History of the United States

by John Clark Ridpath

The Charleston Earthquake.

8. The summer of 1886 is memorable on account of the great natural catastrophe known as the Charleston Earthquake. On the night of the 31st of August, at ten minutes before ten o'clock, without a moment's warning, the city of Charleston, S. C., was rocked and rent to its very foundations. Hardly a building in the limits of Charleston, or in the country surrounding, escaped serious injury; and perhaps one half of all were in a state of semi-wreck or total ruin.

9. The whole coast in the central region of the disturbance was modified with respect to the sea, and the ocean itself was thrown into turmoil for miles from the shore. The people in the city fled from their falling houses to the public squares and parks and far into the country. Afraid to return into the ruins, they threw up tents and light booths for protection, and abode for weeks away from their homes. Nothing before in the limits of our knowledge has been at all comparable with it in extent and violence, except the great earthquake of New Madrid in 1811.

10. The disaster to Charleston served to bring out some of the better qualities of our civilization. Personal assistance and contributions from all quarters poured in for the support and encouragement of the afflicted people. For several weeks a series of diminishing shocks continued to terrify the citizens; but it was discovered that these shocks were only the dying away of the great convulsion, and that they gave cause for hope of entire cessation rather than continued alarm. In the course of a few months the ruins were cleared away, business was resumed, and the people were again safe in their homes.

11. On the 4th of March, 1887, the second session of the Forty-ninth Congress expired. The work of the body had not been so fruitful of results as had been desired and anticipated by the friends of the government. On the question of the tariff nothing of value was accomplished. A measure of Revenue Reform had been brought forward at an early date in the session, but the act failed of adoption.

Pension Legislation.

12. On the question of Extending the Pension List, however, the case was different. A great majority of both parties favored such measures as looked to the increase of benefits to the soldiers. At the first, only a limited number of pensions had been granted, and these only to actually disabled or injured veterans of the War for the Union. But it became more and more important to each of the parties to secure and hold the soldier vote, without which it was felt that neither could maintain ascendency in the government. The Arrears of Pensions Act, making up to those who were already recipients of pensions such amounts as would have accrued if the benefit had dated from the time of disability, instead of from the time of granting the pension, was passed in 1879; and at the same time the list of pensioners was greatly enlarged.

13. The measure presented in the Fiftieth Congress was designed to extend the pension list so as to include all regularly enlisted and honorably discharged soldiers of the Civil War, who had become in whole, or in part, dependent upon the aid of others for their maintenance. The measure was known as the Dependent Pensions Bill. Many opposed the enactment of a law which appeared to give the bounty of the government to the deserving and the undeserving alike, and to compel the worthy recipients of pensions to rank themselves with those who had gone into the army for pay, and had been brought to want through improvidence. A majority was easily obtained for the measure in both Houses of Congress, and the act was passed. President Cleveland, however, interposed his veto, and the proposed law fell to the ground.

14. The most important and noted legislation of the session was the act known as the Inter-State Commerce Bill. For some fifteen years complaints against the methods and management of the railways of the United States had been heard on many sides, and in cases not a few the complaints had originated in actual abuses. A large class of people became clamorous that Congress should compel railways to accept a system of uniformity as to all charges for service rendered. With this object in view the Inter-State Commerce Bill was accordingly prepared, and became a law.

Death of Prominent Generals.