HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE No. 39 Editors: HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, LiTT.D., LL.D., F.B.A. PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. THE HOME UKEVEBSITY LIBEAKYi OF MODEKN KNOWLEDGE l6mo cloth, 50 cents net, by mail 56 cents HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. Already Published THE DAWST OF HISTORY . . . By J. L. MYRES ROME Ey W. WARDE FOWLEK THE PAPACY AND MODERN TIMES By WILLIAM BARRY MEDIEVAL EUROPE By H. W. C. DAVIS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION . By HILAIRE BELLOC. THE IRISH NATIONALITY . . By MRS. J. R. GREEN CANADA By A. G. BRADLEY THE CIVIL WAR By FREDERIC L/TAXSON RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION (1865-1912) By PAUL L. HA WORTH HISTORY OF OUR TIME (i885- 1911) ByC. P. GOOCH POLAR EXPLORATION (with maps) By W. S. BRUCE THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA By SIR H. H. JOHNSTOK THE CIVILIZATION OF CHINA By H. A. GILES PEOPLES AND PROBLEMS OF INDIA By SIR T. W. HOLDERNESS A SHORT HISTORY OF WAR AND PEACE ByG. H. FERRIS MODERN GEOGRAPHY By MARION NEWBIGIN Future Issues A SHO&T HISTORY CF EUROPE By HERBERT FISHER ANCIENT GREECE By GILBERT MURRAY THE REFORMATION By PRINCIPAL LINDSAY A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA By PROF. MILYOUKOV FRANCE OF TO-DAY By GABRIEL MONOD THE EVOLUTION OF CITIES . By PATRICK GEDDES ANCIENT EGYPT By F. L. GRIFFITH THE COLONIAL PERIOD ... By CHARLES M. ANDREWS FROM JEFFERSON TO LINCOLN By WILLIAM MACDONALD LATIN AMERICA By W. R. SHEPHERD RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION 1865-1912 BY PAUL LELAND HAWORTH, PH.D. AUTHOR OF "THE HAYES-TILDEN ELECTION," "THE PATH OF GLORY," ETC. COLLABORATOR ON " A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS PEOPLE" SOMETIME LECTURER IN HISTORY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND BRYN MAWR COLLEGE NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE , COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN or RECONSTRUCTION . 7 II THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN or RECONSTRUCTION 20 III CARPET-BAGGERS AND KU-KLUX-KLANS ... 40 IV THE END OF AN ERA 56 V HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 86- VI BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 120 VII THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 175 VIII THE GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM .... 195 IX THE REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY .... 210 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 249 INDEX , 253 251148 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION CHAPTER I THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION THE weeks following the surrender of Lee at Appomattox (April 9, 1865) justified General Sherman s declaration that the South was "an empty shell." The Confederacy collapsed even more rapidly than it had arisen. The war-worn veterans in gray, weakened by want and wounds, scattered heavy-hearted to their desolated homes, and before the end of May the Stars and Stripes once more swung to every breeze from the Poto mac to the Rio Grande. The war was over. A revolt begun to per petuate slavery and state rights had ended in a revolution that had extinguished both. The sword could be sheathed, but there remained the two great problems of the status of the se ceded states and the status of the freedmen. Both problems pressed hard for solution, but the latter was infinitely the more difficult. Regarding the former there were many theories, but all men were at least ready to agree with Lincoln that the seceded states were "out of their proper 7 8 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION practical relation with the Union." To restore that practical relation would at most be hardly more than a matter of a few years, whereas the presence in the Republic of three and a half million ignorant black freedmen was certain to entail embarrassment for generations. So sudden a transition from slavery to freedom would mean a tremendous shock to the social fabric even in times of peace. No country could expe rience such a complete overturn in times of war and hope to settle down to immediate quiet. While the war continued the negroes in sections remote from the clash of arms remained quietly upon the plantations obedient to their masters. Even the news of the Emancipation Proclama tion did not produce a single insurrection. "A thousand torches," said Henry Grady, "would have disbanded the Southern Army, but here was not one." Nevertheless, the slaves vaguely understood the purport of the great struggle; and when fugitive Union prisoners came their way, they lent them assistance. They wel comed the Northern troops as deliverers. On Sherman s march to the sea the spokesman of a large number of slaves said to an aide-de-camp : "I se hope de Lord will prosper you Yankees > and Mr. Sherman, because I tinks and we all tinks dat you se down here in our interests." Thousands of slaves fell in behind the victorious army as it swept through the land, being "se duced from their allegiance," as a South Caro linian complained, by the prospect of freedom. With the collapse of the Confederacy, many negroes became intoxicated with the idea that PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 9 they were their own masters. Some were con tent to remain as renters or employes upon the plantations of their former masters, but great numbers, desirous of tasting their liberty, aban doned their old homes and wandered hither and thither about the country, "found endless de light in hanging about the towns and Union camps, and were fascinated by the pursuit of the white man s culture in the schools which optimistic northern philanthropy was estab lishing." "What did you leave the old place for, Auntie?" a Northerner asked an old negress who had been an indulged favorite in her master s family. "What fur? Joy my freedom! 9 was her ready answer. Tojmany freedmen freedom meant primarily idlenesspand^some^were sadly disillusioned when informed that they would still have to work for a living. In some respects the condition of the freedmen \ was pathetic. In the words of Frederick Douglass, the government had made the negro free, "yet he had none of the conditions of self-preserva tion or self-protection. He was free from the individual master, but the slave of society. He had neither money, property, nor friends. He was free from the old plantation, but he had nothing but the dusty road under his feet. He was free from the old quarter that once gave him shelter, but a slave to the rains of summer and to the frosts of winter. He . . . was turned loose, naked, hungry, and destitute to the open sky." The idea spread abroad that the government would confiscate the property of ex-Confederates, and every negro dreamed at night of the "forty 10 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION acres and a mule" which was to be his share. In some sections sharpers took advantage of the illusion and reaped a rich harvest by selling to simple-minded negroes the painted stakes with which each must be provided when the day of division came. Sometimes the pegs were called "pre-emption rights," and their sale in the back districts continued for years. One pretended deed was in part as follows: "Know all men by these presents, that a nought is a nought and a figure is a figure; all for the white man and none for the nigure. And whereas Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also have I lifted this d d old nigger out of four dollars and six bits. Amen! Selah!" To act as a guardian for the blacks the thirty- eighth congress, just before dissolution, had created an institution known as the Freedmen s Bureau, which was to endure until one year after the end of the war. One of its most important functions was to act as a buffer between the two races. The necessity of some such institu tion was obvious, but the agents of the Bureau were naturally highly unpopular in the South. Some of them were lacking in tact and character, some were unprincipled rascals, but a majority were well-meaning men who did work that needed to be done. Even had all been Solomons in wisdom and judgment, they would not have found much favor among the former masters. Among the whites themselves despondency and despair reigned well-nigh supreme. Their political aspirations had been defeated, their social system swept away, and many were finan- PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 11 cially ruined. In sections through which the trail of war had led, houses, bridges, barns, and gins had been burned; everywhere the neglected roads were almost impassable, fences were rotting down, levees no longer restrained the floods, and Confederate currency and bonds were reduced to less than the value of the paper on which they were printed. Hatred of Yankees and Southern Unionists prevailed, being manifested even in churches, where congregations refused to listen to loyal preachers. Women were especially bitter against those whom they considered the authors of all their woes, and over Southern society, as over every other, woman reigned supreme. For a time the calamity struck the whole South dumb, but presently boisterous demagogues and reckless editors recovered some thing of their equanimity and gave vent to in cautious utterances that were distasteful to the conquerors and too often drowned the voices of those striving to soften bitter feelings and tra ditional antipathies. The delusion which the Southern people had long indulged regarding "the absolute superiority" of their customs and social organization, though shaken, still persisted, and stood "as a serious obstacle in the way of progress." The gravity of the situation was greatly in creased by the assassination of Lincoln. Follow ing the surrender of Lee and before Booth s fatal shot a magnanimous spirit prevailed in the North. "On earth peace, good will toward men" was the generous sentiment of the mass of loyal people. The murder of the beloved president 12 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION changed everything. It was almost universally, though wrongly, believed that the assassination had been planned by the leading Confederates in a desperate effort to avert their doom. Gen erous sentiments gave way to a desire for ven geance; everywhere a demand arose that the "chief Rebels" should be hanged. Men believed that to the crime of a great war to destroy the Union the South had added one of the most dastardly murders in history. Even those who thought the Southern leaders incapable of insti gating such an act could not but reflect that the assassination flowed from the spirit of slavery and secession. \ The death of Lincoln not only roused a danger- bus desire for vengeance, but it also deprived the country of the services of its ablest pilot. Whether, with all his sagacity and tact, he could have solved all the trying problems of Reconstruction may well be doubted, but it is safe to say that he would have done better than the man who suc ceeded him. For if the country had been searched from end to end, it would have been difficult to find a man less fitted for the crisis. Andrew Johnson was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, of poor white parents, and during his early years his opportunities for culture were so few that, although he managed to learn to read a little, the art of writing was one that he ac quired in manhood from his wife. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to a tailor, and at seven teen removed to Greenville in East Tennessee, where he worked at his trade, and presently became a Democratic political leader in opposi- PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 13 tion to the Whig aristocracy. He was succes sively alderman, mayor, member of the legis lature, and in 1843 became a member of the national house of representatives. Subsequently he was twice elected governor of Tennessee, and in 1857 was sent to the Federal senate, "being a remarkable if not the sole exception to the cus tom in the slave States which debarred men who worked at a trade from such high office." Al though he had done much by reading and by contact with men to remedy the defects of his education, he remained narrow-minded and uncultured. By vigorously opposing secession he gained high favor in the North and was ap pointed governor of Tennessee, an office he filled with much zeal and courage. In 1864, as a result of the desire to recognize the "War Demo crats" and the Southern Unionists, he was nominated for the vice-presidency by the Union party and was elected. Some persons were inclined to doubt the wisdom of the selection, and the doubt received confirmation at his inau guration. On that occasion he was so badly intoxicated that he presented a maudlin spec tacle which has usually been glossed over by historians. Johnson s policy toward the South at first gave promise of being a vindictive one. "Trea son must be made odious, and traitors must be punished and impoverished," had been the burden of his speeches. In private talks he gave the impression that he was about to embark upon a bloodthirsty crusade against the leaders of the "slavocracy," whom he had once called our 14 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION "illegitimate, swaggering, bastard, scrub aris tocracy." He issued a proclamation charging Jefferson Davis and other Southern leaders with complicity in the murder of Lincoln and offering large rewards for their arrest. Radical Republi cans who had disapproved of Lincoln s leniency were much pleased with Johnson s attitude, and some were inclined to consider Lincoln s removal a dispensation of Providence. But even the Radicals feared that Johnson might be too rigorous. Their concern was wasted worry. Johnson had been in office only a few weeks when he turned a complete political somersault and adopted a Southern policy in the main in accord with the rather vague lines laid down by Lincoln. On the 29th of May, 1865, he issued two proclamations, one of restricted amnesty and the other a pre scription for the reconstruction of North Caro lina. The first granted pardon to all those who had "participated in the existing rebellion" except those belonging to certain specified classes, members of which might subsequently obtain clemency by special application to the president. The second proclamation appointed William W. Holden provisional governor of North Carolina and provided for the calling of a constitutional convention to frame a constitution in accord with the times. The members of this convention were to be elected by the loyal voters of the stat ;, the test for loyalty being the taking of an oa j h. prescribed in the amnesty proclamation. o extension of political rights to the freedmen w;iS made. At intervals from June 13 to July 13, PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 15 similar proclamations were issued looking to the restoration of civil government in Georgia, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida. The "rump" Union government in Virginia, the "ten per cent" governments of Arkansas and Louisiana, and the government of Tennessee, which Johnson had himself helped to organize, were also formally or tacitly recognized. The plan thus adopted was unsatisfactory to many Radicals, but until congress should convene in December there could be no effective opposi tion. In the meantime the South had a great opportunity. As yet the great majority of Northerners were opposed to negro suffrage, but an active minority of earnest advocates were working for it, and reactionary steps on the part of the South would undoubtedly strengthen the movement, v Unhappily the people of the South did not understand the true situation. They failed to realize fully that they were a conquered people and that wisdom dictated that in all their acts they should be guided not only by ordinary rules but also by the prejudices of the conquerors. The first convention to assemble in obedience to the president s proclamations w^as that of Mississippi. It voted that slavery should no longer exist in the state and declared the seces sion ordinance null and void, but failed to com ply with a recommendation from Johnson that the elective franchise should be conferred upon negroes who could read and write or who owned real estate worth not less than $250. In Georgia and South Carolina the old states rights idea flickered feebly once more when the conventions 16 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION - repealed their secession ordinances. Florida annulled her ordinance, and the others, like Mississippi, proclaimed the acts null and void, North Carolina declaring that her ordinance "at all times hath been null and void." All the conventions except that of South Carolina re pudiated the debts contracted in support of the war, but in some states this was done only after a hard struggle and after pressure had been exerted from the outside. All formally abolished slavery and made such further modifications in the old state constitutions as seemed essential. The conventions then adjourned, leaving to the legislatures the task of completing the social reorganization. The proceedings of the conventions were not always pleasing to exacting Northerners; those of the legislatures were still less so. The legis lature of Mississippi refused to ratify the Thir teenth Amendment abolishing slavery, and this and other legislatures passed acts concerning the freedmen that were interpreted in the North as designed to secup the substance of slavery without the name. //These "black codes" were in part an honest effort to meet a difficult situa tion, but the old slavery attitude toward the negro peered through most of them and gave proof that their framers did not yet realize that the old order had passed away. In Mississippi a f reedman was forbidden to own or rent land except in incorporated towns, of which the number was small. Negro children under eighteen whose parents were unable or unwilling to support them were to be "apprenticed," preferably to their PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 17 former masters, who were empowered to inflict "moderate corporal chastisement." All negroes over eighteen found on the second Monday of January, 1866, without employment or business were to be fined, and, if unable to pay, were to be hired out. Any laborer who should quit the service of an employer before the expiration of his contract was liable to arrest and forfeited his wages. In South Carolina no person of color was to engage in any trade or business "besides that of husbandry, or that of a servant under contract for labor," until he had obtained a practically prohibitive license costing from