A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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

%544. Political Issues since 1888%.--Thus by the end of Mr.
Cleveland's first term many of the demands of the workingmen had been
granted, and laws enacted for their relief. These issues disposed of, a
new set arose, and after 1888 financial questions took the place of
labor issues.

%545. The Surplus and the Tariff.%--These financial problems were
brought up by the condition of the public debt. For twenty years past
the debt had been rapidly growing less and less, till on December 1,
1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in
twenty-one years. By that time every bond of the United States that
could be called in and paid at its face value had been canceled. As all
the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, the
government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer them to run. If
it suffered them to run, a great surplus would pile up in the Treasury.
Thus on December 1, 1887, after every possible debt of the government
was met, there was a surplus of $50,000,000. Six months later (June 1,
1888) the sum had increased to $103,000,000.

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

1. More bonds must be bought at high rates.

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

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

%546. The Mills Tariff Bill.%--Each plan had its advocates. But the
Democrats, who controlled the House of Representatives, attempted to
solve the problem by cutting down the revenue, and passed a tariff bill,
called the Mills Bill, after its chief author, Mr. R. Q. Mills of Texas.
The Republicans declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in
the Senate.

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

[Illustration: Benjamin Harrison]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

%550. The Farmers' Alliance%.--This legislation, combined with an
agricultural depression and widespread discontent in the agricultural
states, caused the defeat of the Republicans in the elections of 1890.
The Democratic minority of 21 in the House of Representatives of the
Fifty-first Congress was turned into a Democratic majority of 135 in the
Fifty-second. Eight other members were elected by the Farmers' Alliance.

For twenty years past the farmers in every great agricultural state had
been organizing, under such names as Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers'
League, the Grange, Patrons of Industry, Agricultural Wheel, Farmers'
Alliance. Their object was to promote sociability, spread information
concerning agriculture and the price of grain and cattle, and guard the
interests and welfare of the farmer generally. By 1886 many of these
began to unite, and the National Agricultural Wheel of the United
States, the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, and
several more came into existence. In 1889 the amalgamation was carried
further still, and at a convention in St. Louis they were all
practically united in the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union.

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

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

2. The subtreasury scheme.

3. A Land Mortgage Bill.

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

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

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

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

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

2. A graduated income tax.

3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.

4. The restriction of immigration.

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

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

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

The Democratic party selected Grover Cleveland for the third time and
chose Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President. The platform condemned
trusts and combines, advocated the reclamation of the public lands from
corporations and syndicates, the exclusion of the Chinese and of the
criminals and paupers of Europe, denounced "the Sherman Act of 1890,"
and called for "the coinage of both gold and silver without
discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage," with "the
dollar unit of coinage of both metals" "of equal intrinsic and
exchangeable value."

The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, expressed
their sympathy with the cause of temperance, their opposition to trusts,
and called for the coinage of both gold and silver in such way that "the
debt-paying power of the dollar, whether silver, gold, or paper, shall
be at all times equal."

%555. Grover Cleveland reelected.%--The election was a complete
triumph for the Democratic party. Mr. Cleveland was again elected, and
for the first time since 1861 the House, Senate, and President were all
three Democratic.

Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4,1893. Never in its history had the
country been seemingly more prosperous; the crops were bountiful;
business was flourishing, manufactures were thriving. But the prosperity
was not real. Business was inflated, and during the following summer an
industrial and financial panic which had long been brewing swept over
the business world, wrecking banks and destroying industrial and
commercial establishments.

To understand what now happened, two facts must be remembered:

1. Under the Resumption of Specie Payment Act of 1875, the Secretary of
the Treasury was authorized to buy specie by the issue of bonds and keep
it to redeem United States notes.

2. In May, 1878, it was ordered that when a greenback was redeemed in
specie, it should "not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but shall be
reissued and paid out again and kept in circulation." There were then
$346,681,000 in greenbacks unredeemed.

