A History of the Republican Party Part 13

The Republicans of the United States, a.s.sembled by their delegates in national convention, pause on the threshold of their proceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader, the immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people--Abraham Lincoln; and to cover also with wreaths of imperishable remembrance and grat.i.tude the heroic names of our later leaders, who have more recently been called away from our councils--Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, Conkling. May their memories be faithfully cherished. We also recall, with our greetings and with prayer for his recovery, 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 n.o.ble soldier and favorite child of victory, Phillip 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 emanc.i.p.ation, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule for Ireland.

FREE SUFFRAGE.

We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Const.i.tution and to the indissoluble union of the states; to the autonomy reserved to the states under the Const.i.tution; 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 foundations of all public authority. We charge that the present administration and Democratic majority in Congress owe their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States.

PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRIES.

We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of protection; we protest against its destruction as 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 protective system must be maintained. Its abandonment has always been followed by general disaster to all interests, except those of the usurer and the sheriff. We denounce the Mills bill as destructive to the general business, the labor, and the farming interests of the country, and we heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican representatives in Congress in opposing its pa.s.sage.

DUTIES ON WOOL.

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 INTERNAL REVENUE.

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 employment 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 behests of the whisky trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers.

FOREIGN CONTRACT LABOR.

We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of foreign contract labor and of Chinese labor, alien to our civilization and our Const.i.tution, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our sh.o.r.es.

COMBINATIONS OF CAPITAL.

We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens; and we recommend to Congress and the state legislatures, in their respective jurisdictions, such legislation 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 discrimination between the states.

HOMES FOR THE PEOPLE.

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 magnificent development. The restoration of unearned railroad land-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 restored one acre to the people, but declare that by the joint action of the Republicans and Democrats about 50,000,000 acres of unearned lands originally granted for the construction of railroads have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the conditions inserted by the Republican Party in the original grants. We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute the laws securing to settlers t.i.tle to their homesteads, and with using appropriations made for that purpose to hara.s.s innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions, under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law.

HOME RULE IN TERRITORIES.

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, material resources, public intelligence and morality are such as to insure a stable local government therein, the people of such territories should be permitted, as a right inherent in them, the right to form for themselves const.i.tutions and state governments, and be admitted to the Union.

Pending the preparation for statehood, all officers thereof should be selected from the bona fide residents and citizens of the territory wherein they are to serve.

ADMITTANCE OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

South Dakota should of right be immediately admitted as a state in the Union, under the const.i.tution framed and adopted by her people, and we heartily indorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice pa.s.sing 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 principle 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 const.i.tutions and establish state governments should be pa.s.sed without unnecessary delay.

The Republican Party pledges itself to do all in its power to facilitate the admission 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.

MORMONISM.

The political power of the Mormon Church in the territories as exercised in the past is a menace to free inst.i.tutions, a danger no longer to be suffered. Therefore we pledge the Republican Party to appropriate legislation a.s.serting the sovereignity of the nation in all territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance of that end to a place upon the statute books legislation stringent enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: John Sherman.]

BIMETALISM.

The Republican Party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic administration in its efforts to demonetize silver.

REDUCTION OF LETTER POSTAGE.

We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per ounce.

FREE SCHOOLS.

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; therefore the state or nation, or both combined, should support free inst.i.tutions of learning sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education.

ARMY AND NAVY FORTIFICATIONS.

We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Congress in the enactment of such legislation as will best secure the rehabilitation of our American merchant marine, and we protest against the pa.s.sage 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 shipyards. We demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our navy; for the construction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance, and other approved modern means of defense for the protection of our defenseless harbors and cities; for the payment of just pensions to our soldiers; for the necessary works of national importance in the improvement of harbors and the channels of internal, coastwise, and foreign commerce; for the encouragement 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, promote 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 government's money, without interest, to "pet banks."

THE MONROE DOCTRINE.