ten to a hundred dollars. No such fees were exacted from white men. Laws almost or quite as unfair were enacted in other states. The words "mas ter," "mistress," "servant" constantly recur in such legislation, and minute regulations were provided for such "servants." Special penalties were enacted for freedmen, and in some states the blacks were forbidden to have arms of any sort or even to assemble together except under careful restrictions. The "black codes" have had apologists, but the existence four decades later of "peonage" in numerous Southern com munities a practice broken up only through the activity of Federal officers and Federal courts is a sufficient answer to the assertion that under such laws the freedmen would have received fair treatment. The "black codes" naturally roused violent opposition in the North. "We tell the men of Mississippi," said the Chicago Tribune (Decem ber 1, 1865), "that the men of the North will 18 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION convert the state of Mississippi into a frog-pond before they will allow any such laws to disgrace one foot of soil in which the bones of our soldiers sleep and over which the flag of freedom waves." Stories of hostility to Union men in the South and of the mistreatment of freedmen by Individ uals added fuel to the flames. The fact that as time passed an increasing number of persons who had been prominent in the military or civil service of the Confederacy were elected to high office did not increase the popularity of the president s policy. In a telegram protesting against the proposed choice as United States senator of Alexander H. Stephens, recently vice-president of the Confederacy, even Johnson said: "There seems in many of the elections something like defiance, which is all out of place at this time." The protest went unheeded, and presently Stephens appeared in Washington to demand his seat. "In his astonishing effrontery," says Elaine, who was then a member of the house, "Mr. Stephens even went so far as to insist on interpreting to the loyal men, who had been conducting the government of the United States through all its perils, the Constitution under which they had been acting." There was yet another motive that doubtless caused many politicians to oppose the president s reconstruction plan. It was evident that with the freeing of the slaves the constitutional pro vision excluding two-fifths of them in the appor tionment of representatives to congress became of no effect and that the former slave states would be entitled to more members. That one result PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 19 of the war should be an increase in the political power of the South was a possibility little relished by those who were convinced that upon the con tinuance in power of the Republican party hinged the nation s well-being and their own political fortunes. The specter of the Federal government in control of an alliance between ex-Confederates and Northern Democrats troubled the sleep of many a Republican statesman, and in the end was one of the chief influences that brought about the bestowal of the suffrage upon the blacks. CHAPTER II THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN OF i EECONSTRUCTION REPUBLICAN conventions in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had already condemned the president s policy, and the Republican leaders, when they gathered in Washington for the first session of the thirty-ninth congress, determined to insist upon the right of that body to participate in Reconstruction. Acting under their influence, the clerk of the house omitted the names of mem bers-elect from the states recently in rebellion, and the Republican majority promptly sustained him. As soon as the organization of the house was. completed, Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania moved the appointment of a joint committee of nine representatives and six senators to inquire into conditions in the former Confederate states "and report whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented in either House of Congress." The resolution was quickly adopted, though there were some members who intimated that it would be more proper to await the presi dent s message before taking action. This mes sage, which was read the following day, was a sane, well-written document which explained 20 CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 21 with force the president s Reconstruction policy. To many it was an enigma how a man with so little education could have produced such a state paper, but it is now known that the document was composed by the historian Bancroft. In congress the message had little appreciable effect; a few days later the senate concurred with the house in the appointment of Stevens s Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Among the congressional majority there was great diversity of sentiment, but the course of events tended to bring the extremists to the front. Of these the chief were Charles Sumner and Thad- deus Stevens. Sumner, the Brahmin senator from Massachusetts, an idealist for human equal ity, in theory but a snobTn priv^le~pracfice7TiaH long been distinguished as an opponent of the slave power, and was anxious to crown his work by .erasing all legal distinctions Between the freedmen and their former masters. i In his view the attempts at secession were inoperative and void, but amounted to "a practical abdication by the State of all rights under the Constitution " in other words, to state-^uicide. He held that such states were now under "the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress as other territory." As a condition to their restoration he proposed the imposition upon the late Confederate states oflfull civil and political rights to the negro. Thaddeus StgvejlS of Pennsylvania, the leader of the house, possessed much of the sternness of the old Puritans, without their morality. Unlike Sumner, hpjiat-^ SmiiHgrnprg personally, and his hatred hadbeen rendered more vindictive 22 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION by private losses sustained in the burning of Chambersburg by the Confederates. Although a lame old man of seventy-three, his spirit was dauntless, and during the next few years, with iron resolution, he held the house to his policy of "thorough." He regarded the late Confederate states as congueiexi . .gl&YU&SS possessing no rights the conquerors were bound to respect. Lij^e Sumner, he advocated treating them as territories. He also favored negro suffrage, stringent laws for the protection of the freedmen, and homesteads for them to be carved out of confiscated lands. In the hope of gaining popular support, the Radicals promptly carried through the senate a request that the president transmit a report upon Southern conditions recently made^Tby Major- general Carl Schurz. Schurz was a naturalized German, by temperament an idealist and in clined to be extremely independent of party in his political views. He participated in the Revo lution of 1848, narrowly escaping a Prussian firing-squad, and in his subsequent rescue of his friend and teacher, the poet Gottfried Kinkel, from life imprisonment in the Berlin penitentiary he performed an exploit unsurpassed in gallantry either in ancient or modern annals. Emigrating to America, he quickly became prominent as an anti-slavery leader and was much in demand as an orator. For a short time he was minister to Spain under Lincoln, but he preferred the tented field to diplomacy, and, entering the army, rose quickly to high command. At the close of hos tilities he went South at Johnson s request on a tour of investigation. His reports were at first CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 23 cordially received, but as the president became more and more committed to his liberal policy he lost interest in his agent s work. Upon the general s return in October, he asked at a per sonal interview in the White House to be allowed to make a formal report. The president demurred, Schurz insisted, and a dramatic scene ensued. "I thereupon turned my back upon Andrew John son," said Schurz many years later to the author, "and I never spoke to him again." Subsequently Schurz embodied his observations in a well-writ ten report, and it was this paper which the senate demanded. The president complied, and trans mitted also a report made by General Grant. Grant s report was the fruit of a hasty trip recently taken through the South, in the course of which he had conversed with many Southerners and Federal officers, though he had not made any real investigation of the situation. C His conclusions were favorable to Johnson s Recon struction plan, for he reported: "I am satis fied that the mass of thinking men of the South accept the present situation of affairs in good faith." Schurz, however, found "an utter ab sence of national feeling," and chronicled many outrages that had been committed upon negroes and white Unionists. He reported that, while accepting the abolition of slavery, the Southern people believed that "some species of serfdom, peonage, or other form of compulsory labor is not slavery and may be introduced without a vio lation of their pledge." As a " condition precedent to readmission, " Schurz advocated "the exten sion of the franchise to the colored people" in 24 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION order to give them "protection against oppressive class legislation, as well as against individual persecution." In February congress passed a bill continu ing the Freedmen s Bureau, enlarging its powers, and extending civil rights to the freedmen. Sup porters of the bill disclaimed any quarrel with the president, but it was out of harmony with his plan of Reconstruction, and he vetoed it. As some Republicans were not yet convinced that the breach between executive and legislature was irrevocable, an attempt to pass the bill over the veto failed. It was Johnson s last victory. The prevailing sentiment in congress and the North had come to be that "the Southern states were in a great hurry about getting out of the Union, and we will take our time about letting them back in." On the very day that the Freedmen s Bureau Bill failed, the house passed a resolution to the effect that no senator or representative from one of the eleven seceded states should be admitted to congress until congress declared such state entitled to representation. The senate soon after concurred, and henceforth open warfare existed between Johnson and congress. In this conflict the Radicals were aided not only by Southern rashness but also by the presi dent s own lack of tact and of official dignity. On February 22, in a speech to a crowd of citizens who had come to the White House to congratulate him upon the veto, he threw propriety to the winds and indulged in an intemperate, egotistical ha rangue in which he denounced his enemies in CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 25 violent terms. He styled the Joint Committee on Reconstruction "an irresponsible central directory" and accused it of usurping the powers of congress. When asked to name his enemies, he cried: "I say Thaddeus Stevens of Penn sylvania; I say Charles Sumner of Massachusetts; I say Wendell Phillips of Massachusetts!" He even went so far as to impute to them a desire for his assassination. The Radicals hailed the speech with glee, and it lost the president many supporters. The house proceeded to pass a Civil Rights BUL which had already received the approval of the senate. The bill was designed to carry into effect the Thirteenth Amendment^ the ratification of which had been proclaimed in December, and to render null and void the obnoxious "black codes^" It declared the freedmen to be citizens of the United States with all civil rights, and provided heavy penalties for the punishment of any one who, under color of state law, should encroach upon their rights. Johnson vetoed the bill (March 27, 1866), but congress promptly passed it over the veto. Meanwhile the Joint Committee on Recon struction had been taking testimony regarding Southern conditions and evolving a congressional plan. In its essence, this plan, sometimes called "the forfeited rights plan" was to deny statehood to the seceded states until certain results of the war had been irrevocably guaranteed. A detail of the plan was a Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution. This amendment, as it finally passed Congress (June 13, 1866), embodied those 26 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION features of the Civil Rights Act guaranteeing citizenship and civil rights to the freedmen and provided that representatives should be ap portioned according to "the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed/ but that in case the suffrage was denied to any male citizens of voting age the representa tion of the state should be proportionately dimin ished. It disqualified for Federal and state offices all persons who, having taken the oath to support the constitution, had subsequently engaged in rebellion, but congress was empowered by a two- thirds vote to remove such disabilities. The amendment further formally asserted the validity of the public debt and repudiated the Confederate debt in all forms, together with all claims for the emancipation of slaves. In July, by its action in the case of Tennessee, congress outlined the conditions on which the seceded states might be readmitted to their old rights and privileges. In consideration of the fact that Tennessee had ratified a state constitu tion abolishing slavery, had declared the ordinance of secession and the Confederate debt void, and had ratified the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments, congress again recognized the statehood of Tennessee and admitted her sena tors and representatives. About the same time congress passed over the president s veto a new Freedmen s Bureau Bill continuing the institution for two years. Had the other Southern states accepted the congressional plan the Johnson conditions plus the Fourteenth Amendment they would prob- CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 27 ably have avoided much trouble and humiliation in the future. It is true that extreme Radicals like Stevens and Sumner would have tried to impose other conditions, but it is improbable that they would have succeeded. But the breach between congress and president, joined with the hope of aid from Northern Democrats, encouraged the South to refuse acceptance. There existed a delusive hope that with a united South, with the Democratic party in the North and the president to help them, Southerners might recover control of the government and regain much of what had been lost on the field of battle. It was a sad blunder. Compared with the settlement of any other great war, the plan was magnanimous, for it involved no executions, confiscations, or imprisonments. It restored the ballot to virtually every white man who would take an oath to support the constitution, and it did not admit the negro to the franchise, though it held out a reward to the states to confer the franchise upon him. Everything now depended upon the outcome of the congressional elections. Johnson had great confidence that upon an appeal to the people his policy would be sustained. In August a great "National Union Convention" in his behalf met at Philadelphia. It included many prominent Confederates, border-state Whigs, Northern Dem ocrats, both Union and Copperhead, and a con siderable number of former Republicans. On the first day, as a sign of the closing of the "bloody chasm" between the sections, the delegates from Massachusetts and South Carolina walked into 28 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION the convention together, whence was derived the popular name of the " Arm-in- Arm Convention." In September a convention of soldiers and sailors who supported the president met in Cleveland, but it was noticeable that its membership did not include any of the great generals of the war. Earlier in the month a convention of Southern Unionists met in Philadelphia to denounce John son s policy. It ended in a wrangle over the ques tion of negro suffrage, but it drew the attention j of the North to outrages perpetrated upon loyal i men in the South. It charged, probably with some exaggeration, that "more than a thousand devoted Union citizens have been murdered in cold blood since the surrender of Lee," and put forth a potent plea that such patriots should not be abandoned to their enemies. A fourth con vention composed of anti- Johnson citizens, sol diers, and sailors assembled in Pittsburg, and by its numbers and enthusiasm bore evidence as to where the sympathies of the great body of the defenders of the Union lay. The result of the campaign might have been doubtful had it not been for the president s own acts and those of persons who supported him. On July 30, 1866, two days after the adjournment of congress, a blopdy riot took place in New Orleans which helped to crystallize the opinions of many hesitating voters. There had developed in Louisiana a movement in favor of negro suf frage, and an attempt was made, with the consent of the governor and a judge of the Supreme Court, to reconvene the convention of 1864. Mayor Monroe, a violent secessionist who had CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 29 been mayor at the time of the capture of the city four years before, made preparations to suppress the convention. A procession of negroes marching through the streets became involved in a riot with a mob of whites and took refuge in the conven tion hall. The police and the mob attacked the hall, and an inhuman massacre ensued in which about forty negroes and white Radicals were killed, and over a hundred more were wounded, while the loss of the assailants was only about a dozen. General Sheridan, who was in command at New Orleans, characterized the affair as "an absolute massacre ... a murder which the mayor and police of the city perpetrated without the shadow of a necessity." The New Orleans riot and a somewhat similar outbreak at Memphis were made much of by the president s opponents and did much to convince the Northern people that it would be folly to leave the freedmen to the mercy of their former masters. Equally disastrous to the president s cause were the president s own acts. Late in August he set out for Chicago to participate in the cere mony of laying the corner-stone of a monument to Stephen A. Douglas. While "swinging round the circlet" he seized upon the opportunity to mak$ a number of violent speeches glorifying himself and denouncing congress as a congress of only part of the country. At Cleveland while intoxicated he indulged in an unseemly wrangle with the