THE HARRISON-CLEVELAND CONTEST

1888

The Democratic National Convention of 1888 met at St. Louis on June 5, and it was the most perfunctory body of the kind I have ever witnessed. I never saw a national political body so entirely devoid of enthusiasm; yet it was entirely fixed in its purpose to renominate President Cleveland. He appealed strongly to the convictions and judgment of the party, but not to its affection or enthusiasm. He was nominated by a unanimous vote without the formality of a ballot, and it had been settled long before the convention met that the sturdy old Roman of Ohio, ex-Senator Thurman, should be the candidate for the second place, as Vice-President Hendricks had died in office.

BENJAMIN HARRISON

Patrick A. Collins, of Massachusetts, was permanent president of the body, and there were no questions of rules or party policy to excite discussion. Cleveland’s nomination was unanimous, and on the single ballot for Vice-President, Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, had 690 votes to 105 for Isaac B. Gray, of Indiana, and 25 for John C. Black, of Illinois. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

The Democratic party of the United States, in national convention assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to Democratic faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its representatives in the convention of 1884, and endorses the views expressed by President Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress as the correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff reduction; and also endorses the efforts of our Democratic representatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation.

Chief among its principles of party faith are the maintenance of an indissoluble union of free and indestructible States, now about to enter upon its second century of unexampled progress and renown; devotion to a plan of government regulated by a written Constitution strictly specifying every granted power and expressly reserving to the States or people the entire ungranted residue of power; the encouragement of a jealous popular vigilance, directed to all who have been chosen for brief terms to enact and execute the laws and are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring equality, and establishing justice.

The Democratic party welcomes an exacting scrutiny of the administration of the Executive power which, four years ago, was committed to its trusts in the election of Grover Cleveland, President of the United States; but it challenges the most searching inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which then invited the suffrages of the people. During a most critical period of our financial affairs, resulting from over-taxation, the anomalous condition of our currency, and a public debt unmatured, it has, by the adoption of a wise and conservative policy, not only averted a disaster, but greatly promoted the prosperity of the people. It has reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the Republican party touching the public domain, and has reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to the people nearly one hundred millions of acres of valuable land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens.

While carefully guarding the interests of the taxpayers and conforming strictly to the principles of justice and equity, it has paid out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors of the Republic than was ever paid before during an equal period.

It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations, while scrupulously maintaining all the rights and interests of our own Government and people at home and abroad. The exclusion from our shores of Chinese laborers has been effectually secured under the provision of a treaty the operation of which has been postponed by the action of a Republican majority in the Senate.

Honest reform in the civil service has been inaugurated and maintained by President Cleveland, and he has brought the public service to the highest standard of efficiency, not only by rule and precept, but by the example of his own untiring and unselfish administration of public affairs.

In every branch and department of the Government under Democratic control the rights and welfare of all the people have been guarded and defended; every public interest has been protected, and the equality of all our citizens before the law, without regard to race or color, has been steadfastly maintained.

Upon its record thus exhibited, and upon a pledge of a continuance to the people of these benefits, the Democracy invokes a renewal of popular trust by the re-election of a Chief Magistrate who has been faithful, able, and prudent. We invoke, in addition to that trust, the transfer also to the Democracy of the entire legislative power.

The Republican party controlling the Senate and resisting in both houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax laws which have outlasted the necessities of war and are now undermining the abundance of a long peace, denies to the people equality before the law, and the fairness and the justice which are their right. Thus the cry of American labor for a better share in the rewards of industry is stifled with false pretences, enterprise is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is discouraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be properly amended nor repealed. The Democratic party will continue with all the power confided to it the struggle to reform these laws, in accordance with the pledges of its last platform, endorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the people.

Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense majority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased to all our people. Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the people are betrayed when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and combinations are permitted to exist which, while unduly enriching the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens by depriving them of the benefits of natural competition. Every Democratic rule of governmental action is violated when, through unnecessary taxation, a vast sum of money, far beyond the needs of an economical administration, is drawn from the people and the channels of trade, and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in the national Treasury. The money now lying idle in the Federal Treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more than one hundred and twenty-five million dollars, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually. Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Republican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant appropriations and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the accumulation of extravagant taxation. The Democratic policy is to enforce frugality in public expense, and to abolish unnecessary taxation. Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not, and need not, be endangered by the reduction and correction of the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote and encourage every branch of such industries and enterprises, by giving them assurance of extended market and steady and continuous operations in the interests of American labor, which should in no event be neglected. The revision of our tax laws contemplated by the Democratic party should promote the advantage of such labor, by cheapening the cost of the necessaries of life in the home of every workman, and at the same time securing to him steady and remunerative employment. Upon this question of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national life, and upon every question involved in the problem of good government, the Democratic party submits its principles and professions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people.

