accomplished, to organize themselves into a definite force, which might or might not vote, but which was opposed to the ideas of the majority. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE DEBATE EXTENDED. Senator Hill's speech was followed by one from Sen- ator Vilas, of Wisconsin, who pleaded eloquently in the same case, but the convention, though interested, was not convinced. Ex-Governor W. E. Russell, of Massa- chusetts, pleaded uselessly in the same strain. Then fol- lowed the Hon. W. J. Bryan, of Nebraska, a prominent leader of the Silverite forces who at this stage of the con- vention's progress had already come to be looked upon as a formidable " contingency when the vote upon the Presidential nomination should come. He was received with a storm of applause. His address is here given: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distin- guished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were but a measuring of ability, but this is not a contest among persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the whole hosts of error that they can bring. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty the cause of humanity. When this debate is concluded a motion will be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration and also the resolution in condemnation of the administration. I shall object to bringing this question down to a level of persons. The individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies, but principles are eternal, and this has been a contest of principle. "Never before in the history of this country has there been witnessed such a contest as that through which we have passed. Never before in the history of American politics has a great issue been fought ont, as this issue has been, by the voters themselves. "On the fourth of March, 1895, a few democrats, most of them members of congress, issued an address to the democrats of the 434 THE DEBATE EXTENDED. nation asserting that the money question was the paramount issue of the hour; asserting also the right of a majority of the demo- cratic party to control the position of the party on this paramount issue; concluding with the request that all believers in free coinage of silver in the democratic party should organize and take charge of and control the policy of the democratic party. Three months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, and the silver democrats went forth openly and boldly and courageously pro- claiming their belief, and declaring that if successful they would crystallize in a platform the declaration which they had made; and then began the conflict with a zeal approaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit. Our silver democrats went forth from victory unto victory until they are assembled now, not to discuss, not to debate, but to enter up the judgment rendered by the plain people of this country. "In this contest brother has been arrayed against brother and father against father. The warmest ties of love and acquaint- ance and association have been disregarded. Old leaders have been cast aside when they refused to give expression to the sen- timents of those whom they would lead, and new leaders have sprung up to give direction to this cause of truth. Thus has the contest been waged, and we have assembled here under as binding and solemn instructions as were ever fastened upon the represent- atives of a people. "We do not come as individuals. Why, as individuals we might have been glad to compliment the gentleman from New York (Senator Hill), but we knew that the people for whom we speak would never be willing to put him in a position where he could thwart the will of the democratic party. I say it was not a ques- tion of persons; it was a question of principle, and it is not with gladness, my friends, that we find ourselves brought into conflict with those who are now arrayed on the other side. The gentle- man who just preceded (Governor Russell) spoke of the old state of Massachusetts. Let me assure him that not one person in all this convention entertains the least hostility to the people of the state of Massachusetts. "But we stand here representing people who are the equals before the law of the largest citizens in the state of Massachusetts. When you come before us and tell us that we shall disturb your business interests, we reply that you have disturbed our business interests by your course. We say to you that you have made too limited in its application the definition of business man. The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his em- ployer. The attorney in a country town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis. The mer- chant at the cross-roads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York. The farmer who goes forth in the morn- ing and toils all day, begins in the spring and toils all summer, and by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of this country creates wealth, is as much a business man as the WILLIAM S. LINTON. Born in St. Clair, Mich., February, 1856; studied in the public schools, but early went into the lumber business, serving in various capacities, finally going into business on his own account; in 1883 was elected to the Saginaw Common Council, where he had resided since 1879; in 1887 was elected a repre- sentative to the Michigan Legislature; in 1890 was an unsuc- cessful candidate for lieutenant-governor; in 1892 was elected mayor of Saginaw; was elected to the Fifty-third Congress as a Republican and was re-elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress; was twice elected chief executive officer Knights of the Mac- cabees and supreme office of Independent Order of Foresters; stands high as a Mason. DONALD M. DICKINSON. Born in Port Ontario, N. Y., January 7, 1847; entered the University of Michigan and graduated in 1867; took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar, eventually settling in Detroit; in 1876 was chosen chairman of the Democratic State Committee of Michigan; in 1880 was chairman of the Michigan delegation to the National Democratic Convention, since that time has taken an active part in national campaign work; President Cleveland appointed him Postmaster-General of the United States in 1888, a post which he filled for one year; was lately instrumental in calling the attention of Congress to the Cuban question. THE DEBATE EXTENDED. 437 man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain. "The miners who go a thousand feet into the earth or climb 2,000 feet upon the cliffs and bring forth from their hiding places the precious metals to be poured in the channels of trade are as much business men as the few financial magnates who in a back room corner the money of the world. "We come to speak for this broader class of business men. Ah, my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the Atlantic coast; but those hardy pioneers who braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose those pioneers away out there, rearing their children near to nature's heart, where they can mingle their voices with the voices of the birds out there where they have erected school- houses for the education of their young, and churches where they praise their Creator, and cemeteries where sleep the ashes of their dead are as deserving of the consideration of this party as any people in this country. "It is for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest. We are fighting in the defense of our homes, our families and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked, and our calamity came. "We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them! "The gentleman from Wisconsin has said he fears a Robes- pierre. My friend, in this land of the free you need fear no tyrant who will spring up from among the people. What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand as Jackson stood, against the encroach- ments of aggrandized wealth. "They tell us that this platform was made to catch votes. We reply to them that changing conditions make new issues; that the principles upon which rest democracy are as everlasting as the hills, but that they must be applied to new conditions as they arise. Conditions have arisen and we are attempting to meet those con- ditions. They tell us that the income tax ought not to be brought in here; that is a new idea. They criticise us for our criticisms of the supreme court of the United States. My friends, we have not criticised. We have simply called attention to what you know. If you want criticisms read the dissenting opinions of the court. That will give you criticisms. "They say we passed an unconstitutional law. I deny it. The income tax was not unconstitutional when it was passed. It was not unconstitutional when it went before the supreme court for the first time. It did not become unconstitutional until one judge changed his mind, and we cannot be expected to know when a judge will change his mind. "The income tax is a just law. It simply intends to put the burdens of government justly upon the backs of the people. I am in favor of an income tax. 23 438 THE DEBATE EXTENDED. "When I find a man who is not willing to pay his share of the burden of the government which protects him I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours. "He says that we are opposing the national bank currency. It is true. If you will read what Thomas Benton said you will find that he said that in searching history he could find but one parallel to Andrew Jackson. That was Cicero, who destroyed the conspiracies of Cataline and saved Rome. He did for Rome what Jackson did when he destroyed the bank conspiracy and saved America. "We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government. We be- lieve it. We believe it is a part of sovereignty and can no more with safety be delegated to private individuals than we could af- ford to delegate to private individuals the power to make penal statutes or levy laws for taxation. "Mr. Jefferson, who was once regarded as good democratic authority, seems to have a different opinion from the gentleman who has addressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank, and that the government ought to go out of the banking, business. I stand with Jefferson, rather than with them, and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a func- tion of the government and that the banks ought to go out of the government business. "They complain about the plank which declares against the life tenure in office. They have tried to strain it to mean that which it does not mean. What we oppose in that plank is the life tenure that is being built up in Washington, which excludes from participation in the benefits the humbler members of our society. I cannot dwell longer in my limited time. "Let me call attention to two or three great things. The gentleman from- New York says that he will propose an amend- ment providing that this change in our law shall not affect con- tracts already made. Let me remind you that there is no inten- tion of affecting those contracts, which, according to the present laws, are made payable in gold. But if he means to say that we cannot change our monetary system without protecting those who have loaned money before the change was made I want to ask him where, in law or in morals, he can find authority for not protecting the debtors when the act of 1873 was passed, but now insists that we must protect the creditor. He says he also wants to amend this law and provide that if we fail to maintain a parity within a year that we will then suspend the coinage of silver. We reply that when we advocate a thing which we believe will be suc- cessful we are not compelled to raise a doubt as to our own sin- cerity by trying to show what we will do if we can. I ask him, if he will apply his logic to us, why he does not apply it to him- self? He says that he wants this country to try to secure an in- ternational agreement. Why doesn't he tell us what he is going to do if they fail to secure an international agreement THE DEBATE EXTENDED. 439 "There is more reason for him to do that than for us to fail to maintain the parity. They have tried for thirty years for thirty years to secure an international agreement, and those are waiting for it most patiently who don't want it at all. "Now, my friends, let me come to the great paramount issue. If they ask us here why it is that we say more on the money ques- tion than we say upon the tariff question, I reply that if protection has slain its thousands the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands. If they ask us why we did not embody all these things in our platform which we believe, we reply to them that when we have restored the money of the constitution all other nec- essary reforms will be possible, and that until that is done there is no reform that can be accomplished. "Why is it that within three months such a change has come over the sentiments of this country? Three months ago, when it was confidently asserted that those who believed in the gold standard would frame our platform and nominate our candidates, even the advocates of the gold standard did not think that we could elect a president; but they had good icason for the sus- picion, because there is scarcely a state here today asking for the gold standard that is not within the absolute control of the re^ publican party. But note the change. Mr. McKinley was nom- inated at St. Louis upon a platform that declared for the main- tenance of the gold standard until it should be changed into bi- metallism by an international agreement. Mr. McKinley was the most popular man among the republicans, and everybody three months ago in the republican party prophesied his election. How is it today? Why, that man who used to boast that he looked like Napoleon that man shudders today when he thinks that he was> nominated on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. "Not only that, but as he listens he can hear with ever-increas- ing distinctness the sound of the waves as they beat upon the lonely shores of St. Helena. "Why this change? Ah, my friends, is not the change evident to anyone who will look at the matter? It is no private char- acter, however pure, no personal popularity, however great, that can protect from the avenging wrath of an indignant peopli the man who will either declare that he is in favor of fastening the gold standard upon this people, or who is willing to surrender the right of self-government and place legislative control in the hands of foreign potentates and powers. "We go forth confident that we shall win. Why? Because upon the paramount issue in this campaign there is not a spot of ground upon which the enemy will dare to challenge battle. Why, if they tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, we point to their platform and tell them that their platform pledges the party to get rid of a gold standard and substitute bimetallism. If the gold standard is a good thing why try to get rid of it? If the gold standard, and I might call your attention to the fact that some of the very people who are in this convention today and who tell you that we ought to declare in favor of international bi- 440 THE DEBATE EXTENDED. metallism and thereby declare that the gold standard is wrong and that the principle of bimetallism is better these very people four months ago were open and avowed advocates of the gold standard and telling us that we could not legislate two metals to- gether even with all the world. "I want to suggegst this truth, that if the gold standard is a good thing we ought to declare in favor of its retention and not in favor of abandoning it; and if the gold standard is a bad thing why should we wait until some other nations are willing to help us to let go? "Here is the line of battle. We care not upon which issue they force the fight. We are prepared to meet them on either issue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard is the standard of civilization we reply to them that this, the most enlightened of all the nations of the earth, has never declared for a gold stand- ard, and both the parties this year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it? So if they come to meet us on that we cm present the history of our nation. More than that. We can tell them this, that they will search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance in which the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of a gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have. "Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country, and, my friends, it is simply a question that we shall decide, upon which side shall the democratic party fight? "Upon the side of the idle holders of idle capital, or upon the side of the struggling masses? That is the question that the party must answer first, and then it must be answered by each in- dividual hereafter. The sympathies of the democratic party, as described by the platform, are on the side of the struggling masses, who have ever been the foundation of the democratic party. "There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous that^heir prosperity will leak through on those below. The dem- ocratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class and rest upon it. "You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in this country. "My friends, we shall declare that this nation is able to legis- late for its own people on ever> question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth, and upon that is- sue we expect to carry every single state in this union. "I shall not slander the fair state of Massachusetts nor the THE DEBATE EXTENDED. 441 state of New York \>y saying that when its citizens are con- fronted with the proposition, Is this nation able to attend to its own business? I will not slander either one by saying that the people of those states will declare our helpless impotency as a nation to attend to our own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but 3,000,000, had the courage to declare their political independence of every other nation upon earth. Shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to 70,000,000, declare that we are less independent than our fore- fathers? No, my friends, it will never be the judgment of this people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but we cannot have it till some nation helps us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we shall restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has. "If they dare to come out arid in the open defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the labor- ing interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their de- mands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." CHAPTEK XXXIX. CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. The majority of the Democratic National Committee had, as the event proved, represented the ideas of but a minority of the delegates elected to the convention. Their preliminary dictum had been overruled and Senator Daniels took the chair. The Committee on Credentials, necessarily extremely Free Silverite, had considered the case of the contesting delegates of Nebraska and Michigan and had decided in their favor. The convention confirmed the action of the committee. In Nebraska the issue had been somewhat doubtful and was settled easily and readily, From Mich- igan had come a properly certified delegation and here the case promised to be more difficult. In Michigan the Silverites thought they had a majority in the Democratic State Convention. The convention went the other way and the claim was advanced that delegates had been tampered with and that the balance was on the other side, and that federal patronage had defeated the real will of the people. The Silver men asked the National Convention to^ re- verse the instructions of the State Convention on the ground that they were in violation of public sentiment and accept what it ought to have done instead of what it did. The Credentials Committee responded by throwing CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. 443 out enough of those opposed to them in the Michigan del- egation to insure a majority, after -which the delegation enforced the unite rule, thus making it solid for Free Sil- ver. The Nebraska delegation of minor importance had shared the same fate at an earlier hour. The result of this was to give to the Free Silverites a possible two-thirds majority without resorting to the device of abolishing the time honored custom of the Democracy. The next struggle between the two factions must necessarily be over the platform, which was to enunciate the principles of which every wing of the party should prove dominant. It was of course apparent that this dominated force would be the Silver wing, but there was still maintained a resolute but desperate struggle by those who had been denominated the Sound Money men. Each wing had prominent representatives in the Committee on Platform, and the struggle there was resolute and long continued. It resulted in an absolute difference of opinion, the Silverites having a majority, and the eventual bringing before the convention of a majority and minority report, affording scope for another debate and for a more clearly defined expression of the difference of opinion between the contending wings of the party. The Silverite report, that of the majority, was as follows: "We, the Democrats of the United States, in national conven- tion assembeled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential principles of justice and liberty upon which our institutions are founded and which the Democratic party has advocated from Jef- ferson's time to our own freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional limitations. "During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual scheme of government established by the founders of this republic of re- i44 CONTINUATION OF THE STEUGGLE. publics. Under its guidance and teachings the great principle of local self-government has found its best expression in the main- tenance of the rights of the States and in its assertion of the neces- sity of confiding the general government to the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United States. "Recognizing that the money system is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Federal Constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Con- gress under the Constitution made the silver dollar the monetary unit and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dollar unit. "We declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the en- richment of the money lending class at home and abroad; prostra- tion of industry and impoverishment of the people. "We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American, but anti-American, and it can be fastened on the United States only by the stifling of that spirit and love of liberty which proclaimed our political independ- ence in 1776 and won it in the war of the revolution. "We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to I without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private contract. "We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option re- served_ by the law to the government of redeeming such obliga- tions in either silver coin or gold coin. "We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the United States in times of peace, and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for bonds and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold monometallism. "Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We, therefore, demand that the power to issue notes to circulate as money be taken from the na- tional banks and that all paper money shall be issued directly by the Treasury Department, and be redeemable in coin and receiv- able for all debts, public and private. "We hold that tariff duties should be levied for purposes of LEVI P. MORTON. Born in Shoreham, Vt., May 16, 1824; in 1849 went into business in Boston, and in 1854 went to New York, where he established the dry goods firm of Morton & Grinnell; later established the banking house of Morton, Rose & Co.; in 1878 Mr. Morton was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1880; refused the chance of nomination of Vice-President on the Republican ticket the same year, and President Garfield gave him the choice between being Secretary of the Navy or Minister to France; he chose the latter place; was nomi- nated for Vice-President in 1888 and elected; in 1894 became a candidate for Governor of New York and was elected. JOHN J. INGALLS. Born in Middletown, Mass., December 29, 1833; graduated at Williams College in 1855; studied law and admitted to the bar in 1857; removed to Atchison, Kan., in 1858; was a member of the Wyandotte convention in 1859, secretary of the Territorial Council in 1860 and of the State Senate in 1861, and was a member of the latter body in 1862; in the same year was an unsuccessful candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of Kansas; became United States Senator for the term beginning in 1873, and held this office for three terms; in 1877 chosen President pro tempore of the Senate; defeated by the Populist party when a candidate for re-election for the fourth term. CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. 