audience, and in reply to a reproof declared: "I care not for dignity." He also asked: "Why not hang Thad Stevens and Wen dell Phillips?" At St. Louis, angered by cries 30 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION of "New Orleans," he foolishly charged that the riot at that place was substantially planned by "the Radical congress." Such behavior alienated thousands. Johnson returned to Washington a thoroughly discredited man. Although he removed hundreds of opponents from office in an effort to turn the tide, he suf fered an overwhelming defeat. The people of the North condemned the president s plan and returned to the next congress sufficient major ities against him to enable the congressional leaders to reconstruct the Southern states as they chose, irrespective of Johnson s opposition. Many ele ments entered into the result, but the chief was this: rightly or wrongly, the loyal people of the North were determined not to take any chances of losing the results of a frightful war that had cost hundreds of thousands of lives and untold treasure. Unfortunately for the Southern people they failed to read the signs of the times. Badly advised by Johnson and the Democratic party in the North, they still hoped that the president would triumph in the end. In the period from October, 1866, to February, 1867, the legisla tures of every one of the seceded states except Tennessee voted down the Fourteenth Amend ment by overwhelming majorities, thereby delib erately defying congress and rendering inevitable the imposition of terms far more drastic and merciless. The Radicals regarded the result of the election as a mandate to deal rigorously in the work of Reconstruction. The rejection of the amendment CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 31 strengthened the hands of those who demanded the exaction of further guarantees and gave a great impetus to the movement in favor of negro suffrage. Hitherto the number of persons who favored bestowing the ballot upon the blacks had been small. A few extremists like Sumner and Chase had advocated it from the first, but the great majority even of Republicans held with Governors Morton of Indiana and Andrews of Massachusetts that unlimited negro suffrage would be a sad mistake. At this time only six Northern states allowed persons of color to vote, and it would manifestly be inconsistent to ask the South to grant them the ballot. But as time went on the idea gained in favor even among moderate men. It was believed that the ballot would serve the~freedman as a weapon in his own defense, Awhile keen-sighted Republican politicians saw that the measure would enable their party to control a number of Southern states. * Jgu. Congress proceeded to tie the president s^^jc^ J hands and to elaborate a more rigorous plan of t .r A^oA * Reconstruction. By a rider on the army appropri- . J^ *4* / * ation bill (March 2, _ISfiIl the president was <if^*^yU r^jv* 1 * 4 ^ at Washington without his own consent or the approval of the senate. A violation of any these provisions was pronounced a misdemeanor. By another act of the same date, passed over Johnson s veto, congress prohibited the presi dent from removing civil officers save with the 32 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION consent of the senate. Violation of this Tenure of Office Act rendered the president liable tonne anorimprisonment. As the president had been allowed the power of removal since the institu tion of the government, the constitutionality of this law, like many of the other Reconstruction acts, was open to grave question. The new policy toward the South was elaborated in what is generally known as the Great Recon struction Act (March 2, 1867) and in two sup- plementary"acts (March 23, July 19, 1867), all passed over Johnson s veto. Acting on the theory that no legal state governments existed in the ten "rebel States," congress divided these states into five military districts, each of which was to be ruTetTby a military officer. This officer was to make a registration of the voters of each state within his district, excluding those persons dis qualified for rebellion, but admitting all other male citizens "of whatever race, color, or previous condition." These voters were to choose dele- gates to a cor^titiilicumL-CQnventiqn, the work of which, if ratified by a majority of the registered voters, was to be submitted to _ congress. If the constitution so framed and ratifiea proved satisfactory to congress, and if the legislature elected under it ratified the Fourteenth Amend ment, the state might then be restored to its position in iJbe Union. The congress which passed the two supple mentary Reconstruction acts was the new fortieth, which, in obedience to a law passed by the ex piring thirty-ninth, met on March 4th instead of waiting as usual till the following December. CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 33 In July, however, despite the earnest appeals of some of the Radicals not to leave Johnson so long free from restraint, congress adjourned until November. In the interval the president determined to rid himself of Secretary of War Stanton, who was openly aiding the Radicals arid retained office in order to act as a check upon his superior. Sta^itogL-declined to resign,_ so Johnson promptly suspended him and appointed General Grant secretary ad interim. Upon the reassembling of congress the president sub mitted his reasons for this act to the senate, as required by the Tenure of Office Act. Had the senate concurred, the suspension would have become a permanent removal, but that body was anxious to embarrass Johnson and refused (Janu ary 13, 1868). Stanton at once returned to office, but a month later, determined to test the con stitutionality of the obnoxious act, Johnson summarily removed him. Stanton refused to recognize the order of dismissal, and the president s act precipitated the gravest crisis between execu tive and legislature in the history of the country. Three days later the house of representatives, by a great majority, formally resolved "that Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors." The trial before the senate began on the 5th of March. With two exceptions, the managers were all extreme Radicals, the most prominent being Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin F. Butler, John A. Logan, and George S. Boutwell. The president s counsel included the learned ex- Judge Benjamin R. Curtis, the brilliant William 34 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION M. Evarts, and Attorney-general Stansberry, who resigned office for the purpose of defending his chief. The charges consisted of eleven articles, mostly dealing with Stanton s removal, but the tenth was based upon newspaper extracts from the president s violent speeches. As the evidence was presented it became glaringly apparent that the prosecutors would be unable to prove that the president had been guilty of "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," which are the sole constitu tional grounds for impeachment. It was shown that, though bitterly opposing congress, the president had displayed a careful regard for law and precedent. In violating the Tenure of Office Act he had meant to get a test case as to its constitutionality before the supreme court; he had had no intention of beginning a revolution. Furthermore, when the bill was under consider ation, senators who were now supporting im peachment had expressed the opinion that it did not guarantee the tenure of cabinet members who had held over from Lincoln s administration as Stanton had done. But party prejudice ran so high that many senators felt justified in support ing the president s removal on political grounds or grounds of public policy, having as a precedent for such action the impeachment on account of drunken insanity of Judge John Pickering in the time of Jefferson s presidency. A number of Republican senators refused, however, to be carried away by party prejudice and staked their political lives in an effort to save the president. The first vote was taken (May 16, 1868) on the CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 35 eleventh article, a kind of omnibus change shrewdly drawn up by Stevens. The vote stood, "guilty," 35; "not guilty," 19, one less than the required two-thirds. Fessenden of Maine, Fowler of Ten nessee, Grimes of Tbwa, Hejiderson ^oT Missouri, Ross of """Kansas, Trumbull of Illinois, and Van Winkle of West Virginia, by voting with the Democrats, had defeated impeachment. It is now known that at least two other senators, Sprague of Rhode Island and Willey of West Virginia, stood ready to vote in the negative had it been necessary to do so to save Johnson. Ten days later the same result was reached on the second and third articles, and the case at once broke down. Andrew Johnson and the independence of the executive were saved. Secretary Stanton at once resigned and was succeeded, by General J, M. A large majority of the people of the North had hoped for conviction, but they acquiesced in the result the more readily because they knew that Johnson s remaining lease of power was short. Four days after the vote on the first count the National Union Republican Convention met in Chicago, and without a dissenting vote nomi nated Ulysses S. Grant, the hero of Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Appomattox, for the presidency. Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, the speaker of the house, was named for the vice-presidency. The, platform approved the congressional plan of reconstruction, denounced as "a national crime" all forms of repudiation, and somewhat guardedly opposed the "Greenback" plan of paying the 36 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION debt in depreciated paper. On the question of negro suffrage the platform was evasive. The idea had not proved altogether popular even|in the North, where the people of four states Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Kansas had recently rejected constitutional amendments en franchising the blacks. On this subject the plat form read: "The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the South was de manded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be main tained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the people of those States." General Grant accepted the nom ination in a characteristically brief letter, one phrase of which, "Let us have peace," struck the popular fancy. The Democratic convention, meeting in Tam many Hall, New York City (July 4, 1868), denounced the Reconstruction acts "as usur pations and unconstitutional, revolutionary and void," and demanded the "immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union," with amnesty for "all past political offenses." It also declared for the taxation of government bonds and for their payment, when not otherwise stipulated, in "lawful money," meaning the pa per currency popularly known as "Greenbacks." The financial plank was in part the reflection of a desire ultimately to repudiate the debt, in part of a "soft money" craze that was particularly prevalent in the West, where there existed a strong dislike for the moneyed East, and where "the same currency for the bond-holder and the Ij CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 37 plough-holder," struck a popular chord. Business bad, and by many it was believed that the depression was due to the contractionist policy of retiring greenbacks that had temporarily been adopted by congress and the treasury department. The leader of the "Greenback" forces w&s GeoTge H. Pendleton, an Ohioan who had served a number of terms in congress and now had the support of his state for the presidential nomi nation. Another candidate was Chief Justice Chase, who had hoped to receive the Republican nomination and now engaged in an undignified scramble for the Democratic one. Chase s "in sanity on the subject of the presidency" was in part due to the ambition of his brilliant and beautiful daughter, Kate Chase Sprague. Lin coln had noted the weakness, and of Chase it was said that "what in other men is a craving for the presidency seems to have been in Chase a lust for it." Other candidates were Sanford E. Church of New York, General Hancock of Pennsylvania, Senator Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, and President Johnson. The contest continued for twenty-one ballots without result. On the twenty-second the Ohio delegation cast then- votes for Horatio Seymour of New York, the presiding officer, a stampede ensued, and he was unanimously nominated in spite of his own protests. In the campaign the financial issue was quickly driven into the background by the Southern question. Frequent murders of Republicans, both white and colored, in the South diminished 38 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Democratic chances, while the general who had written "unconditional surrender" made a better candidate than the governor of New York who had addressed the draft rioters of July, 1863, as "my friends." The electoral vote stood 14 for Grant and only 80 for Seymour. An analysis of the popular vote showed, however, that the result was much closer than would appear from these figures, for Grant s majorities in several states were small, and his success in certain Southern states was evidently due to the dis- franchisement of ex-Confederates. The possi bility of future defeat stared the Republicans in the face and confirmed them in their policy of votes for the freedmen. Andrew Johnson retired from the presidency a discredited man, and lived for some years in restless obscurity in Tennessee, until shortly be fore his death he returned thence (1875) to Washington as a United States senator. His failure on the Reconstruction question has tended to obscure two diplomatic triumphs of his ad ministration. One of these was the purchase from Russia in 1867 of the vast territory of Alaska for the modest sum of $7,200,000. The other was a vindication of the Monroe Doctrine against European aggression. In order to exact the pay ment of debts, some of them of doubtful char acter, France, Spain, and Great Britain had in 1861 united in sending a naval and military ex pedition to Mexico. Spain and Great Britain soon withdrew their forces, but Napoleon III. kept his troops in the country, conquered it, and erected a monarchy, to the throne of which CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 39 he invited the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Influenced by his ambitious young wife^ Carlo tta, daughter of the king of Belgium, Maximilian ac cepted. While our Civil War continued our gov ernment could undertake nothing more drastic than to protest against Napoleon s action. With the return of peace, however, a large force of troops under General Sheridan was massed on the Rio Grande, aid was given the patriot party under Juarez, and Napoleon was politely but positively informed that he must withdraw the French forces. The emperor hesitated, but at length decided to comply. Carlo tta sailed to Europe and passionately endeavored to dissuade Napoleon from his purpose, but failed. She then visited Rome, and while having an audience with the pope her reason left her. The unfortu nate Maximilian was captured by the Mexicans and put to death (June 19, 1867). His fate served as a grim warning to other foreign princes who might in the future feel inclined to set up kingdoms in America. CHAPTER III CARPET-BAGGERS AND KU-KLTJX-KLANS IN March, 1867, President Johnson appointed five military officers to administer the affairs of the five districts created by the great Reconstruc tion Act. The officers proceeded to create a new electorate and through it new civil governments. In conformity with the supplementary acts the registration was so conducted as to secure the fullest possible enrollment of the blacks and the completest possible exclusion of disfranchised whites. The consequence was that the constitu tional conventions chosen by this electorate in cluded in varying degrees men utterly unfitted by previous training for the work of constitution making. Outside pressure and the presence in each convention of a few men of ability served, however, to make the constitutions much better than could have been anticipated. In many respects they were modeled after those of certain Northern states. Particularly laudable were their provisions for ]3u]bllc education, a matter in which the constitutions they superseded were, as a rule, lamentably deficient. As a matter of course, they guaranteed -sntije, ..equality, both civil .and political, regardless~of race or previous condition. 40 CARPET-BAGGERS 41 Before the summer of 1868 all the constitutional conventions had completed their work except that of Texas. The electorates of thejtwo Qaro? linas, Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia ratified the new constitutions and chose state executives and legislatures before the long session of the for tieth congress adjourned, and that body read mitted these states into the Union. In all these states the mass of the white people had vainly raised the issue of "Caucasian civilization" vs. "African barbarism," but in Alabama they suc ceeded by systematic abstention from voting in preventing the constitution s receiving the re quired majority of registered voters. Neverthe less, the Radical leaders in congress proceeded to saddle Alabama with the constitution and to readmit her with the rest. In Mississippi the constitution was rejected by a majority of the votes actually cast. This state, with Virginia and Texas, in which the work of Reconstruction had proceeded more slowly, remained out for some time longer. The readmitted states all ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and it was proclaimed a part of the constitution in July, 1868. In Georgia race prejudice soon overcame the dictates of prudence, and the Democratic members of the legislature, aided by a few white Repub licans, proceeded to expel the twenty-seven colored members on pseudo-constitutional grounds. As a result of this impolitic act, congress denied Georgia representation, counted her electoral vote conditionally, and subjected her to a new process of Reconstruction. The legislature was purged of twenty-four Democrats who labored 42 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION under disabilities, the negro members were re stored, and the state was compelled to ratify the new Fifteenth Amendment. This amendment provided that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was one of the results of the election of 1868, and, though it was bitterly opposed by Northern as well as Southern Demo crats, it was proclaimed in effect March 30, 1870. Not only Georgia but Texajs, Virginia, and Mis sissippi were required to ratify it as a condition of readmission. As the price of their obstinacy, the people of these four states were forced "to swallow the black dose of negro suffrage" in order to obtain their own. P^liticaHines in the South were from the first tightly drawn. The opponents of congressional reconstruction, known as Conservatives or Demo crats, consisted of most of the white population and a very few negroes. Their opponents, the Radicals or Republicans, included the great mass of the freedmen, some recent Northern settlers the hated "Carpet-baggers" and a few native whites the still more hated "Scalawags." The r negroes naturally gravitated into this party, and the process was hastened by the formation of Union or Lo^aJJLeagues, under cover of which, with awe-inspiring rites, the new voters received political instruction from the white leaders. With its iron discipline the League held the blacks together for several years. In some cases its members resorted to whipping and otherwise CARPET-BAGGERS 43 maltreating negroes who became Democrats. 