Resolved, That this convention hereby endorses and recommends the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now pending in the House of Representatives.

Resolved, That a just and liberal policy should be pursued in reference to the Territories; that right of self-government is inherent in the people, and guaranteed under the Constitution; that the Territories of Washington, Dakota, Montana, and New Mexico are, by virtue of population and development, entitled to admission into the Union as States, and we unqualifiedly condemn the course of the Republican party in refusing Statehood and self-government to their people.

Resolved, That we express our cordial sympathy with the struggling people of all nations, in their efforts to secure for themselves the inestimable blessings of self-government, and civil and religious liberty, and we especially declare our sympathy with the efforts of those noble patriots who, led by Gladstone and Parnell, have conducted their grand and peaceful contest for home rule in Ireland.

The Republican convention met at Chicago on the 19th of June, with M. M. Estee, of California, as permanent president. It was assumed by the friends of Blaine in Pennsylvania, and generally throughout the country, that he did not desire to be nominated as the Republican candidate for President. Pennsylvania, where Blaine’s friends were largely in the ascendency, declared in favor of Senator Sherman, of Ohio. Senator Quay was at the head of his delegation, with instructions from the State convention to support Sherman, and ex-Governor Hastings, then Adjutant-General, presented the name of Sherman to the convention in the name of Pennsylvania.

Blaine was in Europe, and while he evidently did not desire to confess himself a candidate, he seemed unwilling then to make his declination peremptory, as he had done in two letters long before the convention met. His hesitation delayed the action of the convention several days, but finally he authorized the withdrawal of his name from the list of candidates, and a very earnest contest was made between the friends of Sherman, Gresham, Alger, and Harrison. Governor Alger was largely supported by the commercial delegates from the South, and Sherman and his friends bitterly complained that the Southern delegates had been corruptly diverted from the Sherman ranks. Gresham represented the more conservative Republican element. He was not a radical politician, as was shown by his support of Cleveland in 1892, but while conservative with Mugwump flavor, it was evident from the demonstrations made in Chicago during the convention that the labor elements of the country were very strongly in sympathy with him, although his own delegation was against him.

Depew was only an ornamental candidate, and was brimful of humor as he mingled with the delegates and spectators. He knew that the Grangers of the West would no more vote for him than they would for the Czar of Russia, but his State had declared for him with great unanimity, and he was very cordially supported by a number of friends outside of New York. It soon became evident that Sherman could not succeed, as he reached his highest vote on the 2d ballot and steadily declined thereafter, while Harrison increased on every ballot from the first to the eighth, when he was nominated by a large majority. The following are the several ballots for President:

First.Second.Third.Fourth.Fifth.Sixth.Seventh.Eighth.
John Sherman, Ohio229249244235224244231118
Walter Q. Gresham, Ind.1111081239887919159
Chauncey M. Depew, N. Y.999991—————
Russell A. Alger, Mich.84116122135142137120100
Benjamin Harrison, Ind.809194217213231278544
William B. Allison, Iowa72758888997376—
James G. Blaine, Me.353335424840155
John J. Ingalls, Kan.2816——————
Jere. M. Rusk, Wis.252016—————
William W. Phelps, N. J.25185—————
E. H. Fitler, Pa.24———————
Robert T. Lincoln, Ill.3221——2—
William McKinley, Jr., Ohio238111412164
Samuel F. Miller, Iowa——2—————
Frederick Douglass———1————
J. B. Foraker, Ohio———1—11—
Frederick D. Grant, N. Y.—————1——
Creed Haymond, Cal.——————1—

One ballot was had for Vice-President, as follows:

Levi P. Morton, N. Y.591
Walter Wm. Phelps. N. J.119
Wm. O. Bradley, Ky.103
Blanche K. Bruce (col.), Miss.11
Walter F. Thomas, Texas1

The nomination of Morton was made unanimous. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

The Republicans of the United States, assembled 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 gratitude 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 noble soldier and favorite child of victory, Philip H. Sheridan.