%556. The Gold Reserve.%--Meantime, under the law of 1875, and before
January 1, 1879, the secretary issued $95,500,000 in bonds, the proceeds
of which, with other gold then in the Treasury, made a fund deemed
sufficient to redeem such notes as were likely to be presented. This has
since been called our gold reserve, and has been fixed by the
secretaries at $100,000,000. January 1, 1879, the reserve was
$114,000,000, and though it often rose and fell, it never went below
that amount till July, 1892. By that time there were other gold
obligations. The silver purchased under the law of 1890 was paid for
with notes exchangeable for "coin"; but as the secretaries always
construed "coin" to mean gold, and as by 1893 these notes amounted to
$150,000,000, our gold obligations--that is, notes exchangeable for
gold--were nearly $500,000,000 (greenbacks, $346,000,000; silver
purchase notes, $150,000,000). This immense and steadily increasing sum
caused a doubt of our ability to pay in gold, and a fear that we might
be forced to pay in silver. Now silver, since 1873, had fallen steadily
in value from $1.30 an ounce to $0.81 an ounce in 1893, so that the
bullion value of a silver dollar was about 67 cents. The fear, then,
that our debts might be paid in silver (1) led foreigners to cease
investing money in this country, and to send our stocks and bonds home
to be sold, and (2) led people in this country to draw gold out of the
banks and the Treasury and hoard it, so that in April, 1893, the gold
reserve, for the first time since it was created, fell below
$100,000,000 (to $97,000,000).

%557. The Panic of 1893.%--Business depression and "tight money"
followed. Over three hundred banks suspended or failed, manufactories
all over the country shut down, and a period of great distress set in.
People, alarmed at the condition of the banks, began to draw their
deposits and hoard them, thereby causing such a scarcity of bills of
small denominations that a "currency famine" was threatened.

%558. The Purchase of Silver stopped.%--Believing that the fear that
we should soon be "on a silver basis" had much to do with this state of
affairs, and that the compulsory purchase of silver each month had much
to do with the fear, the President assembled Congress in special
session, August 7, and asked for the repeal of that clause of the
Sherman Act of 1890 which required a monthly purchase of silver. After a
struggle in which both of the old parties were split, the compulsory
purchase clause was repealed, November 1, 1893.

%559. The Silver Movement.%--The steady fall in the bullion value of
silver was a serious blow to the prosperity of the great
silver-producing states,--Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota,
Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and the territories of Arizona and New
Mexico,--where silver mining was "the very heart from which every other
industry receives support." In Colorado alone 15,000 miners were made
idle. To the people of this section, some 2,000,000 in number, the
silver question was of vital importance; and, alarmed at the call for
the special session of Congress and the possible repeal of the
silver-purchase clause, they held a convention at Denver, with a view to
affecting public sentiment. A few weeks after, the National Bimetallic
League met at Chicago. Both opposed the repeal, and demanded that if the
government ceased to buy silver, the mints should be opened to free
coinage. This the friends of silver in the Senate attempted in vain to
bring about.

%560. The Industrial Depression; the Wilson Bill.%--The industrial
revival which it was hoped would follow the repeal of the
silver-purchase law did not take place. Prices did not rise; failures
continued; the long-silent mills did not reopen; gold continued to leave
the country, imports fell off, and, when the year ended, the receipts of
the government were $34,000,000 behind the expenditures. With this
condition of the Treasury facing it, Congress met in December, 1893. The
Democrats were in control, and pledged to revise the tariff; and true to
the pledge, William L. Wilson of West Virginia, Chairman of the House
Committee on Ways and Means, presented a new tariff bill (the Wilson
Bill) which after prolonged debate passed both Houses and became a law
at midnight, August 27, 1894, without the President's signature. As it
was expected that the revenue yielded would not be sufficient to meet
the expenses of government, one section of the law provided for a tax of
two per cent on all incomes above $4000. This the Supreme Court
afterwards declared unconstitutional.