44 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION The objects of these orders varied in different localities, but the one great design was to J^eep the negroes "down," In many instances the orders did laudable work by helping to restrain lawless ness. With emancipation, thievery and the burn ing of barns and gin-houses had become common; while crimes of the worst character, such as rape and murder, were occasionally committed by the blacks. Too often, however, the societies became the instruments of private vengeance and political proscription, and committed outrages as unjusti fiable as they were cruel and fiendish. They took full advantage of the credulous fears and super stitions of the ignorant blacks. A common disguise of the Ku-Klux consisted of " a white mask, a tall cardboard hat, and a gown that covered the whole person." A mere meeting with such a being in the witching hours of night was often enough to scare an obnoxious negro into obeying the wishes of the Klan. The language of the warnings was often mysterious and sanguinary; the paper on which they were written was likely to be adorned with "a picture of crossed swords, coffin, skull and crossbones, owl, bloody moon, a train of cars each labelled K. K. K." At their worst, the Klans whipped negroes, burnt their school- houses and churches, and indulged in brutal outrage and murder. Notwithstanding the efforts of Southern novelists and playwrights to palliate their offenses, the record of these secret orders is a black one. The excuse that the whites were goaded into such outrages by the evils of negro domination is true only in part, for the Klans displayed CARPET-BAGGERS 45 notable activity in opposing the new state con stitutions and in the election of state officers before the blacks were yet in power. In the presidential election of 1868, stories of brutal outrages were a potent political argument in the North. Republican officials, both white and black, were murdered in several states, and a reign of terror existed in many sections. For varying periods of time most of the re constructed states were in the hands of the negroes and their white allies. It was a sinister alliance which had been made possible only by the plea that the negro must be given the ballot for his own protection. The negroes were totally with out political experience, and for the most part illiterate, ignorant, and unmoral. Some of their white allies were men of character, but too many of them were mere adventurers who saw in the situation a splendid opportunity for their own enrichment. The inevitable result was a carnival of misrule hitherto unapproached in American annals, though equalled in the same period in the metropolis of the country under Tweed, Probably the most notable instance of such misgovernment is that afforded by Louisiana. Wholesale corruption, intimidation of negro voters by thousands and tens of thousands, political assassinations, riots, revolutions all these were the order of the day in Louisiana politics in the lurid years from 1866 to 187J. That this was so was partly due to the character of the population. Many of the white inhabi tants were French and Spanish Creoles who had both the virtues and the vices of their ancestors. 46 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION The ante-bellum society of New Orleans had been polite and even brilliant, yet the state was one of the least law-abiding of any of the long-settled communities. The custom of the duello still lingered, and in New Orleans frequent bloody encounters took place beneath the moss-hung "duelling oaks" in what is now the city park. Occasionally this lack of respect for law revealed itself in political frauds and riots, and Louisiana had a widespread reputation as a corrupt state. The freedmen, despite the presence of a consider able number of educated blacks in New Orleans, were on the average less intelligent than in most of the former slave states. The number of slaves had been unusually large, and most of them had lived on great plantations where civilizing contact with the superior race was slight. Furthermore, many of the slaves had been persons of desperate or criminal character who in punishment had been "sold down the River." The white people of Louisiana did not wait to see the fruits of negro rule before falling upon the hapless freedmen. In July, 1866, occurred the bloody New Orleans riot already described, and in the late summer and fall of 1868 the Knights of the White Camelia entered upon so vigorous a campaign of violence and intimidation that a Republican majority of 26,000 in the spring was transformed into a Democratic majority of 46,000 for Seymour. This astonishing reversal was explained by the Republican members of a con gressional investigating committee as follows : "The testimony shows that over 2,000 persons were killed, wounded, and otherwise injured in CARPET-BAGGERS 47 Louisiana within two weeks prior to the Presi dential election in November, 1868; that half the state was overrun by violence; and that mid night raids, secret murders, and open riot kept the people in constant terror until the Republicans surrendered all claim. . . . The most remarkable case is that of St. Landry, a planting parish on the river Teche. Here the Republicans had a regis tered majority of 1,071 votes. In the spring of 1868 they carried the parish by 678. In the fall they gave Grant no vote, not one while the Democrats cast 4,787, the full vote of the parish, for Seymour and Blair. Here occurred one of the bloodiest riots on record, in which the Ku-Klux killed and wounded over 200 Republicans, hunt ing and chasing them for two days and nights through fields and swamps. Thirteen captives were taken from the jail and shot. A pile of twenty-five dead bodies was found half-buried in the woods. Having conquered the Republicans and killed and driven off the leaders, the Ku-Klux captured the masses, marked them with badges of red flannel, enrolled them in clubs, made them vote the Democratic ticket, and gave them a certificate of the fact." ^A Democratic historian, who was then a mem ber of congress, thinks this statement "a good deal exaggerated, especially as to the number killed," but admits that "the failure of the ne groes to vote can be explained only on the theory that a reign of terror existed."^ From 1868 to 1876 the ^arty in opposition, consisting of most of the white inhabitants, including almost all the property owners, pursued 48 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION _ of intimidation, even to Jthe extent of assassination, while the party in power, consisting chiefly of negroes, with a_ sprinkling of white adventurers, presorted to election frauds and to unblushing misappropriation of public funds. The value of property greatly decreased, the payment of taxes fell far in arrears, and the public debt swelled to enormous proportions. The de crease in property value was due in part to the ravages of war, to the emancipation of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of slaves, to the dis orders incident to the change from one labor system to another, to the disastrous panic of the early 70 s, and to misgovernment. The increase in the debt was not wholly the result of actual stealing as is often represented, but the amount stolen was large. Expenditures were increased as a result of the bad condition of the Mississippi levees, of subsidies to companies (fraudulent in some cases) engaged in undertakings which it was hoped would help the development of the state, and of the establishment of a system of public education. Tax receipts fell off as a result of the decrease in the value of property, while the state bonds were floated far below par. Financiers had little faith in Southern bonds, partly because of unsettled conditions existing there, partly because in the period before the war so many of the states in that section had repudiated their debts. What faith they had was misplaced, for when the states were "redeemed," a large pro portion of Southern bonds were repudiated. In 1872 the Radicals quarreled among them selves. Governor Warmoth, one of their least CARPET-BAGGERS 49 scrupulous leaders, went over to the Conserva tives, and a period of great confusion followed. The election was claimed by both parties, but the Radicals were able through the complaisance of a Federal judge, who issued a "midnight restraining order" of doubtful legality, to obtain the all- important aid of the Federal troops and to install William Pitt Kellogg as governor. McEnery, the Conservative candidate, was also inaugurated, but was presently obliged temporarily to abandon all efforts to assert his authority. On September 14, 1874, however, the White League, an armed quasi-secret organization, rose against the Kellogg government. A battle ensued in the streets of New Orleans, and Kellogg and his supporters took refuge in the custom-house. Once more the president interfered, and reinstated the Radicals by Federal bayonets. During the ensuing two years a state of anarchy existed in parts of Louisiana. Rarely have a proud people drunk deeper of the cup of humiliation than did the white in habitants of South Carolina in the sixteen years following the suicidal ordinance of 1860. Forced during four years of mingled triumph and defeat to endure the vexation of a blockading fleet which cut off well-nigh all commerce with the world outside, they had at last recognized the end when an invading army, bent on vengeance, had swept through the land consuming and destroying everything in its path and leaving the capital in i ruins. At intervals for more than a decade there after troops wearing the hated blue were stationed here and there about the state, but no such 50 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION reminder was required to make it apparent that the old order had passed away. The fact was brought home in a far more tangible form. The pyramid of society had been turned upside down. Those who had been the slaves were now the rulers. In the government, in the places of the ruined aristocracy, stood black and brown freed- men, led by hated Yankees and equally hated "Scalawags." In 1873 three-fourths of the state legislature, according to a traveler, "belonged to the African race. They were of every hue from the light octoroon to the deep black. . . . Every negro type and physiognomy was here to be seen from the genteel serving man to the rough-hewn cus tomer from the rice or cotton field. Their dress was as varied as their countenances. There was the second-hand black frock-coat of infirm gen tility, glossy and threadbare. There was the stove-pipe hat of many ironings and departed styles. There was also to be seen a total disre gard of the proprieties of costume in the coarse and dirty garments of the field; the stub jackets and slouch hats of soiling labor. In some in stances, rough woolen comforters embraced the neck and hid the absence of linen. Heavy brogans and short torn trousers it was impossible to hide. . . . Seven years ago these men were raising corn and cotton under the whip of the overseer. To-day they are raising points of order and questions of privilege." Radical Northerners may have seen poetic justice in the situation just described, but the overturn was unquestionably bad for the economic CARPET-BAGGERS 51 interests of South Carolina. However good his intentions and the intentions of some were the best an untutored black man, fresh from slavery in the Sea Island cotton fields, could not possibly be a satisfactory legislator or even citizen. A reign of misgovernment followed enfranchisement i period not quite so replete in pitched battles, jut in its financial aspects fully as deplorable as hat in Louisiana. During the six years from 1868 x> 1874 the public debt was increased by about H4,000,000, while in the period from 1860 to 1874 the total valuation of property decreased rom $490,000,000 to $141,000,000. Much of ;his decline was due to causes similar to those obtaining in Louisiana, yet unquestionably a arge part was the result of misgovernment. In refurnishing the state house the legislature replaced $5 clocks by $600 ones; $4 looking glasses by $600 mirrors; $1 chairs by $60 chairs; 40 cent spittoons by $14 imported china cuspidors. A free restaurant and bar for the use of members and their friends was kept open day and night, while included in "legislative supplies" were such items as baskets of champagne, hams, oysters, suspenders, perfumes, bonnets, corsets, palpita- ;ors, chemises, garters, and a metallic coffin.* These were some of the petty steals. State bonds, the public printing, railroad charters, and public ands figured in the larger ones. The public Drinting bills during eight years of Radical rule exceeded the total cost of printing for the seventy- iight preceding years by $717,589. The total :axes paid by all the members of one of the legis- atures is said to have been only $634 annually; 52 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION 67 of the 98 negro members paid none at all. Little wonder that such a legislature had np fear of public extravagance. Although the negroes and their white allies held the offices and were the beneficiaries of this reign of corruption, the state was far from being an Elysium for the freedmen. The Ku-Klux early became active, and against them the negroes were powerless to protect themselves. In some instances the operations of the Klans were justi fiable; in others the outrages were not only with out extenuation but were brutal and fiendish beyond description. Says a Democratic histo rian of the period: "Murders, or attempts to murder, are numer ous. Whippings are without number. Probably the most cruel and cowardly of these last was the whipping of Elias Hill. He was a colored man who had, from infancy, been dwarfed in legs and arms. He was unable to use either. But he possessed an intelligent mind; had learned to read; and had acquired an unusual amount of knowledge for one in his circumstances. He was a Baptist preacher. He was highly respected for his upright character. He was eminently reli gious, and was greatly revered by the people of his own race. It was on this ground that he was visited by the Ku-Klux, brutally beaten, and dragged from his house into the yard, where he was left in the cold at night, unable to walk or crawl. After the fiends had left, his sister brought him into the house. Although this man was a Republican, his testimony gave evidence of the mildness and Christian forbearance of his char- CARPET-BAGGERS 53 acter, as well as his freedom from ill-will toward the white race. In answer to a question as to his feelings toward the whites, he replied that he had good-will, love, and affection toward them; but that he feared them." As a result of such outrages and also of an ever present fear that a Democratic victory would mean a return to slavery, the negroes, despite flagrant misgovernment, remained Republicans almost to a man. As they outnumbered the whites about five to three, they invariably elected the Republican candidates for state office, no matter how dishonest or disreputable. In 1868 R. K. Scott, an Ohio carpet-bagger, was elected governor, and in 1870 was re-elected. In 1872 he was succeeded by F. J. Moses, a notorious Jew, who, it is said, had won the favor of the blacks by dancing at their balls. In 1874, however, Daniel H. Chamberlain, a man of different character, was elected. Cham berlain was a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale. He had studied law at Harvard and had served as a lieutenant in a colored regi ment. He soon made it evident that he meant to preserve "the civilization of the Puritan and the Cavalier, of the Roundhead and the Hugue not." He set his face like flint against the cor rupt schemes of the unscrupulous element of his party, and by a series of courageous acts won the admiration of the North and high encomiums from many Southerners. Though opposed at every step by ignorant and corrupt associates, he put an end to the carnival of misrule and began the regeneration of South Carolina. 