447 revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country and not discriminate between class or sec- tion, and that taxation should be limited by the needs of the gov- ernment honestly and economically administer. We denounce as disturbing to business the Republican threat to restore the Mc- Kinley law, which has been twice condemned by the people in na- tional elections, and which, enacted under the false plea of pro- tection to home industry, proved a prolific breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of the many, restricted trade and deprived the producers of the great American staples of access to their natural markets. "Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agitation for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are necessary to make good the deficit in revenue caused by the ad- verse decision of the Supreme Court on the income tax. But for this decision by the Supreme Court there would be no deficit in the revenue under the law passed by a Democratic Congress in strict pursuance of the uniform decisions of that court for nearly too years that court having under that decision sustained constitu- tional objections to its enactment, which had been overruled by the ablest Judges who have ever sat on that bench. We 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 of 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. "We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly re- duced by a vicious monetary system which depresses the prices of their products below the cost of production and thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manu- factories. "The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our leading railway systems, and the formation of trusts and pools require a stricter control by the Federal Government of those ar- teries of commerce. We demand the enlargement of the powers of the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and such restrictions and guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people from robbery and oppression. "We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation, and the lavish appropriations ^of recent Republican Congresses which have kept taxes high, while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the products of the people's toil are depressed till they no longer repay the cost of pro- duction. We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a democratic government, and a reduction in the num- ber of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people. 448 CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. "We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs as a violation of the Constituion of the United States and a crime against free institutions, and we especially ob- ject to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which Federal Judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at' once legisla- tors, Judges, and executioners; and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate and now pending in the House, relative to contempts in Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt. "No discrimination should be indulged in by the Government of the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific rail- road funding bill and denounce the effort of the present Re- publican Congress to enact a similar measure. "Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we heartily indorse the rule of Commissioner Murphy that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the pension roll, and the fact of enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment. "We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona into the Union as States, and we favor the early ad- mission of all the Territories having the necessary population and resources to entitle them to Statehood, and while they remain Territories we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any Territory, together with the District of Co- lumbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the territory of the district in which their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party believes in home rule and that all public lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establishment of free homes for American citizens. "We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a delegate in Congress and that the general land and timber laws of the United States be extended to said Territory. "We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and independence. "We are opposed to life tenure in the public service. We favor appointments based upon merits, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the -civil service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness. "We declare it to be the unwritten law of this republic, estab- lished by custom and usage of 100 years, and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our government, that no man shall be eligible for a third term of the Presidential office. "The Federal Government should care for and improve the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the republic so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient importance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. 449 extended upon a definite plan of continuous work, until perma- nent improvement is secured. "Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of prin- ciples and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American people. We invite the support of all citizens who approve them and who desire to have them made effective through legislation for the relief of the people, and the restoration of the country's prosperity." The presentation of this report of the majority was followed by the report of the minority, which was as follows : "Sixteen delegates, constituting the minority of the committee on resolutions, find many declarations in the report of the majori- ty to which they cannot give their assent. Some of those are wholly unnecessary. Some are ill-considered and ambiguously phrased, while others are extreme and revolutionary of the well- recognized principles of the parties. The minority content them- selves with this general expression of dissent, without going into a specific statement of the objectionable features of the report of the majority, but upon the financial question, which engages the chief share of public attention, the views of the majority differs so fundamentally from what the minority regards as vital to demo- cratic doctrine as to demand a distinct statement of what they hold as the only just and true expression of democratic faith upon this prominent issue, as follows, which is offered as a substitute for the financial plank in the majority report: "We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the United States alone of free silver coinage, and a change of the existing standard of value independently of the action of other great nations would not only impair our finances but would re- tard or entirely prevent the establishment of international bimetal- lism to which the efforts of the government should be steadily di- rected. It would place this country at once upon a silver basis, impair contracts, disturb business, diminish the purchasing power of the wages of labor and inflict irreparable evils upon our nation's commerce and industry. "Until international co-operation among leading nations for the coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid maintenance of the existing gold standard as essential to the preservation of our national credit, the redemption of our public debt, and the keeping inviolate of our country's honor. We insist that all our paper and silver currency shall be kept absolutely at a parity with gold. The democratic party is a party of hard money, and is op- posed to legal-tender paper money as a part of our permanent financial system, and we, therefore, favor the gradual retirement of all United States notes and treasury notes under such legis- lative provisions as will prevent undue contraction. 450 CONTINUATION OF THE STRUGGLE. "We demand that the national credit shall be resolutely main- tained at all time and under all circumstances. "The minority also feels that the report of the majority vs defective in failing to make any recognition of the honesty, econo- my, courage and fidelity of the present democratic administration. And they therefore offer the following declaration as an amend ment to the minority report: "We commend the honesty, economy, courage and fidelity of the present democratic administration." Mr. Hill, of New York, offered the following amend- ment also: "But it should be carefully provided by law at the same time that any change in the monetary standard of New York should not apply to existing contracts. "Our advocacy of the independent free coinage of silver being based on the belief that such coinage will be to effect and maintain the parity between gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to i be declared as a pledge of pur sincerity that if such free coinage should fail to effect such parity within one year from its enactment by law, such coinage shall thereupon be suspended." CHAPTER XL. THE ISSUE DEFINED. The presentation of the majority report was followed by the appearance of Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, on the platform, who declared the issues to be sectional, and who asserted that the existing administration should be repudiated. He offered a resolution to that effect. He was followed by Senator Jones, of Arkansas; who denied the assertions made, and who stated that the issue was not sectional in any sense. Then followed a great debate upon the platform. It was well understood that the most prominent advocates of the opposing forces would be Senator David B. Hill, of New York, and Hon. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska. The appearance of Sen- Hill resulted in an ovation of applause from the audience. He spoke as follows: "I do not know that it is necessary that I should reply to the distinguished senator from South Carolina. And I trust that in any reply I may make I shall not fail to accord to him my profound respects. "I would say at the outset, I am a democrat, but I am not a revolutionist. I will say, further, that no matter what the provo- cation, you cannot drive me out of the democratic party. Without intending to specially reply to the remarks of the distinguished senator from South Carolina, I will only say that it was a waste of time upon his part to assume that we were so ignorant as not to know that it was his state that attempted to break up the demo- cratic party in 1860. But that party has survived the attempt of every section of the country to divide it, to distract it: it lives 452 THE ISSUE DEFINED. today, and I hope it will long survive. My mission here today is to unite, not to divide; to build up, not to destroy; to plan for vic- tory and not to plot for defeat. I know that I speak to a con- vention which, as now constituted, probably does not agree with the views of the state that I especially represent upon this occa- sion. But I know that, notwithstanding the attack which has been made upon that state, you will hear me for my cause. "New York makes no apology to South Carolina for her reso- lution. We get our democracy from our fathers. We do not need to learn it from those whom my friend represents. Need I defend New York? No! it is not necessary. She defends herself. Need I defend the attack made upon her and her citizens of wealth, men of intelligence and character? No, it is not necessary. Need I remind this democratic national convention that it is in the great state of New York and in its great city where the wealth that he inveighs against is situated? But it is in the great city that never but once in its history gave a republican majority. When other cities failed to respond, New York was the Gibraltar of democracy. "The question which this convention is to decide is which is the best position to take at this time upon the financial question. In a word, the question presented is between international bi- metallism and local bimetallism. If there be gold monometallists they are not represented either in the majority report or in the minority report. I therefore start out with this proposition: That the democratic party stands today in favor of gold and silver as the money of the country, but we differ as to the means to bring about that result. Those I represent and for whom I speak the sixteen members of the minority committee insist that we should not attempt the experiment of free and unlimited coinage of silver without the co-operation of other great nations. It is not a question of patriotism. It is not a question of cour- age. It is not a question of loyalty. It is not a ques- tion of valor. The majority platform speaks of the subject as though it was simply a question as to whether we were a brave enough people to enter upon this experiment. It is a question of business. It is a question of finance. It is a question of economics. It is not a question notwithstanding, which men ever so brave can solve. "Mr. President, I think that the safest, the best course for this convention to have pursued was to take the first step forward in the great cause of monetary reform by declaring in favor of in- ternational bimetallism. I am not here to assail the honesty or sin- cerity of a single man who disagrees with me. There are those around me who know that in every utterance made upon this sub- ject I have treated the friends of free and unlimited coinage of sil- ver at the ratio of 16 to i with respect. I am here to pursue that course today. I do not think that we can safely ignore the monetary systems of other great nations. It is a question about which honest men may differ. I believe we cannot ignore the attitude of other nations upon this subject any more than we can their attitude upon the other questions of the day. I know, it is said, by enthusiastic THE ISSUE DEFINED. 453 friends that America can mark out a course for herself. I know that it appeals to the pride of the average American to say that it matters not what other countries may do, we can arrange this matter for ourselves. But I beg to remind you, if that suggestion is carried out to its legitimate conclusion, you might as well do away with international treaties, you might as well do away with commercial treaties with other countries, you might as well do away with all the provisions in your tariff bills that have relation to the laws of other countries. In this great age, when we are con- nected with all portions of the earth by our ships, by our cables and by all methods of intercourse, we think that it is unwise to at- tempt this alone. Mr. President, I want to call your attention to this single point. I think it is unwise further for this convention to hazard this contest upon a single latio. "What does this silver platform provide? It should have con- tented itself with the single statement that it was in favor of the remonetization of silver and the placing it upon equality with gold, but instead of that your committee has recommended for adoption a platform which make the test of democratic loyalty to hang upon a single ratio, and that i6to i. Idoubtthe wisdom of having entered into detail. I doubt the propriety of saying that 15^2 or 17 is here- sy and 16 is the only true democratic doctrine. Permit me to re- mind you I see distinguished senators before me, who in the sen- ate of the United States, friends of free silver, who have introduced bills for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 20 to I. I beg to remind this convention that some of your candi- dates propose for nomination men whom I accept and whose de- mocracy is admitted, who have voted time and time again in con- gress for other ratios than 16 to I ; and yet you are proposing to nominate gold men upon a platform that limits and restricts them to one single ratio. "With all due respect I think it an unwise step; I think it an unnecessary step, and I think it will return to plague us in the future. I think we have too many close business relations with the other great nations of the world for us to ignore their attitude. Your proposed platform says that the policy of gold mono- metallism is a British policy. Mr. President, they forget to tell the people of this country that it is a French policy also; they forget to tell the people of this country that it is a German policy also; they fail to remind you that it is a Spanish policy also; they fail to tell you that it is the policy of the whole number of governments represented in what was called the Latin union. Therefore, I think I think it looks a little just a trifle like demagogy to suggest that this is the policy of the single nation alone. "Mr. President: I regret also to see that your platform reads not any single word in favor of international bimetallism; not necessarily inconsistent with this platform, and there is no declara- tion whatever that it is the policy of this government to attempt to bring it about. The minority platform declares expressly that it is the policy of this government to make steady efforts to bring this about. It would be safer to do it; it would be wiser to do it. 454 THE ISSUE DEFINED. We run no risk upon the great question of the finances of this re- public. I do not intend in the brief time allotted to me to enter into any elaborate argument upon this question. I assume that this convention desires, as the people of this country desire, that every silver dollar coined shall be the equal of every other dollar coined. "I find no words in this platform in favor of the maintenance of the parity of the two metals. I find no suggestion of what is to be done in case the experiment fails. I find no suggestion of how you are to brace up this now depreciated currency. Every- thing is risked upon the mere fact that it shall be given free coin- age at the mints. I beg to call your attention to this fact, that in my humble opinion the very policy condemned by this platform is the policy that has kept your greenback currency and your sil- ver dollar at a parity with gold during the past years. We think that times and conditions have changed. We think that you can- not ignore the fact of the great production of silver in this country. We think you cannot safely ignore the fact, in the preparation of a financial system, that the cost of the production of silver has greatly fallen. "Why, it is the very pregnant fact that confronts all the world in the solving of this great question, of the immense discovery of silver everywhere. The great fact confronts the world that the cost of silver production has been nearly reduced one-half. If the American people were brave, were courageous, if they had the spirit of 1776, as this platform says, could they, singly and alone, make copper the equal of gold? Could they make lead the equal of gold? Must you not take into consideration the great fact of production, the great fact of the lessening of the cost of produc- tion in the last fifteen and twenty years? If bravery, if courage, could produce these results then you could make any metal, no matter what it might be, a money metal. But I tell you, it is a question of economics, a question of business judgment; it is not a question of finance. It is a question of business resources. And upon that it is the judgment of the minority of the committee that the safest course is to take the first great step in favor of in- ternational bimetallism and stop there. "I know it will be said that in some particulars this platform agrees with our republican friends. It, to me, is neither any better nor any worse for it. I call your attention to the fact that your plank upon pensions, that your plank upon the Monroe doctrine, that your plank upon Cuba, that your plank upon territories, that your plank upon Alaska, that your plank even upon civil service are exactly like the republican planks. Therefore I do not think that that criticism will detract from the value of the suggestion. "Mr. President, I said a few moments ago I thought the safest course for this convention to have pursued was simply to have said that this government should enact a statute in favor of plac- ing gold and silver alike as the currency of the country, and stop there. I do not think, as I said and will repeat it, it is wise to hazard everything upon a single number. Let me go further. I HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. THE ISSUE DEFINED. 