A Brief History of the United States Part 49

ELECTORAL COMMISSION.--The electoral votes of the states are counted in the presence of the House and Senate. The question then became, Which of these duplicate sets shall Congress count? To determine the question an electoral commission of fifteen members was created. [7] It decided that the votes of the Republican electors In the four states should be counted, and Hayes was therefore declared elected. [8]

END OF CARPETBAG GOVERNMENTS.--The inauguration of Hayes was followed by the recall of United States troops from the South, and the downfall of carpetbag governments in South Carolina and Louisiana. During the first half of Hayes's term the. Democrats had control of the House of Representatives, and during the second half, of the Senate as well. As a result, proposed partisan measures either failed to pa.s.s Congress, or were vetoed by the President.

THE YEAR 1877 was one of great business depression. A strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of 1877 spread to other railroads and became almost an industrial insurrection. Traffic was stopped, millions of dollars' worth of freight cars, machine shops, and other property was destroyed, and in the battles fought around Pittsburg many lives were lost. [9] Failures were numerous; in 1878 more business men failed than in the panic year 1873.

SILVER COINAGE.--For much of this business depression the financial policy of the government was blamed, and when Congress a.s.sembled in 1877, this policy was at once attacked. An attempt to repeal the act for resuming specie payment (p. 408) was made, but failed. [10] Another measure, however, concerning silver coinage, was more successful.

Congress had dropped (1873) the silver dollar from the list of coins to be made at the mint. [11] Soon afterward the silver mines of Nevada began to yield astonishingly, and the price of silver fell. This led to a demand (by inflationists and silver-producers) that the silver dollar should again be coined; and in 1878 Congress pa.s.sed (over Hayes's veto) the Bland-Allison Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month and coin it into dollars. [12]

"THE CHINESE MUST GO."--Another act vetoed by Hayes was intended to stop the coming of Chinese to our country. In 1877 an anti-Chinese movement was begun in San Francis...o...b.. the workingmen led by Dennis Kearney. Open-air meetings were held, and the demand for Chinese exclusion was urged so vigorously that Congress (1879) pa.s.sed an act restricting Chinese immigration. Hayes vetoed this as violating our treaty with China, but (1880) negotiated a new treaty which provided that Congress might regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers.

THE ELECTION OF 1880; DEATH OF GARFIELD.--In 1880 there were again several parties, but the contest was between the Republicans with James A.

Garfield [13] and Chester A. Arthur as candidates for President and Vice President, and the Democrats with Winfield S. Hanc.o.c.k and William H.

English as leaders.

Garfield and Arthur were elected, and on March 4, 1881, were duly inaugurated. Four months later, as the President stood in a railway station in Washington, a disappointed office seeker shot him in the back.

After his death (September 19, 1881) Chester A. Arthur became President.

[14]

IMPORTANT LAWS, 1881-85.--All parties had called for anti-Chinese legislation. The long-desired act was accordingly pa.s.sed by Congress, excluding the Chinese from our country for a period of twenty years.

Arthur vetoed it as contrary to our treaty with China. An act "suspending"

the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years was then pa.s.sed and became law; similar acts have been pa.s.sed from time to time since then.

The Republicans (and Prohibitionists) had demanded the suppression of polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. Another law (the Edmunds Act, 1882) was therefore enacted for this end. [15]

The murder of Garfield aroused a general demand for civil service reform.

The Pendleton Act (1883) was therefore enacted to secure appointment to office on the ground of fitness, not party service. [16]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CRUISER BOSTON.]

THE NEW NAVY.--After the close of the Civil War our navy was suffered to fall into neglect and decay. The thirty-seven cruisers, all but four of which were of wood; the fourteen single-turreted monitors built during the war; the muzzle-loading guns, belonged to a past age. By 1881 this was fully realized and the foundation of a new and splendid navy was begun by the construction of three unarmored cruisers--the _Atlanta_, _Boston_, and _Chicago_. Once started, the new navy grew rapidly, and in the course of twelve years forty-seven vessels were afloat or on the stocks. [17]

NEW REFORMS DEMANDED.--Meantime the wonderful development of our country caused a demand for further reforms. The chief employers of labor were corporations and capitalists, many of whom abused the power their wealth gave them. They were accused of importing laborers under contract and thereby keeping wages down, of getting special privileges from legislatures, and of combining to fix prices to suit themselves. In the campaign of 1884, therefore, these issues came to the front, and demands were made for (1) legislation against the importation of contract labor, (2) regulation of interstate commerce, especially as carried on by railways, (3) government ownership of telegraphs and railways, (4) reduction of the hours of labor, (5) bureaus to collect and spread information as to labor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GROVER CLEVELAND.]

