Congress had dropped (1873) the silver dollar from the list of coins to be made at the mint. [11] Soon afterward the silver mines of Nevada began to yield astonishingly, and the price of silver fell. This led to a demand (by inflationists and silver-producers) that the silver dollar should again be coined; and in 1878 Congress passed (over Hayes's veto) the Bland-Allison Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month and coin it into dollars. [12]
"THE CHINESE MUST GO."—Another act vetoed by Hayes was intended to stop the coming of Chinese to our country. In 1877 an anti-Chinese movement was begun in San Francisco by the workingmen led by Dennis Kearney. Open-air meetings were held, and the demand for Chinese exclusion was urged so vigorously that Congress (1879) passed an act restricting Chinese immigration. Hayes vetoed this as violating our treaty with China, but (1880) negotiated a new treaty which provided that Congress might regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers.
THE ELECTION OF 1880; DEATH OF GARFIELD.—In 1880 there were again several
parties, but the contest was between the Republicans with James A.
Garfield [13] and Chester A. Arthur as candidates for President and Vice
President, and the Democrats with Winfield S. Hancock and William H.
English as leaders.
Garfield and Arthur were elected, and on March 4, 1881, were duly inaugurated. Four months later, as the President stood in a railway station in Washington, a disappointed office seeker shot him in the back. After his death (September 19, 1881) Chester A. Arthur became President. [14]
IMPORTANT LAWS, 1881-85.—All parties had called for anti-Chinese legislation. The long-desired act was accordingly passed by Congress, excluding the Chinese from our country for a period of twenty years. Arthur vetoed it as contrary to our treaty with China. An act "suspending" the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years was then passed and became law; similar acts have been passed from time to time since then.
The Republicans (and Prohibitionists) had demanded the suppression of polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. Another law (the Edmunds Act, 1882) was therefore enacted for this end. [15]
The murder of Garfield aroused a general demand for civil service reform. The Pendleton Act (1883) was therefore enacted to secure appointment to office on the ground of fitness, not party service. [16]
[Illustration: THE CRUISER BOSTON.]
THE NEW NAVY.—After the close of the Civil War our navy was suffered to fall into neglect and decay. The thirty-seven cruisers, all but four of which were of wood; the fourteen single-turreted monitors built during the war; the muzzle-loading guns, belonged to a past age. By 1881 this was fully realized and the foundation of a new and splendid navy was begun by the construction of three unarmored cruisers—the Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago. Once started, the new navy grew rapidly, and in the course of twelve years forty-seven vessels were afloat or on the stocks. [17]
NEW REFORMS DEMANDED.—Meantime the wonderful development of our country caused a demand for further reforms. The chief employers of labor were corporations and capitalists, many of whom abused the power their wealth gave them. They were accused of importing laborers under contract and thereby keeping wages down, of getting special privileges from legislatures, and of combining to fix prices to suit themselves. In the campaign of 1884, therefore, these issues came to the front, and demands were made for (1) legislation against the importation of contract labor, (2) regulation of interstate commerce, especially as carried on by railways, (3) government ownership of telegraphs and railways, (4) reduction of the hours of labor, (5) bureaus to collect and spread information as to labor.