In the spirit of these great leaders, and of our own devotion to human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican party, we send fraternal congratulations to our fellow-Americans of Brazil upon their great act of emancipation, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule for Ireland.

We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the national Constitution and to the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign-born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that ballot duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all the people to be the foundation of our republican Government, and demand effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the fountains of public authority. We charge that the present administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

We are 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 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 endorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican representatives in Congress opposing its passage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and adequate protection to that industry. The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the taxes upon tobacco, which are an annoyance and burden to agriculture, and the tax upon spirits used in the arts, and for mechanical purposes, and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check imports of such articles as are produced by our people, the production of which gives 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 behest of the whiskey trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers.

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

We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital, 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 discriminations between the States.

We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers, not aliens, which the Republican party established in 1862, against the persistent opposition of the Democrats in Congress, and which has brought our great Western domain into such 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 fifty millions of 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 title to their homestead, and with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretence of exposing frauds and vindicating the law.

The government by Congress of the Territories is based upon necessity only, to the end that they may become States in the Union; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, 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 constitutions and State governments, and be admitted into the Union. Pending the preparation for statehood, all officers thereof should be selected from the bona-fide residents and citizens of the Territory wherein they are to serve. South Dakota should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State under the constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we heartily endorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice passing bills for her admission. The refusal of the Democratic House of Representatives, for partisan purposes, favorably to consider these bills is a wilful 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 constitutions and establish State governments should be passed without unnecessary delay. The Republican party pledges itself to do all in its power to facilitate the 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 become so.

The political power of the Mormon Church in the Territories as exercised in the past is a menace to free institutions, a danger no longer to be suffered; therefore, we pledge the Republican party to appropriate legislation, asserting the sovereignty of the nation in all Territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance of that end to place upon the statute books legislation stringent enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy.

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

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

In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign and 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 institutions of learning, sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education.

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 passage by Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged in preparing materials as well as those directly employed in our 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 defence for the protection of our defenceless harbors and cities; for the payment of just pensions to our soldiers; for 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 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 administration for the removal of foreign burdens and restrictions upon our commerce, and for its extension into better markets, it has neither effected nor proposed any others in their stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe Doctrine, it has seen, with idle complacency, the extension of foreign influence in Central America and of foreign trade everywhere among our neighbors. It has refused to charter, sanction or encourage any American organization for constructing the Nicaragua Canal—a work of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe 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.

We arraign the present Democratic administration for its weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and its pusillanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, and which Canadian fishing vessels receive in the ports of the United States. We condemn the policy of the present administration and the Democratic majority in Congress toward our fisheries as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to destroy a valuable national industry and an indispensable resource of defence 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 protects him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should and must afford him protection at home and follow and protect him abroad, in whatever land he may be, on a lawful errand.

The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884, and continue to adhere to the Democratic party, have deserted not only the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of 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, nor 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 institutions, which lurk in the power of official patronage, may be wisely and effectively avoided.”

The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the Union 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 shall become an 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 services preserved the Government. We denounce the hostile spirit shown by President Cleveland, in his numerous vetoes of measures for pension relief, and the action of the Democratic House of Representatives in refusing even a consideration of general pension legislation.

In support of the principles herewith enunciated, we invite the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, and especially of all workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened by the free-trade policy of the present administration.

The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people, and the purity of their homes. The Republican party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.

There were two distinct Labor parties in existence in 1888, and they both called their national conventions to meet at Cincinnati on the 15th of May. The Union Labor party was the only one whose candidate figured in the contest. Mr. Streeter, its nominee for President, received 146,935 votes, with only 2418 for Cowdrey, who was the candidate of the United Labor party. The Union Labor Convention had representatives from twenty States, and John Seitz was permanent president. There was no ballot for President, as Alson J. Streeter, of Illinois, was nominated by acclamation, and Samuel Evans, of Texas, was selected for Vice-President on the 1st ballot, receiving 124 votes, to 44 for T. P. Rynders, of Pennsylvania, and 32 for Charles R. Cunningham, of Arkansas. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