457 object to the various provisions of this platform, and I think if the wise, level, cool-headed men, far-sighted men, such as is the distinguished senator from Arkansas who addressed you, had pre- vailed, that platform would have been different. What was the necessity for opening up the question of greenback circulation? What was the necessity for putting in this platform an implied pledge that this government might issue greenbacks and make them legal tender? "The democratic party is opposed to paper money. The demo- cratic party from its earliest history has been in favor of hard money. The democratic party thinks that the best way for us to do is to eliminate United States notes and treasury notes from your currency. They are a drag upon your money metals. You have to constantly keep supplied a fund for their redemption, unless you propose to repudiate them. Therefore, when my friend from South Carolina and my friend from Arkansas say that this plat- lorm says what it means and means what it says, I would like to have some one who follows me tell what this platform means upon the subject of the issue of paper money hereafter. I am not violating, I think, the secrets of the committee-room when I say that it was avowed that this government might desire to pursue that course, and this is an attempt at this late day to commit the democratic party to the suicidal policy of the issuing of paper money. You say you wanted a clear and distinct platform. You have not got it upon that question. It cannot be defended suc- cessfully. "Another suggestion permit me to make. What was the necessity for putting into the platform other questions which have never been made the tests of democratic loyalty before? Why we find the disputed question of the policy and constitutionality of on income tax. What! Has it come to this, that the. followers of Samuel J. Tilden, who, during all his life was the opponent of that iniquitous scheme, which was used against him in his old age to annoy and harass him and humiliate him why, I say, should it be left to this convention to make as a tenet of democratic faith belief in the propriety and constitutionality of an income law? Why was it wise to assail the supreme court of your country? Will some one tell me what that clause means in this platform? If you meant what you said and said what you meant, will some one explain that provision? That provision, if it means anything, means that it is the duty of congress to reconstruct the supreme court of the country. It means, and it was openly avowed, it means the adding of additional members to it, or the turning out of office and reconstructing the whole court. I said I will not follow any such revolutionary step as that. Whenever before in the his- tory of this country has devotion to an income tax been made the test of democratic loyalty? Never. Have you not undertaken enough, my good friends, now, without seeking to put in this plat- form these unnecessary, foolish and ridiculous things? "What further have you done? In this platform you have de- clared for the first time in the history of this country, that you are 24 458 THE ISSUE DEFINED. opposed to any life tenure whatever for office. Our fathers before us, our democratic fathers, whom we revere, in the establishment of this government, gave our court judges a life tenure of office. What necessity was there for reviving this question? How foolish and how unnecessary, in my opinion. Our democrats, whose whole lives have been devoted to the service of the party, men whose hopes, whose ambitions, whose aspirations, all lie within party lines, are to be driven out of the party upon this new question of life tenure for the court judges of our federal court. This is a revolutionary step, this is an unwise step, this is an unprecedented step in our party history." "Another question that I think should have been avoided, and that is this: What was the necessity, what the propriety of taking up the vexed question of the issue of bonds for the preservation of the credit of the nation? Why not have left this financial question of the free coinage of silver alone? What have you declared? You have announced the policy that under no circumstances shall there ever be a single bond issued in times of peace. You have not ex- cepted anything. What does this mean? It means the virtual re- peal of your resumption act; it means repudiation per se and sim- ple. The statement is too broad, the statement is too sweeping; it has not been carefully considered. You even oppose congress doing it; you even oppose the president doing it; VQU oppose them doing it either singly or unitedly; you stand upon the broad propo- sition that for no purpose, whether to protect the currency or not whether to preserve your national credit or for any other purpose shall there be a bond issued. Why, how surprising that would be to my democratic associates in the senate who for the last two or three years have introduced bill after bill for the issuing of bonds for the Nicaragua Canal and other purposes. "No, no, my friends, this platform has not been wisely con- sidered. In your zeal for monetary reform you have gone out of the true path; you have turned from the true course, and in your anxiety to build up the silver currency you have unnecessarily put in this platform provisions which cannot stand a fair discus- sion. Let me tell you, my friends, without going into a discussion of the bond question proper, which is somewhat foreign to this subject let me tell you what would be the condition of this coun- try today if the President of the United States, in the discharge of the public duty that is conferred upon him, had not seen fit to issue bonds to protect the credit of the government. The demo- cratic party has passed a tariff bill which, unfortunately, has not produced a sufficient revenue to meet the necessities of the gov- ernment. There has been a deficit of about fifty millions a year. It is hoped that in the near future this bill will produce ample rev- enues for the support of the government, but in the meantime your greenback currency and your treasury notes must be redeemed when they are presented, if you would preserve the honor and the credit of the nation. Where would the money have come from if your President and your southern secretary of the treasury had not THE ISSUE. DEFINED. 459 discharged their duty by the issuing of bonds to save the credit of the country? ''Let me call your attention to the figures. There has been issued during this administration $262,000,000 of bonds. What amount of money have you in the treasury today? Only just about that sum. Where would you have obtained the means with which to redeem your paper money if it had not been pro- duced by the sale of bonds? Why, my friend Tillman could not have had money enough out of the treasury from his salary to pay his expenses home. "Mr. President, I reiterate to this convention that this has brought into this canvass an unnecessary, a foolish issue, which puts us on the defense in every school district in the state. "I do not propose to detain you by any other criticism of this platform at this time. It is sufficient that you have entered upon an issue on which the democracy is largely divided. In addition to that you have unwisely brought into this platform other ques- ions foreign to the main question, and made the support of them the test of democracy. I do not think that this was the course that should have been pursued. Mr. President, there is time enough yet to retrace these false steps. The burdens you have imposed upon us in the eastern states in the support of this platform in its question relating to silver is all that can be reasonably borne. But in addition to that you have put upon us the question of the preservation of the public credit. You have brought into it the question of the issuing of bonds. You have brought into it the question of the reconstruction of the supreme court. You have brought into it the question of the issuing of paper money. You have brought into it the great question of life tenure in office. And this platform is full of incongruous and absurd provisions v.hich are proposed to be made the test of true democracy. "Mr. President, it is not for me to revive any question of sec- tionalism, and I shall not do it. This country is now at peace, all sections of it, and let it so remain. I care not from what section of the country the democrat comes, so long as he is true to the fun- damental principles of our fathers. I will take him by the hand and express my friendly sentiments toward him. The question of sectionalism will creep in in spite of the efforts of our best men to keep it out. I oppose this platform because I think it makes our success more difficult. I want the grand old party with which I have been associated from my boyhood to be I have looked forward to the day when it should be securely intrenched in the affections of the American people. I dislike the republican party. I dislike all their tenets. I have no sympathy with their general principles; but I do think that we are here today making a mistake in the venture which we are about to take. Be not deceived. Do not attempt to drive old democrats out of the party that have grown gray in its service, to make room for a lot of republicans and old whigs and other populists that will not vote your ticket after all. 46ti THE ISSUE DEFINED. "Do not attempt to trade off the vote of little New Jersey, that never failed to give its electoral vote, and take the experiment of some state out west that has always given its vote to the repub- lican ticket. I tell you that no matter who your candidate may be in this convention, with possibly one exception, your populist friends, upon whom you are relying for support in the west and south, will nominate their own ticket, and your silver forces will be divided. Mark the prediction which I make. ''Some one says 'No.' Who are authorized to speak for the populist party here in a democratic convention? I saw upon this platform the other day an array of them, giving countenance and support to this movement, men who never voted a democratic ticket in their lives, and never expect to. They have organized this party. They are the men who attempted to proscribe demo- crats all over this union. They are the men who were crying against us in the days that tried men's souls during the war. "My friends, I thus speak more in sorrow than in anger. You know what this platform means to the east. You must realize the result. But, calamitous as it may be to us, it .will be more calamitous to you if, after all, taking these risks, you do not win this fight. My friends, we want the democratic party to suc- ceed. We want to build it up. We do not want to tear it down. We want our principles the good old principles of Jefferson, Jackson, of Tilden, of hard money, of safe money. We want no greenback currency on our plates. We want no paper currency whatever. We want to stand by the principles under which we have won during the history of this country, and made it what it is. If we keep in the good old paths of the party, we can win. If we depart from them we shall lose." CHAPTER XLI. THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION There occurred the most exciting moments of the con- vention after Mr. Bryan had concluded his speech. The delegates were impressed by his manner and the tide in his favor was augmented. The voting upon the majority and minority reports on the platform began and, while the existing administration was not censured, it was not endorsed, though resolutions had been offered to both effects. The immediate result was the adoption in its entirety of the platform. The main issue up to this time in the history of the convention was now practically de- cided. The real struggle between the candidates had begun. It was evident from the time of the wild demonstra- tion at the conclusion of Bryan's speech that the com- plexion of affairs had changed and that a new and for- midable candidate was fairly in the field. No sooner had the convention adjourned than active work began on the part of his friends, and the fact soon became gener- ally recognized that the contest laid practically between him and Bland. At the subsequent short session when the nominating speeches were made he was placed form- ally in the field. Balloting began immediately upon the assembling of 462 THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. the convention at ten o'clock in the morning of July 10th. The Bryan boom had survived the night, and it redoubled its force with the opening of the convention. Every candidate except the Nebraska man had lost strength. Permanent Chairman White, of California, called the convention to order, and not long thereafter gave way to Congressman Richardson. W. F. Harrity presented Robert E. Pattison, of Pennsylvania, and the chairman of the Oregon delegation nominated Sylvester Pennoyer. Then the roll call began. Alabama voted twenty-two for Boies without attracting much attention, and the call proceeded without discussion until Michigan was reached, when Stevenson, Don Dickinson's partner, who led the fight for gold in that state, challenged the announcement of five for Bland, seven for Bryan and four for Boies. The roll of the state was called, and he declined to vote. So did nine others. The vote was finally announced as first read. At the call for New Jersey Allen McDermott, the chairman of the delegation, announced that the state would not vote. A man in the Indiana delegation rose and shouted: "Those fellows are republicans and ought to be turned out." Ex-Governor Flower's announcement that New York would not vote was hissed,' and cries of "Throw them out!" arose from the galleries. The first difficulty of the ballot occurred when Wis- consin was reached. General Bragg, chairman of the delegation, announced that Wisconsin would not vote. This announcement called forth a protest from certain silver members of the delegation. General Bragg in- sisted that Wisconsin was under the unit rule, and that he had correctly reported the sentiments of the delega- THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 463 tion. The silver delegates demanded a call of the state. It showed five men voting. The more radical silver men were for declaring that under the unit rule these five could swing the entire vote of the state. The chairman effected a compromise by deciding that the five votes only should be recorded. Colorado voted for Teller. The vote stood: Bland, 223; Bryan, 135; Boies, 86: McLean, 54; Blackburn, 83 ; Matthews, 37; Pattison, 95; Tillman, 17; Pennoyer, 10; Teller, 8; Stevenson, 2; Campbell, 2; Russell, 2; Hill, 1; not voting, 185. On the next ballot Alabama changed from Boies to Bland and the Bland men received the announcement with wild cheers. Massachusetts seven votes (50 the delegation), the rest not voting. New York made no sign. Tillman threw his strength to Bryan. On this ballot, as well as on those which followed, New York was the only state in which no votes were cast. The result of the second ballot was: Bland, 281; Bryan, 197 ; Pattison, 100; Blackburn, 41; Boies, 37; McLean, 53; Matthews, 34; Pennoyer, 8; not voting, 160. Bryan and Bland had gained almost equally, but Bryan's advance had been at a much larger ratio. On the third ballot Colorado deserted Teller for Bryan, and Oregon gave him five votes. Bland rose to 291, Bryan to 219. The pressure was telling. The crowd grew turbulent when the fourth ballot was called. Everybody knew it was the beginning of the end. Bryan men swarmed over the seats and surrounded the Illinois delegation, shouting and gesticulating. Governor Alt- geld was pulled from his chair. But Illinois was still for Bland. Alabama, which missed the opportunity of placing him in nomination, turned twenty-two votes for 464 THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. Bryan. California gave twelve more. Idaho left the Bland column and voted six for Bryan. Kansas gave him twenty. Minnesota gave him ten. Nevada gave him six, which had been for McLean. Oregon gave him eight. At the end of the roll call he had 280 votes to 241 for Bland. The race was all but over. When Illinois was reached there was great excite- ment. Secretary of State, white with rage, rushed down the center aisle and asked permission for the Illinois delegation to withdraw for consultation. The delegates trooped out to an ante-room and were besieged in the passage by Bryan and Bland men. " For God's sake, stand by Mr. Bland," begged an Arkansas delegate, clutching the governor by the arm. Altgeld's face was white as death. The delegation had no sooner disap- peared from sight than their angry voices could be heard above the roar of the convention. Presently Ohio also left the hall. It was amid the most deafening roar of voices and trampling of feet that the roll call for the fifth ballot was begun. Kentucky deserted Blackburn and went to Bryan. Four votes from Maine, five from Maryland and six from Massachusetts were swept in by the cyclone. When Tennessee gave twenty-four votes and Virginia the same number to the victor the standards were torn from the floor and centered around the Nebraska delegates. Still Illinois did not report; the roll call was almost over before the delegates came out. The clerk demanded the vote and Illinois cast her forty-eight votes for Bryan. The hall shook under the cheers. All order was at an end. Delegates and audience arose to their feet. At this time John R. McLean mounted his chair and DAVID B. HENDERSON Born in Old Deer, Scotland, March 14, 1840; came to the United States in 1846, settling first in Illinois, but removing in 1849 to Iowa, where he was educated in the public schools and at the Upper Iowa University; enlisted as a private in the Twelfth Iowa Regiment in 1861; Collector of Internal Rev- enue for the Third District of Iowa from 1865 till 1869; in the meantime had been admitted to the bar, and in 1869 became a member of the law firm of Shiras, Van Duzee & Henderson; was assistant United States District Attorney until 1871; elect- ed to the Forty-eighth Congress, where he has since served continuously. WILLIAM O. BRADLEY. Born in Madison, Ky., March 18, 1847; in 1865 began read- ing law and was admitted to the bar in 1867 by special act of the Legislature, before he was twenty-one years of age; in 1872 became presidential elector and ran for Congress on the Republican ticket, but was defeated; in 1880, 1884 and 1888 was elected delegate-at-large to the National Republican Convention, and in the last-named year was a candidate to a nomination of vice-president, and received considerable sup- port; in 1887 ran for governor but was defeated; in 1889 was appointed minister to Korea by President Harrison, but de- clined; in 1895 he became the first Republican governor-elect of Kentucky. THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 467 claimed the recognition of the chairman. The confusion being very great, he had some difficulty in being recog- nized. A message was sent to chairman Richardson and he recognized Mr. McLean, who said: " Ohio withdraws the name of John R. McLean and casts forty-six votes for William J. Bryan." This announcement caused great confusion and enthusiasm and was decisive of the result. Ex-Governor Stone, of Missouri, then hastened to the platform and made the following speech: "Mr. Chair- man and gentlemen of the convention : Two or three days since I received this note (holding up a letter), which I will now read in your hearing, from Richard Parks Bland." The letter was as follows: I wish it to be understood that I do not desire the nomination unless it is the judgment of the free silver delegates that I would be the strongest candidate. If it should at any time appear that my candidacy is the least obstruction to the nomination of any candidate who is acceptable to the free coinage delegates in the convention, or one more acceptable to a majority of those dele- gates than myself, I wish my name at once unconditionally with- drawn from further consideration. I am willing to wave the state instructions for me if need be, and let the free silver delegates de- cide the whole matter. The cause must be put above the man. " I came to this great city," said Governor Stone, " as one of the delegates from Missouri, voicing the sentiment of the democracy of that state, to present for your delib- erate consideration the name of the illustrious commoner for whom many of you have expressed preference by your votes in this convention. To those who have been our friends in the struggle, I desire now to return my grateful appreciation. But, following the directions of Mr. Bland himself, that whenever a majority of the silver delegates in this convention shall have expressed a pref- erence for another, he desires his name unconditionally and peremptorily withdrawn, I now ? in the name of Mis- 408 THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. souri, lower the .s-tandard under which we have fought throughout this convention, and in its place I lift that of the gifted and glorious son of Nebraska. " Gentlemen, we have chosen a splendid leader; beau- tiful as Apollo ; intellectual beyond comparison ; a great orator; a great scholar; but, above all, beating in his breast there is a heart that throbs in constant sympathy with the great masses of the people, and instinct with the highest sentiments of patriotism, We will not only nominate him, but I believe, with as much confidence as I can believe anything in the future, that we will elect him by an overwhelming majority in November, and that we will inaugurate not only a demo- cratic administration at Washington, but one which at its close will be set down as among the purest, and ablest and the most illustrious of American history. " So, now, gentlemen. I withdraw the name of Richard Parks Bland, and cast the thirty-four votes of our state for William J. Bryan of Nebraska." At the close of Governor Stone's remarks the conven- tion broke into the wildest excitement. Delegates and those in the galleries alike jumped on their chairs and waved umbrellas and flags. In one end of the hall an enthusiast waved aloft a shoe on the end of a long stick. During the excitement the ambitious Bland Club band began to play, but the officers in the convention quickly shut it off. After the excitement had subsided so that the chair- man could be heard he presented to the convention A. Van Wagenen, of Iowa, who spoke as follows: Gentlemen of the convention, when the delegates from Iowa c?me to Chicago they bore with them this message from our great democratic leader: "I have in my heart but one desire, and that is THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 469 the success of the great cause in which we are all engaged." He said to us: "If I am not nominated at Chicago it will be no per- sonal disappointment to me. If the cause for which we are fight- in shall not succeed in November it will be a great personal dis- appointment to me. My advice and my request to you is that, notwithstanding your strong instructions, if, when you get to the Chicago convention you are satisfied there is any man who can poll more votes than I, I ask you to cast the vote of Iowa for him. Now, my friends, while we have great confidence in Horace Boies, while we have understood heretoiore his strength perhaps as you do not, we at this time believe, after looking upon this great assemblage, that William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, can poll more votes than any other candidate before this convention. I am, therefore, instructed by the delegation from Iowa to with- draw Governor Boies' name from your consideration and cast our twenty-six votes for William J. Bryan of Nebraska. I want further to say to you right here that, his health permit- ting, you will find Governor Boies upon the stump for Mr. Bryan, and we believe, knowing his great power as an orator, his great character as a man, that you will find no other such an ally unon the stump for this great cause in November. The chair then recognized Senator Jones, the chair- man of the Arkansas delegation, who said: "The name of Richard P. Bland having been withdrawn, the State - of Arkansas desires to change her vote from Bland to Bryan." The chair then recognized the chairman of the Mon- tana delegation, who addressed the convention as follows: Mr. Chairman, the delegation from Montana has been placed between the two great states of Missouri and Nebraska. We have upon each ballot cast our votes unanimously for our first choice, Richard P. Bland. But as we have stood by Mr. Bland from first to last we just as cheerfully now give our votes to the man from Nebraska, William J. Bryan. After considerable effort the chairman succeeded in restoring sufficient order for Senator Turpie, who had come npon the stand to be heard. Senator Turpie said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: The delega- tion from our state has stood from first to last by pur distinguished chief executive of Indiana, but I am now authorized by the dele- gation from Indiana and the great democratic constituency which it represents to cast the thirty votes of our state for W. J. Bryan, of Nebraska. Mr. President, I also further move you and the dele- gates of this convention, in the interest of unity, which should 470 THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. make unanimity I move that the nomination of W. J. Bryan for the office of President of the United States be made unanimous. Senator Jones