THE CLEVELAND-HARRISON-WEAVER CONTEST

1892

President Harrison had anything but a tranquil administration. Soon after his inauguration bitter factional strife was developed, and he seemed never to be able to get into anything approaching close and sympathetic relations with the leaders of his party. He was much like Cleveland in his conscientious devotion to his public duties, and he was poorly equipped and had little taste for political direction. He was generally respected by the people of all parties, but he held the political leaders of his own faith at arm’s length. Senator Quay called upon him soon after his inauguration, expecting to receive the generous thanks of the President for his management of the desperate campaign that had given him and the party victory; but Quay’s political trust in his chieftain was greatly chilled as the President congratulated his Field Marshal that Providence had been with them in the contest and carried them safely through. While Quay is of the same old-school Presbyterian stock as Harrison, and had the training of his Presbyterian minister father, his faith in foreordination was not so rugged as to assume that Providence would have carried Harrison through if Quay had not exhausted all political resources, regular and irregular, to wrest New York from Cleveland and give Harrison the victory. Cameron, who had served in the Senate with Harrison, while he had entire faith in the integrity and ability of the new President, had no faith in his political usefulness, and from the start there were not the most cordial relations between the Pennsylvania Senators and the administration.

Harrison had failed to carry the popular majority over Cleveland, and the Republican majority in both Senate and House was regarded as too small for the present and future safety of the party. It was this political necessity that led to the admission of the six new States of North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming, which were expected to bring 12 additional Republican Senators, 7 additional Republican Congressmen, and 19 additional Republican electoral votes. How sadly the Republican leaders miscalculated on these new States is shown by the fact that Idaho and North Dakota voted for Weaver, while Montana and Wyoming were saved by nominal majorities, and all of these States, with the exception of North Dakota, voted against the Republican candidate for President in 1896.

The small Republican majority in the House was rapidly and ruthlessly increased by admitting Republican contestants regardless of the merits of their claims, and the whole policy of the Republican leadership, outside of Harrison himself, who did not inspire it, was to maintain Republican supremacy by might, regardless of right. Not only were six new States added, but a new Force bill was decided upon to restore Republican supremacy in the South. The attempt to revive such a measure was simply midsummer madness, as it was opposed by the entire conservative Republican element and arrayed the South in implacable hostility to the administration. Blaine had defeated the Force bill when it was urged under the Grant administration, and Senator J. Donald Cameron defeated it under the Harrison administration. Cameron had decided the contest between M. C. Butler, Democrat, and David T. Corbin, Republican, of South Carolina, in 1877. Corbin was one of the ablest of the South Carolina carpet-baggers, and was elected by the Republican Legislature, that had been finally dispersed by President Hayes refusing to support it, and Butler had been elected by the Hampton or Democratic Legislature.

There was a peculiar condition of affairs in South Carolina at the time. Patterson, the Republican Senator from that State, was a fugitive after the Hampton Government attained power, and Small, Cardoza, and a number of other colored leaders and officials in the State were under indictment for embezzlement and other frauds, and some of them had been convicted. On the other side, a number of Democratic citizens of South Carolina were under indictment in the Federal Courts for outrages perpetrated by them in the Ku Klux organization, and had the course of justice been permitted to go on without interruption, a large number of the leaders of both sides would have ended in prison. A truce was agreed upon, and finally an unwritten but well-maintained agreement was reached that there should be no further prosecution of the Ku Klux clan, and no further prosecution of Senator Patterson or any of the other Republicans who were then at the mercy of the Democrats. This was assented to by the Democrats on condition that Butler should be admitted to the Senate, and Cameron was the man who accomplished it.