General discontent prevails on the part of the wealth-producer. Farmers are suffering from a poverty which has forced most of them to mortgage their estates, and the prices of products are so low as to offer no relief, except through bankruptcy, and laborers are sinking into greater dependence. Strikes are resorted to without bringing relief, because of the inability of employers, in many cases, to pay living wages, while more and more are driven into the street. Business men find collections almost impossible, and, meantime, hundreds of millions of idle public money, which is needed for relief, is locked up in the United States Treasury, or placed without interest in favored banks in grim mockery of distress. Land monopoly flourishes as never before, and more owners of the soil are daily becoming tenants. Great transportation corporations still succeed in extorting their profits on watered stock through unjust charges. The United States Senate has become an open scandal, its membership being purchased by the rich in open defiance of the popular will. Various efforts are made to squander the public money, which are designed to empty the Treasury without paying the public debt. Under these and other alarming conditions, we appeal to the people of our country to come out of old party organizations, whose indifference to the public welfare is responsible for this distress, and aid the Union Labor party to repeal existing class legislation, and relieve the distress of our industries by establishing the following principles:

Land.—While we believe that the proper solution of the financial question will greatly relieve those now in danger of losing their homes by mortgages and foreclosures, and enable all industrious persons to secure a home as the highest result of civilization, we oppose land monopoly in every form, demand the forfeiture of unearned grants, the limitation of land ownership, and such other legislation as will stop speculations in lands, and holding it unused from those whose necessities require it.

We believe the earth was made for the people, and not to enable an idle aristocracy to subsist, through rents, upon the toil of the industrious, and that corners in land are as bad as corners in food, and that those who are not residents or citizens should not be allowed to own lands in the United States. A homestead should be exempt, to a limited extent, from execution or taxation.

Transportation.—The means of communication and transportation should be owned by the people, as is the United States postal service.

Money.—The establishment of a national monetary system in the interest of the producer, instead of the speculator and usurer, by which the circulating medium, in necessary quantity and full legal tender, shall be issued directly to the people, without the intervention of banks, or loaned to citizens upon land security at a low rate of interest, to relieve them from extortions of usury and enable them to control the money supply. Postal savings banks should be established. While we have free coinage of gold, we should have free coinage of silver. We demand the immediate application of all the money in the United States Treasury to the payment of the bonded debt, and condemn the further issue of interest-bearing bonds, either by the National Government or by States, Territories, or municipalities.

Labor.—Arbitration should take the place of strikes and other injurious methods of settling labor disputes. The letting of convict labor to contractors should be prohibited, the contract system be abolished in public works, the hours of labor in industrial establishments be reduced, commensurate with the increased production by labor-saving machinery, employés protected from bodily injury, equal pay for equal work for both sexes, and labor, agricultural, and co-operative associations be fostered and encouraged by law. The foundation of a republic is in the intelligence of its citizens, and children who are driven into workshops, mines, and factories are deprived of the education which should be secured to all by proper legislation.

Pensions.—We demand the passage of a service pension bill to every honorably discharged soldier and sailor of the United States.

Income Tax.—A graduated income tax is the most equitable system of taxation, placing the burden of Government on those who can best afford to pay, instead of laying it on the farmers and producers, and exempting millionaire bondholders and corporations.

United States Senate.—We demand a constitutional amendment making United States Senators elective by a direct vote of the people.

Contract Labor.—We demand the strict enforcement of laws prohibiting the importation of subjects of foreign countries under contract.

Chinese.—We demand the passage and enforcement of such legislation as will absolutely exclude the Chinese from the United States.

Woman Suffrage.—The right to vote is inherent in citizenship, irrespective of sex, and is properly within the province of State legislation.

Paramount Issues.—The paramount issues to be solved in the interests of humanity are the abolition of usury, monopoly, and trusts, and we denounce the Democratic and Republican parties for creating and perpetuating these monstrous evils.

The United Labor party had a limited attendance at its convention. William B. Ogden was made president, and Rev. Edward McGlynn, of New York, a priest noted for his discussion of labor problems, prepared and reported the platform. Robert H. Cowdrey, of Illinois, was nominated for President, and W. H. T. Wakefield, of Kansas, for the second place on the ticket without the formality of a ballot. The following platform was unanimously adopted:

We, the delegates of the United Labor party of the United States, in national convention assembled, hold that the corruptions of Government and the impoverishment of the masses result from neglect of the self-evident truths proclaimed by the founders of this Republic, that all men are created equal and are endowed with inalienable rights. We aim at the abolition of the system which compels men to pay their fellow-creatures for the use of the common bounties of nature, and permits monopolizers to deprive labor of natural opportunities for employment.