54 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION In most states the period of Radical govern ment was shorter than in those just described. Where the white population was largely pre dominant, the negroes and their white associates were never in control* The carpet-bag govern ments would quickly have been overthrown by force of arms had it not been for the protecting hand of the Federal government. The blacks, even when constituting most of a state s militia, showed themselves totally unable to hold their own in physical conflicts with the more master ful race, and in the many armed combats were almost invariably the chief sufferers. Not only were Federal troops frequently used to sustain tottering state governments, but congress in 1870 and 1871 passed two Enforcement acts for the protection of the negro s political and civil rights and an act that established a rigorous system of Federal supervision over congressional elections, which remained in force until Cleve land s second term. The second Enforcement Act, generally called the Ku-Klux Act, was aimed q,t the secret organizations whose activities have already been described. It was subsequently set aside as unconstitutional, but under its supposed authority President Grant, in October, 1871, proclaimed nine counties of South Carolina in rebellion, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and sent detachments of troops that arrested hundreds of persons, a few of whom were~con- victed and imprisoned. In spite, however, of the protecting hand of the Federal government, the Radicals gradually lost their hold upon the South. In 1869 they lost CARPET-BAGGERS 55 Tennessee; in 1870, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia; in 1873, Texas; in 1874, Arkansas; and in 1875, Mississippi. The methods employed by the party in opposition to accomplish these results were not always above reproach, being too often a compound of persuasion, bribery, force, and fraud, but they were effective. The passage by congress of numerous amnesty acts also aided the Conservatives by enabling their natural leaders once more to participate in poli tics; in 1872 only about 750 persons still remained under disabilities. In this number was included Jefferson Davis, who had been captured and imprisoned for a time and then released on bail. With the "redemption" of Mississippi, only three Southern states -Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina remained in the hands of the Radicals. CHAPTER IV THE END OF AN ERA ULYSSES S. GRANT was inaugurated president on the 4th of March, 1869. Eight years before he had been a leather clerk in a small western town at a salary of $600 a year and had behind him a record of failure in everything he had under taken. The rapidity of his rise was hitherto unprecedented in American annals. His suc cess was due to military genius of a high order; unfortunately his capacities as a civil ruler did not prove equal to his abilities as a soldier. Prior to his inauguration he had never held an office except that of secretary of war ad interim, and he did not clearly understand the workings of our political system. Although a keen judge of military men, as is evidenced by his selecting such officers as Sherman and Sheridan, he had no skill in choosing civil subordinates and advisers. Honest himself, he was unable to detect dis honesty in others. His confidence was frequently abused by pretended friends, who brought him into disrepute, but whom, with misguided fidelity, he was unwilling "to desert under fire." Grant began his administration with the as sumption that the presidency was a sort of per sonal possession given him by the people to 56 THE END OF AN ERA 57 manage as he thought proper. He ignored the party leaders in selecting his first cabinet and preserved a sphinx-like silence until his nomina tions were sent to the senate. They occasioned no little surprise, for the list was mainly composed of men whose names had not even been suggested in the public prints. Adolph E. Borie, his choice for the post of secretary of the navy, was a citizen of Philadelphia, a personal friend, so obscure politically that the Pennsylvania sena tors both professed that they had never even heard of him. For secretary of the treasury the president was anxious to secure a successful business man, and it happened that he greatly admired Alexander T. Stewart, a canny mer chant prince of New York. Stewart s name was sent to the senate, but it was soon discovered that he was rendered ineligible by a law prohibit ing any one from holding the portfolio who was interested in "the business of trade or commerce." After vainly trying to get congress to modify the law, Grant substituted George S. Boutwell, a member of the house from Massachusetts. Elihu B. Washburne, who was appointed secre tary of state, was a member of congress who had been so active in forwarding the president s military career that he was said to "have Grant on the brain." Although a man of natural parts, he did not possess the culture usually supposed a requisite in one who must deal with diplomats. When one disgruntled Republican statesman suggested that the position demanded a knowl edge of French, a second retorted that at least it required a knowledge of one s own language. 58 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION But Washburne s appointment proved to be merely complimentary; after a week s incum bency he resigned to accept the French mission. There, notwithstanding linguistic deficiencies, he did himself and his country high honor, being the only foreign representative who dared to remain in Paris during the red days of the Com mune. To fill the vacancy created by Wash- burne s resignation, Grant dragged from retire ment Hamilton Fish, a former governor of New York and United States senator, who, contrary to public expectation, proved one of the most successful secretaries of state the country has had. The other members of the cabinet were Jacob D. Cox, secretary of the interior; John A. J. Creswell, postmaster-general; John A. Rawlins, secretary of war; and E. Rockwood Hoar, attorney-general. Hoar was a Free-soil jurist from Massachusetts. The selection was a praise worthy one, but he was soon forced out of the cabinet because he seemed not to admit the right of senators to speak in regard to appoint ments. Prior to his retirement he had been nominated to the supreme bench, but the senate had refused to confirm him. "What could you expect when you had snubbed seventy senators?" asked a friend by way of condolence. One of the president s first tasks was to secure a modification of the Tenure of Office Act. A bill for its repeal at the last session of congress had failed, chiefly because the senate wished to retain the act for use as a lever. But Grant said: "Because you found it necessary to put a curb bit in the mouth of one horse is no reason THE END OF AN ERA 59 that you should try to put it on another." He brought the legislators to terms by giving them to understand that until his wishes were com plied with he would retain the Johnson appointees. The act was radically amended, but was not finally repealed until the first administration of Grover Cleveland, having long been in a con dition of "innocuous desuetude. * The first year of Grant s presidency was sig nalized by the completion of a transcontinental railway. The enterprise had been authorized by congress in 1862. As important unifying and military results were certain to be accomplished by the road, the central government gave it much financial assistance. Not only was it granted a free right of way through the public domain, but it received twenty sections of land for each mile of track and loans aggregating up wards of $27,000,000. When the two construction companies, one working from the east and the other from the west, met at Promontory Point near Ogden, Utah, the last rail was laid (May 10, 1869) with impressive ceremonies, and the event was cele brated all over the country. The building of the line across the great plains and mountains was an important step in winning the last West to settlement and civilization. Branch lines were built north and south from the main line, while other transcontinental roads were soon begun. In time the blanket Indian, the trapper, and the teeming buffalo gave way to miners, cowboys, and great herds of long-horned cattle. Unfortunately the process of financing the road 60 RECONSTRUCTION ANtf UNION had many sordid features that dimmed the luster of the achievement. A group of financiers hold ing a majority of the stock in the enterprise organ ized a company called the Credit Mobilier, and then, in their capacity as stockholders in the road, proceeded to vote to themselves as con trollers of the Credit Mobilier a contract to build and equip at an enormous profit a large part of the road. This in itself was highly reprehensible, though typical of the then developing methods of "high finance." Worse was to come. Fearing congressional interference, one of the financiers, Oakes Ames, a member of the house from Massa chusetts, proceeded to distribute (1867-68) at extremely low prices shares in the Credit Mo bilier among his congressional associates, placing them, he wrote, "where they will do the most good to us." The corrupt nature of such a trans action was not so well understood then as now; a number of the most prominent men in public life accepted the covert bribe, but the facts did not become public property until some years later. Grant failed miserably in an ill-advised at tempt to secure the annexation of Santo Domingo, but his administration was more fortunate in negotiations regarding damages inflicted by the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers fitted out in British ports. The attempts of Charles Francis Adams to obtain an adjustment of our claims had failed, but the feeling against England was still bitter, and there existed a strong deter mination to exact satisfaction. When in January, 1869, Reverdy Johnson concluded in London a THE END OF AN ERA 61 convention that seemed practically to waive our claims, it was deemed so unsatisfactory that the senate decisively rejected it by a vote of 54 to one (April 13, 1869). In opposing it, Senator Sum- ner voiced the public sentiment on the subject in a speech which won him for once genuine popularity. He estimated that England owed the United States $15,000,000 for direct indi vidual losses inflicted by the Alabama and simi lar cruisers, and upwards of $2,000,000,000 for indirect damages to our merchant marine and on account of prolongation of the war by too hasty recognition of belligerent rights and fail ure to observe neutrality obligations. He thought that by way of reparation England ought to cede us Canada. The speech "set almost all Americans to swinging their hats for eight or nine days, and made every Englishman double up his fists and curse every time he thought of it for several weeks." As Sumner was head of the senate committee on foreign relations, his speech was in a sense official and gave ground for serious reflection in England. In that country there already existed a well-founded fear that in case England should become involved in war the United States would pay her back in her own coin by allowing the fitting out of cruisers to prey on her commerce. In his message of December 5, 1870, the presi dent incorporated a paragraph furnished by Fish recommending that congress authorize the as sumption of private claims by the United States so that the government would "have the respon sible control of all the demands against Great 62 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Britain." The moment for this ominous lan guage was well chosen, for the Franco-Prussian war was in progress, and there existed a possi bility that England might become involved. The outcome was a joint high commission which labored for two months and produced the Treaty of Washington, signed May 8, 1871. The treaty provided for a mixed commission to deal with the claims of Canada against the United States and referred the Alabama claims and a dispute con cerning the northwestern boundary to tribunals of arbitration. The mixed commission did not complete its labors until 1877, when it mulcted the United States $5,500,000 for alleged illegal fishing in Canadian waters. The northwestern boundary dispute was decided five years earlier by the German emperor in favor of the United States. The tribunal for the adjustment of the Ala bama claims met at Geneva, Switzerland, De cember 15, 1871. It consisted of five persons appointed respectively by President Grant, Queen Victoria, the king of Italy, the emperor of Brazil, and the president of the Swiss Republic. The presentation by the American agent, J. C. Bancroft Davis, of enormous claims for indirect damages caused great excitement in England, and for a time threatened to wreck the arbi tration. But the claims were not pressed and ultimately were excluded by the tribunal. Con sideration of direct and individual claims then proceeded. A verdict was finally rendered that Great Britain had been remiss in neutrality duties as regarded the cruisers Alabama, Shen- THE END OF AN ERA 63 andoah, and Florida. By way of damages the , tribunal awarded (September 2, 1872) the sum of $15,500,000. The British arbitrator, Lord Alexander Cockburn, a nephew of an admiral little loved in the United States, bitterly opposed the award. It was far from popular in England, but the ministry accepted it, and the damages were duly paid. President Grant had not been long in office before his independent policy broke down. His attempt to annex Santo Domingo roused the bitter opposition of Senator Sumner, and in his anxiety I to secure votes for the treaty of annexation the president threw himself into the arms of the politicians. The least reputable Republicans, such as Conkling of New York, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Butler of Massachusetts, and Patterson of South Carolina, gained control of him and became the dispensers of patronage. Under their influence he adopted the policy of dealing rigorously with the South, and he also lost sympathy with civil service reform, a move ment to which he at first gave a half-hearted sup port. His ultimate conclusion on the matter was :hat "there are two humbugs . . . one is Civil Service Reform, the other reformers." As a rule, lis political opinions were hazy, and personal riends of doubtful antecedents too often deter- nined his policy to their own benefit and the public scandal. In the first year of his administration, allowing himself to be entertained by the sub- le Jay Gould and the notorious "Jim" Fiske, le narrowly escaped being unwittingly a pawn n the game to corner gold that resulted in 64 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION the famous financial flurry known as "Black Friday." The first impulse toward organized opposition within the Republican ranks against the regime at Washington originated in Missouri, where the proscription and disfranchisement of Con federate sympathizers had taken an extreme form. In 1870 liberal Republicans, under the leadership 1 of Senator Carl Schurz and others, joined with the Democrats, and, despite presidential opposition, carried the elections and modified the constitu tion in the interest of peace and conciliation. The movement awakened favorable echoes in other quarters, and in January, 1872, the Mis souri Liberals felt emboldened to issue a call for a national convention at Cincinnati for the purpose of nominating candidates for the coming presidential election. The persons who met at Cincinnati (May 1, 1872) were moved by widely different motives, including tariff reform, civil service reform, opposition to centralization, to the Radical South ern policy, and to President Grant personally. Among those present were David A. Wells, William Cullen Bryant, Carl Schurz, David Davis, Lyman Trumbull, Horace Greeley, Murat Hal- stead, Henry Watterson, and Whitelaw Reid. Schurz became permanent chairman, and the platform satisfied the demands of the various classes of reformers except that upon the question of the tariff there was such wide difference of opinion that, under the influence of Greeley, a protectionist, the subject was remitted to "the people in their congressional districts and to the THE END OF AN ERA 65 decision of congress." The keenest leaders of the movement had expected to bring about the nom ination of Charles Francis Adams, the eminent diplomat who had so ably represented the United States at the Court of St. James during the Civil War and who was now the American representa tive at the Geneva Convention. But their plans went awry; on the seventh ballot there was a sudden stampede to Horace Greeley, who was nominated, with B. Gratz Brown of Missouri as the vice-presidential candidate. In July the Democrats met in convention at Baltimore, and, as a forlorn hope, accepted the Liberal Republican candidates and platform. This platform solemnly declared: "We pledge ourselves to maintain the Union of these States, emancipation and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amend ments." In adopting such a pledge the Demo crats went exactly counter to their platform of 1868, and formally confessed defeat upon the issue of the war and reconstruction. No more preposterous candidacy than that of Greeley was ever put before the American people. He was not a believer either in civil service reform or in tariff reform two of the three cardinal ten ets of the Liberal Republican movement. No man then living had ever said more bitter things of the Democrats and the South. That the Democratic party should now accept him as their candidate was almost beyond belief. Little wonder that The Nation, coining a new political phrase, de clared that "Greeley appears to be boiled crow 66 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION to more of his fellow citizens than any other can didate for office in this or any other age of which we have record." Some of the Liberal Republi cans ultimately declared for Grant, who was renominated, with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, the "Natick Cobbler," for vice- president. Schurz and others swallowed their chagrin and supported Greeley. The Democratic leaders and the Democratic organization, in the main, gave him loyal support, one factor in se curing the loyalty of the South being the fact that Greeley had signed the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis. Greeley s nomination made Grant s success inevitable. The Republicans brought the South ern issue to the forefront and made effective use of the cry, "Grant beat Davis, Greeley bailed him." To hundreds of thousands of good citizens Grant s mistakes seemed venial and easily pardoned when they recalled the thrills with which, in the days when patriots had despaired of ithe Republic, they had received the news of Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Appomattox. More than Liberal Republican or Democrat could adduce was needed to influence men who had marched where " Ulysses led the van." As for Greeley, his record, personal characteristics, and childlike naivete, which is discernible even in his portraits and statues, lent themselves to ridicule and caricature. Thomas Nast, then at the height of his fame, contributed powerfully to the result in cartoons, one of which represented Greeley eating with a wry face from a bowl of uncomfortably hot porridge labeled "My own words and deeds." Another pictured THE END OF AN ERA 67 the candidate at his country home at Chappaqua sitting well out upon a giant limb, which he was gravely sawing off between himself and the tree. A tour which Greeley made in the "October States" Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana gave the Republicans temporary uneasiness, for his name had long been a household word in Repub lican families, and curiosity drew great crowds to see and hear him. But the elections in these states dispelled all fears. When the final elections were held in November, it was found that Gre^gy was one of the worst defeated men who hadever run for the presidency. Grant received 272 of the 338 electoral votes that were counted and a popular majority of three-quarters of a million. The outcome was more than the old journalist could bear. Sorrow over the recent death of his wife, attacks upon himself, mortification