When the new Force bill came up under the Harrison administration, Cameron was earnestly opposed to it, and he is entitled to the full credit of having defeated it. His Senatorial term expired on the 4th of March, 1891, and he was a candidate for re-election before a Republican Legislature that had been chosen in the fall of 1890, when the Democrats elected Pattison, Democrat, to his second term as Governor. It was expected that the vote on the Force bill would be had before the Senatorial election, and Cameron was threatened with defeat if he did not line up with the party in its favor. A majority of the considerate Republicans of Pennsylvania doubtless agreed with him, but he had many political enemies, and they would have been glad had he given them an opportunity to attack him as opposing the accepted policy of the party.

Some time before the Legislature met, Cameron requested me to meet him at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia. He stated the case frankly; said he could command the Republican nomination for Senator without a doubt and by a large majority, but that if the Democrats would unite with the bolting Republicans, he might be defeated if a vote was reached on the Force bill before the Senatorial election and he voting against it. What he desired was the assurance that if Cameron was threatened with defeat by the Republicans because of his opposition to the Force bill, the Democrats should not permit him to be crucified for opposing and defeating a bill that they were most anxious to have defeated. Pattison had been elected Governor and William F. Harrity had been announced as the coming Secretary of the Commonwealth. I said to Cameron that both of them were within two squares of us and that I could ascertain their views in a very few minutes. I immediately called on Pattison and Harrity, presented the case to them, and they both authorized me to give the assurance to Senator Cameron that if he were opposed by Republicans because of his opposition to the Force bill, the Democrats would not permit him to be sacrificed for what they would regard as one of the bravest and most patriotic of his public acts. That assurance was given to Cameron, and he was then safe. It became well known to the anti-Cameron Republicans that the Democrats would not permit him to be sacrificed. The result was that Cameron was elected by Republican votes, although his position on the Force bill was well understood.

There were thus many disturbing elements in the Republican ranks, and one of the most serious was the McKinley Tariff bill of 1890. President McKinley was then chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and the Tariff bill of 1890 was known as the McKinley Tariff, but it is due to him to say that he was overruled in many of its most offensive features, and some of the most important schedules were made by the manufacturers interested, who had, in accordance with positive promises given them, made large contributions to the Republican campaign fund of 1888.

I happened to be a guest at a public dinner and seated beside McKinley a short time before the election of 1890, and soon after the McKinley bill had passed. He discussed the situation freely, and was evidently concerned as to the result of the coming election, as there was but little time after the passage of the bill for the people to understand it, but he was confident that it would be sustained. In that he was greatly mistaken, as the Republicans never suffered such a disastrous defeat as that of 1890, due almost wholly to the McKinley Tariff. True, the elections of 1891 showed that the Republicans had regained some of their losses of 1890, but when the Republican convention met to nominate a candidate the contest was regarded as at least doubtful by the more intelligent and considerate Republican leaders, and the political situation was greatly intensified by Blaine suddenly retiring from the Cabinet three days before the convention met. His letter of resignation was curt and emphatic. It was notice to the country that Blaine had ceased to be in sympathy with the Harrison administration.

The Republican convention met at Minneapolis on the 7th of June, with J. Sloat Fassett as temporary chairman and Governor William McKinley, of Ohio, as permanent president. When McKinley accepted the presidency of the convention he did not expect to be a candidate for nomination, but the swiftly changing events of American politics made him what was regarded as a hopeful candidate before a ballot was reached, and he was voted for by all of his Ohio delegates, excepting himself, who voted for Harrison. The 1st and only ballot resulted as follows:

Benjamin Harrison, Ind.535¹⁄₆
James G. Blaine, Maine182⁵⁄₆
Wm. McKinley, Jr., Ohio182
Thomas B. Reed, Maine4
Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois1

Whitelaw Reid, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President by acclamation. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

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 prosperity in our fields, workshops, and mines, and make the following declaration of principles:

We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call attention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legislation 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 into competition with the products of American labor there should be levied duties equal to the difference 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 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.

The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, 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 value 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 elections, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; 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.

We favor the extension of our foreign commerce, the restoration of our mercantile 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 regulations for the restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration.