We see access to farming land denied to labor, except on payment of exorbitant rent or the acceptance of mortgage burdens, and labor, thus forbidden to employ itself, driven into the cities. We see the wage-workers of the cities subjected to this unnatural competition, and forced to pay an exorbitant share of their scanty earnings for cramped and unhealthful lodgings. We see the same intense competition condemning the great majority of business and professional men to a bitter and often unavailing struggle to avoid bankruptcy; and that, while the price of all that labor produces ever falls, the price of land ever rises.

We trace these evils to a fundamental wrong—the making of the land on which all must live the exclusive property of but a portion of the community. To this denial of natural rights are due want of employment, low wages, business depressions, that intense competition which makes it so difficult for the majority of men to get a comfortable living, and that wrongful distribution of wealth which is producing the millionaire on one side and the tramp on the other.

To give all men an interest in the land of their country; to enable all to share in the benefits of social growth and improvement; to prevent the shutting out of labor from employment by the monopolization of natural opportunities; to do away with the one-sided competition which cuts down wages to starvation rates; to restore life to business, and prevent periodical depressions; to do away with that monstrous injustice which deprives producers of the fruits of their toil while idlers grow rich; to prevent the conflicts which are arraying class against class, and which are fraught with menacing dangers to society—we propose so to change the existing system of taxation that no one shall be taxed on the wealth he produces, nor any one suffered to appropriate wealth he does not produce by taking to himself the increasing values which the growth of society adds to land.

What we propose is not the disturbing of any man in his holding or title; but, by taxation of land according to its value and not according to its area, to devote to common use and benefit those values which arise, not from the exertion of the individual, but from the growth of society, and to abolish all taxes on industry and its products. This increased taxation of land values must, while relieving the working farmer and small homestead owner of the undue burdens now imposed upon them, make it unprofitable to hold land for speculation, and thus throw open abundant opportunities for the employment of labor and the building up of homes. We would do away with the present unjust and wasteful system of finance which piles up hundreds of millions of dollars in treasury vaults while we are paying interest on an enormous debt; and we would establish in its stead a monetary system in which a legal tender circulating medium should be issued by the Government, without the intervention of banks.

We wish to abolish the present unjust and wasteful system of ownership of railroads and telegraphs by private corporations—a system which, while failing to supply adequately public needs, impoverishes the farmer, oppresses the manufacturer, hampers the merchant, impedes travel and communication, and builds up enormous fortunes and corrupting monopolies that are becoming more powerful than the Government itself. For this system we would substitute Government ownership and control for the benefit of the whole people instead of private profit.

While declaring the foregoing to be the fundamental principles and aims of the United Labor party, and while conscious that no reform can give effectual and permanent relief to labor that does not involve the legal recognition of equal rights to natural opportunities, we, nevertheless, as measures of relief from some of the evil effects of ignoring those rights, favor such legislation as may tend to reduce the hours of labor, to prevent the employment of children of tender years, to avoid the competition of convict labor with honest industry, to secure the sanitary inspection of tenements, factories, and mines, and to put an end to the abuse of conspiracy laws.

We desire also to simplify the procedure of our courts and diminish the expense of legal proceedings, that the poor may therein be placed on an equality with the rich, and the long delays which now result in scandalous miscarriages of justice may be prevented. Since the ballot is the only means by which, in our Republic, the redress of political and social grievances is to be sought, we especially and emphatically declare for the adoption of what is known as the Australian system of voting, in order that the effectual secrecy of the ballot, and the relief of candidates for public office from the heavy expenses now imposed upon them, may prevent bribery and intimidation, do away with practical discriminations in favor of the rich and unscrupulous, and lessen the pernicious influence of money in politics.

We denounce the Democratic and Republican parties as hopelessly and shamelessly corrupt, and, by reason of their affiliation with monopolies, equally unworthy of the suffrages of those who do not live upon public plunder; we therefore require of those who would act with us that they sever all connection with both.

In support of these aims, we solicit the co-operation of all patriotic citizens, who, sick of the degradation of politics, desire by constitutional methods to establish justice, to preserve liberty, to extend the spirit of fraternity, and to elevate humanity.