over his defeat, and financial troubles combined to drive him to insanity and then to the tomb. In that tragic hour men forgot his failings, and over his grave honored him for the good deeds that lived after him. Seemingly the question of the dispensation of the loaves and fishes of political patronage was settled forever, but the new lease of power into which the Republican party entered was destined to be a stormy one. Speculation, undue railway construction, and other causes combined in Sep- i tember, 1873, to produce one of the worst finan- | cial panics the country had passed through. The panic began in New York City with the sudden failure of the great banking house of Jay Cooke & 68 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Company, which had been popularly esteemed as solid as the hills. Next day the names of nineteen other firms that were unable to meet their obli gations were read off in the Stock Exchange. All over the country banks and business houses went down. The president, implored by financiers to do something to ease the money market, authorized the release of about $13,000,000 of idle greenbacks in the treasury by the purchase of bonds. Otherwise the government conserva tively refrained from interfering and let confidence and credit return without artificial stimulus. When congress passed a bill to increase the cir culation of the "battle-born, blood-sealed" green backs, Grant courageously vetoed it (April 22, 1874). Railroad building almost ceased, many other projects were stopped for lack of capital, and there was no real revival of business until 1878. It was a gloomy period of grinding frugality, suffering, and despair. As invariably happens in such cases, the panic reacted unfavorably upon the party in power. The reaction was intensified by disclosures of widespread governmental corruption. During the presidential campaign charges of gross bribery by the Credit Mobilier had been made by the New York Sun; when Congress reassembled, it authorized an investigation. The investigation showed that the charges were greatly exaggerated, but the truth proved enough to shock the American people. It was shown that Oakes Ames and another member of the house, namely, James Brooks of New York, had been guilty of dis guised corruption; they were censured by con- THE END OF AN ERA 69 gress. Both died soon after. Others dishonor ably involved were Vice-president Colfax and Senator Patterson of New Hampshire, while Henry Wilson, the vice-president-elect, James A. Gar- field, and others were gravely suspected of ques tionable conduct. These and other disclosures had a far-reaching effect upon popular opinion, for they were regarded as confirming the worst suspicions of corruption in high governmental circles. At the same session of congress an act was passed increasing the salaries of the president, cabinet officers, judges of the supreme court, senators, and representatives, the increase for senators and representatives being made retroactive. This so-called "salary grab" or "back pay steal * "was like vitriol on the raw wound of public sentiment." There was an explosion of wrath from one end of the country to the other. Finding attempts at justification vain, many members hastened to return their back| pay; and when the new congress assembled, it hastily reduced all salaries except those of the president and judges to the old figures. As the congressional elections drew near, the people were in a different mood from that of two years before. Stories [of "horrible scenes of violence and bloodshed throughout the South" proved no longer effective. A great "Tidal Wave" swept over the land. Out of thirty-five states in which elections were held twenty-three went Democratic; even such rock-ribbed Re publican states as Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts repudiated their old allegiance. 70 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Only a comparative handful of Republicans were returned to the house. The dying congress in its final session performed one notable act. In the same month that Grant entered office, congress had passed an act solemnly pledging "the payment in coin or its equivalent of all the obligations of the United States," except in cases expressly providing for "lawful money or other currency than gold or silver." The act also pledged the government "to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemp tion of the United States notes in coin." Green- backism was again rearing its head in the West, but the Republican majority, under the leader ship of John Sherman of Ohio, carried through a bill providing for the gradual reduction of green backs to three hundred millions and naming Janu ary 1, 1879, as the date on which the government would begin to redeem such notes in coin. Through the efforts of Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow, an energetic Kentuckian, who had entered office in 1874, a corrupt "Whiskey Ring" was unearthed, which for years had been cheating the government out of millions. The chief center of the ring was in St. Louis; it was composed of distillers and revenue officers and had confederates even in Washington itself. Or- ville E. Babcock, the president s own secretary, was implicated, and the president himself had accepted "with oriental nonchalance" valuable presents from members of the ring. Grant at first wrote, "Let no guilty man escape," but subsequently he unwisely hampered the prosecu tion and practically forced Bristow from the THE END OF AN ERA 71 cabinet. Some of the guilty were convicted and imprisoned. Babcock was acquitted, but, though the jury s verdict was "not guilty," that of the country was "not proven." Hardly was Babcock s trial over when a com mittee of the house of representatives brought in (March 2, 1876) evidence which showed con clusively that Secretary of War Belknap was guilty of malfeasance in office. It appeared that he and his wife were in the habit of selling post- traderships on the frontier. Belknap hastily resigned, and Grant foolishly accepted his resigna tion "with great regret." This brought up the technical question of whether Belknap was now subject to impeachment, and as a result the guilty man ultimately escaped punishment. These disclosures, with others, marked "the nadir of national disgrace." Never before or since has corruption been so prevalent. When all proper allowance is made for the morally unhealthy atmosphere which follows a great war, it must yet be said that much of the corruption was due to Grant s unfit ness for civil office. His failure ought to stand as a warning to those foolish Americans who believe that any man, no matter what his training, is capable of filling any office. In the minds of many a sincere patriot, proud of the record of a hundred years but humiliated by the fact that the centennial of the nation s birth must witness so much corruption in high places, there arose a desire for a political change. Had public confidence in the Democratic party equaled disgust with the Republican, there would have been little need to hold an election. 72 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION For the first time since 1860 there was doubt as to who would be the Republican standard bearer. Sycophants and pretended friends urged Grant to stand for a third term, but the idea caused so much popular clamor that he issued a "declina tion with a string to it." A quietus was finally put upon the idea by the passage through the house of representatives, by an enormous majority, of a resolution declaring that any attempt to depart from the precedent established by Wash ington "would be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with peril to our free institutions." With Grant out of the way, the field was open for other can didates. Undoubtedly the man most favored by reformers was Benjamin H. Bristow of Kentucky, whose exposure of the W T hiskey Ring had made a great impression. But Bristow was disliked by the politicians and by the president, Grant s pref erence, though it carried little weight, being for Senator Conkling of New York. Senator Morton, the capable war governor of Indiana, had many supporters, but James G. Blaine of Maine seemed to have the best chance of securing the coveted honor. He possessed a magnetic personality, and had attracted much attention as a repre sentative and as speaker of the house. In the existing "Rebel Congress," as Republicans were fond of calling it, he had kept himself in the pub lic eye by systematically baiting hot-tempered Southerners into bellowing out utterances that could be used as party capital. But Blaine had the bitter enmity of Senator Conkling, whom on a memorable occasion he had forever alienated by comparing him to a turkey gobbler. His THE END OF AN ERA 73 availability in the eyes of reformers was vastly lessened by embarrassing revelations regarding his alleged improper relations while speaker with the affairs of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. The Republican convention met at Cincinnati on June 14th. The platform temporized as regards resumption of specie payments, contained a weak indorsement of civil service reform, declared in favor of protection and against polygamy, com mended Grant s administration, and denounced the Democratic party as "being the same in char acter and spirit as when it sympathized with treason." Elaine s name was presented to the convention by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, who characterized his hero as a "plumed knight" who "marched down the halls of the American congress and threw his shining lance full and fair : against the brazen forehead of every traitor to his country and every maligner of his fair repu- i tation." For six ballots Elaine led by a large mar gin, but on the fifth ballot a movement began to i set in toward a "favorite son," Rutherford B. ! Hayes of Ohio, who was nominated on the seventh i ballot. The convention then selected William A. 1 Wheeler of New York for the vice-presidential candidate. The nomination of Hayes occasioned consider able surprise, but it was soon discovered that the convention had selected an honest, capable man on whom all factions could unite. He had fought in the Civil War as a volunteer and had received four honorable wounds and a brevet major-generalcy. He was then serving a third 74 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION term as governor of Ohio, and in each campaign had fought stubbornly for sound money. In his letter of acceptance he gave great pleasure to reformers by denouncing the "spoils system," and he ultimately received the support of many of the Liberal Republicans including Carl Schurz. The Democratic convention assembled in St. Louis on the 29th of June. Its platform con tained a scathing denunciation of Republican misrule and can be roughly summarized in the one word "Reform." For the presidency it selected on the second ballot Samuel J. Tilden of New York, and for the vice-presidency Senator Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, who had been Tilden s chief competitor for the first place on the ticket. Tilden s rise to national prominence had been rapid, but his experience in local politics had been long and varied, for at an early age he had shown great precocity in such matters and had been a protege of that prince of politicians, Martin Van Buren. He had won great distinction as a lawyer, and by his success as a railroad "re- organizer" had accumulated a fortune of several millions. He assisted in the destruction of the notorious Tweed Ring, and in 1874, despite the opposition of Tammany Hall, was elected governor of New York. As governor he waged a success ful war upon the so-called " Canal Ring," and also reduced the rate of taxation. Cold, calculating, secretive, a "high financier" in the present mean ing of the term, he did not possess the qualities that arouse popular enthusiasm, but he enjoyed THE END OF AN ERA 75 a great reputation as a reformer and seemed to be the man of the hour. The Democrats endeavored to fight the cam paign on the issue of reform, and the speeches of their orators contained many telling allusions to the disgraceful scandals that had marked Re publican rule. The Republicans craftily strove to shift the issue by "waving the bloody shirt," dwell ing upon the horrors of Andersonville, harping upon the intimidation of negroes, and seeking to lentify the Democratic party as the party that had brought on the war. Much was made of the conflicting opinions of the Democratic candidates on the currency question. A cartoon of the day represented the party as a double-headed tiger, one head being that of Tilden, who wore a collar labeled "Contraction," the other that of Hen- dricks, whose collar was inscribed "Inflation"; below was the inscription: "This double-headed, double-faced Tiger can be turned any way to gull the American people." Virulent attacks were also made on Tilden s war record and on lis career as a railroad "wrecker"; it was charged that he had failed to make full and fair returns of his income to the tax assessors. The returns that came in to New York City on the night of November 7th were such as to indicate the election of Tilden. The Democratic newspapers next morning were unanimous in slaiming victory; the Republican almost equally unanimous in conceding defeat. The Republican campaign managers in the Fifth Avenue Hotel went to bed believing themselves beaten, but some keen newspaper men on the New York 76 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Times saw possibilities in the situation and induced the managers to claim the election of Hayes. It soon became apparent that Tilden was un doubtedly entitled to 184 electoral votes, only one less than a majority, and that Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and one of the electoral votes of Oregon 20 votes in all were in doubt. In Florida the result was very close, and the returns so confused that it is impossible to say with cer tainty which party really deserved the decision, but the state returning board, a majority of whom were Republicans, on the plea of intimidation and fraud, threw out enough precincts and counties to give the Republican electors substantial ma jorities. In Louisiana the Democratic electors received majorities of several thousand on the face of the returns. But there had been whole sale intimidation of negro voters in some par ishes. In East Feliciana, for example, there was not a Republican vote, whereas two years before there had been 1,688. The state return ing board, composed entirely of Republicans, threw out enough returns to give the Repub lican elector lowest on the list a majority of ovec three thousand. In South Carolina there hacN been intimidation of negroes by white rifle clubs, but the Republican electors received a majority on the face of the returns. Their election was certified by the board of state canvassers, but the Democrats contested the result. In Oregon all of the Republican electoral candidates received majorities, but as one of them was a postmaster, the Democrats asserted that he was disqualified THE END OF AN ERA 77 from acting. In accordance with state law, he remedied the defect by resigning the postmaster- ship and was reappointed elector by his associates on the ticket, but the Democratic governor gave a certificate of election to one of the minority candidates. Ultimately there were three returns from Florida, four from Louisiana, two from South Carolina, and two from Oregon. 1 The dispute aroused tremendous excitement. Threats of bloodshed were freely uttered. Parti sans of Tilden seemed particularly determined. In places Tilden and Hendricks "minute men" were enrolled. It was noticeable, however, that it was the Northern Democrats who did the most talking; their Southern brethren, having once before been misled and left in the lurch, were more conservative. In a caucus of Democratic members of congress Benjamin Hill of Georgia referred cuttingly to a section of the party that was "in vincible in peace and invisible in war," and hinted that those who were counseling a resort to arms had "no conception of the conservative influence of a 15 -inch shell with the fuse in proc ess of combustion." Fortunately the country at large had no desire to experience the horrors of another war, and cool-headed patriotic men on both sides desired that the dispute should be settled peaceably. It was soon seen that the crux of the contest lay in the power to count and declare the electoral vote. Unfortunately the constitution merely provides that "the President of the Senate shall, 1 For details of these contests see Haworth, The Hayes- Tilden Election, pp. 57-156. 