The conduct of foreign affairs by the present administration has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Having withdrawn from the Senate all pending treaties effected by 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 Nicaraguan Ca.n.a.l, a work of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, and of our national influence in Central and South America, and necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific territory, with South America, and with the islands and farther coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

PROTECTION OF OUR FISHERIES.

We arraign the 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 ent.i.tled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, and which Canadian 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 indispensable resource of defense against a foreign enemy. The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the republic, and imposes upon all 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.

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM.

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 freedom, of 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 candidate 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 spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appointments, and all laws at variance with the object of existing reform legislation should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free inst.i.tutions which lurk in the power of official patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided.

PENSIONS FOR THE SOLDIERS.

The grat.i.tude of the nation to the defenders of the Union cannot be measured by laws. The legislation of Congress should conform to the pledge 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 should become the inmate of an almshouse, or dependent upon private charity. In the presence of an overflowing treasury, it would be a public scandal to do less for those whose valorous service preserved the government. We denounce the hostile spirit of 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.

Next in order of business was the presentation of candidates for President. Mr. Warner presented the name of Jos. R. Hawley, of Connecticut; Leonard Sweet nominated Walter Q. Gresham, of Illinois; Albert G. Porter nominated Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, and at the close of this speech the convention recessed until 3 p. m., at which time Mr. Harrison's nomination was seconded by Mr. Terrill, of Texas, and Mr. Gallinger, of New Hampshire; Mr. Hepburn, of Iowa, nominated Wm.

B. Allison; Robert E. Frazer nominated Russel A. Alger; Senator Hisc.o.c.k nominated Chauncey M. Depew; Daniel B. Hastings nominated John Sherman; Mr. Smith nominated E. H. Fitler, and Governor Rush nominated Jeremiah M. Rusk, and the convention adjourned at 7:26 p. m., until the morning, when the balloting would begin.

On Friday, June 22d, the convention met about 11 a. m., and, after taking three ballots without any result or indication of the nomination of any person, adjourned to meet at an evening session. At the evening session Mr. Depew withdrew his name, and after some miscellaneous business the session adjourned without taking a ballot. On Sat.u.r.day, June 23d, two ballots were taken without any final result, but they showed a decided increase for Mr. Harrison and indicated his nomination.

A recess was taken until 4 p. m., and on meeting at that hour the convention adjourned without taking any further ballots, until Monday morning. On Monday, the sixth, seventh and eighth ballots were taken, resulting in the nomination of Mr. Harrison on the eighth, the nomination being made unanimous on motion of Governor Foraker, of Ohio.

The votes for the princ.i.p.al candidates on the different ballots were as follows:

1st 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Sherman ......... 229 249 244 235 224 244 231 118 Gresham ......... 111 108 123 98 87 91 91 59 Depew ........... 99 99 91 ... ... ... ... ...

Alger ........... 84 116 122 135 142 137 120 100 Harrison ........ 80 91 94 217 213 231 278 544 Allison ......... 72 75 88 88 99 73 76 ...

Blaine .......... 35 33 35 42 48 40 15 5

Others who received votes on the various ballots were John J. Ingalls, Jeremiah M. Rusk, W. W. Phelps, E. H. Fitler, Joseph R. Hawley, Robert T. Lincoln, William McKinley, Jr. (who received votes on every ballot, two on the first ballot, his highest, sixteen, on the seventh), Samuel F. Miller, Frederick Douglas, Joseph B. Foraker, Frederick D. Grant and Creed Haymond.

The man who was thus honored by the Republican Party over all of the other eminent men before the convention was by no means an unknown quant.i.ty. Mr. Harrison was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833.

He was a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, and his great-great-grandfather was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. After graduating from college he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Indianapolis; he was elected Reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court in 1860, and left the position to become a volunteer in the Federal army in 1862, and was made Colonel of an Indiana regiment; his army record was good, and he left the service with the brevet rank of Brigadier-General. Resuming his law practice he became very successful, and his public speaking made him prominent. In 1876 he was defeated by a small majority for Governor of Indiana, and in 1880 his name had been presented to the Republican National Convention.

He had served in the United States Senate from 1881 to 1887.