The Prohibition Convention of 1888 was the most notable assembly of Prohibitionists ever held in the country. It met at Indianapolis on the 20th of May, with several thousands in attendance outside of the delegates. According to the report of the committee on credentials there were 1029 delegates present. Among those who participated in the proceedings of the convention were James Black, the party candidate for President in 1872, Neal Dow, who was the nominee in 1880, and John P. St. John, who led the Prohibitionists in the Presidential contest of 1884. John P. St. John was the permanent president, and Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, was nominated for President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for Vice-President by acclamation without the formality of a ballot. The following platform was adopted with great enthusiasm:

The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all power in government, do hereby declare:

1. That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages should be made public crimes, and punished as such.

2. That such prohibition must be secured through amendments of our National and State Constitutions, enforced by adequate laws adequately supported by administrative authority; and to this end the organization of the Prohibition party is imperatively demanded in State and nation.

3. That any form of license, taxation, or regulation of the liquor traffic is contrary to good government; that any party which supports regulation, license, or tax enters into alliance with such traffic and becomes the actual foe of the State’s welfare, and that we arraign the Republican and Democratic parties for their persistent attitude in favor of the licensed iniquity, whereby they oppose the demand of the people for prohibition, and, through open complicity with the liquor cause, defeat the enforcement of law.

4. For the immediate abolition of the internal revenue system, whereby our National Government is deriving support from our greatest national vice.

5. That, an adequate public revenue being necessary, it may properly be raised by impost duties and by an equitable assessment upon the property and the legitimate business of the country, but import duties should be so reduced that no surplus shall be accumulated in the treasury, and that the burdens of taxation shall be removed from foods, clothing, and other comforts and necessaries of life.

6. That civil service appointments for all civil offices, chiefly clerical in their duties, should be based upon moral, intellectual and physical qualifications, and not upon party service or party necessity.

7. That the right of suffrage rests on no mere circumstance of race, color, sex or nationality, and that where, from any cause, it has been held from citizens who are of suitable age and mentally and morally qualified for the exercise of an intelligent ballot, it should be restored by the people through the Legislatures of the several States, on such educational basis as they may deem wise.

8. For the abolition of polygamy and the establishment of uniform laws governing marriage and divorce.

9. For prohibiting all combinations of capital to control and to increase the cost of products for popular consumption.

10. For the preservation and defence of the Sabbath as a civil institution without oppressing any who religiously observe the same on any other day than the first day of the week.

11. That arbitration is the Christian, wise, and economic method of settling national differences, and the same method should, by judicious legislation, be applied to the settlement of disputes between large bodies of employés and employers; that the abolition of the saloons would remove the burdens, moral, physical, pecuniary, and social, which now oppress labor and rob it of its earnings, and would prove to be the wise and successful way of promoting labor reform; and we invite labor and capital to unite with us for the accomplishment thereof; that monopoly in land is a wrong to the people, and the public land should be reserved to actual settlers, and that men and women should receive equal wages for equal work.

12. That our immigration laws should be so enforced as to prevent the introduction into our country of all convicts, inmates of other dependent institutions, and of others physically incapacitated for self-support, and that no person should have the ballot in any State who is not a citizen of the United States.

Recognizing and declaring that prohibition of the liquor traffic has become the dominant issue in national politics, we invite to full party fellowship all those who, on this one dominant issue, are with us agreed, in the full belief that this party can and will remove sectional differences, promote national unity, and insure the best welfare of our entire land.

Another convention was held at Washington on the 14th of August, composed of a few fragments of the old American party. The fact that it polled in the entire country only 1590 votes for its candidates showed that it was practically without constituents. It was natural enough that the national convention of a party made up almost wholly of ambitious and discordant leaders should have a split, and they managed to get up a row and have a secession of the delegates representing a number of States on the simple question of how the delegates should vote. The seceders, however, made no nominations. After the dissatisfied delegates had left the convention, only the delegates from New York and California remained, but they were 80 of the 126 delegates all told. They nominated James Langdon Curtis, of New York, for President, and James R. Greer, of Tennessee, for Vice-President. Mr. Greer declined the nomination, and I can find no record of any one having been chosen in his place. The following platform was adopted:

Resolved, That all law-abiding citizens of the United States of America, whether native or foreign born, are politically equals (except as provided by the Constitution), and all are entitled to, and should receive, the full protection of the laws.

Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States should be so amended as to prohibit the Federal and State Governments from conferring upon any person the right to vote unless such person be a citizen of the United States.