We favor efficient legislation by Congress to protect the life and limbs of employés of transportation companies engaged in carrying on interstate commerce, and recommend legislation by the respective States that will protect employés engaged in State commerce, in mining, and 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 intelligence 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 children of the land; but, while insisting upon the fullest measure of religious liberty, we are opposed to any union of Church and State.

We reaffirm our opposition, declared in the Republican platform of 1888, to all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or otherwise, 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 enforcement 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, pledging 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.

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.

The construction of the Nicaragua Canal is of the highest importance to the American people, both as a measure of national defence and to build up and maintain American commerce, and it should be controlled by the United States Government.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the earliest practical 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.

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, reclamation, and occupancy by settlers as will secure the maximum benefits to the people.

The World’s Columbian Exposition is a great national undertaking, and Congress should promptly enact such reasonable legislation in aid thereof as will insure a discharge of the expenses and obligations incident thereto, and the attainment of results commensurate with the dignity and progress of the nation.

In temperance we sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.

Ever mindful of the services and sacrifices of the men who saved the life of the nation, we pledge anew to the veteran soldiers of the Republic a watchful care and recognition of their just claims upon a grateful people.

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.

The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago on June 21, and Cleveland was nominated for a third time after the most desperate and acrimonious strife I have ever witnessed in a national convention. It was on that occasion that Bourke Cockran made a speech against Cleveland that gave him national fame, and it was one of extraordinary ability and power. The convention was really adverse to Cleveland’s nomination. Had a majority of the delegates followed their own personal inclinations he would have been defeated, and he was nominated solely by the matchless leadership of William C. Whitney. But for him and his wonderful skill and energy, the convention would have run away from Cleveland at the outset. Never in the history of American politics was there such an achievement as the nomination of Cleveland over the solid and aggressively hostile vote of his own State of New York, that was regarded as the pivotal State of the battle. Tammany had always opposed Cleveland in national conventions, but never before had control of the delegation against him, and a protest was published to the convention signed by every delegate from the State, demanding his defeat.

Cleveland was strong with the people, but weak with the political leaders, and it was only Whitney’s masterful management of the convention that held it to Cleveland. The platform was made by the enemies of Cleveland; the nomination for Vice-President was made over his friends, and the hostility to him was so pronounced that the opposing leaders were confident of his defeat at the polls. The convention sat at night and far on in the morning hours, when Cleveland received 617 votes, just ten more than were necessary to nominate him. Had he not been nominated on that ballot his defeat would have been certain.

The strength of Cleveland’s position before the people was pointedly illustrated by his nomination in a convention that was not specially friendly, but that was forced to make him the candidate because of the overwhelming popular Democratic sentiment that demanded it. A year or so before the convention met, he had written a brief and positive letter against the free coinage of silver, and the Democrats of the South and West almost with one voice declared against him at the time, but when the Democratic people faced the conditions presented by the battle of 1892, the masses came to the support of Cleveland and the leaders were compelled to follow. The cheap-money craze had made serious inroads in both of the great parties, and the Republican platform was a weak and awkward straddle of the whole issue, while the Democratic convention had an honest money plank declaring for bimetallism and the free use of gold and silver with the intrinsic value of the dollar to be maintained.

The Democratic Convention at Chicago was presided over by William C. Owens, of Kentucky, as temporary president, and William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, as permanent president. After a protracted and acrimonious discussion that extended the session of the convention of the second day until long after midnight, the ballot for President was finally reached, resulting as follows:

Grover Cleveland, N. Y.617¹⁄₃
David B. Hill, N. Y.114
Horace Boies, Iowa103
Arthur P. Gorman, Md.36¹⁄₂
Adlai E. Stevenson, Ill.16²⁄₃
John G. Carlisle, Ky.14
Wm. R. Morrison, Ill.3
James E. Campbell, Ohio2
Wm. C. Whitney, N. Y.1
Wm. E. Russell, Mass.1
Robert E. Pattison, Penn.1