78 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION in the presence of the Senate and House of Repre v sentatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." Upon the interpretation of the last ambiguous clause seemed to hinge the question of who was to be the next president of the United States. If, as some Republicans contended, the clause meant "counted by the president of the senate," then there was little doubt that the Republican president pro tempore, Thomas W. Ferry (Wilson, the vice-president, had died), would open and count the Republican returns and declare Hayes elected by a majority of one. If, as the Democrats contended, the counting was to be done under direction of the two houses, then a deadlock would probably ensue. In this case the choice of a president would be thrown into the Democratic house, that of a vice-president into the Republican senate. Ultimately a joint committee of the two houses evolved a plan for an extra-constitutional com mission which was to pass upon the validity of the disputed returns. Neither Hayes nor Tilden favored the plan, and a majority of the Repub licans in congress opposed it; but the country at large approved it, and an act creating the commission became a law (January 29, 1877). The decisions of the commission were to be final unless overruled by the separate vote of both houses. The commission was to consist of five representatives, five senators, and five associate justices of the supreme court. In accordance with an agreement reached by the committee, the house appointed three Democrats and two Republicans, the senate two Democrats and THE END OF AN ERA 79 three Republicans. The act designated two Demo cratic and two Republican justices and provided that they should name a fifth. It was expected by the Democrats that the fifth judge would be David Davis of Illinois. Davis had received his appointment from Lincoln, but now had Democratic leanings. He was a fat man, of size so vast that it was said that he had to be "surveyed for a pair of trousers." His disinclination to accept a thankless task accorded with his dimensions. At the crucial moment a combination of Illinois Democrats and Independ ents elected him to a seat in the Federal senate, and this gave him a convenient excuse for evading the work of arbitration. The choice for the fifth judge then fell upon Joseph P. Bradley of New Jersey. Bradley had been appointed as a Republican, but he was out of sympathy with the Radicals, and was the most accept able to the Democrats of any of the remaining i justices. This choice proved to be decisive. The mem bers of the commission acted as partisans rather than as judges, and on all essential points Bradley voted with the Republicans. Despite the efforts of some disgruntled Democrats to prevent by fili bustering the completion of the count, announce ment of the election of Hayes and Wheeler was ? ormally made by the president of the senate on :he early morning of March 2nd, and after nonths of anxiety the greatest contest for an elective office in the history of popular government vas peacefully concluded. As the 4th of March ell upon Sunday, Hayes was secretly sworn into 80 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION office at the White House on the night of the 3rd, and on the 5th was formally inaugurated at the Capitol. The outcome caused great dissatisfaction among Democrats, but a bitter contest which might have leveled the foundations of the Republic had been settled without a resort to arms. The result was acquiesced in, and though the enmities engendered by the controversy were to linger long in American public life, they were finally to disappear without leaving any appreciable scar upon the body politic. It was a happy solu tion of a difficult situation. A delicate task that confronted the new presi dent on the threshold of office was that of adjusting affairs in the South. In Louisiana and South Carolina dual governments existed, and peace between the factions had been preserved only by the presence of Federal troops. In the last days of the electoral count certain Republican leaaers had secretly promised that if filibustering would cease, Hayes, upon becoming president, would withdraw the troops and allow the carpet bag governments to totter to their fall. Hayes was not a party to this bargain, but he seems to have felt himself bound by it, and besides was r personally inclined to think that for the Federal j government to cease its interference would be i the wisest course. In less than two months after I the inauguration the troops were withdrawn; \the carpet-bag governments vanished into thin air. Thus ended the last scene in Reconstruction. It had been a lurid drama, but one that may be THE END OF AN ERA 81 said to have been inevitable. A great war had resulted in the triumph of certain principles which the world is now agreed were just and right. The problem which then presented itself was the preservation of these principles that had been vindicated upon the battlefield. One policy the milder one gave some promise of achieving that result; whether it would have done so is still a matter of debate. A harsher policy, one that did not require superhuman magnanimity, assured the result beyond reasonable doubt and appeared, in the eyes of optimists, to promise other benefits. The latter policy was adopted. It produced some lamentable results, but the nation was safely tided over the crisis, and the fruits of the war were secured. It is easy now to point out the failures of Reconstruction. They are obvious. "Probably military rule until the rights of the freecTmen had been established would have been better than negro suffrage, but it is. certain that military rule or any other Jfclicy would have failed. Had the Johnson plan "been followed, there would inevitably have been disappointments of one kind or another, and historians might now be chiding Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens for their childlike faith in human nature. The Reconstruction era is a dark period, and yet, speaking comparatively, it cannot be said that the treatment of the South was harsh. "Imaginary comparisons with other civilized governments are sometimes useful," writes the historian Rhodes. "It seems to me certain that in 1865-1867 England or Prussia under similar 82 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION circumstances would not so summarily have given the negroes full political rights. More than likely they would have studied the question scientifi cally through experts and therefore could not have avoided the conclusion that intelligence and the possession of property must precede the grant of suffrage. Their solution of the difficulty would therefore have been more in the interest of civilization. The words of Parkman, The lion had had his turn, and now the fox, the jackal, and the wolf took theirs, could not have been applied. On the other hand, with the ideas which prevail in those countries concerning rebellion against an established government, England and Prussia would undoubtedly have executed Jefferson Davis and others and con fiscated much of the southern land. The good nature and good sense of the American people preserved them from so stern a policy, and as a choice of evils (since mistakes it seems were sure to be made) the imposition of negro suf frage was better than proscriptions and the creation of an Ireland or a Poland at our very door." Dread of negro domination developed a South solidly Democratic. Since 1876 not one of the eleven seceded states has ever cast its electoral votes for a Republican candidate. In places where the negro population was predominant in numbers, force, intimidation, and fraud were freely resorted to by the whites, being excused on the ground of necessity. But it was soon dis covered that such methods reacted upon the whites themselves. So the stronger race set about THE END OF AN ERA 83 finding a method of suppressing the negro vote without coming into conflict with the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbids discrimination because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In 1890 Mississippi led the way with a consti tutional provision that every elector "shall bo. able to read any section of the Constitution of the State; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or to give a reasonable . interpretation thereof." As the registration 1 officers are almost invariably white men, it is evident that this "understanding clause" affords a means of admitting illiterate white voters and excluding the same class of negroes. Several other states have since adopted this or a similar plan of steering between "the Scylla of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Charybdis of negro domination." Louisiana, for example, adopted in 1898 property and educational qualifi cations, but as loopholes for illiterate poor whites of foreign birth incorporated a "naturalization clause" and for those of native birth a "grand father clause." No citizen of foreign birth who was naturalized prior to January 1, 1898, was to be denied the suffrage, and no citizen of native birth who was on or prior to January 1, 1867, a voter, or who was a son or grandson of such a voter, was to be excluded from the polls. All such persons must, however, register prior to September 1, 1898, and neither loophole is avail able for illiterate poor whites who have become of age since that date. As only a few Northern states allowed the negro the ballot in 1867, the number of negroes who can take advantage of the 84 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION "grandfather clause" is negligible. The whole number of registered negro voters in the state was reduced from 127,000 in 1896 to 5,300 in 1900. The disfranchising laws have thus far stood judicial tests, and, though they have greatly diminished the electorate in several states, con gress has not seen fit to decrease any state s representation in congress as provided by the Fourteenth Amendment. In practice, the negro no longer plays an active part in Southern politics, though he serves as a convenient bogie for Southern politicians. Even many negroes who are qualified to vote find it expedient not to attempt to do so. As regards civil and social rights, the reaction against the negro has not been so radical, but it has been marked. Several of the Reconstruction acts, including a new Civil Rights Bill-passed in 1875, have been held unconstitutional either wholly or in part, for the supreme court has tended to interpret the war amendments more strictly than their framers probably intended. In the South the negro is forced to ride in separate railway coaches known as "Jim-crow cars," and is ex cluded from white hotels, theaters, and other places of a semi-public character. Some states show a disposition to discriminate against him as regards provision for public education; negro- phobes even advocate depriving him of educa tional advantages altogether. In defense of such acts they point to the fact that the negro pays comparatively little in taxes, but they forget that he does much of the work of the South and that the real incidence of a large part of the taxes falls THE END OF AN ERA 85 upon his shoulders. Economically and morally the negro has made commendable progress. The number of thrifty, law-abiding negroes is larger than is generally supposed, for unfortunately it is the lazy, criminal class who are most in evi dence. It should not be forgotten that a race cannot be civilized in a day. Nine centuries elapsed between the time when our Teutonic an cestors destroyed the Roman Empire and the time when they had become sufficiently leavened by a Christian civilization to be ready for the Renaissance. Little wonder, therefore, that the negro race in America has not attained perfec tion in less than fifty years^ y CHAPTER V HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR THE task of President Hayes was doubly difficult because of the cloud that rested on his title, but he was fortunate in the selection of an unusually capable cabinet. With William M. Evarts as secretary of state, Carl Schurz as sec retary of the interior, and John Sherman as secretary of the treasury, the country would have been in safe hands even had Hayes not proved to be a man of firmness, intelligence, and unimpeachable integrity. As a step toward con ciliating the South, Hayes selected David M. Key, a Democrat and ex-Confederate officer from Tennessee, as postmaster-general. He even considered making General Joseph E. Johnston secretary of war, but was dissuaded from doing so. "Great God! Governor," cried a prominent Republican when he heard what Hayes was con templating, "I hope you are not thinking of doing anything of that kind! " The president s wife was a model of domestic virtue, and, like Abigail Adams, did much to add to her husband s limited popularity. The sim plicity of life at the White House under her regime received high praise. Mrs. Hayes was an 86 HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 87 ardent prohibitionist. She gave orders that no intoxicating drinks should be served on the White House table, even at state dinners. Her stand on this question pleased most of the women of the country, some of whom gave "Lucy Hayes Tea-Parties * and with the proceeds placed her portrait in the White House. The old "wine bibbers" of Washington and many foreign dip lomats did not view the innovation with so much enthusiasm. But the White House chef took compassion on thirsty souls by inventing for one of the courses at state dinners a sort of box made of frozen orange skin, the interior of which con tained a potent punch consisting in large part of rum. This came to be called "the life-saving station." After a certain dinner, an acquaintance asked the witty Evarts how things had gone off. "Excellently," he replied, "the water flowed like champagne." The president s policy regarding the South displeased many Republicans, and his course re garding appointments still further angered them. Hayes was a sincere believer in civil service reform; his protestations in its behalf in his letter oF~ac~c"eptance had been no mere lip service. Al though he went too far in bestowing offices upon Southern Carpet-baggers and Scalawags connected with the recent electoral count, he refused to be subservient to the patronage demands of the party leaders. He alienated Senator Conkling of New York by removing, in the interest of efficient ad ministration, Chester A. Arthur and others of Conkling s henchmen from the New York custom house. The senate, sympathizing with Conkling, 88 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION long refused to ratify nominees to the vacant places. Many "Stalwarts," including Senator Zachariah Chandler, chairman of the Republican national committee, denounced Hayes unsparingly for alleged cowardly and treacherous abandonment of Southern Republicans to their bitterest enemies, though with many the thing that most rankled was doubtless the president s independent course regarding appointments. "Can Such Things Be and Overcome Us Like a Summer Cloud without Our Special Wonder" was the striking title of a denunciatory pamphlet published by the peppery William E. Chandler of New Hampshire, another member of the Republican committee, who had been especially active in overseeing the Florida count. But words failed to express the contempt of the Radicals for "the old- woman policy of Granny Hayes." The Democrats, of course, were determined to discredit the administration, and sedulously strove to inculcate in the popular mind the idea that Hayes was a "usurper." Although yielding a grudging obedience to the "de facto president," they were careful not to allow the public to for get how he had been seated. In almost every issue of almost every Democratic newspaper there appeared at least one reference to the "Steal"; Hayes was "the Boss Thief"; Liberty had been "stabbed by Radical Ruffians"; the "Death Knell of the Republic" had sounded. Even after the quieting effects of a trip to Europe, Tilden himself proclaimed from the steps of his mansion at 15 Gramercy Park that he had been deprived of the presidency by a "political crime," which HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 89 the American people would not condone "under any pretext or for any purpose." In May, 1878, the Democratic house appointed what was popularly known as the Potter Com mittee to inquire into the alleged fraudulent canvass and return of votes in the last presidential election in Louisiana and Florida. This commit tee, a majority of whom were Democrats, pro ceeded to take testimony; for a time the object of its creators seemed in a fair way to be realized. Many Southern Republicans, disgruntled by the president s Southern policy or by the fact that they had not been properly rewarded, proved willing to testify to any amount of Republican rascality, both real and imagined. In Florida, Samuel B. McLin, an ex-member of the returning board, stated that he had been influenced to declare Hayes elected by the promise of certain "visiting statesmen" that he should be "taken care of," which had not been done. Numerous lesser lights, in both Florida and Louisiana, testified to frauds and to similar unredeemed promises. The committee drew up long lists of persons connected with the canvass in those states who had actually received Federal offices. There was no conclusive proof that these appoint ments were intended as rewards for questionable services, but the circumstances lent themselves to that view, and the most charitable construc tion was "that post hoc is not always propter hoc." The revelations were scattered broadcast by the Democratic press and gave promise of a bountiful political harvest. Unless something happened 90 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION to break the force of the disclosures it seemed probable that in 1880 the Democrats would renominate Tilden and "right the Great Wrong." The Republicans felt deeply depressed, but for tune favored them. Back in January, 1877, committees of congress had secured from the Western Union ^ Telegraph Company all the dis patches transmitted by Republican and Demo cratic leaders during the campaign and the excit ing days that followed it. The examination of these dispatches had not been searching enough to reveal anything beyond a Democratic attempt to purchase a Republican elector in Oregon; in due course of time presumably all the telegrams were returned to the company and burned. But secretly some hundreds of telegrams, mostly of Democratic origin, had been abstracted by certain Republicans and retained. These were now put into the possession of the New York Tribune. Most of them were in cipher, but two ingenious persons on the Tribune staff, by employ ing methods more suggestive of Poe s Gold Bug than of an event in real life, succeeded in dis covering the keys to all but a few messages. And the facts that the keys unlocked proved sensational. The telegrams were for the most part sent by or directed to Colonel W. T. Pelton, acting sec retary of the Democratic national committee. Pelton was Tilden s nephew and resided with him at 15 Gramercy Park, to which many of the telegrams were addressed. The dispatches re vealed attempts to bribe the Florida and South Carolina returning boards. They were given to HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 91 the world by the Tribune in a way skillfully cal- culted to arouse public interest to the utmost. Every one marveled at the ingenuity of the de cipherers, and thousands made use of the "keys" to test the accuracy of the translations. Moved by the popular uproar, the Potter Committee reluctantly instituted an investigation of the unexpected mare s nest. Most of the Democrats concerned, including Pelton, did not deny the essential charges made against them, but justi fied themselves on the ground that they were merely trying to "ransom stolen property from thieves." Tilden denied all corrupt knowledge of the transactions, but some of his earlier state ments proved to be disingenuous, and to this day his part in the matter is still in doubt. The political effect of the cipher dispatches was enormous. While the revelations did not remove from Republican skirts the mud that was attached to them, they revealed the fact that those of Dame Democracy were not a whit cleaner. The "Great Steal" ceased to be a living political issue, and henceforth Democratic orators were unable to interest the people in it. Democratic activity in this period also took the form of attempts to repeal the Federal elec tion laws, which were bitterly disliked because of the protection they afforded negro voters in the South. As the Democrats controlled the house throughout the administration and the senate during the last two years of it, they were in a position to work