THE ELECTION OF 1884.--The Republicans nominated James G. Blaine for President; the Democrats, Grover Cleveland. [18] The nomination of Blaine gave offense to many Republicans; they took the name of Independents and supported Cleveland, who was elected.

IMPORTANT LAWS, 1885-89. [19]--As the two great parties, Democratic and Republican, had each favored the pa.s.sage of certain laws demanded by the labor parties, these reforms were now obtained.

1. An Anti-Contract-Labor Law (1885) forbade any person, company, or corporation to bring aliens into the United States under contract to perform labor or service.

2. An Interstate Commerce Act (1887) provided for a commission whose duty it is to see that all charges for the carriage of pa.s.sengers or freight are reasonable and just, and that no unfair special rates are made for favored shippers.

3. A Bureau of Labor was established and put in charge of a commissioner whose duty it is to "diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor." Such bureaus or departments already existed in many of the states.

THE SURPLUS.--These old issues disposed of, the continued growth and prosperity of our country brought up new ones. For some time past the revenue of the government had so exceeded its expenses that on December 1, 1887, there was a surplus of $50,000,000 in the treasury. Six months later this had risen to $103,000,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.]

Three plans were suggested for disposing of the surplus. Some thought it should be distributed among the states as in 1837. Some were for buying government bonds and so reducing the national debt. Others urged a reduction of the annual revenue by cutting down the tariff rates. The President in his message in 1887 asked for such a reduction, and in 1888 the House pa.s.sed a new tariff bill which the Senate rejected.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1888.--In the campaign of 1888, therefore, the tariff issue came to the front. The Democrats renominated Grover Cleveland for President, and called for a tariff for revenue only, and for no more revenue than was needed to pay the cost of economical government. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison [20] on a platform favoring a protective tariff, and elected him.

NEW STATES.--Both the great parties had called for the admission of new states. Just before the end of Cleveland's term, therefore, an enabling act was pa.s.sed for North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana, which were accordingly admitted to the Union a few months later (1889). Idaho and Wyoming were admitted the following year (1890), and Utah in 1896.

NEW LAWS OF 1890.--The administration of affairs having again pa.s.sed to the Republican party, it enacted the McKinley Tariff Law, which slightly raised the average rate of duties; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, forbidding combinations to restrain trade; and a new financial measure which also bore the name of Senator Sherman. The law (p. 409) requiring the purchase and coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month did not satisfy the silver men. They wanted a free-coinage law, giving any man the privilege of having his silver coined into dollars (p. 224). As they had a majority of the Senate, they pa.s.sed a free-coinage bill, but the House rejected it. A conference followed, and the so-called Sherman Act was pa.s.sed, increasing the amount of silver to be bought each month by the government. [21]

THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OF 1890.--The effect of the increased tariff rates, the Sherman Act, and large expenditures by Congress was at once apparent, and in the congressional election of 1890 the Republicans were beaten. The Democratic minority in the House of Representatives was turned into a great majority, and in both House and Senate appeared members of a new party called the Farmers' Alliance. [22]

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1892.--The success of the Alliance men in the election of 1890, and the conviction that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans would further all their demands, led to a meeting of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 1891, and the formation of "the People's Party of the United States of America." In 1892 this People's Party, or the Populists, as they were called, nominated James B. Weaver for President, cast a million votes, and secured the election of four senators and eleven representatives in Congress. The Republicans renominated Harrison for President. But the Democrats secured majorities in the House and the Senate, and elected Cleveland. [23]

THE PANIC OF 1893.--When Cleveland's second inauguration took place, March 4, 1893, our country had already entered a period of panic and business depression. Trade had fallen off. Money was hard to borrow. Foreigners who held our stocks and bonds sought to sell them, and a great amount of gold was drawn to Europe. So bad did business conditions become that the President called Congress to meet in special session in August to remedy matters.

The silver dollars coined by the government were issued and accepted by the government at their face value, and circulated on a par with gold, although the price of silver bullion had fallen so low that the metal in a silver dollar was worth less than seventy cents. Many people believed the business panic was due to fears that the government could not much longer keep the increasing volume of silver currency at par with gold. Therefore Congress repealed part of the Sherman Act of 1890, so as to stop the purchase of more silver.