There was an animated contest for Vice-President, and the special friends of Cleveland were united in favor of Isaac P. Gray, of Indiana, but they were defeated in their choice, as they were on several vital points of the platform. Only one ballot was had for Vice-President, resulting as follows:

Adlai E. Stevenson, Ill.402
Isaac P. Gray, Ind.344
Allen B. Morse, Mich.86
John L. Mitchell, Wis.45
Henry Watterson, Ky.26
Bourke Cockran, N. Y.5
Lambert Tree, Ill.1
Horace Boies, Iowa1

Stevenson had not received the requisite two-thirds, but he so far outstripped the candidate of the Cleveland leaders that they cordially acquiesced, and the nomination of Stevenson was made unanimous. The following platform was adopted after having been amended in open convention, where the tariff plank of the platform was substituted for the more temperate plank reported by the committee, by a vote of 564 to 342.

Section 1. The representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm their allegiance 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 a free popular 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.

Sec. 2. We warn the people of our common country, jealous for the preservation of their free institutions, that the policy of Federal control of elections to which the Republican party has committed itself is fraught with the greatest dangers, scarcely less momentous than would result from a revolution practically establishing monarchy 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-perpetuating oligarchy of office-holders, 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 Republican party has defiantly declared in its latest authoritative utterance that its success in the coming elections will mean the enactment 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 has squandered an enormous surplus, and emptied an overflowing treasury, after piling new burdens of taxation upon the already overtaxed labor of the country.

Sec. 3. We denounce the 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 party that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the purposes of revenue 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 Fifty-first Congress as the culminating atrocity of class legislation; we endorse 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 dulness 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 averaging $165 per capita of the total population, and that similar conditions and tendencies are shown to exist in the other agricultural exporting States. We denounce a policy which fosters no industry so much as it does that of the sheriff.

Sec. 4. Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal advantage to the countries participating is a time-honored doctrine of the Democratic 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 agricultural 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 commodities which are necessaries and comforts of life among our own people.

Sec. 5. We recognize, in the trusts and combinations which are designed 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 we 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 necessary.

Sec. 6. 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-resident 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 restored to the people, nearly 100,000,000 acres of valuable land, to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and restored to the people.

Sec. 7. We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman 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 discrimination against either 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 agreement, 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 as especially necessary for the protection of the farmers and laboring classes, the first and most defenceless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency.

Sec. 8. We recommend that the prohibitory ten per cent. tax on State bank issues be repealed.

Sec. 9. 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 Federal office-holders usurp control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses which threaten individual liberty and local self-government.

Sec. 10. 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 American 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 alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national defence, and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the country abroad.

Sec. 11. This country has always been the refuge of the oppressed from every land—exiles for conscience’ sake; and in the spirit of the founders of our Government, we condemn the oppression practised by the Russian Government upon its Lutheran and Jewish subjects, 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 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.

Sec. 12. 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, or the importation of foreign workmen under contract, to degrade 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.

Sec. 13. 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.

Sec. 14. 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 the tidewater. When any waterway of the Republic is of sufficient importance to demand the aid of the Government, such aid should be extended for a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured.

Sec. 15. For purposes of national defence and the promotion of commerce 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.

Sec. 16. Recognizing the World’s Columbian Exposition as a national undertaking of vast importance, in which the General Government has invited the co-operation of all the powers of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the invitation extended, and the broadest liberal efforts being made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary financial provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national honor and public faith.

Sec. 17. 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 increasing intelligence. Freedom of education, being an essential of civil and religious liberty, as well as a necessity for the development of intelligence, must not be interfered with under any pretext 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.

Sec. 18. We approve the action of the present House of Representatives in passing bills for the admission into the Union as States of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having necessary population and resources to admit them to Statehood; and, while they remain Territories, we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any Territory, together with the Districts of Columbia and Alaska, should be bonâ 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.