Resolved, That we are in favor of fostering and encouraging American industries of every class and kind, and declare that the assumed issue “Protection” vs. “Free Trade” is a fraud and a snare. The best “protection” is that which protects the labor and life blood of the Republic from the degrading competition with and contamination by imported foreigners; and the most dangerous “free trade” is that in paupers, criminals, communists, and anarchists, in which the balance has always been against the United States.

Whereas, One of the greatest evils of unrestricted foreign immigration is the reduction of the wages of the American working-man and working-woman to the level of the underfed and underpaid labor of foreign countries; therefore,

Resolved, That we demand that no immigrant shall be admitted into the United States without a passport obtained from the American consul at the port from which he sails; that no passport shall be issued to any pauper, criminal, or insane person, or to any person who, in the judgment of the consul, is not likely to become a desirable citizen of the United States; and that for each immigrant passport there shall be collected by the consul issuing the same the sum of one hundred dollars to be by him paid into the Treasury of the United States.

Resolved, That the present naturalization laws of the United States should be unconditionally repealed.

Resolved, That the soil of America should belong to Americans; that no alien non-resident should be permitted to own real estate in the United States; and that the realty possessions of the resident alien should be limited in value and area.

Resolved, That no flag shall float on any public buildings, municipal, State, or national, in the United States, except the municipal, State, or national flag of the United States—the flag of the stars and stripes.

Resolved, That we reassert the American principles of absolute freedom of religious worship and belief, the permanent separation of Church and State; and we oppose the appropriation of public money or property to any church, or institution administered by a church. We maintain that all church property should be subject to taxation.

The contest of 1888 differed from the Cleveland contest of 1884 in its freedom from vituperation and bitterness. It was conducted with earnestness and dignity on both sides. Neither of the candidates greatly enthused the rank and file of their party, as did Blaine and Hancock in former national conflicts, but they commanded not only the entire confidence and respect of their parties, but also of the whole country. Cleveland took little personal part in the conflict, but Harrison made a most vigorous and telling campaign by his almost daily speeches delivered to visiting delegations at Indianapolis, in which he discussed every phase of the public questions of the day. These addresses were doubtless carefully prepared and given to the associated press, but they were not only very able, but they were singularly versatile and adroit, and presented Harrison to the public in an entirely new light. I cannot recall another Presidential contest that was conducted on both sides with greater dignity and decency than that between Cleveland and Harrison in 1888. Nearly equal respect was shown to both candidates in the Garfield-Hancock contest of 1880, but the famous forgery of the Morey letter to control the vote of the Pacific States against Garfield and the Credit Mobilier scandal marred the dignity of that conflict.

The following table exhibits the popular and electoral vote of 1888:

STATES.Popular Vote.Electoral Vote.
Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.Grover Cleveland, New York.Clinton B. Fisk, New Jersey.Alson J. Streeter, Illinois.Harrison and Morton.Cleveland and Thurman.
Alabama56,197117,320583———10
Arkansas58,75285,96264110,613—7
California124,816117,7295,761——8—
Colorado50,77437,5672,1911,2663—
Connecticut74,58474,9204,234240—6
Delaware12,97316,414400———3
Florida26,65739,561423———4
Georgia40,496100,4991,808136—12
Illinois370,473348,27821,6957,09022—
Indiana263,361261,0139,8812,69415—
Iowa211,598179,8873,5509,10513—
Kansas182,934103,7446,76837,7269—
Kentucky155,134183,8005,225622—13
Louisiana30,48485,03216039—8
Maine73,73450,4812,6911,3446—
Maryland99,986106,1684,767———8
Massachusetts183,892151,8568,701——14—
Michigan236,370213,45920,9424,54113—
Minnesota142,492104,38515,3111,0947—
Mississippi30,09685,47121822—9
Missouri236,257261,9744,53918,632—16
Nebraska108,42580,5529,4294,2265—
Nevada7,2295,36241——3—
New Hampshire45,72843,4581,593134—
New Jersey144,344151,4937,904———9
New York648,759635,75730,23162636—
North Carolina134,784147,9022,78732—11
Ohio416,054396,45524,3563,49623—
Oregon33,29126,5221,6773633—
Pennsylvania526,091446,63320,9473,87330—
Rhode Island21,96817,5301,250184—
South Carolina13,73665,825—————9
Tennessee138,988158,7795,96948—12
Texas88,422234,8834,74929,459—13
Vermont45,19216,7851,460——4—
Virginia150,438151,9771,678———12
West Virginia77,79179,6646691,064—6
Wisconsin176,553155,23214,2778,55211—
Totals5,439,8535,540,329249,506146,935233168