THE WILSON TARIFF.--The business revival which the majority of Congress now expected, did not come. Failures continued; mills remained closed, gold continued to leave the country, and government receipts were $34,000,000 less than expenditures when the year ended. By the close of the autumn of 1893, hundreds of thousands of people were out of employment and many in want. In this condition of affairs Congress met in regular session (December, 1893). The Democrats were in control of both branches, and were pledged to revise the tariff. A bill was therefore pa.s.sed, cutting down some of the tariff rates (the Wilson Act). [24]

n.o.body expected that the revised tariff would yield enough money to meet the expenses of the government. One section of the law therefore provided that all yearly incomes above $4000 should be taxed two per cent. Though Congress had levied an income tax thirty years before, its right to do so was now denied by many, and the Supreme Court decided (1895) that the income tax was unconst.i.tutional. [25]

AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.--One great reform which must not go unnoticed was the introduction of the Australian or secret ballot. The purpose of this system of voting, first used in Australia, is to enable the voter to prepare his ballot in a booth by himself and deposit it without any one knowing for whom he votes. The system was first used in our country in Ma.s.sachusetts and in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1888. So successful was it that ten states adopted it the next year, and by 1894 it was in use in all but seven of the forty-four states.

NEGROES DISFRANCHISED.--Six of the seven were Southern states where negroes were numerous. After the fall of the carpetbag governments, illegal means were often used to keep negroes from the polls and prevent "negro domination" in these states. Later legal methods were tried instead: the payment of taxes, and sometimes such an educational qualification as the ability to read, were required of voters; but the laws were so framed as to exclude many negroes and few whites. Mississippi was the first state to amend her const.i.tution for this purpose (1890), and nearly all the Southern states have followed her example. [26]

THE FREE COINAGE ISSUE.--Now that the treasury had ceased to buy silver, the demand for the free coinage of silver was renewed. The Republicans in their national platform, in 1896, declared against it, whereupon thirty- four delegates from the silver states (Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada) left the convention. The Democratic party declared for free coinage, [27] but many Democrats ("gold Democrats") thereupon formed a new party, called the National Democratic, and nominated candidates on a gold-standard platform. Both the great parties were thus split on the issue of free coinage of silver.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896.--The Republican party nominated William McKinley [28] for President. The Democrats named William J. Bryan, and he was indorsed by the People's party and the National Silver party. [29] The campaign was most exciting. The country was flooded with books, pamphlets, handbills, setting forth both sides of the silver issue; Bryan and McKinley addressed immense crowds, and on election day 13,900,000 votes were cast. McKinley was elected.

THE DINGLEY TARIFF.--The excitement over silver was such that in the campaign the tariff question was little considered. But the Republicans were pledged to a revision of the tariff, and accordingly (July, 1897) the Dingley Bill pa.s.sed Congress and was approved by the President. Thus in the course of seven years the change of administration from one party to the other had led to the pa.s.sage of three tariff acts--the McKinley (1890), the Wilson (1894), and the Dingley (1897).

FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS.--It is now time to review our foreign relations during this period. Twice since 1890 they had brought us apparently to the verge of war.

THE CHILEAN INCIDENT.--In 1891, while the United States ship _Baltimore_ was in the port of Valparaiso, Chile, some sailors went on sh.o.r.e, were attacked on the streets, and one was killed and several wounded. Chile offered no apology and no reparation to the injured, but instead sent an offensive note about the matter. Harrison, in a message to Congress (1892), plainly suggested war. But the offensive note was withdrawn, a proper apology was made, and the incident ended.

THE SEAL FISHERIES.--Great Britain and our country were long at variance over the question of ownership of seals in Bering Sea. Our purpose was to protect them from extermination by certain restrictions on seal fishing.

To settle our rights in the matter, a court of arbitration was appointed and met in Paris in 1893. The decision was against us, but steps were taken to protect the seals from extermination. [30]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HAWAIIAN BOATS WITH OUTRIGGERS.]

HAWAII.--Just before Harrison retired from office a revolution in the Hawaiian Islands drove the queen from the throne. A provisional government was then established, commissioners were dispatched to Washington, and a treaty for the annexation of Hawaii to the United States was drawn up and sent to the Senate. President Cleveland recalled the treaty and sought to have the queen restored. But the Hawaiians in control resisted and in 1894 established a republic.

VENEZUELA.--For many years there was a dispute over the boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and in 1895 it seemed likely to involve Venezuela in a war with Great Britain. Our government had tried to bring about a settlement by arbitration. Great Britain refused to arbitrate, and denied our right to interfere. President Cleveland insisted that under the Monroe Doctrine we had a right, and in December, 1895, asked Congress to authorize a commission to investigate the claims of Great Britain. This was done, and great excitement at once arose at home and in Great Britain. But Great Britain and Venezuela soon submitted the question to arbitration.

SUMMARY

1. The wonderful industrial growth of our country between 1860 and 1880 brought up for settlement grave industrial and financial questions.

2. The failure of the two great parties to take up these questions at once, caused the formation of many new parties, such as the National Labor, the Prohibition, the Liberal Republican, and the People's party.