Sec. 19. We favor legislation by Congress and State Legislatures to protect the lives and limbs of railway employees, and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inactivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this class of wageworkers.

Sec. 20. 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 fifteen years of age.

Sec. 21. We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interference with the individual rights of the citizen.

Sec. 22. 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.

The platform, as originally reported, contained, instead of the first paragraph of Section 3, the following:

We reiterate the oft-repeated doctrines of the Democratic party that the necessity of the Government is the only justification for taxation, and whenever a tax is unnecessary it is unjustifiable; 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 labor abroad, when such a difference exists, fully measures any possible benefits to labor; and the enormous additional impositions of the existing tariff fall with crushing force upon our farmers and workingmen, and, for the mere advantage of the few whom it enriches, exact from labor a grossly unjust share of the expenses of the Government; and we demand such a revision of the tariff laws as will remove their iniquitous inequalities, lighten their oppressions, and put them on a constitutional and equitable basis. But in making reduction in taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy 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.

The National Prohibition Convention was held at Cincinnati on the 29th of June, with John P. St. John, of Kansas, as temporary chairman, and Eli Ritter, of Indiana, as permanent chairman. The convention remained in session two days. The following was the only ballot for President:

John Bidwell, Cal.590
Gideon T. Stewart, Ohio179
W. J. Demorest, N. Y.139
Scattering3

A single ballot was had for Vice-President, as follows:

J. P. Cranfill, Texas417
Joshua Levering, Md.351
W. W. Satterlee, Minn.26
T. R. Carskoden, W. Va.19

The nominations of Bidwell and Cranfill were made unanimous. The following platform was adopted:

The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all true government, and His law as the standard to which all human enactments must conform to secure the blessings of peace and prosperity, presents the following declaration of principles:

1. The liquor traffic is a foe to civilization, the arch enemy of popular government, and a public nuisance. It is the citadel of the forces that corrupt politics, promote poverty and crime, degrade the nation’s home life, thwart the will of the people, and deliver our country into the hands of rapacious class interests. All laws that, under the guise of regulation, legalize and protect this traffic, or make the Government share in its ill-gotten gains, are “vicious in principle and powerless as a remedy.”

We declare anew for the entire suppression of the manufacture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, by Federal and State legislation; and the full powers of the Government should be exerted to secure this result. Any party that fails to recognize the dominant nature of this issue in American politics is undeserving of the support of the people.

2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of sex, and equal labor should receive equal wages, without regard to sex.

3. The money of the country should be gold, silver, and paper, and be issued by the General Government only, and in sufficient quantities to meet the demands of business and give full opportunity for the employment of labor. To this end an increase in the volume of money is demanded, and no individual or corporation should be allowed to make any profit through its issue. It should be made a legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. Its volume should be fixed at a definite sum per capita, and made to increase with our increase in population.

4. We favor the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold. (Rejected by the convention.)

5. Tariffs should be levied only as a defence against foreign governments which put tariffs upon or bar our products from their markets, revenue being incidental. The residue of means necessary to an economical administration of the Government should be raised by levying a burden on what the people possess instead of upon what we consume.

6. Railroad, telegraph, and other public corporations should be controlled by the Government in the interest of the people, and no higher charges allowed than necessary to give fair interest on the capital actually invested.

7. Foreign immigration has become a burden upon industry, one of the factors in depressing wages and causing discontent; therefore our immigration laws should be revised and strictly enforced. The time of residence for naturalization should be extended, and no naturalized person should be allowed to vote until one year after he becomes a citizen.

8. Non-resident aliens should not be allowed to acquire land in this country, and we favor the limitation of individual and corporate ownership of land. All unearned grants of lands to railroad companies or other corporations should be reclaimed.

9. Years of inaction and treachery on the part of the Republican and Democratic parties have resulted in the present reign of mob law, and we demand that every citizen be protected in the right of trial by constitutional tribunals.