of Arkansas was the last to desert. The fight was nearly all his, and it was the fight of his life. But he maintained a bold front, and stalking out in the aisle, cried: "Since the name of Mr. Bland has been withdrawn the State of Arkansas casts its vote for William J. Bryan." A motion to make the nomination unanimous was answered by a storm of ayes and a roar of "no." The nomination was declared unanimous, and the convention adjourned until eight o'clock in the evening. CHAPTER XLII THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. It was expected that the Vice-Presidential nomina- tion would be made in the evening session of the same day on which the Presidential nomination was secured, but this did not prove to be the case. Up to the time of Mr. Bryan's success, John R. McLean, of Ohio, pro- prietor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and a tentative Presi- dential candidate, had been looked upon as decidedly in the lead for second place. This did not prove to be the case. An immense crowd flocked to the Coliseum at night to see the work of the convention finished, and went away disappointed. It was taken for granted that the great struggles were over and that the work of the convention would be rushed to completion. Half an hour before the convention was called to order the situation changed. In a spirit of cautiousness the silver leaders became alarmed at the McLean senti- ment, which it was feared would stampede the conven- tion. They had seen one stampede, and when they put their heads together immediately decided there was such a thing as carrying spontaneity of feeling too far. They therefore decided to move an adjournment for three reasons. First, to calm the dangerous enthusiasm 472 THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. of the masses of the delegates; second, to consult the wishes of William J. Bryan as to the choice of his run- ning mate, and third, and most important, to allow the silver " steering " committee to get together over night and definitely fix upon what it wanted the convention to do. Among the members of this committee were a num- ber decidedly opposed to McLean. They were active in the convention and an adjournment was secured until 10 o'clock of the next day, after which a conference of the committee was had lasting until nearly morning. Among the names considered for the Vice- Presidency, in addition to that of McLean, were those of Sewall, of Maine; Sib- ley, of Pennsylvania; Thurman, of Ohio; Matthews and Shively, of Indiana; Blackburn, of Kentucky, and Daniel, of Virginia. It developed that there was to be almost as much of a struggle in the convention over the Vice-Presiden- tial nomination as over that for the Presidency. It was 11 o'clock on the morning of July 11 when the conven- tion was called to order. There were less than a thou- sand people in the hall proper, more than one-half of the so called " gold " delegates being absent. A motion was made by Senator Jones, of Arkansas, limiting the nominating speeches to five minutes each, which motion was adopted. The first nomination made was by J. T. O'Sullivan, of Massachusetts, who presented the name of George Fred Williams, of the same state. He referred to his candidate as one who had been a consistent fighter of overbearing corporations, and assayed somewhat per- sonally the different leaders of the Anti-Silver minority. He was followed by W. B. Marston, of Louisiana, who THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION 473 explained to the convention that without authority he desired to nominate John R. McLean, of Ohio. James Hamilton Lewis, of Washington, was nominated by Dele- gate Maloney of the same state. I. C. Currie, of North Carolina, placed in nomination Judge Walter Clark, of the Supreme Court of that state. Ex-Congressman Thomas Johnson, of Ohio, nominated ex-Congressman George W. Fithian, of Illinois. Mr. A. Miller, of Oregon, presented the name of Governor Silvester Pennoyer, of Oregon, as one who could secure for the ticket the united vote of the laboring men, because of his course during the railroad troubles in his state. This nomination was followed by that of the man to whom the prize was eventually to go. The chair- man presented to the convention William R. Burk, of California, whose address was as follows: "Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: What I shall say to you at this juncture I know in one respect will commend itself to you. I shall be brief. Gentlemen, taking into account the great mission which has called us into conven- tion, it seems to me that we should consider matters far beyond the reach of this great body. We should consider that there are people whom we represent who have to vote on this great ques- tion, and those people represent forty-seven of the great sovereign states, starting from Maine, reaching to the Pacific, touching the Atlantic coast on the south and extending far beyond into the state of Texas. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, as I have said, geo- graphical considerations should prompt us, as well as the question of ability. "It would not become me to say aught of any gentleman whose name has been brought before you in this connection. I would not say aught of the gentlemen from North Carolina or from Oregon or from any of the great western states, but it seems to me that when we come to make up the remaining portion of this ticket we should consider those states beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in that connection I present a candidate who rep- resents every element which is presented to you in your platform and in your distinguished candidate for the presidency, William J. Bryan. I take pleasure in presenting for your careful consider- ation the name of Arthur J. Sewall, of Maine. Mr. President, it may be well said of him, in connection with the great questions 474 THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. involved in this matter and the interests which are before you, that he will fulfill the pledges which have been made by your plat- form at this time. You will make no mistake in nominating him." Judge J. D. Showalter, of Missouri, in an eloquent speech, next nominated Hon. Joseph T. Sibley, of Penn- sylvania, after which Hon. C. S. Thomas, of Colorado, seconded the nomination of Sewall in the following words : '"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: My voice is in no condition this morning for speaking. I only desire to second a nomination already made. The west has secured the first place upon this ticket in the person of the brilliant and magnetic orator from Nebraska. We should turn our eyes now to the east and look to the solid atttainments of a business man for the second choice on this ticket. We should unite as far as possible the diversified interest and feeling of the democracy of the United States by placing upon the ticket as our second choice a man whose business interests, business experience, business trainings and life- long devotion to the cause of democracy make him eminently fitted to fill out as a full and rounded whole the work which, so auspi- ciously begun, has up to this time been so well performed. In the ranks of the democratic party for political distinction we recognize neither wealth nor poverty. Every man who expresses and by his conduct testifies his devotion to the great principles of our democratic faith, regardless of his condition or standing, is en- titled to respectful consideration at the hands of a national conven- tion. "A man has already been presented to the consideration of this convention who all his life has been a devoted follower of demo- cratic faith. He obtained the inspiration of his belief from Jeffer- son and from Jackson, and, inspired by the splendid diction and unanswerable logic of a great son of Kentucky years and years ago. became a disciple of the great bimetallic principle, which you have crystallized into a cardinal principle of democratic faith by placing it in your platform. "This gentleman comes from one of the remote corners of the United States. There, if I am correctly informed, he was born; there he spent the best days of his young manhood, and there to- day he is enjoying in its full fruition the fruits, the harvest of a life well spent, and as a citizen has long enjoyed the confidence and esteem not only of his democratic brethren but of all with whom he has come in contact. "I desire, therefore, without extended eulogy, although upon that name I might speak far greater length of time perhaps than would be consonant with your wishes, but I recognize that yrvi desire to have the roll called as soon as possible; without saying anything beyond this that his name is that of a solid, conservative, (HON. ABTHUR SEWALL, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOE VICE-PEESIDENT. THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 477 sound, substantial business man, whose interests are extensive and extended, the sails of whose vessels whiten the seas of the world, I desire to second the nomination of Arthur Sewall, of Maine." W. M. Powers, of Utah, nominated John W. Daniel, of Virginia. There were various seconding speeches, followed by certain explanations, which changed the aspect of the situation. A. C. Jones, of Virginia, asserted that under no circumstances would Senator Daniel allow his name to go before the convention for Vice -President. Ulric Jones, of Ohio, said John R. McLean, of Cincinnati, did not want his name mentioned for second place on the ticket, and George W. Fithian, of Illinois, made a speech of thanks for the nomination, which had been made by Johnson, of Ohio, but at the same time begged to be excused. At 12:02 the first ballot began. Alabama divided her 22 votes among half a dozen candidates; Delaware gave 3 votes to Harrity, of Pennsylvania, who had not even been put in nomination ; Illinois gave 48 votes for Sibley ; Kansas gave Williams, of Massachusetts, 20 votes, and Kentucky threw Sibley 21. Michigan went to McLean solid. Indiana did not need Fithian's withdrawal, and presented him with a bunch of votes, but threw most of her strength to McLean. Great interest was felt in what Nebraska would do. Everybody wanted to know whom Bryan wanted on the ticket. The chairman of the delegation left the con- vention as much in doubt as ever. " Nebraska," said he, " deeply appreciates the honor already done her by this convention, and feels willing to accept the judgment of this convention on the question of selecting a Vice -President. Nebraska, therefore, asks to be excused from voting." 25 478 THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS The official result of the first ballot was as follows: Blackburn 20 Bland 62 Teller 1 Daniel 7 Boies 20 Harrity 21 Williams, of Massachusetts.. 76 Pattison 1 McLean Ill Lewis 11 Clark 50 Sewall 100 Sibley 163 Williams, of Illinois 22 White 1 Absent, and not voting, 258. Whole number of votes cast, 682. Necessary to choice, 455. A number of states were, upon request, passed as the second ballot was taken, and there were numerous earnest discussions in caucus. After all were finally counted the vote stood as follows: Williams, of Massachusetts. .. 13 Clark : 22 Pattison 1 Bland.. ..294 Williams, of Illinois 16 McLean 158 Sewall 37 Sibley 113 Harrity No candidate having received the necessary vote, the Chairman ordered the secretary to call the roll for a third ballot, but he had only got as far as Alabama when Amos Cumrnings, of New York, mounted the platform and the Chair requested the secretary to suspend the roll call. Mr. Cummings then read the following dispatch: ' MEADVILLE, PA., July 11. " AMOS CUMMINGS: Please do not permit my name to be pre- sented. I so instructed my friends yesterday. JOSEPH C. SIBLEY." The third vote was taken and stood: Harrity 19 Pattison 1 Daniel 6 McLean 210 Sewall 97 Williams, of Massachusetts. . 15 Clark 22 Bland.. ..210 Sibley 50 After the announcement of the vote, the Chairman rec- ognized Governor Stone, of Missouri, who took the plat- form and said: THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 479 "Gentlemen of the convention, I desire on behalf of Missouri and as the friend of Mr. Bland, to express to you our grateful ap- preciation of your kindness. I am now in receipt of a telegram from Mr. Bland, it which he says substantially that he would deem it unwise and impolitic to nominate both candidates from the west side of the Mississippi River. He directs me to say that the nomi- nation of Mr. Bryan has his warm and heartily approval, and he thinks the nomination for the vice-presidency should be made with one object alone in view, and that is of strengthening the ticket. Accordingly he directs me to say that he wishes his name with- drawn from the consideration of this convention for that purpose." There were cheers for Bland, and then a renewal of the caucusing in delegations. A number of delegations retired for consultation, and when the roll was finally called votes were challenged and polls were necessary. The ballot stood when taken: Total votes cast 678 Absent and not voting 252 Necessary for choice 453 Williams, of Massachusetts.. 9 Clark .. 48 Harrity 11 Pattison 1 Daniel 54 Sewall 261 McLean... . 296 As soon as the result of the fourth ballot had been announced, Mr. McConnell, of Ohio, obtained recognition and stated that the Ohio delegation had a telegram from Mr. McLean, which they wished to read to the conven- tion. Mr. Long, of the Ohio delegation, came forward and spoke as follows: ''Two telegrams have been received by the Ohio delegation from Mr. McLean. They state substantially what I stated here in the opening that he is not a candidate but that you may have the exact words I read his telegram. He speaks for himself, not for the Ohio delegation: 'Any vote cast for me for vice-president is against my expressed wish and without my authority. Please so announce to the convention.' That is Mr. McLean, that is not the Ohio delegation statement." Upon the fifth ballot Ohio, notwithstanding the announcement made, cast its forty-six votes for McLean. Illinois and Indiana, however, voted for Sewall, and it 480 THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. became evident that his nomination was assured. It was made unanimous amid a roar of applause. There were the usual formal resolutions, and the work of a conven- tion destined to become famous in political history was done. CHAPTER XLIII. A DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. The most dramatic incident of the third day of the convention was a speech made by Ex-Governor and pres- sent U. S. Senator Tillman, of South Carolina. Senator Tillman represented what might be called the most radical wing of this radical convention. There were many who did not want him to speak, while among those who did hope that he would address the convention were the minority and such Republicans as were in the audience. He was not to be repressed, and appeared upon the plat- form at an early hour in the day. Despite the opposition to him by many he had been selected as the extremist who should lead the defense of the majority report. The vast audience noticed his appearance with an indication of intense interest, and during his speech manifested its approval or disapproval with cheers or hisses, as the case might be. The acting chairman announced that accord- ing to agreement each side would have an hour and twenty minutes for debate and that Senator Tillman had been selected to lead defense of the majority report. Upon this announcement cheering and hisses were com- mingled. The senator stood perfectly at ease during the episode of his introduction, and made no move until com- plete order had been restored. He spoke as follows: 482 DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. ''Mr Chairman: It will hardly be expected that in the brief space of fifty minutes I can do more than make passing allusions to even the most important plank in this platform. I never was good at running against time anyhow, and when conscious that at a certain time I may be called from the floor, while my heart and brain are surging with thoughts and feelings, I am always at a disadvantage as to what to say and what to leave unsaid. I will begin by in- troducing myself to the representatives of the democracy of the United States as I am and not as the lying newspapers have taught you to think me. It is said that the truth never overakes a lie, but I hope that when this vast assembly shall have dispersed to its home, the many thousands of my fellow citizens who are here will carry hence a different opinion of the pitchfork man from South Carolina to that which they now hold. "I come to you from the south ; from the home of secession : from that state where the leaders of Hundreds shouted various expressions of disapproval. The speaker stepped from behind the table, and above the uproar shouted: "There are only three things in the world that can hiss a goose, a serpent, and a man." When the slight applause, which greeted this retort had subsided, he continued: "The man who hisses the name of South Carolina in this audience, if he knew anything of the history of his country, must be reminded of the fact that in the darkest period of the revolutionary war, when it seemed that the cause of liberty was hopeless, the indomitable courage of the men of that state kept alive the fires of liberty, and there were more battles fought upon the soil of that state than upon all the other thirteen. Get your history and read it then. "I say I come here from South Carolina. I come at an op- portune time. South Carolina in 1860 led the fight in the demo- cratic party which resulted in its disruption. That disruption of that party brought about the war. The war emancipated the black slaves. We are here now leading a fight to emancipate the white slaves. And if we meet with the conditions reversed we are willing to see the democratic party disrupted again to accomplish that re- sult. "I do not know whether I can truly say whether I am a repre- sentative of the entire south or not. I have been in fourteen states since April making the announcement of a new declaration of independence that '16 to I or bust' is the slogan. And I say while there is the danger of the democratic party sur- rendering its time-honored principle that there is danger of it as a unity disappearing from our politics. If those who hold the con- trary opinion in their purse-proud blindness choose to imitate the old slaveholders and go out, we say let them go. "The south since the war has been democratic. Until a year DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 488 ago, or rather until the last election, it was solidly democratic. When the war closed we were vassals and the only party which offered us a helping hand or any sympathy was the democracy. We had in necessity, therefore, been in subserviency to that wing or that end of the democratic party in the north which controlled the electoral vote, and therefore New York has been the one pre- dominant factor and dictator in national politics. "I see it is uterly useless for me to make a speech or attempt to make any speech here that can pretend to represent or to fill out the outline even of this struggle. I must hasten away from the logical and proper opening of the subject and present some thoughts in vindication and justification of the existing attitude of our people. "While we look back and thank the democracy of New York and Connecticut and New Jersey for their assistance and co-opera- tion in the past, for the protecting aegis which they have extended over us, we have realized long since that we were but mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, tied in bondage, and all our sub- stance being eaten out. "In the last three to five years the western people have come to realize that the condition of the south and the condition of the west were identical. Hence, we find to-day that the democratic party of the west is here almost in solid phalanx appealing to the south the south has responded to come to their help to remove this yoke. Some of my friends from the south and elsewhere have said that this is not a sectional issue. I say it is a sectional issue. This utterance of Mr. Tillman was greeted with such vigorous hisses that the chair was some time in getting the convention to order. Mr. Tillman finally proceeded: " The truth is mighty and will prevail. Facts can neither be sneered out of existence nor obliterated by hisses. I present you some figures from the United States census which will prove that it is a sectional issue and nothing else. I will give it to you by way of comparison. "First I want to put before' you the fifteen southern states if you may count Delaware and Maryland as southernextending clear to the Mississippi River and across it, and including Louisi- ana and Arkansas. They have 566,000 square miles. Now I want you to watch and see how much ofc this gets into the papers. It is not going to get there, and you watch and see if it gets there. These southern states have 566,000 square miles and a population in 1890 of 17,000.000. The one state of Pennsylvania has an area of 45,000 square miles and a population of 5,258,000. The southern states are twelve times the area of Pennsylvania and have 3.3 times as much population. The southern states increased in population 2 .55S,ooo, Pennsylvania increased 975,000, in the decade between 1880 and 1800. The southern states were assessed at $2,607.000,000, Pennsylvania at $1,683,000,000. 