%561. The Bond Issues.%--We have seen that in April, 1893, the gold
reserve fell to $97,000,000. But it did not stop there; for, the
business depression and the demand for the free and unlimited coinage of
silver continuing, the withdrawal of gold went on, till the reserve was
so low that bonds were repeatedly sold for gold wherewith to maintain
it. In this wise, during 1894-95, $262,000,000 were added to our
bonded debt.

%562. Foreign Relations; the Hawaiian Revolution.%--when Cleveland
took office, a treaty providing for the annexation of the Hawaiian
Islands was pending in the Senate. In January, 1983, these islands were
the scene of a revolution, which deposed the Queen and set up a
"provisional government." Commissioners were then dispatched to
Washington, where a treaty of annexation was negotiated and (February
15) sent to the Senate for approval. In the course of the revolution, a
force of men from the United States steamer _Boston_ was landed at the
request of the revolutionary leaders, and our flag was raised over some
of the buildings. When these facts became known, the President, fearing
that the presence of United States marines might have contributed much
to the success of the revolution, recalled the treaty from the Senate,
and sent an agent to the islands to investigate. His report set forth in
substance that the revolution would never have taken place had it not
been for the presence and aid of United States marines, and that the
Queen had practically been deposed by United States officials. A new
minister was thereupon sent, with instructions to announce that the
treaty of annexation would not be confirmed, and to seek for the
restoration of the Queen on certain conditions. But President Dole of
the Hawaiian republic denied the right of Cleveland to impose
conditions, or in any way interfere in the domestic concerns of Hawaii,
and refused to surrender to the Queen.

%563. The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute.%--During 1895, the boundary
dispute which had been dragging on for more than half a century between
Great Britain and Venezuela, reached what the President called "an acute
stage," and made necessary a statement of the position of the United
States under the Monroe Doctrine. Great Britain was therefore informed
"that the established policy of the United States is against a forcible
increase of any territory of a European power" in the New World, and
"that the United States is bound to protest against the enlargement of
the area of British Guiana against the will of Venezuela"; and she was
invited to submit her claims to arbitration. Her answer was that the
Monroe Doctrine was "inapplicable to the state of things in which we
live at the present day" and a refusal to submit her claims to
arbitration. The President then asked and received authority to appoint
a commission to examine the boundary and report. "When such report is
made and accepted," said Cleveland, "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 appropriation by Great
Britain of any lands, or the exercise of any governmental jurisdiction,
over any territory which after investigation we have determined of right
belongs to Venezuela." For a time the excitement this message aroused in
Great Britain and our own country was extreme. But it soon subsided, and
on February 2, 1897, a treaty of arbitration was signed at Washington
between Great Britain and Venezuela.

%564. The Election of 1896%.--By that time the presidential election
was over. When in the spring the time came to choose delegates to the
party nominating conventions, the drift of public sentiment was so
strong against the administration, that it seemed certain that the
Republicans would "sweep the country." Little interest, therefore, was
taken by the Democrats, while the Republicans were most concerned in the
question whether Mr. McKinley or Mr. Reed should be their presidential
candidate. But as delegates were chosen by the Democrats in the Western
and Southern States, it became certain that the issue was to be the free
and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1.

The Republican convention met in June, nominated William McKinley and
Garret A Hobart, and declared the party "opposed to the free coinage of
silver except by international agreement," whereupon thirty-four
delegates representing the silver states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah) seceded from the party. The Democratic
convention assembled early in July, and after a most exciting convention
chose William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall, and declared for "the free and
unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ration of
16 to 1, without waiting for the aid and consent of any other nation." A
great defection followed this declaration, scores of newspapers refused
to support the candidates, and in September a convention of "gold
Democrats," taking the name of the National Democratic party, nominated
John M. Palmer and Simon B. Buckner, on a "gold standard" platform.

Meanwhile, the Prohibitionists, the National party (declaring for woman
suffrage, prohibition, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs,
an income tax, and the election of the President, Vice President, and
senators by direct vote of the people), the Socialist Labor party, the
Silver party, and the Populists, had all put candidates in the field.
The Silver party indorsed Bryan and Sewall; the Populists nominated
Bryan and Thomas E. Watson.

