A History of the Republican Party

by George Washington Platt

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION COMMENDED.

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.

After the adoption of the platform the Convention adjourned for the day.

At the opening of the session on June 10th, Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Chairman of the Woman's Republican Association of the United States, was heard, and next in order was the nomination of candidates for President. Senator Wolcott nominated James G. Blaine in an eloquent speech; W. H. Eustis seconded this nomination, and at the conclusion of his splendid speech there was twenty-seven minutes of the wildest enthusiasm for Blaine; W. E. Mollison and G. B. Boyd also seconded Mr. Blaine's nomination. Richard W. Thompson, ex-Secretary of the Navy, nominated Benjamin Harrison, and was seconded by Chauncey M. Depew, Warner Miller, Senator Spooner and B. E. Finck. The total number of votes was 905, making 453 necessary to a choice. Only one ballot was taken as follows:

Benjamin Harrison …….. 535 1-6 Thomas B. Reed ……….. 4
James G. Blaine ………. 182 5-6 Robert T. Lincoln …….. 1
William McKinley ……… 182

Mr. Harrison was thus nominated on the first ballot, and on motion of
Mr. McKinley the nomination was made unanimous. Whitelaw Reid of New
York was nominated for Vice-President by acclamation, and the Convention
adjourned.

The Democratic National Convention assembled at Chicago, Ill., June 21, 1892. Grover Cleveland, of New York, was nominated for the third time by a vote of 617 1-3 to 114 for David B. Hill, his nearest opponent. Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, was named for Vice-President. The Democratic platform of 1892 denounced Republican protection as a fraud and a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few, and said that the McKinley Tariff Law was the "culminating atrocity" of class legislation, and promised its repeal; the platform declared for a tariff for purposes of revenue only, and advocated the speedy repeal of the Sherman Act of 1890.

The Prohibition Convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, June 24, and nominated John Bidwell, of California, and J. B. Cranfill, of Texas. A new party had been organizing quietly for some time, and was destined to exercise a momentous effect upon the campaign of this year and also of 1896. A Farmers' Alliance Convention had met at St. Louis in December, 1889, and formed a confederation with the Knights of Labor, Greenback and Single Tax Parties. In December, 1890, they met at Ocala, Florida, and adopted what is known as the "Ocala Platform," practically all of the ideas of which were embodied in the platform of the first National Convention of the People's Party, which met at Omaha, Neb., July 2, 1892. At this Convention James B. Weaver, of Iowa, was nominated for President, and James G. Field, of Virginia, for Vice-President. The platform of the People's Party in 1892 stated that corruption dominated everything, and that the country generally was on the verge of "moral, political and material ruin," and stated that in the last twenty-five years' struggle of the two great parties "grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people;" and declared that the union of the labor forces shall be permanent, and demanded the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at 16 to 1; for an income tax; for Postal Savings Bank; for Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs and telephones. The Socialist-Labor Convention met at New York August 28, 1892, and nominated Simon Wing, of Massachusetts, and Charles H. Matchett, of New York, and adopted a series of social and political demands.

The campaign of 1892 was somewhat uninteresting as compared to those of previous years; the political land slide of 1890 was still felt by the Republicans, but notwithstanding it, the situation seemed hopeful. The main encouragement for the Republicans was that the disturbances in the Democratic party in New York might result so seriously as to lose that State for the Democrats, but the hope was futile, and at the election on November 8, 1892, Cleveland and Stevenson received 277 electoral votes, to 145 for Harrison and Morton, and 22 for the People's candidates, Weaver and Field. The popular vote was: Cleveland, 5,556,928; Harrison, 5,176,106; Weaver, 1,041,021; Bidwell, 262,034; Wing, 21,164.

The great surprise of this election, to the members of both of the old parties, was the unexpected strength shown by the candidates of the People's Party. By fusing with the Democrats they received the electoral votes of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Kansas, and split the vote in North Dakota and Oregon. This fusion of the People's Party and the Democrats in the West portended serious effects on the destiny of the Democratic Party in subsequent campaigns.