484 DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. "The southern states had 1.54 times as much wealth and had increased more than twice in population. Theyjihould have gained in the ten years as compared with Pennsylvania, as follows: Capi- tal, 1.54, multiplied by the peculation 3.3, multiplied by territory 12.5, giving an advantage of 3^2 times to I. But instead of such a record what did happen? During the ten years from 1880 to 1890 the fifteen northern states gained 909,000,000 and the state of Penn- sylvania gained 901, 000,000. "Of course you say this rule won't work. I will give you an- other comparison. Take the state of Massachusetts and compare it with the five states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. Without going into details as to area and population and. assess- able values, which will tire you, I will simply jump to the ulti- mate result and that is that during that decad. these five western states, the garden of the world, gained in wealth $572,000,000, while the 9,000 square miles of Massachusetts gained $569,000,000. "Now take New York. Add to the five states I have men- tioned the States of Kentucky and Tennessee and the states of Kansas and Nebraska, the richest agricultural portion of the globe, and compare them with the one state of New York. These nine states gained in wealth $1,094,000,000, while New York gained $1,123,000,000, or nearly $29,000,000 more than the whole nine. "Take the three states of Massachusetts, New York and Penn- sylvania and compare them with the other twenty-five, which I will not call, including the entire west this side of the Rocky Mountains and the south. Did you get it honestly? Are you more industrious and economical? Ah, these figures cannot enter your brains until you read them, but the fact remains that the southern and western people have been hewers of wood and drawers of water and that their substance is going to the east by reason of the financial system and the misgovernment that the republican party has fastened on it. "Now, it is not worth while for me to say that which will breed any discord between the sections, for such a thought does not harbor in my breast. The south has no feeling of sectionalism; the south wants to be At this point the St. Louis Bland Club Band, in the southern part of the hall, in its zeal and enthusiasm, and contrary to instructions, started up. The chair directed the sergeant-at-arms to remove the band from the hall, which was done. Mr. Tillman then continued: "I deny utterly having one ill thought or angry passion in my bosom in contemplating the wrong which we have endured. But if you have listened to the truth, and it has entered your brain, you are bound to acknowledge that the most of these improvements and money in the eastern states, where all this wealth has gone, has not gone for the benefit of the people, but the wealth is owned DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 485 by a few men. The people in that section for I was among them in New York ten days ago have submerged the gold men, and I should think that 90 per cent of the honest population are in sym- pathy today with this demand for the restoration of the currency of our fathers. "In that section the democrats and republicans have used their money to darken the minds of the people by not telling the truth in their papers, and what they know of this question has just simply come by intuition and such other sources of information as they could get privately. Look at this city here: not a paper in it in favor of the money of the constitution and of the people. Every one of them howling day by day and abusing the majority of their fel- low citizens in this section even, and further west, by calling them howling dervishes and silver lunatics. I am in receipt of letters daily from all classes of men in every part of the United States, and they say to me that they think if we will come among them out in the western country they will show a grand swell and current of sentiment that will be exhibited by our people in November which it will surprise you. I say that, in so far as this feeling is sectional, it is sectional as between the eastern bosses, and not between the people of the east and the west and the south. "We have, instead of a slave oligarchy, a money oligarchy. The one is more insolent than the other was. The only thing which can keep the movement this revolution from succeeding in sweep- ing this country from end to end is that we may submerge our patriotism here, forget the duty which we owe our people, follow after the banner of some individual rather than a principle and fail to discharge that duty which we owe to the masses, of selecting a man here whose record will fit this platform. "There is one peculiarity about the condition and the aspect of this struggle which is in some sense amusing. In 1892 I attended the national convention in this city. Then, as now, my state was arrayed in this cause. We were side by side with New York then. New York's candidate was hissed as I have been. New York's orator and sponsor, this distinguished gentleman here (gazing in the direction of Senator Hill) was howled down. The conditions are reversed. Where is New York now? Where is New York's leader? The states which antagonized him then to a man, when he was the logical and proper candidate of the democracy, are here today behind him. "It is not for me to criticise the motive of any man or question the honesty of any man. I give to every man here who opposes me on this proposition the same liberty I claim for myself that is, independence of thought and independence of action, and credit for honesty of purpose. But when I have done that, don't let them call in question ours; don't let them through their newspapers, sneer at and abuse and lie about us as they are doing. At this point the speaker was interrupted by a great uproar, in which could be distinguished hisses and deri- 486 DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. sive applause and calls for " Hill." The chaiiman vainly pounded for order. Senator Tillman managed to make himself heard sufficiently to declare the audience i; might just as well understand that I am going to have my say if I stand here until sunrise," and then his voice was drowned by the clamor. The sergeant-at-arms announced that the chairman had directed him to clear the galleries if order was not preserved, but for several minutes Sen- ator Tillman could not proceed. When quiet was re- stored he continued: "Mr. President, the senator from New York, under the ar- rangement that has been made, is to follow me. I will have no re- ply. I tried yesterday to get him to go in front, but he would not do it. I do not say that he feared to go in front, because he fears no man. But lest you think that I am making a wanton assault upon him and I am not I am just simply pointing out the anom- alous condition in whfch we have got the new allies with which he has aligned himself and to leave it to your judgment and to his explanation if he can what has produced the change. "He despised the president of the United States in 1892. He has had cause since to more than despise him. But for some in- scrutable reason, although he has been betrayed by his own party and his own state, he appears here as the sponsor and apologist for the administration. This fight as to the administration is not of my seeking. The entire committee as represented by the silver men yesterday begged him not to precipitate the issue. He forced it on us. Why, he will tell you. I therefore merely meet what I know is coming, and give expression to the reason and explanation of why I shall offer a substitute. "I am aware that, as I said in the beginning, this speech can- not have any connection hardly with the platform. But as Grover Cleveland stands for gold monometallism as Grover Cleveland stands for gold monometallism and we have repudiated it, then when we are asked to indorse Grover Cleveland's administration, we are asked to write ourselves down as liars. They want us to say that he is honest, and they link with him all of his cabinet, yi order to try to bolster him up. The only thing that I have ever seen that smacked of dishonesty in his career is that he signe.l a contract in secret, with one of his partners as a witness, which gave $10.000,000 of the American people's money to a syndicate, and appointed that syndicate receiver of the government. "They ask us to indorse his courage. Well, now. nobody dis- putes the man's boldness and obstinacy, because he had the cour- age to ignore his oath of office and redeem in gold paper obliga- DilAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 487 tions of the government which were payable in coin, gold and silver both, and furthermore, he had the courage to override the constitution of the United States and grave the state of Illinois to the United States army to undertake to override the rights and liber- ties of his fellow citizens. "They ask us to indorse his fidelity. He has been faithful unto death, or rather unto the death of the democratic party, so far as he represents it, and so he followed the friend that he had in New York and ignored the entire balance of the union. I came here in 1892 opposing Cleveland. We had denounced him in South Carolina as a tool of Wall street. I appear here to-day as what was predicted then and is history now. Mr. Hill appears here in the attitude, as I said, of his sponsor and apologist. I will only quote the words of Byron, which are applicable to the situation and apro- pos of the condition. It is more in condemnation of this attitude than any attempt at self-laudation: "If fallen on evil days and evil tongues decry us There will appear the avenger of time. In time the avenger execrates the wrong And makes the work Miltonic, sublime." This attack upon President Cleveland provoked more applause than any other portion of Mr. Tillman's effort, but the cheering was not general, even among the Illi- nois delegates, which are supposed to be especially antag- onistic to the administration. It was noticeable that Governor Altgeld did not join in the applause. He lis- tened attentively to the South Carolina orator, but by no expression of features or attitude gave any hint of his opinion of it. The hissing in various sections of the room, and especially over the speaker's platform, was al- most incessant. In this method of indicating disappro- bation the present convention stands unique and alone in the history of such gatherings. Senator Tillman con- tinued: "Now, one more illustration of the condition of this country and I will go. I desire to emphasize the proposition that a com- munity of interests between the different sections of this union will give a revolution this year and give us victory. The southern and western producers, now impoverished by the financial system, can- not buy the products of the northern factories. The consequence 488 DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. is that those factories are idle. The home market, which the re- publican party has always cried for, and which it now seeks to re- establish, has been partly or wholly destroyed. We cannot hope to have the wheels of prosperity move forward again until the foun- dation, the agricultural interests, which furnish three-fourths of our exports, are set upon their feet again, and the farmers of the south and west are given an opportunity to make more than a fair living. "We need money to spend or we cannot patronize the local merchants; if we have not money, the local market cannot order from the jobber, the jobber cannot order from the factory, and you see the sequence of consequences. The farmers of the northeastern states are just as poor and just as hard up as we are. They arc ready to join this army of emancipation. "Now, one word in reference to the claim of the republican party that the democratic party should be turned out because of its incompetency. I have here the utterance of a distinguished sen- ator of the republican party and a leader of that party in its finan- cial policy delivered in the senate of the United States about three months ago, and I will read it for you. "The President and the secretary of the treasury were perfect!;, justified in pursuing the course they have followed; they could not have done otherwise. Suppose they had refused payment of the notes of the United States in gold; the result would have been that our money would have at once fallen below par, and a dis- turbance in foreign and domestic trade would have occurred. They did right, though I hold far different opinions from them on many questions, yet I stand here and say boldly and openly that in man- aging our financial affairs during the present condition of things I think the secretary of the treasury and the President have done their full duty, and I could not say any more if there was a repub- lican President in office." "That is from John Sherman. That is a certificate of Cleveland republicanism so far as policy is concerned. Sherman went with his republican gold bugs and joined Cleveland and his southern silver traders and struck down silver, and he now asks the Ameri- can people to reward them for the treachery of our President. Will the American people turn out or turn down the democratic party because it has repudiated this man's policy? If you adopt any- thing squinting at sympathy or an indorsement of him or his ad- ministration, you dare not go to the people of this country and ask them to support your ticket, no matter whom you nominate. Even if called on to indorse or repudiate, you dare not start the issue. You have got to -meet it, and meet it like men. The democracy is face to face with this issue, and it must be met. "We of the south have burned our bridges as far as the north- western democracy is concerned, as now organized. We have turned our faces to the west, asking our brethren of those states to unite with us in restoring the government to the liberty of our fathers, or which our fathers left us. The west has responded by its representatives here. The west, however, is in doubt, while DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. 489 the south can deliver its electoral vote. But you must get the re- publican silver men west and populists in those states to indorse your platform and your candidate or you are beaten. "If this democratic ship goes to sea on storm tossed waves without fumigating itself, without express repudiation of this man who has sought to destroy his party, then the republican ship goes into port and you go down in disgrace, defeated, in November. That is the situation as I see it. I know an appeal will be made to you not to listen to the mouthings of this ranter from South Caro- lina. I know that the time serving politician, the man who follows public opinion but never leads it, the man who simply wants to be with the procession, will hesitate and halt and falter before he passes on this bridge. "We would not have laid the bridge down had we not been forced to the issue. We have denounced this sin in the platform without mentioning the sinner. We have repudiated everything that he has done, almost. Now we are forced to either repudiate him and his administration, or, as I said \ -fore, we will go before the country stultifying ourselves. "I therefore offer as a substitute, or an amendment to the amendment, the following resolution. Now, please keep quiet and listen to it, and if any man here if any considerable number of these delegates deny the truth, they can express it by their votes, but those of you who know it is true are called on to face the responsi- bTlity of declaring so by your votes: "'We denounce the administration of President Cleveland as undemocratic and tyrannical and as a departure from those prin- ciples which are cherished by all liberty-loving Americans. The veto power has been used to thwart the will of the people as ex- pressed by their representatives in congress. The appointive power has been used to subsidize the press and debauch congress and to overawe and control citizens in the free exercise of their constitu- tional rights as voters. A plutocratic despotism is thus sought to be established on the ruins of the republic. " ' We repudiate the construction placed on the financial plank of the last democratic convention by President Cleveland and Sec- retary Carlisle as contrary to the plain meaning of English words, and as being an act of bad faith, deserving the severest censure. " 'The issue of bonds in time of peace with which to buy gold to redeem coin obligations, payable in silver or gold at the option of the government, and the use of the proceeds to defray the ordi- nary expenses of government, are both unlawful and usurpations of authority, deserving of impeachment.' " The convention broke into a perfect storm of mingled hisses and cheers at this statement. As soon as the chair- man was able to restore order the speaker continued : "Now one word more, Mr. President, and I will relieve these howlers who have been brought in here on tickets, given to them 490 DRAMATIC EPISODE OF THE PROCEEDINGS. many of them, of the disagreeable duty or obligation to listen to me. I say to you, fellow democrats, those of you who are demo- crats, who have not gone off after false gods, who stand by the principles of Jefferson and Jackson, and I say to all other parties, all representatives of parties or members of parties in this audience, that if we do not unite the disjointed and contending or jealous ele- ments in the ranks of the silver people of this country, we cannot win. At this juncture Mr. Marston, of Louisiana, attempted to get the recognition of the chairman, but Senator Till- man refused to yield the floor and proceeded as follows: "For myself, and for those of my state who came with me, we came here primarily to see that we had a platform which meant what it said and said what it meant. We have got it. Now, give us any man you please who is a true representative of that platform we have no choice and we pledge you that every vote south of the Potomac will go to him. Then occurred an incident not down on the pro- gramme. According to the agreement Senator Hill was the next speaker, and had started for the platform. He stopped when Senator Jones of Arkansas was seen strug- gling up the platform steps and demanding recognition from the chairman. Senator Jones spoke as follows: "Gentlemen, I will not occupy much of your time. I did not intend to open my mouth as to this platform. I believe it means what it says and says what it means; that it did not require one word ol explanation, and I would not have uttered one syllable but for the charge that has just been made here by the distinguished senator who has just left the platform that this was a sectional question. "I am a southern man, was born in the south, carried a musket as a private soldier during the war. There is not one thing con- nected with the upbuilding and good of that section of the coun- try for which I am not willing to lay down my life. But above the south and above section I love the whole of this great country. "The great cause in which I and those who feel as I do are engaged in is not sectional; it is not confined to any part of this great country; it is not confined to any one country on the face of God's green earth. It is a great question, involving the interest of mankind, as we believe, all over the world; and when we find such men as this magnificent democrat from Maine, when we find such men as George Fred Williams from Massachusetts, when we find in every hamlet of this country men who believe as we believe, in the name of God how can any man say the question is sectional? "I and those who believe as I do believe in fraternity, in liber- DRAMATIC EPISODE OP THE PROCEEDINGS. 49l ty, in union, and we believe that we ought to stand together as one great people. I simply arose to say that for myself and, as 1 be- lieve, for the most of those who agree with me, that I utterly re- pudiate the charge that this question is sectional. There were wild cheers that lasted for some minutes when Senator Jones concluded his speech and the con- vention resumed its order of business. CHAPTER XLIV. THE DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. It was expected that something more formally in the nature of a bolt than the mere decision to refrain from voting, of certain Eastern delegations, would follow the nominations upon such a platform and that a bolt of Borne sort was inevitable became very soon assured. The first indications of a revolt came in the pro- nounced expressions of a large number of the influential Democratic newspapers of the country. Among those objecting to the platform were the following; the list here being alphabetically arranged for convenience of reference: Austin, Tex., Statesman; Boston Globe; Boston Her- ald; Boston Post; Baltimore Sun; Baltimore News; Buffalo Courier; Buffalo Inquirer; Brooklyn Eagle; Bennington, Vt., Reformer; Chicago Chronicle; Chicago Abendpost; Chicago Staats-Zeitung ; Charleston, W. Va., News; Chattanooga Times; Dallas, Tex., News; Daven- port, la., Democrat; Detroit Free Press; Elizabeth, N. J., Herald; Easton, Pa., Express; Fitchburg, Mass., Mail; Galveston, Tex., News; Holyoke, Mass., Free Press; Hartford, Conn., Times; Jersey City, N. J., Times; Key West, Fla., Equator; Key West, Fla., Dem- ocrat; La Crosse, Wis., Chronicle; Lewiston, Me., Sun; DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 403 Lexington, Ky., Herald; Louisville Courier- Journal; Louisville Times; Louisville Post; Louisville Anzeiger; Lowell, Mass., Times; Manchester, N. H., Union; Mil- waukee Journal; Mobile Register; Machias, Me., Union; New York Evening Post; New York Herald; New York Irish- American ; New York World; New Orleans States; New York Staats-Zeitung; New York Sun; New York Times; Nashville, Tenn., Banner; New Haven, Conn., News; New Haven, Conn., Register; Philadelphia Rec- ord; Philadelphia Times; Providence, R. I., Journal; Petersburg, Va., Index- Appeal ; Richmond, Va., Times; Salem, Mass., News; Sioux Falls, S. D., Argus-Leader; St. Paul Globe; St. Louis Anzeiger; Springfield, Mass., Republican; Syracuse Courier; Syracuse Herald; Sioux City, la., Tribune; Troy, N. Y., Press; Trenton, N. J., Times; Utica, N. Y., Observer; Washington Post; Wash- ington Times; Wilmington, Del., Every Evening; Yonkers, N. Y., Grazette. The manner of the revolt varied with different news- papers and different leaders. Many of the Democratic sound-money journals simply advised their readers to abandon the party for the time being, and to vote for McKinley. Others insisted that there should be no abrogation of former party principles or party methods, that a new organization should be effected, and a new ticket placed in the field. A special committee appointed before the adjournment of the convention issued an address, declaring, that the candidates nominated and a declaration of principles agreed upon were not acceptable to the real Democrats of the country, and that in order to preserve, the time-honored organization, other candidates should be chosen and another platform formulated. 