[Illustration: William McKinley]

%565. McKinley, President.%--An "educational campaign" was carried on
with a seriousness never before approached in our history, and resulted
in the election of Mr. McKinley. He was inaugurated on March 4, and
immediately called a special session of Congress to revise the tariff, a
work which ended in the enactment of the "Dingley Tariff," on July
24, 1897.

%566. The Cuban Question.%--Absorbing as were the election and the
tariff, there was another matter, which for two years past had steadily
grown more and more serious. In February, 1895, the natives of Cuba for
the sixth time in fifty years rebelled against the misrule of Spain and
founded a republic. A cruel, bloody, and ruinous war followed, and as it
progressed, deeply interested the people of our country. The island lay
at our very doors. Upwards of $50,000,000 of American money were
invested in mines, railroads, and plantations there. Our yearly trade
with Cuba was valued at $96,000,000. Our ports were used by Cubans in
fitting out military expeditions, which the government was forced to
stop at great expense.

%567. Shall Cuba be given Belligerent Rights?%--These matters were
serious, and when to them was added the sympathy we always feel for any
people struggling for the liberty we enjoy, there seemed to be ample
reason for our insisting that Spain should govern Cuba better or set her
free. Some thought we should buy Cuba; some that we should recognize the
Republic of Cuba; others that we should intervene even at the risk of
war. Thus urged on, Congress in 1896 declared that the Cubans were
entitled to belligerent rights in our ports, and asked the President to
endeavor to persuade Spain to recognize the independence of Cuba; and
the House in 1897 recommended that the independence of Cuba be
recognized. But nothing came of either recommendation, and so the matter
stood when McKinley was inaugurated.

During the summer of 1897 matters grew worse. A large part of the island
became a wilderness. The people who had been driven into the towns by
order of Captain General Weyler, the "reconcentrados," were dying of
starvation, and our countrymen, deeply moved at their suffering, began
to send them food and medical aid.

%568. The Maine destroyed.%--While engaged in this humane work they were
horrified to hear that on the night of February 15, 1898, our battleship
_Maine_ was blown up in the harbor of Havana, and 260 of her sailors
killed. Although our Court of Inquiry was unable to fix the
responsibility for the explosion, many people believed that it had been
perpetrated by Spaniards, and the hope of a peaceable settlement of the
Cuban question rapidly waned. The sum of $50,000,000 was voted to the
President for strengthening our defenses and buying ships and munitions
of war. After declining to recognize the Cuban Republic, Congress
adopted a resolution, on April 19, declaring for the freedom of Cuba,
demanding that Spain should withdraw from the island, and authorizing
the President to compel her withdrawal, if necessary, by means of our
army and navy. Spain severed diplomatic relations with us on April 21,
and the war began on that date, as declared by an Act of Congress a few
days later. Two hundred thousand volunteers were quickly enlisted, out
of the much larger number that wished to serve.

%569. War with Spain.%--The Battle of Manila.--While one fleet which
had long been gathering at Key West went off and blockaded Havana and
other parts of the coast of Cuba, another, under Commodore George
Dewey, sailed from Hong-kong to attack the Spanish fleet at the
Philippine Islands. Dewey found it in the Bay of Manila, where, on May
1, 1898, he fought and won the most brilliant naval battle in the
world's history. Passing the forts at the entrance, he entered the bay,
and, without the loss of a man or a ship, he destroyed the entire
Spanish fleet of ten vessels, killed and wounded over 600 men, and
captured the arsenal at Cavite (cah-ve-ta') and the forts at the
entrance to the bay. The city of Manila was then blockaded by Dewey's
fleet, and General Merritt with 20,000 troops was sent across the
Pacific to take possession of the Philippines, which had long been
Spain's most important possession in the East. For his great victory
Dewey received the thanks of Congress and was promoted to be
Rear-Admiral, and later was given for life the full rank of Admiral.

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