10. All men should be protected by law in their right to one day’s rest in seven.

11. Arbitration is the wisest and most economical and humane method of settling national differences.

12. Speculations in margins, the cornering of grain, money, and products, and the formation of pools, trusts, and combinations for the arbitrary advancement of prices, should be suppressed.

13. We pledge that the Prohibition party if elected to power will ever grant just pensions to disabled veterans of the Union army and navy, their widows and orphans.

14. We stand unequivocally for the American public school, and opposed to any appropriation of public moneys for sectarian schools. We declare that only by united support of such common schools, taught in the English language, can we hope to become and remain an homogeneous and harmonious people.

15. We arraign the Republican and Democratic parties as false to the standards reared by their founders; as faithless to the principles of the illustrious leaders of the past to whom they do homage with the lips; as recreant to the “higher law,” which is as inflexible in political affairs as in personal life; and as no longer embodying the aspirations of the American people, or inviting the confidence of enlightened progressive patriotism. Their protests against the admission of “moral issues” into politics is a confession of their own moral degeneracy. The declaration of an eminent authority, that municipal misrule is “the one conspicuous failure of American politics,” follows as a natural consequence of such degeneracy, and is true alike of cities under Republican and Democratic control. Each accuses the other of extravagance in Congressional appropriations, and both are alike guilty; each protests when out of power against the infraction of the civil service laws, and each when in power violates those laws in letter and spirit; each professes fealty to the interests of the toiling masses, but both covertly truckle to the money power in their administration of public affairs. Even the tariff issue, as represented in the Democratic Mills bill and the Republican McKinley bill, is no longer treated by them as an issue upon great and divergent principles of government, but is a mere catering to different sectional and class interests. The attempt in many States to wrest the Australian ballot system from its true purpose, and to so deform it as to render it extremely difficult for new parties to exercise the rights of suffrage, is an outrage upon popular government. The competition of both the parties for the vote of the slums, and their assiduous courting of the liquor power and subserviency to the money power, have resulted in placing those powers in the position of practical arbiters of the destinies of the nation. We renew our protest against these perilous tendencies, and invite all citizens to join us in the upbuilding of a party that, as shown in five national campaigns, prefers temporary defeat to an abandonment of the claims of justice, sobriety, personal rights, and the protection of American homes.

The only opposition being to the fourth resolution declaring for the free coinage of silver, that was defeated by a vote of 596 to 335.

The campaign of 1892 gave birth to the People’s party, that embraced the old Greenbackers and most of the other odds and ends of former side political organizations, and it proved to be an important factor in the struggle. It held its national convention at Omaha on the 2d of July, with C. H. Ellington, of Georgia, as temporary chairman and H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota, as permanent president. The 1st and only ballot for President resulted as follows:

James B. Weaver, Iowa995
James H. Kyle, S. D.265
Scattering3

Only one ballot was had for Vice-President, as follows:

James G. Field, Virginia733
Benj. S. Terrell, Texas554

The nominations of Weaver and Field were made unanimous and the following platform adopted:

Assembled upon the 116th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the People’s party of America, in their first national convention, invoking upon their action the blessing of Almighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf of the people of this country, the following preamble and declaration of principles:

The conditions which surround us best justify our co-operation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislature, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrated; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impoverished; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages; a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes of tramps and millionaires.

The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders; a vast public debt, payable in legal tender currency, has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions to the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as human labor; and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise, and enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and overthrown at once, it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism.

We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful condition to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have agreed together to ignore in the campaign every issue but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires.

Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, and filled with the spirit of the grand general chief who established our independence, we seek to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of “the plain people,” with whose class it originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the purposes of the national Constitution, “to form a more perfect union and establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” We declare that this Republic can only endure as a free Government while built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the nation; that it cannot be pinned together by bayonets; that the civil war is over, and that every passion and resentment which grew out of it must die with it; and that we must be in fact, as we are in name, one united brotherhood of freemen.

Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there is no precedent in the history of the world: our annual agricultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which must, within a few weeks or months, be exchanged for billions of dollars of commodities consumed in their production; the existing currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange; the results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves, if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise and reasonable legislation, in accordance with the terms of our platform. We believe that the powers of Government—in other words, of the people—should be expanded (as in the case of the postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land.

While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelligent, virtuous, and temperate, we nevertheless regard these questions—important as they are—as secondary to the great issues now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individual prosperity but the very existence of free institutions depends; and we ask all men to first help us to determine whether we are to have a Republic to administer before we differ as to the conditions upon which it is to be administered; believing that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is remedied, and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country.

We declare, therefore—

First. That the union of the labor forces of the United States this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual; may its spirit enter all hearts for the salvation of the Republic and the uplifting of mankind!

Second. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. “If any will not work, neither shall he eat.” The interests of rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical.

Third. We believe that the time has come when the railroad corporations will either own the people or the people must own the railroads; and, should the Government enter upon the work of owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amendment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the Government service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character, so as to prevent the increase of the power of the national administration by the use of such additional Government employés.

We demand—

First, A national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the General Government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that, without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the people, at a tax not to exceed two per cent. per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers’ Alliance, or a better system; also, by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.

(a) We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one.

(b) We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than fifty dollars per capita.

(c) We demand a graduated income tax.

(d) We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all State and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the Government economically and honestly administered.

(e) We demand that postal savings banks be established by the Government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange.

Second, Transportation. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people.

(a) The telegraph and telephone, like the post-office system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government in the interest of the people.

Third, Land. The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people, and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by aliens, should be reclaimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only.

The following supplemental report was made, not to be regarded as a part of the party platform, but as expressive of the opinion of the party, as follows:

Whereas, Other questions have been presented for our consideration, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the platform of the People’s party, but as resolutions expressive of the sentiment of this convention.

1. Resolved, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections, and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter without federal intervention, through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system.

2. Resolved, That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation now resting upon the domestic industries of this country.

3. Resolved, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pensions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.

4. Resolved, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world, and crowds out our wage-earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable immigration.

5. Resolved, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand a rigid enforcement of the existing eight-hour law on Government work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law.

6. Resolved, That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition; and we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy, assisted by Federal officials.

7. Resolved, That we commend to the favorable consideration of the people and the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.

8. Resolved, That we favor a constitutional provision limiting the office of President and Vice-President to one term, and providing for the election of Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people.

9. Resolved, That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose.

The convention was a mass assembly, as Texas cast more votes than New York and nearly thrice the vote of Pennsylvania.

The Socialists’ Labor Convention met at New York on the 28th of August, and nominated Simon Wing, of Massachusetts, for President and Charles H. Machett, of New York, for Vice-President, and adopted the following platform:

Social Demands: 1. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the progress of production.

2. The United States shall obtain possession of the railroads, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public transportation and communication.

3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads, ferries, water-works, gas-works, electric plants, and all industries requiring municipal franchises.

4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of all land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of which have not been complied with.

5. Legal incorporation by the States of local trade unions which have no national organization.

6. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money.

7. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific management of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the natural resources of the country.

8. Inventions to be free to all; the inventors to be remunerated by the nation.

9. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances; the smaller incomes to be exempt.

10. School education of all children under fourteen years of age to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assistance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary.

11. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary laws. Unabridged right of combination.

12. Official statistics concerning the condition of labor. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age, and of the employment of female labor in occupations detrimental to health or morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract system.

13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States. Equalization of women’s wages with those of men where equal service is performed.

14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations, and an efficient employers’ liability law.

Political Demands: 1. The people to have the right to propose laws and to vote upon all measures of importance, according to the referendum principle.