26 i91 DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. This demand for a third ticket appeared to be much stronger in the West and South than in the East. In the East the Free Silver had attained but slight dimensions while in the South and West its greatest strength existed. As an illustration of the attitude assumed by the Demo- cratic forces, repudiating the action of the convention, and of the possible reports suggested, the following from the leading Democratic newspaper of Chicago may be properly quoted. " The enemies of Democracy have not succeeded in taking possession of the organizations in the eastern states, and consequently the leaders in that section are not so much impressed with the desirability of putting up a Sound Money Democratic ticket. The rank and file of the east- ern Democrats are clamorous, however, for the nomination of such a ticket, and it is practically assured that every state in the Union will send representatives to the con- vention. "It is thought the convention will be called to meet in Chicago in the early part of September. In choosing delegates it will not be necessary to hold primaries in the various counties. They can be chosen at mass meetings to be held in the principal cities of each state. This plan was followed by the Liberal Republicans in 1872 in select- ing delegates to the convention which nominated Horace Greeley for President. In states where the Sound Money Democrats control the party organization the regular method of electing delegates could be observed if it should be thought desirable, but in the West and South the mass-meeting system would appear to be the most feasi- ble. Much time and money would be required to estab- DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 495 lish independent county organizations, which could be formed more easily after the ticket is nominated. "The Democrats hardly expect to elect the ticket which they will name this year, but the question of the success at the polls is not taken into consideration by the people who are demanding the nomination of Democratic candidates. They are controlled by loftier considerations. They wish to see the Democratic party preserved. They wish to vote for a Presidential candidate who represents Democratic principles, and they will no more accept Bryan than they will accept McKinley. The one is just as offensive as the other in the eyes of every man who is a Democrat and who knows why he is a Democrat. " There will be no trouble to find men willing to accept the nomination for President on a Democratic plat- form this year. The suggestion that Henry Watterson be chosen to lead the party in this crisis has been cordially indorsed by leading Chicago Democrats. Mr. Watterson was one of the pioneers in the movement for tariff reform. He has always been a champion of sound money. He has done more than any other one man, perhaps, to destroy the feeling of sectionalism in this country which Altgeld and Tillman are now seeking to revive. He would undoubtedly prove to be the strongest candidate that could be nominated, but it is not certain that he will accept the nomination if it is offered to him. He is now in Europe and his plans at the time he went abroad did not con- template his return until the end of the year. But if his party should call upon him to lead it ir this hour of peril it is thought he would not refuse. "There is no dearth of leaders. Many Democrats believe that ex-Congressman Bynum, of Indiana, would 496 DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. make a splendid candidate. He is young and courageous and a doctrinaire Democrat. Ex-Governor Francis, of Missouri, is also held in high favor. Senator Vilas, of Wisconsin; Senator Palmer, of this state; Secretary Mor- ton, of Nebraska ; Secretary Carlisle, of Kentucky ; Senator Hill, of New York; ex-Governor Russell, of Massachusetts; and ex -Governor Waller, of Connecticut, are all available, and it is believed there is not one of them who would decline to sacrifice himself for the good of his party and his country, if called upon in this emergency." The most active movement toward the formation of a new Democratic party and the putting in the field of a new Democratic ticket, exhibited itself in Illinois, and espe- cially in Chicago, where the opposition to the Free Silver - ite idea had many prominent leaders. The convention had hardly concluded its labors when a call was issued to the Democrats of the United States, a remarkable document in political history. It is here appended: "To Our Fellow Democrats of Other States: A national con- vention convened under the constituted authority of our party has just closed its session in the city of Chicago. "It entered upon its work by violating all party precedents in the rejection of a distinguished democrat as its temporary presid- ing officer. "It deprived a sovereign state of a voice in its deliberations by unseating without cause or legal justification delegates elected with all the regularity known to party organization. "It refused to indorse the honesty and fidelity of the present democratic national administration. "It adopted a platform which favors the free and unlimited coinage of silver by this country alone at the ratio of 16 to I, and thereby it repudiated a time-honored democratic principle which demands the strict maintenance of a sound and stable national cur- rency. "Finally, to make it plainer that, although in name, it was not, in fact, a democratic convention, it nominated for president one, who is not in his political convictions, and has not always been even in his professions, a democrat. "This has made a crisis, both for the nation and the demo- ciatic party, that sound money democrats must at once decide what DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 497 political action they will take for the protection of the honor of the nation, the prosperity of the people, and the life and usefulness of the party. The sound money democrats of Illinois have fully made up their minds that a new democratic national convention should be called for the earliest feasible day to nominate demo- cratic candidates for president and vice-president, and to adopt a platform of democratic principles; and they desire to state to their fellow-democrats of the other states their reasons, as follows: "Sound money democrats owe it to their country to make it certain at once that their revolt against free silver is determined and will be organized. It is unfair to oblige the credit of the na- tion and the business and industrial interests of the people to mere- ly guess what the sound money democrats will do in November, and to wait until November to find out. "The nomination of a new ticket is the logical course. With- out it and a sound money democratic campaign the whole education- al force of sound money democratic sentiment would be paralyzed from the beginning. Republicans cannot argue the sound money question to democratic voters. Republican sincerity on that ques- tion is doubted by the mass of the democrats. The tariff question will Be put to the front and insisted upon by republican speakers and the republican press, as it has persistently been by Mr. McKin- ley himself. Democrats will not listen to lessons on finance when accompanied by abuse of the democratic party. The most effective force at this time for a campaign is the force residing in the sound money democrats, for they are profoundly in earnest and can get a hearing from democrats that republicans cannot possibly get. Without a campaign we should not only have no speakers but our press would be firing in the air, and the whole force of campaign organization and campaign workers and campaign literature and the great power of constant private discussions and appeal would all be lost. "A new convention would also prepare for the future the op- portunities of the democratic party. Unless a clear-cut separation is made between the genuine democrats and democrats who are drift- ing into populism, or are already in populism; and unless that clear-cut separation is supported by organization and a reorganized democratic party is the result, the party has no chance of regaining public confidence for years to come. The sound money democrats in the different states must either make it clear that they have no association with the Bryan party or they must accept association and entanglement with it; and all state organizations will in the public mind be for it that do not make it absolutely clear that they are against it. "Democras who believe in democratic principles must have a party. They will have a party sooner or later. The sooner the better. They have now the opportunity to reorganize and keep the democratic party, and the interests of this nation imperatively demand that the great democratic party shall be rescued out of populism and kept on its historic foundations. 498 DISSATISFIED IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. "The sound money democrats are already sufficiently organized in this state to be able to meet their fellow-democrats in a new con- vention, and are anxious to confer with representatives of other states whenever a representative conference can be brought about. We hope that out of the responses to this public statement of the views of the Illinois democracy there can be gathered so much of the judgment of the leading sound money democrats of the United States as can be formulated into a plan of action. Communications should be addressed to Charles A. Ewing, Palmer House, Chicago. "JOHN M. PALMER, "JAMES H. ECKELS, "F. MACVEAGH, "WM. S. FORMAN, "JOHN P. HOPKINS, "A. A. GOODRICH, "ADOLPH KRAUS, "C. H. WILLIAMSON, "R. E. SPANGLER, "CHAS. A. EWING, "BEN T. CABLE, "THOMAS A. MORAN, "HENRY S. ROBBINS, "JAS. T. HOBLITT, "JAS. W. SHEEHAN, "LYNDEN EVANS, "Executive committee of the honest money democracy of Illinois." Meanwhile party fealty began to exert itself, and there was a cohesion of a majority of the party about the can- didates and the platform. While many so-called " Sound Money " Democrats deserted, there were accessions to the ranks of Silverite Republicans and Populists. It became evident that old issues were to be largely abandoned, and that in the campaign of 1896 the financial issue would be the one most considered. This was the political situation immediately after the holding of the Democratic conven- tion. The oldest and the shrewdest politicians of either party found themselves in a dilemma and expressed their utter inability to foretell the events of the campaign. LIFE AND SERVICES OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. History repeats itself even in political conventions, and the nomination of William J. Bryan, the silver- tongued orator of Nebraska, recalls the convention of 1880 when James A. Garfield made his nominating speech for John Sherman. The eloquent address of Mr. Bryan before the National Democratic Convention of 1896 had the effect of turning the tide of popularity in his direction. William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States, was born in Salem, Marion County, 111., May 19, 1860. " My early life ran quiet as a brook," he remarked to the writer. "And although I was fond of books I also delighted in outdoor sports. The pleasantest memory of my boyhood is that of my mother, who taught me until I was ten years of age." Mr. Bryan attended the public schools until he was fifteen years old when he entered Whipple Academy, at that time the preparatory department of Illinois College, located at Jacksonville. In 1877 he entered the college proper, took the classical course, and graduated in 1881 as valedictorian and class orator. Although a profound student, he yet manifested a tendency for athletic sports. His favorite exercise was jumping, and his record for the standing or broad jump was twelve feet and four inches. 500 LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. In 1881 he entered the Union College of Law in Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1883. He was admitted to the bar in 1883, and began the practice of his profession at Jacksonville, 111., where he remained for four years. He then removed to Lincoln, Neb., where he formed a partnership with A. R. Talbot, a former class- mate. He was married on October 1, 1881, to Miss Mary E. Baird, of Perry, 111. The acquaintance had been formed while both were in college. Miss Baird graduated from the Illinois Female Academy in 1881, and after her mar- riage she studied law and was admitted to the bar, not with any idea of practicing, but merely that she and her brilliant young husband might have more subjects in common. In 1887 the young couple moved to Lincoln, Neb., where Mr. Bryan entered upon the practice of his profes- sion and where he also engaged in politics. He at once gave promise of a bright future as a political leader, and his brilliant and magnetic oratory brought him to the notice -of his party, who recognized in him a. political leader who would add strength to the cause of Democracy. Mr. Bryan has taken part in all the political struggles of any consequence since 1880, and entered the campaign of 1888 as a supporter of Grover Cleveland. Two years later he received the nomination for Congress in the First Nebraska District and was elected by a plurality of 6,700. The majority was largely due to the land slide of that year, although this vote was some 4,000 ahead of the ticket. Soon after his arrival in Congress Speaker Crisp appointed him a member of the Ways and Means Com- LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 501 mittee. On March 16, 1892, he made a speech on the tariff, which was practically his maiden effort in Congress. Mr. Bryan was renominated by acclamation in 1891 in the new Congressional District. In the Fifty-third Congress he took an active part in opposition to the repeal of the Sherman law and delivered his famous speech on the silver problem in August, 1893. He also assisted in framing the income tax and closed the debate on that portion of the Senate Bill, replying to William Bourke Cockran. Whenever he spoke, and he had many oppor- tunities to do so, Congressman Bryan was always listened to with rapt attention. One of Mr. Bryan's colleagues in Congress once said of him: "He neglects none of the accessories of oratory. Nature richly endowed him with rare grace. He is happy in attitute and pose. His gestures are on Hogarth's line of beauty. Mellifluous is the one word that most aptly describes his voice. It is strong enough to be heard by thousands. It is sweet enough to charm those the least inclined to music. It is so modulated as not to vex the ear with monotony, and can be stern and pathetic, fierce or gentle, serious or humorous, with the varying emotions of its master. In his youth Bryan must have had a skill- ful teacher in elocution and must have been a docile pupil. He adorns his speeches with illustrations from the classics or from the common occurrences of everyday life with equal felicity and facility. Some passages from his ora- tions are gems and are being used as declamations by boys at school the ultimate tribute to American eloquence. " But his crowning gift as an orator is his evident sincerity. He is candor incarnate and, thoroughly 502 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. believing what he says himself, it is no marvel that he makes others believe. Bryan's first speech in the house the one on the tariff in 1892 fixed his status as one of the crack orators of this generation. It astonished old stagers, electrified the country and stimulated the ambition of every young man in the land. Envious carpers lugubriously predicted that he could never duplicate that far-resounding per- formance, that he would be like a wasp, biggest when first hatched, and that his Congressional song would be pitched in diminuendo instead of crescendo. But he utterly con- founded these jealous Cassandras by delivering a speech on silver which must forever remain as a classic in con- gressional literature. "If it did not increase his fame as much as did his initial effort, it was for the all-sufficient reason that there was not so much room for him to grow in. If Daniel Webster himself could have come back to life, he could not by twenty years of ceaseless endeavor increase his fame as an orator; for while here before he butted his lofty head against the stars. But Bryan went on to the end making speeches stronger and ever stronger, mani- festing new powers every time he arose. Perhaps his later addresses lack something in effervescence, brilliancy and piquancy, but they grow constantly more logical, if less rhetorical." In 1894 he refused the nomination to Congress, but aspired to the Senate, and was nominated at the Demo- cratic state convention in Nebraska for that office. He canvassed the state and had two joint debates one at Omaha and one at Lincoln with John M. Thurston, the Republican candidate, which attracted attention beyond LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 503 the limits of the state, for in Mr. Thurston he found an adversary worthy of all his powers. But 1894 was not a propitious year for the Democrats anywhere, and least of all in Nebraska. The Republicans carried the legislature, and Mr. Thurston was elected senator. Since that time Mr. Bryan has been lecturing on his favorite themes of the tariff and the free coinage of silver in almost every state of the Union, and he has thus added to his reputation as an orator. For a time he was the editor of the Omaha World- Herald, but the editorial tripod was not as congenial to him as the stump and the platform, and he did not long remain in the sanctum. The events of his life are not numerous, and con- sequently there is not much to relate of him of things performed. Whatever he has been called upon to do he has done with all the earnestness of his nature. Mr. Bryan has profited by all his chances, and by none better than that of the second day of the convention, when he made the speech that swept his audience like a torrent and gave him the Presidential nomination. It was one of the few instances of matchless and unconquerable speech that the world has known. Mr. Bryan's immediate ancestors were Virginians. His father, Silas L. Bryan, was born at Culpeper Court House, but removed to and was long a resident of Illinois. He was a judge of the circuit court when William was born. He served as judge for twelve years, when he resigned. In 1872 the elder Bryan ran for Congress on the Greeley ticket, but was defeated by the narrow plu- rality of 240 votes. He died in 1880. Mr. Bryan's mother was Maria Elizabeth Jennings. 504 LIFE OP HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. She was born in Marion County, Illinois, where she lived all her life. She died recently after a protracted illness, The Democratic nominee for President is a magnifi- cent specimen of virile manhood, with the physique of an athlete. His complexion is swarthy, his eyes are dark, his hair is jet black and slightly worn away in front. His nose is aquiline and his mouth extraordinarily large, but handsome, strong and sensitive. His chin is broad, square and immense, while his head is poised like that of a Grecian statue. He looks you squarely in the face and never averts his gaze. Yet he does not by any means convey the impression that he is aggressive. He rather tells you that no man in all the world has more self-reliance. An indefatigable worker, his labor goes on twelve, fourteen, eighteen hours, if necessary, and he never tires. His stock of vitality is inexhaustible. He is the youngest candidate that was ever named for the Presidency by any party in all United States history, being little more that one year past the constitutional age. Mrs. Bryan is a good-looking woman of medium build and height, twelve years the junior of her husband, and quiet in her mannerisms. A wealth of dark brown hair frames a face of intellectual attractiveness. Her dress is simplicity personified. She is a woman of literary accomplishments, well posted on the issues of the day, Her home life is an ideal one. She cares comparatively little for society. Devotion to husband, children and home are her prime characteristics. Her confidence in Mr. Bryan's future has always been his guiding star. An incident of the nomination is her suggestion to take a trip back to the scenes of earlier days, where their romance ripened into love and where the young lawyer LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 605 first swung his shingle to the breeze. Mr. and Mrs. Bryan will accordingly enjoy the honeymoon of political success down on the vicinity of Jacksonville, Perry and Salem, before he returns to Lincoln, where a popular ova- tion awaits him at the gates of the Nebraska capital. Mrs. Bryan has a great fondness for politics and accompanies her husband on his political campaigns. Her literary tastes are highly cultivated, and she has written much and well. She is a charming woman, and is a great favorite in Lincoln, where she is a leading member of Sorosis and other women's clubs. They have three chil- dren, Euth, aged 11; William, aged 5, and Grace, aged 3. Mr. Bryan is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln, Neb. The famous speech of Mr. Bryan, which was deliv- ered by him in Congress in August, 1893, and which stamped him as the most eloquent advocate of free silver in the country is given below: THE SILVER PROBLEM. "We have been called cranks and lunatics and idiots because we have warned our fellow-men against the inevitable and in- tolerable consequences which would follow the adoption of a gold standard by all the world. But who, I ask, can be silent in the presence of such impending calamities? The United States, England, France, and Germany own today $2,000,000,000 of the world's supply of gold coin, or about five-sevenths of the total amount, and yet these four nations contain but a small fraction of the inhabitants of the globe. What will be the exchangeable value of a gold dollar when India's people, outnumbering alone the inhabitants of the four great nations named, reach out after their share of gold coin? What will be the final price of gold when all the nations of the Occident and Orient join in the scramble? "A distinguished advocate of the gold standard said recently, in substance: 'Wheat has now reached a point where the Eng- lish can afford to buy it, and gold will soon return to relieve our financial embarrassment.' How delighted the farmer will be when he realizes what an opportunity he has to save his country! A nation in distress; banks failing; mines closed; laborers unem- 506 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. ployed; enterprise at a standstill, and behold, the farmer, bowed with unceasing, even if unremunerative, toil, steps forth to save his country by selling his wheat below the cost of production! And I am afraid that he will even now be censured for allowing the panic to go as far as it has before reducing his prices. "It seems cruel that upon the growers of wheat and cotton, our staple exports, should be placed the burden of supplying us at whatever cost with the necessary gold, and yet the financier quoted has suggested the only means, except the issue of bonds, by which our stock of gold can be replenished. If it is difficult now to secure gold, what will be the condition when the demand is increased by its adoption as the world's only primary money? We would simply put gold upon an auction block, with every nation as a bidder, and each ounce of the standard metal would be knocked down to the one offering the most of all other kinds of property. Every disturbance of finance in one country would communicate itself to every other, and in the misery which would follow it would be of little consolation to know that others were suffering as much as, or more than, we. "I have only spoken of the immediate effects of the substitution of gold as the world's only money of ultimate redemption. The worse remains to be told. If, as in the resumption of specie pay- ments in 1879, we could look forward to a time when the contrac- tion would cease, the debtor might become a tenant upon his former estate and the home owner assume the role of the home- less with the sweet assurance that his children or his children's children might live to enjoy the blessings of a 'stable currency.' But, sir, the hapless and hopeless producer of wealth goes forth into a night illuminated by no star; he embarks upon a sea whose further shore no mariner may find; he travels in a desert where the ever-retreating mirage makes his disappointment a thousand-fold more keen. Let the world once commit its fortunes to the use of gold alone and it must depend upon the annual increase of that metal to keep pace with the demand for money. "The director of the mint gives about $130,000,000 as the world's production for last year. Something like one-third is pro- duced in the connection with silver, and must be lost if silver min- ing is rendered unproductive. It is estimated that nearly two- thirds of the annual product is used in the arts, and the amount so used is increasing. Where, then, is the supply to meet the in- creased demands of an increasing population? Is there some new California or some undiscovered Australia yet to be explored? "Is it not probable that the supply available for coinage will diminish rather than increase? Jacobs, in his work on Precious Metals, has calculated the appreciation of the monetary unit. He has shown that the almost imperceptible increase of 2 per cent per year will amount to a total appreciation of 500 per cent in a century. Or, to illustrate, that cotton at 10 cents today and wheat at 60 cents would mean cotton at 2 cents and wheat at 12 cents in one hundred years. A national, state or municipal debt renewed from time to time, would, at the end of that period, be six times as LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 507 great as when contracted, although several times the amount would have been paid in interest. "When one realizes the full significance of a constantly appre- ciating standard he can easily agree with Alison that the Dark Ages resulted from the money supply. How can any one view with unconcern the attempt to turn back the tide of civilization by the complete debasement of one-half of the world's money! When I point to the distress which, not suddenly, but gradually, is enter- ing the habitations of our people; when I refer you to the census as conclusive evidence of the unequal distribution of wealth and of increasing tenancy among our people, of whom, in our cities, less than one-fourth now own their homes; when I suggest the possibility of this condition continuing