Cleveland lost his election in 1888 by his message to Congress, delivered a year before, making the tariff and revenue question the sole issue before the country. His message referred to no other question than the issue of reduced revenues and taxes. I saw him on Saturday night before the meeting of Congress, and with Speaker Carlisle, who was to be re-elected to the Speakership on the following Monday, earnestly urged him to modify his message. Carlisle was quite as positive as I was in assuring him that it would result in disaster to himself and his administration. His answer was that possibly we were right, but that it was a duty that should be performed, and while he might fall, he believed the country would vindicate him at an early day. He was a man who gave very serious thought to his official duties, performed them with great fidelity, and when convinced as to his duty none could dissuade him from his purpose. But for that message he would certainly have been re-elected President in 1888.

Cleveland entered the Presidency enjoying the confidence and respect of the country in a much larger degree than is usually accorded to new Presidents. His record as Mayor of Buffalo, as Governor of New York, and his political and official utterances generally were all in the line of the purest and best politics, and the sturdiness with which he maintained his convictions even against all considerations of expediency compelled the respect alike of friend and foe. No more conscientious man ever filled the Executive chair of the nation, and I doubt whether any other President gave such tireless labor to the duties of the office. His Cabinet officers were simply advisory as to the direction of their departments, and every question of importance came to him for final decision. I think he was as nearly capable of giving up the Presidency to maintain his convictions as any man who ever filled the position.

He certainly knew when he sent his tariff message to Congress against the advice of nearly all of those upon whose political judgment he most depended, that he was inviting political disaster, and that he was inviting it when the Republican leaders freely confessed their inability to defeat his re-election. He had inspired the interest of the best political elements of the country by his courageous support of civil service reform, that was then in its infancy. He did it with the full knowledge that he had a party behind him that was most unwilling to surrender the spoils of power to any sentiment, however sacred. I met him very often during his first term, and was sometimes invited to come to the Executive Mansion after ten o’clock at night, when he would willingly converse until the small hours in the morning. These habits were improved when the beautiful and accomplished wife came as mistress to the White House, and it was delightful to see his ordinarily rather heavy face brighten when he spoke of the woman who had brought into his life a measure of happiness to which he had ever before been stranger. I met him frequently during the contest of 1888, and while he hoped that he might be re-elected he was not confident. I saw him soon after his defeat, and no man ever bore great political disaster with such serene philosophy. He knew that his tariff message had defeated him, but he said that he believed it better that he should be thus defeated than not to have faced the issue as he did.

In reviewing the contest, he said that he had but a single unpleasant memory of it and its results, and that was that the malicious scandals of some of his most unscrupulous foes relating to his domestic life had brought sorrow to the “dear little woman,” to use his own expression, who deserved the respect and protection of every one. Some of the desperate Tammany leaders had formulated the scandals against Cleveland’s domestic life, distributed them broadcast in a circular at the St. Louis convention, and there are always many whose political prejudices make them welcome and accept such assaults upon a political nominee. I was much with Cleveland during his first and second terms of the Presidency, and also during the interval, and a more affectionate and devoted husband I have never seen. He was not a man to exhibit the arts of the demagogue, for to them he was an entire stranger, but I saw him tell the story of his home life more eloquently than words could ever have given it, when, on the 4th of March, 1893, as he was about to leave the large parlor of the Arlington, crowded with his many friends, to go to the inauguration ceremony, he stepped up to his wife, gave her a hearty kiss and affectionately patted her on the head, as he bowed himself off to accept the highest civil trust of the world.

Greatly as Cleveland’s tariff message had obstructed his election, he would have succeeded but for the perfidy of Tammany. He carried the country by nearly 100,000 popular majority, being much larger than the popular majority he received in 1884, but the electoral vote of New York lost him the Presidency. The betrayal of Cleveland by Tammany was clearly evident by the returns of the election in that State. Cleveland was at the head of the Democratic ticket for President, and Governor Hill, the favorite of Tammany, was on the same ticket for Governor, and he was re-elected by a majority of 19,171, while Cleveland lost the State by a majority of 14,373. Tammany and Mr. Dana, of the Sun, that was then the Tammany organ, had their revenge.