2. Abolition of the Presidency, Vice-Presidency, and Senate of the United States. An Executive Board to be established, whose members are to be elected, and may at any time be recalled, by the House of Representatives, as the only legislative body. The States and municipalities to adopt corresponding amendments to their constitutions and statutes.

3. Municipal self-government.

4. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. Universal and equal right of suffrage, without regard to color, creed, or sex. Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of minority representation to be introduced.

5. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective constituencies.

6. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States. Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capital punishment.

The battle between Cleveland and Harrison was very earnestly contested, and it will be remembered as the only instance in which the party of power was defeated when the country was prosperous. The McKinley Tariff bill had largely increased protection to our manufactures, but without materially increasing wages. The result was an unusual number of labor strikes, the most notable of which was that of Homestead at the Carnegie works, and the Republicans suffered very generally throughout the country by the loss of industrial votes.

The following table presents the popular and electoral vote of 1892:

STATES.Popular Vote.Electoral Vote.
Grover Cleveland, New York.Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.James B. Weaver, Iowa.John Bidwell, California.Simon Wing, Massachusetts.Cleveland and Stevenson.Harrison and Reid.Weaver and Field.
Alabama138,1389,19785,181239——11——
Arkansas87,83446,88411,831113——8——
California117,908117,61825,2268,056——81—
Colorado——38,62053,5841,638————4
Connecticut82,39577,0258064,0253296——
Delaware18,58118,08313565——3——
Florida30,143——4,843475——4——
Georgia129,36148,30542,937988——13——
Idaho——8,59910,520288————3
Illinois426,281399,28822,20725,870——24——
Indiana262,740255,61522,20813,050——15——
Iowa196,367219,79520,5956,402———13—
Kansas——157,237163,1114,539————10
Kentucky175,461135,44123,5006,442——13——
Louisiana87,92213,28113,282————8——
Maine48,04462,9312,3813,062336—6—
Maryland113,86692,7367965,877278——
Massachusetts176,813202,8143,2101,539649—15—
Michigan202,296222,70819,89214,069——59—
Minnesota100,920122,82329,31312,182———9—
Mississippi40,2371,40610,256910——9——
Missouri268,398226,91841,2134,331——17——
Montana17,58118,8517,334549———3—
Nebraska24,94387,22783,1344,902———8—
Nevada7142,8117,20489————3
New Hampshire42,08145,6582921,297———4—
New Jersey171,042156,0689698,1311,33710——
New York654,868609,35016,42938,19017,95636——
North Carolina132,951100,34244,7362,636——11——
North Dakota——17,51917,700899——111
Ohio404,115405,18714,85026,012——122—
Oregon14,24335,00226,9652,281———31
Pennsylvania452,264516,0118,71425,123898—32—
Rhode Island24,33526,9722281,654———4—
South Carolina54,69213,3452,407————9——
South Dakota9,08134,88826,544—————4—
Tennessee138,874100,33123,4474,851——12——
Texas239,14881,44499,6882,165——15——
Vermont16,32537,992431,415———4—
Virginia163,977113,26212,2752,738——12——
Washington29,80236,46019,1652,542———4—
West Virginia84,46780,2934,1662,145——6——
Wisconsin177,335170,7919,90913,132——12——
Wyoming——8,4547,722530———3—
Totals5,556,5435,175,5821,040,886255,84121,53227714522

One of the notable features of the foregoing table is in the fact that both Republicans and Democrats fused with the Weaver or People’s party in different States. No votes were cast for Cleveland in Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, and Wyoming, and none were cast for Harrison in Florida, and only a nominal vote given him in Alabama and Mississippi. The general political disturbance of the country may be understood when it is remembered that Weaver received near a million votes for President, while the Prohibition candidate kept the vote of that party up to its highest point.

Cleveland and Jackson are the only Presidential candidates in the history of the Republic who made three consecutive contests for the place, carried a popular plurality or majority each time, and increased it at each successive contest, and both were defeated in one battle, although receiving a larger popular vote than the successful competitor.

WILLIAM McKINLEY