until, past from a land of independent owners, we become a nation of landlords and ten- ants, you must tremble for civil liberty itself. "Let me call your attention briefly to the advantages of bimet- allism. It is not claimed that by the use of two metals at a fixed ratio absolute stability can be secured. We only contend that thus the monetary unit will become more stable in relation to other property than under a single standard. If a single standard were really more desirable than a double standard, we are not free to chose gold, and would be compelled to select silver. Gold and silver must remain component parts of the metallic money of the world that must be accepted as an indisputable fact. Our aban- donment of silver would in all probability drive it out of use as primary money; and silver as a promise to pay gold is little, if any better than a paper promise to pay. If bimetallism is impossi- ble, then we must make up our minds to a silver standard or to the abandonment of both silver and gold. "Let us suppose that the worst that has been prophesied by our opponents, namely, that we would be upon a silver standard if we attempted the free coinage of both gold and silver at any ratio. Let us suppose that all our gold goes to Europe, and we have only silver. Silver would not be inconvenient to us, be- cause a silver certificate is just as convenient to handle as a gold certificate, and the silver itself need not be handled except where it is necessary for change. Gold is not handled among the people. No one desires to accept any large amount in gold. The fact that the treasury has always on hand a large amount of gold coin de- posited in exchange for gold certificates shows that the paper rep- resentative is more desirable than the metal itself. If, following out the supposition, our gold goes abroad, Europe will have more money with which to buy our exports cotton and wheat, cattle and hogs. "If, on the other hand, we adopt gold, we must draw it from Europe, and thus lessen their money and reduce the price of our exports in foreign markets. This, too, would decrease the total value of our exports and increase the amount of products which it would be necessary to send abroad to pay the principal and interest which we owe to bondholders and stockholders residing in Europe. Some have suggested the advisability of issuing gold 508 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. bonds in order to maintain a gold standard. Let them remember that those bonds sold in this country will draw money from cir- culation and increase the stringency, and sold abroad will effect injuriously the price of our products abroad, thus making a double tax upon the toilers of the United States, who must ultimately pay them. "Let them remember, too, that gold bonds held abroad must some time be paid in gold, and the exportation of that gold would probably raise a clamor for an extension of time in order to save this country from another stringency. A silver standard, too, would make us the trading center of all the silver-using countries of the world, and these countries contain far more than one-half of the world's population. What an impetus would be given to our western and southern seaports, such as San Francisco, Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston. Then, again, we produce our silver, and produce it in quantities which would to some extent satisfy our monetary needs. "Our annual product of gold is less than 50 cents per capita. Deduct from this sum the loss which would be occasioned to the gold supply by the closing of the silver mines, which produce gold in conjunction with silver: deduct, also, the amount con- sumed in the arts, and the amount left for coinage is really incon- siderable. Thus, with a gold standard, we would be left de- pendent upon foreign powers for our annual money supply. They say that we must adopt a gold standard in order to trade with Europe. Why not reverse the proposition and say that Europe must resume the use of silver in order to trade with us? But why adopt either gold or silver alone? Why not adopt both and trade with both gold-using and silver using countries? The principle of bimetallism is established upon a scientific basis. "The government does not try to fix the purchasing power of the dollar, either gold or silver. It simply says, in the language of Thomas Jefferson, 'The money unit shall stand upon the two metals,' and then allows the exchangeable value of that unit to rise or fall according as the total product of both metals de- creases or increases in proportion to the demand for money. In attempting to maintain the parity between the two metals at a fixed ratio, the government does not undertake the impossible. France for several years did maintain the parity approximately at i5 l /2 to I by offering unlimited coinage to both metals at that ratio. It is very common for some people to urge, 'You cannot put value into anything by law,' and I am sorry to see some pro- claim this who know by rich experience how easy it is for the gov- ernment to legislate prices up or down. "Perhaps the most important question for us to consider is the question of ratio. Comparatively few people in this country are in favor of a gold standard, and no national party has ever ad- vocated it. Comparatively few, also, will be deceived by the promise of international bimetallism annually held out to us. Among those in favor of bimetallism, and in favor of independent LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 509 action on the part of the United States, there is, however, an honest difference of opinion as to the particular ratio at which the unlimited coinage of gold and silver should be undertaken. The principle of bimetallism does not stand upon any certain ratio, and may exist at i to 30 as well as i to 16. "In fixing the ratio we should select that one which will se- cure the greatest advantage to the public and cause the least in- justice. The present ratio, in my judgment, should be adopted. A change in the ratio could be made (as in 1834) by reducing the size of the gold dollar, or by increasing the size of the silver dollar, or by making a change in the weight of both dollars. A large sil- ver dollar would help the creditor. A smaller gold dollar would help the debtor, it is not just to do either, but if a change must be made, the benefit should be given to the debtor rather than to the creditor. "To illustrate the effect of changing the ratio let us take, for convenience, the ratio of 24 to i, as advocated by some. We could make this change by reducing the weight of the eold dollar one- third. This would give to the holders of gold an advantage of some $200,000,000, but the creditors would lose several billions of dollars in the actual value of their debts. A debt contracted be- fore 1873 would not be scaled, because the new dollar would pur- chase as much as the old gold dollar would in 1873. Creditors, how- ever, whose loans have been made since that time would suffer and the most recent loans would show the greatest loss. The value of silver bullion has only fallen in relation to gold. But the purchas- ing power of one ounce of silver has varied less since 1873 than has the purchasing power of one ounce of gold, which would indicate that gold had risen. "If, on the other hand, the ratio is changed by increasing the size of the silver dollar, it would be necessary to recoin our silver dollars into dollars a half larger, or we would have in circulation two legal tender silver dollars of different sizes. Of the two plans it would be better, in my judgment, to keep both dollars in circula- tion together, though unequal in weight, rather than to recoin the lighter dollars. The recoinage of more than $500,000,000 of silver dollars, or the bullion representing them, would cause a shrinkage of about $170,000,000, or one-third of our silver money; it would cause a shrinkage of nearly one-sixth of our metallic money, and of more than one-tenth of our circulation. This contraction would increase our debts more than a billion dollars, and decrease the nominal value of our property more than five billions. "A change in the ratio made by increasing the size of the silver dollar as above suggested would also decrease by one-third the number of dollars which could be coined from the annual pro- duct of silver. If, as Mr. Carlisle has said, the supply of metal, both gold and silver, is none too large to keep pace with popula- tion, the increase in the weight of each dollar would make the . pply to that extent deficient. A change in ratio, whether secured by decreasing the gold dollar or by increasing the silver dollar, would probably make an international agreement more difficult, 27 OPE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRTAX. because nearly all of the silver coin now in existence circulates at * ratio less than ours. "If die change should be made in this country by increasing the size of the silver dollar and an inln national agreement secured upon the new ratio, to be effected by other nations in the same way. the -fir** of moury in the world, that is. metallic money, would suffer a contraction of more than SI/MO/KMLOOO, to the enor- mons injury of die debtor class and to die enormous advantage of the crednor dass. If we believe that die value of gold has risen becaBse *tr supply has m4 "*y | r i wi?f*f as fast as *^*c demand caused by favorable legislation, then k would be unfair to continue this appreciation by other legislation favorable to both. It would be a pri IjnuV*' to die mine owner and to die fanner, whose products hare fallen widt sflrer, to make perpetual die injunction _ KUE5|fCXU.V. """We often hear our opponents complain of die 'cupidity of the none owner.' Let us admit that die mine owner is selfish, and that he win profit by die increased price of silver bullion- Let us, for die sake of argument, go IiudMU, and accuse him of favoring die free coinage of salver solely far die purpose of increasing die price of his product. Does that nalry him worse than other men? Is not die farmer selfish enough to desire a higher price far wheat? Is not die cotton grower selfish enough to desire a higher price for his cotton? Is not die laboring man selfish enough to desire higher wages? And, if I may be pardoned for die boldness, are not bankets and business men selfish enough to ask far legislation at our hands which will give th^m prosperity? Was not tins extraordinary session called in order to bring back lily to our business men? "Is it any more important that yon should keep a mercantile -_~^~_.-_z front failing than dot yon should keep a mine from sus- pending? Are those who desire free coinage of silver in order that the barren wastes should be made to "blossom like the rose* any worse don those who want die Sherman law repealed in order to borrow foreign gold and retire clearing-house certificates? There is a dass of people whose interest in financial legislation is too oilf n overlooked. The money has just as nuKli interest in the rise in die value of his product money as farmers and miners have m die increased price of their products. "The man who has $10000 in money becomes worth $201000 in reality when prices fall one-half. Shall we assume that die money lenders of this and other countries ignore die advantage which an appreciated currency gives to diem and desire it simply " ' ~.r.~ ~. -t T. -r 7. : ~~ t.~r -''' ~-~. ~-~ ~. ~.~ -. -'-'.'.'-.'' '''-.' ~-~. 7. & inline nee is there in their business which purges away the dross of MlfiAurM, and makes pure and patriotic only their motives? Has some new dJspcnsjtion reversed die pjrjblr and left Lazarus in torment while Dives is borne aloft in Abraham's bosom? "But is the sflver miner after all so selfish as to be worthy of Does he ask for some new legislation or for some in- Us behalf? No. He pleads only for die LIFE OF HOX WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 511 restoration of the money of the fathers. He asks to have given back to him a right which he enjoyed from 1/92 to 1873. During all those years he could deposit his silver bullion at the mints and receive full legal tender coins at the rate of ?i.2O. for each ounce of silver, and during a part of the time his product could be con- verted into money at even a higher price. Free coinage can only give back to him what demonetization took away. He does not ask for a silver dollar redeemable in a gold dollar, but lor a silver dollar which redeems itself. "If the bullion value of silver has not been reduced by hostile legislation, the free coinage of silver at the present ratio can bring to the mine owner no benefit, except by enabling him to pay a debt already contracted with less ounces of silver. If the price of his product has been reduced by hostile legislation, is he asking any more than we would ask under the same circumstances in seeeking to remove the oppressive hand of the law? Let me suggest, too, that those who favor an international agreement are estopped from objecting to the profits of the silver mine owner, because an international agreement could only be effected at some ratio near to ours, probably 15 ?4 to i, and this would just as surely inure to the benefit of silver as would free coinage estab- lished by the independent action of this country. "If our opponents were correct in asserting that the price of silver bullion could be maintained at 129 cents an ounce by in- ternational agreement, but not by our separate action, then inter- national bimetallism would bring a larger profit to the mine owner than free coinage of silver by this country could. Let the international bimetallist, then, find some better objection to free coinage than that based on the mine owner's profit. "But what is the mine owner's profit? Has any one told yoii the average cost of mining an ounce of silver? You have heard of some particular mine where silver can be produced a low cost, but no one has attempted to give you any reliable data as to the average cost of production. I had a letter from Mr. Leech when he was director of the mint, saying that the government is in pos- session of no data in regard to the cost of gold production and none of any value in regard to silver. No calculation can be made as to the profits of mining which does not include money spent in prospecting and in mines which have ceased to pay, as well as those which are practically at work. "When we see a wheel of fortune with twenty-four paddles. see those paddles sold for 10 cents apiece, and see the holder of the winning paddle draw $2, we do not conclude that money can be profitably invested in a wheel of fortune. We know that those who bought expended altogether $240 on the turn of the wheel and that the man who won only received $2, but our opponents insist upon estimating the profits of mining silver by the cost of the winning paddle. It is safe to say that taking the gold and silver of the world and it is more true of silver than of gold ev- ery dollar"? -worth of meral has cost a dollar. It is strange that those who watch ?o cr.refr.Hv le?t the silver miner shall receive 512 LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. more for his product than the bare cost of production ignores the most fortunate gold miner. ''Did you ever hear a monometallist complain because a man could produce 25.8 grains of gold, and .9 fine, at any price what- ever, and yet take it to our mint and have it stamped into a dollar with full legal tender qualities? I saw at the world's fair a few days ago a nugget of gold just as it was found, worth over $2,000,000. What an outrage that the finder should be allowed to convert that into money at such an enormous profit! And yet no advocate of honest money raises his hand to stop that cry. "The fact is that the price of gold and silver does not depend upon the cost of production, but upon the law of supply and de- mand. It is true that production will stop when either metal can- not be produced at a profit; but so long as the demand continues equal to the supply the value of an ounce of either metal may be far above the cost of production. With most kinds of property a rising price will cause increased production; for instance, if the price of wheat rises faster than the price of other things, there will be a tendency to increased production until the price falls; but this tendency cannot be carried out in the case of the precious metals, because the metal must be found before it can be produced, and finding is uncertain. "Between 1800 and 1849. an ounce of gold or silver would exchange for more of other things than it would from 1849 to 1873, yet during the latter period the production of both gold and silver greatly increased. It will be said that the purchasing power of an ounce of metal fell because of the increased supply; but that fall did not check production, nor has the rising or purchasing power of an ounce of gold since 1873 increased the production. The production of both gold and silver is controlled so largely by chance as to make some of the laws applicable to other property inapplicable to the precious metals. If the supply of gold de- creases without any diminuition of the demand the exchangable value of each ounce of gold is bound to increase, although the cost of producing the gold may continue to fall. "Why do not the advocates of gold monometallism recognize and complain of the advantage given to gold by laws which in- crease the demand for it, and, therefore, the value of each ounce? Instead of that they confine themselves to the denunciation of the silver mine owner. I have never advanced the use of either gold or silver as the means of giving employment to miners, nor. has the defense of bimetallism been conducted by those interested in the production of silver. We favor the use of gold and silver, as money because money is a necessity and because these metals, owing to special fitness, have been used from time im- memorial. The entire annual supply of both metals, coined at the present ratio, does not afford too large a sum of money. "If, as is estimated, two-thirds of the $130,000,000 of gold produced annually are consumed in the arts, only $46,000,000, or less than we need for this country alone, are left for coinage. If one-sixth of the $185,000,000 of silver produced annually is used LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 513 in the arts, $155,000,000 are left for coinage. India has been in the habit of taking about one-third of that sum. Thus the total amount of gold and silver annually available for all the people of all the world is only about $20,000,000, or about four times what we need in this country to keep pace with increasing population. And, as population increases, the annual addition to the money must also increase. "The total sum of metallic money is little less than $8,000,000,000. The $200,000,000 per annum is about two and one-half per cent on the total volume of metallic money, taking no account of lost coins and shrinkage by abrasion. To quote again the language of Mr. Carlisle: Mankind will be fortunate enough indeed if the annual production of gold coin shall keep pace with the annual increase of population, commerce and industry. "An increase of the silver dollar one-third by an international agreement would reduce by 50,000,000 the number of dollars which could be coined from the annual product of silver, which would amount to a decrease of about one-fourth of the entire increase of metallic money, while the abandonment of silver entirely would destroy three-quarters of the annual increase in metallic money, or possibly all of it, if we take into consideration the reduction of the gold supply by the closing of gold producing silver mines. "Thus it is almost certain that without silver the sum of me- tallic money would remain stationary, if not actually decreased, from year to year, while population increases and new enterprises demand, from time to time, a larger sum of currency. Thus it will be seen that the money question is broader than the interest of a few mine owners. It touches every man, woman and child in all the world, and affects those in every condition of life and society. "The interest of a mine owner is incidental. He profits by the use of silver as money just as the gold miner profits by the use of gold as money; just as the newspaper profits by the law of compelling the advertising of foreclosures; just as the seaport profits by the deepening of its harbor; just as the horse seller would profit by a war which required the purchase of a large number of horses for calvary service, or just as the undertaker would profit by the decent burial of a pauper at public expense. "All of these receive an incidental benefit from public acts. Shall we complain if the use of gold and silver as money gives employment to men, builds up cities, and fills our mountains with life and industry? Shall we oppress all debtors and derange all business agreements in order to prevent the producers of money metals from obtaining for them more than actual cost? We do not reason that way in other things: why suppress the reason in this matter because of cultivated prejudices against the white metal? But what interest has the farmer in this subject? you may ask. The same that every laboring man has in a currency sufficient to carry on the commerce and business of a country. The employer cannot give work to men unless he can carry on the business at a profit, and he is hampered and embarrassed by a currency which appreciates because of its insufficiency. 5U LIFE OE HON. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. "The farmer labors under a double disadvantage. He not only suffers as a producer from all tRose causes which reduce the price of property, but he is thrown into competition with the products of India. Without Indian competition his lot would be hard enough, for if he is a land owner he finds his capital de- creasing with an appreciating standard, and if he owes on the land he finds his equity of redemption extinguished. The last census shows a real estate mortgage indebtedness in the five great agri- cultural states Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska of more than $1,000,000,000. A rising standard means a great deal of distress in these mortgagors. But, as I said, the producers of wheat and cotton have a special grievance, for the prices of those articles are governed largely by the prices in Liverpool, and as silver goes down our prices fall, while the rupee price remains the same. I quote from the agricultural report of 1890, page 8: "The recent legislation looking to the restoration of the bi- metallic standard of our currency, and the consequent enhance- ment of the value of silver, has unquestionably had much to do with the recent advance in the price of cereals. The same cause has advanced the price of wheat in Russia and India, and in the same degree reduced their power of competition. The English gold was formerly exchanged for cheap silver and wheat purchased with a cheaper metal was sold in Great Britain for gold. Much of this advantage is lost by appreciation of silver in those countries. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect much higher prices for wheat than have been received in recent years. "Mr. Rusk's reasoning is correct. Shall we, by changing the ratio fix the price of wheat and cotton at the present low price? If it is possible to do so, it is no more than fair that we restore silver to its former place, and thus give back to the farmer some of his lost prosperity. Can silver be maintained on a parity with gold at the present ratio? It hag been shown that if we should fail and our efforts should result in a single silver standard, it would be better for us than the adoption of a gold standard that is, that the worst that could come from the attempt would be far better than the best that our opponents could offer us. "It has been shown that dangers and disadvantages attend a change of ratio. It may now be added that no change in the ratio can be made with fairness or intelligence without first putting gold and silver upon a perfect equality in order to tell what the natural ratio is. If a new ratio is necessary, who can tell just what that ratio ought to be? Who knows to what extent the divergence between gold and silver is due to natural laws and to what ex- tent it is due to artificial laws? We know that the mere act of India in suspending free coinage, although she continues to buy ;md coin on government account, reduced the price of silver more than ten cents per ounce. Can any one doubt that the restora tion of free coinage in that country would increase the buillion price of silver? Who doubts that the free coinage of silver by the United States would increase its bullion price? The only ques- tion is how much. It is only a guess, for no one can state with LIFE OF HON. WILLIAM J. BriYAN. 515 mathematical precision what the rise would be. The full use of silver, too, would stop the increased demand for gold, and thus pre- vent any further rise in its price. "It is because no one can speak with certainty that I insist that no change in the ratio can be intelligently made until both metals are offered equal privileges at the mint. When we have the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the present ratio, then, and then only, can we tell whether any of the apparent falls in the bullion price of silver is due to the circumstances over which we have no control, and if so, how much? If this experiment should demonstrate the necessity for a change of ratio, it can be easily made, and should be made in such a way as to cause the least injury to society. But we can, in my judgment, maintain the parity at the present ratio. I state this without hestitation, notwithstanding the fact that our opponents do not disguise the contempt which they feel for one who can believe this possible. If the past teaches anything it teaches the possibility of this country maintaining the parity alone. The royal commission of England stated in its report that France did maintain the parity at 15% to i, although she has not half our population or enterprise. During the years when her mint laws controlled the price of gold and silver bullion the changes in the relative production of gold and silver were greater than they have been since. At one time before 1873 the value of the silver prod- uct was related to the value of the gold product as 3 to i, while at another time the relation was reversed, and the production of gold to silver was 3 to I. "No such changes have occurred since; and the present value of the silver product is only i^ to I of gold. Much of the preju- dice against silver is due to the fact that it has been falling as com- pared to gold. Let it begin to rise and it will become more acceptable as a money metal. Goschen at the Paris conference very aptly stated the condition when he said: . " 'At present there is a vicious circle. States are afraid of employing silver on account of the depreciation, and the depre- ciation continues because states refuse to employ it.' "Let that 'vicious circle' be broken and silver will resume its rightful place. We believe, in other words, that the opening of our mints to the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at 16 to i would immediately result in restoring silver to the coinage value of $1.29 per ounce, not only here, but everywhere. "We do not believe that the gold dollar would go to a pre- mium, because it could not find a better coinage ratio elsewhere, and because it could be put to no purpose for which a silver dollar would not be as good. If our ratio were I to 14 our gold would, of course, be exchanged for silver; but with our ratio of 16 to i gold is worth more here than abroad, and foreign silver would not come here, because it is circulating at home at a better ratio than we offer."* * Speech delivered August, 1898, in the House of Representatives by William J. Bryan, LIFE OF HON. ARTHUR J. SEWALL. Arthur J. Sewall, the Democratic candidate for Vice- President, was born in Bath, Me., in 1835. He is descended from an old and honorable family one of the oldest in America, in fact and he points to a business career devoted to the maintenance of an industry in which America was supreme until the fortunes of war intervened to nearly destroy it. Following in the foot- steps of his father, he has for many years been a success- ful shipbuilder, and has striven to restore the United States to supremacy in that industry. The first American ancestor of the Democratic nominee was John Sewall, who came from Coventry, England, in 1634, to take possession of a tract of land in Massachu- setts granted him by the crown. This favor of the English king is pointed to as an evidence that this Sewall colonist must have been a man of consideration in the mother country. He made his home in a settlement that is now known as Newburyport, and his descendants lived in the ancestral home for more than a century. In 1760 they moved to a newer country and located in what is now known as the State of Maine. They secured a tract of land whose title had passed through only three names since the orginal grant made by King George. Since the year 1760, sixteen years before the declaration LIFE OF HON. ARTHUR J. SEWALL. 517 of independence, the Sewalls have been born and married on the old homestead and have been carried from one of its houses to their last resting place. The grandfather of Arthur Sewall was William D. Sewall, who established shipbuilding yards at Bath in 1823. He was succeeded by his sons under the firm name of E. & A. E. Sewall. The present firm is Arthur J. Sewall & Co. The Democratic nominee has associated with him his nephew, Samuel S. Sewall, and his son. William D. Sewall. From the days of its first boat the little Diana, to the steel ship Dirigo, launched in 1894. this firm has led the country in designs for merchant vessels. For seventy-three years its private signal, a white S on a blue field, has fluttered from the main spar of some of the stanchest, finest and swiftest vessels in the merchant marine, carrying the stars and stripes into every foreign port. The Sewalls have built ninety-five ships. It is the proud boast of the present head of the house that it has turned out tonnage every year since the start, except two years in which conditions prevented. Thanksgiving Day of 1835 was an occasion for more than ordinary gratitude in the Sewall family, for there was ushered into the world on that day the son who suc- ceeded to the honors and the estate of the family and has brought new fame to its record by being selected as one of the Democratic standard bearers. Mr. Sewall grew up among the scenes of the shipyards and the sea shore, and in due time was inducted into the mysteries of the shipbuild- ing business. His firm is now the owner of forty vessels turned out by its yards. It sails these vessels on its own account, and manages the carrying trade which they do. It enjoys the distinction of having built the first steel 518 LIFE OF HON. ARTHUR J. SEW ALL. sailing vessel ever launched in America. She is called the Dirigo, which is the motto of the State of Maine. Mr. Sewall's enterprises on land and sea prospered? and in the accumulation of wealth he sought means for its reinvestment, and engaged in many lines of business outside shipping. There is hardly a corporation in Sagadahoc County, Maine, of which he is not a stock- holder and a director. He has long been interested in railroads, and has been president of the Maine Central and other lines. He is still a director in a number of railroads. He is at present the president of a national bank in Bath, and is, of course, one of the chief men of the city. Mr. Sewall believes the demonetization of silver in 1873 was a financial mistake, and in spite of his wealth he has been an ardent advocate of free silver for the last four years. He has been prominent in politics for many years, but has never held any political office. Several years ago he was the candidate of the democratic members of the Maine legislature for United States senator, but as there was no possibility of his election the incident was little more than an acknowledgment of the indebtedness of his party and a testimony of its admiration. He has been a member of the Democratic National Committee for two or three terms, and in that position, as well as in his participation in Presidential campaigns, has come into contact with the party leaders all over the country, and made a wide political acquaintance. ADDENDA. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- selves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. SEC. 2. The House of Representatives shall be com- posed of members chosen every second year by the peo- ple of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branches of the state Legislature. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned ii CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and, excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such a manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each shall have at least one Representative; and, until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers and shall have the sole power of impeachment. S i<;o. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years, arid each Senator shall have one vote Immediately after they shall be assembled in conse- quence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of I lie Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expira- CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. iii tion of the second year, of the second class at the expira- tion of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year, and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the Legisla- ture of any state, the executive thereof may make tempo- rary appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen. The Vice -President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-Pres- ident, or when he shall exercise the office as President of the United States. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all im- peachments. When sitting for that purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two- thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and pun- ishment according to law. iv CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. SEC. 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be pre- scribed in each state by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. The Congress shall assemble at least once every year; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in Decem- ber, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. SEC. 5. Each house shall be the judge of elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members; and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attend- ance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each house may provide. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its mem- bers for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. SEC. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. v of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for anv speech or debate in either house they shall not be ques- tioned in any other place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a mem- ber of either house during his continuance in office. SEC. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. Every bill, which shall have passed the House of Repre- sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two- thirds of that house it shall become a law. But, in all such cases, the votes of both bouses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays vi CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. Every order, resolution or vote, to which the concur- rence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two- thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill. SEC. 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts, and to provide for the common defence and general wel- fare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uni- form laws on the subjects of bankruptcies throughout the United States. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of for- eign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States. To establish post-offices and post roads. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors and invent- CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. vii ors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. To provide and maintain a navy. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatso- ever, over such districts (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the accept- ance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the states in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 28 viii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Govern- ment of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. SEC. 9. The migration or importation of such persons, as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight; but a tax, or duty, may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or ex, post facto law shall be passed. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census, or enumeration, hereinbefore directed to be taken. No taxes or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expend- itures of all public money shall be published from time to time. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, ac- CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. ix cept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. SEC. 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alli- ance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impair- ing the obligation of contracts; or grant a title of nobility. No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspec- tion laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. SEC. 11. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legis- lature thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of x CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of Govern- ment of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immedi- ately choose, by ballot, one of them for President, and if no person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the said House shall, in like manner choose the President. But, in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the Presi- dent, the person having the greatest ' number of votes of the electors shall be Vice-President. But, if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them, by ballot, the Vice-President. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. xi which day shall be the same throughout the United States. t No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to the office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 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, and the Congress may, by law, pro- vide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or ina- bility, both of the President and Vice-President, declar- ing what officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed or a President shall be elected. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall be elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of them. Before he enter on the execution of his office he shaft take the following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." SEC. 12. The President shall be commander-in-chirl of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states; he may require the opinion. in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executivr departments, upon any subject relating to the duties xii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. of the respective offices; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two- thirds of the Senators present concur, and he shall nomi- nate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public minis- ters and consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law, but the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such inferior officer as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. The President shall have the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session. SEC. 13. He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extra- ordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall com- mission all the officers of the United States. SEC. 14. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. xiii office on impeachment for and conviction of treason bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III. SECTION 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. SEC. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to contro- versies between two or more states, between a state and citizens of another state, between citizens of different states, between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public min- isters and consuls, and these in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state xiv CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. where the said crime shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may, by law, have directed. SEC. 3. Treason against the United States shall con- sist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punish- ment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attained. ABTICLE IV. SECTION 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceed- ings of every other state. And the Congress may, by the general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. SEC. 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. A person charged in any state with treason, felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in con- CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. xv sequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SEC. 3. New states may be admitted by the Con- gress into this Union, but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state, nor any states be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the Legis- latures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state. SEC. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on appli- cation of the Legislature or of the executive (when the Legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Consti- tution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths xvi CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress, provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of this article ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the confederation. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any- thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the con- trary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several states, Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affir- mation to support this Constitution, but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII. The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. xvii states present, the seventeeth day of September, in the year of our Lord,One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty- seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have here- unto subscribed our names. (Signed by the members of the convention.) AMENDMENTS. At the first session of the First Congress, held in the city of New York, and begun on Wednesday, the 4th of March, 1789, many amendments to the National Constitu- tion were offered for consideration. The Congress pro- posed ten of them to the Legislatures of the several states. These were ratified by the constitutional number of state Legislatures by the middle of December, 1791. Five other amendments have since been proposed and duly ratified, and have become, with the other ten, a part of the National Constitution. The following are the amendments: ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or to the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ARTICLE in. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any xviii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STAGES. house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized. ARTICLE v. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war and public danger ; ndr shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor to be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. ARTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the wit- nesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- ance of counsel for his defense. CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. xir ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law. where the value in contro- versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of common law. ARTICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. ARTICLE IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others re- tained by the people. ARTICLE x. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution not prohibited by it to the states are re- served to the states respectively, or to the people. ARTICLE XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, com- menced or prosecuted against the United States, by citi- zens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. ARTICLE XII. The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for Vice-President, and they shall make distinct xx CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. lists of all persons voted for as President and of all per- sons voted for as Vice-president, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the Pres- dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be Presi- dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have such major- ity, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for Presi- dent, the House of Representatives shall choose immedi- ately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the repre- sentation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-Presi- dent shall act as President, as in the case of death or other constitutional disability of the President. The per- son having the greatest number of votes as Vice-Presi- dent shall be Vice-President, if such number be a major- ity of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest num- bers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice-Presi- dent; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. xxi whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. ABTICLE XIII. SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV. SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, ex- cluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote, at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representative in Congress, the executive or judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced xxii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty- one years of age in such state. SEC. 3. No person shall be Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state Legislature or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disa- bility. SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred by payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppress- ing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume to pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrec- tion or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. SEC. 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. ARTICLE XV. SECTION 1. The right of the citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or in any state, on account of race, color or pre- vious condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. A 000756310 9