actively in that direction. In all, Hayes vetoed eight attempts to repeal the obnoxious acts, the attempts usually taking the 92 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION form of "riders" on appropriation bills. Twice he had to call special sessions of congress in order to obtain funds with which to carry on the govern ment. He was forced to sign bills forbidding the use of troops at the polls, but the Democrats failed of their main purpose, and by their fac tional tactics in the matter lost largely in public favor. Another contest of this administration centered around the proposed resumption of specie pay ments. The^ Resumption Act of 1875 had fixed upon January 1, 1870, as the date for the attempt. Despite bitter opposition and dire prophecies, the act was carried out. In order to insure success, Secretary Sherman was careful to gather a coin reserve of about $133,000,000, or almost two- fifths of the amount of the notes to be redeemed. As the appointed day drew near, rumors were rife of an attempt to "corner" gold, and many bankers were panic-stricken with apprehension. But resumption was carried through without a financial ripple. The report from the New York sub-treasury for January 2, 1879 (the 1st had fallen on Sunday), ran: "$135,000 of notes pre sented for coin $400,000 of gold for notes." Coin and greenbacks were at last on a par, and as Secretary Sherman had prophesied, when people found that they could obtain gold for notes, they preferred the notes. Another great financial achievement of this administration was the refunding of the national debt. Bonds bearing five and six per cent inter est, the sum the government had been forced to pay during the dark days of the war, were called HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 93 in whenever possible and replaced by new bonds bearing four or four and a half per cent. By the summer of 1879 every dollar of the redeemable debt had been thus refunded. By this states manlike policy Secretary Sherman effected an annual saving in interest charges of over fourteen million dollars. Resumption had been preceded by important currency legislation. Back in 1873 a law had been passed demonetizing silver and making gold the only legal tender coin for large amounts. This act, little noticed at the time, was years later vehemently denounced as "the Crime of 1873." It had been enacted in compliance with a recom mendation made by an international conference in Paris in 1867, a recommendation followed by most other civilized countries. The act of 1873, joined with the prospect of resumption and other causes, ) tended to decrease prices. This naturally worked/ a hardship upon the debtor class, in which they United States was itself included, for it is evident that when a man borrows a cheap dollar and has to pay a high-priced one he is returning more than he received. A measure known as the Bland JBilL-xestoring silver to "its ancient legal equality ~~ with gold_as_aT3ebt-paying money ,^~ was intro- diicecT in congress. iTenceforth any owner of silver bullion was to have the right to deposit it at any coinage mint or assay office and have it coined into dollars on the same terms as if it were gold, the legal ratio between the two metals being about sixteen to one. Through the influence of Senator Allison of Iowa an amendment was incorporated in the bill eliminating the "free and 94 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION unlimited" feature, but requiring the secretary of the treasury to purchase monthly not less than two million dollars worth of silver and not more than four millions and coin it into dollars. East erners of both parties generally opposed the bill, but both Republican and Democratic members from west of the Alleghanies generally supported it, and it passed both houses. Hayes vetoed the bill, but the silver tide was running so strongly that congress passed the bill over his veto (Feb ruary 28, 1878). In this period much dissatisfaction was mani fested with the management of railroads. In its early days the railroad was regarded as a public benefactor; the Federal and state govern ments, municipalities, and individuals gave hun dreds of millions in money or land to aid their construction. Although quasi-public in char acter, the railroads too often showed a total lack of gratitude for such favors. Their rates were high, and discrimination in rates between dif ferent towns or in favor of certain shippers in creased the dissatisfaction. Towns without com peting lines usually had to pay higher rates to a given point than did places more distant that were fortunate in being served by rival lines. Thus it cost more to ship goods direct from Pittsburg to Philadelphia than to send them by boat down the Ohio to Cincinnati and thence by rail to their des tination. The reason was that the Pennsylvania Railroad had a monopoly between Pittsburg and Philadelphia, whereas Cincinnati was favored with competing lines. So long as competition continued, the public HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 95 often enjoyed the benefits of rate wars. But these wars proved ruinous to the railroads, and the magnates endeavored to avoid them by con solidation of competing lines or by traffic agree ments, especially by the device known as "pool ing." Economically consolidation was desirable, for it enabled the railroads to give better service at reduced cost, but ordinarily they were slow to give the public a fair share of the benefits derived. The formation of "trunk lines," in particular, proved a great advantage both to shippers and travelers. Passengers who to-day are whisked from New York to Chicago without a break in their journey have little conception of the hard ships and trials of a trip between those cities in the 60s, when it was necessary to buy several tickets and change cars several times, the stations of the different lines being often miles apart and waits for trains long and tedious. In 1869 Cor nelius Vanderbilt, president of the Hudson River Railroad, consolidated it with the New York Central, making thereby one continuous line from New York City to Buffalo. Four years later he leased the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, extending the line to Chicago. About the same time the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio were also gaining entrance to the metropolis of the Middle West. One of the chief agencies in stirring up hostility to the railroads was a society known as the "Patrons of Husbandry" or "Grangers." This society was founded at Washington in 1867. It included both men and women, and by the "Cen tennial Year" had a membership of a million and 96 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION a half, mostly in the West and South. One of its objects was to secure direct dealing between producer and consumer, thereby eliminating the middleman and his profits. It also concerned itself with securing better and cheaper transporta tion rates. Largely through its agency such states as Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin enacted laws fixing maximum railway charges and providing that they should be uniform. The supreme court in the so-called "Granger Cases" affirmed the constitutionality of these laws, provided they did not establish rates so low as to be confiscatory, though later the court denied to the states the right to restrict interstate commerce. But the Granger influence soon declined, and the critical financial condition of most railways in the period from 1873 to 1881 resulted in the repeal of many of the restrictive laws. The railway problem continued, however, to be a troublesome one, and in a few years a demand for Federal regulation of railroads arose. The period was also one of great unrest in labor circles. With the gQW.th of the factory system and the rise of gigantic corporations the old-time personal relations between employer and em ployes became impossible. Being powerless against such titanic forces individually, employes were forced in self-defense to organize. Trades- unions sprang up like mushrooms, and the Knights of Labor, intended as a sort of union of all, quickly attained a membership of a million. The general public feared the great combinations of capital as a menace to democracy and inclined to sym pathize with the workingmen. Stock-watering HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 97 and similar vicious practices whereby a clique holding a majority of the shares in an enterprise sought to ruin the other stockholders in order to acquire their holdings for next to nothing, in creased the public hostility. To the employer s "blacklist," intended to prevent agitators from securing work elsewhere, the Unions retorted with the "boycott," intended to keep the products of obnoxious establishments from finding a sale. When unchecked, the unions were often as tyran nical as the employers, for human nature is about the same beneath jeans as beneath broadcloth. In Pennsylvania labor troubles became so acute and public indignation against extortionate coal barons so strong that a long reign of lawless ness ensued (1865-76). In the Schuylkill and Shamokin districts bosses and "scabs" were served with notices of the Ku-Klux kind, and many were beaten or murdered. The chief instrument in such outrages was a secret society called the "Molly Maguires," whose name and spirit were "both imported from Ireland." In places the Mollies had sympathizers among the police, and even controlled city and county elec tions. In 1873 a Pinkerton detective named James McParlan was imported to ferret out the secrets of the gang. He was frequently in deadly peril, but succeeded so well that the order was finally broken up. Nineteen "Mollies" were hanged, and a much larger number were sentenced to long terms in prison. In 1877, owing to depressed business conditions and a ruinous rate war, the New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore 98 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION and Ohio lowered the wages of their workmen and precipitated the greatest strike the country had yet known. It began at Martinsburg, West Virginia, on the 16th of July. The strikers stopped all trains, paralyzed traffic, and started a riot. The governor of the state called out the militia, but they proved unequal to the crisis, and he thereupon appealed to President Hayes, who sent 250 regulars to Martinsburg. The strike quickly spread to other lines and other cities. At Baltimore a conflict between mob and militia resulted in the death of a dozen persons and "the wounding of many more. The governor of Mary land applied to the president for troops, as did the governor of Pennsylvania, and they were fur nished. At Pittsburg the local militia fraternized with the mob, but some companies from Phila delphia engaged in a bloody fight with the strikers. The troops took refuge in a round-house, whence the strikers dislodged them by pushing burning cars of oil and coke against the building. For a time the mob was in complete control of the city, and arson and pillage were added to rioting. About two thousand cars and over a hundred locomo tives were burned or ruined, and much other property was stolen or destroyed. State troops and regulars were poured into the district, order was gradually restored, and the strike was broken. Riotous demonstrations also occurred in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and elsewhere, and considerable blood was shed. In Illinois regulars were furnished to re store order on request of the governor, and in Missouri and Indiana on the request of United HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 99 States marshals. For two weeks the country was in a state resembling anarchy or civil war; excited journalists compared conditions with those existing in France under the Red Terror. In general, the strike failed. The conflict did much to widen the growing breach between capital and labor, of which the end is not yet. On the Pacific coast popular discontent devel oped into what was known as the "Sand-lot" movement or " Kearney ism." The people were suffering from hard times, and "the mob of San Francisco, swelled by disappointed miners from the camps and labourers out of work, men lured from distant homes by the hope of wealth and ease in the land of gold, saw themselves on the verge of starvation, while the splendid mansions of speculators, who fifteen years before had kept little shops, rose along the heights of the city, and the newspapers reported their luxurious banquets. In the country the farmers were scarcely less dis contented. They, too, had gone into stocks/ their farms were mortgaged, and many of them were bankrupt. They complained that the rail roads crushed them by heavy freight rates, and asked why they, the bone and sinew of the country, should toil without profit, while local millionaires and wealthy Eastern bondholders drew large incomes from the traffic which the plow of the agriculturist and the pickaxe of the miner had created." People were disgusted with both political parties; state, city, and county govern ments were rotten to the core and under the con trol of corporations, especially the railroads. The legislatures were so disreputable that one was 100 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION called "the legislature of a thousand drinks," another "the legislature of a thousand steals." A certain Denis Kearney, an Irishman by birth, came forward as the leader of the discon tented, and organized (September 12, 1877) a " Workingman s Party of California," of which he was chosen president. It favored legal regulation of the hours of labor, abolition of land and mon eyed monopolies, and the establishment of a state labor commission. Chief emphasis was laid upon the exclusion of the Chinese. Hatred of the Orientals was already widespread; they were willing to toil long hours for a pittance on which an American could not exist and were swarming into the country in such numbers as to threaten to Mongolianize it. Kearney proved a speaker of no mean power, and addressed great crowds, the usual place of meeting being on the "Sand Lot," a large open space not yet covered with buildings. In imitation of Cato he ended every harangue with the slogan : " The Chinese must go." The new party grew with great rapidity, and soon attained such power that it secured the call ing of a constitutional convention, which, with the aid of the Grangers, it controlled. The new constitution, which was designed to "cinch capital," proved "an odd mixture of ignorance and good intentions." Parts of it were subse quently held by the United States supreme court to be in conflict with the Federal constitution. A reaction against Kearneyism soon set in, and Kearney lost most of his influence. The agitation against the "Heathen Chinee" continued, however, and, in a speaking tour HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 101 through the East, Kearney helped to make the movement a national one. In 1879 congress passed an act restricting the immigration of Chinese, but Hayes vetoed it because it con flicted with a treaty negotiated with China by Anson Burlingame in 1868. In spite of all efforts of disinterested philanthropists and interested capitalists, hatred of the Chinese increased. Mobs mistreated and even murdered them in many states. In 1880 an American commission suc ceeded in obtaining a modification of the Burlin game treaty, and two years later a bill excluding Chinese laborers for twenty years was carried through congress, chiefly by Democratic votes, but Arthur vetoed it. The president suggested a " shorter experiment," and another measure, which reduced the term of exclusion to ten years, received his signature. In 1888 a bill cutting off the privilege of returning to the United States became a law, and in 1892 the drastic Geary law extending the suspension for another ten years was enacted in spite of vigorous protests from the Chinese government. Though often evaded, these laws served to prevent any considerable influx of Chinese into the country. In his letter of acceptance President Hayes had announced his " inflexible purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for a second term," and the "Stalwarts" were quite willing that ^ he should keep his word. A senatorial triumvirate com posed of Conkling of New York, Logan of Illinois, and "Don" Cameron of Pennsylvania, early began a campaign for the restoration of the Grant regime. Grant had recently returned from a 102 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION grand tour around the world, and his reception abroad by great potentates had tickled American Eride. His progress from San Francisco, where e landed on his return, proved a continuous ovation. People temporarily forgot the failures of his presidency and thought of him as a military hero rather than as a discredited statesman. The triumvirate pushed his candidacy energetically, but prejudice against a third term soon awoke, and people began to recall the scandals of 1869-77. Grant at first declared that he would not hold an office "that required any manoeuvring, or sacrificing to obtain," but unwise friends and members of his family were so urgent that pres ently it became apparent that he would take the nomination in any honorable way he could obtain it. Other candidates were Senator Elaine of Maine, Secretary Sherman of Ohio, and Senator Edmunds of Vermont. Blaine, in particular, had a strong following, and it was partly in order to prevent the nomination of his enemy that Conkling brought forward Grant. When the convention assembled at Chicago on June 2, 1880, the triumvirate had secured Grant delegations from their respective states, but their methods had been so high-handed as to cause bitter indignation. The platform, as reported to the convention, contained no reference to civil service reform, which in reality was a vital issue. A Massachusetts delegate moved the ad dition of a resolution declaring for it. Thereupon a certain Flanagan from Texas jumped to his feet proclaiming that "To the victors belong the spoils," and naively asking, "What are we up HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR TO& here for?" After some discussion, the reform plank was adopted. By his domineering manner and sneering, sarcastic tone Conkling repelled wavering delegates, and he also failed to secure the adoption of the "unit rule," which would probably have insured Grant s nomination. In New York alone nineteen delegates, led by Wil liam H. Robertson, broke away from Conkling s leadership and supported Elaine. Conkling presented the name of his candidate to the convention in a speech that has few equals of its kind. Mounting a table on the reporters* platform, he began, parodying certain lines by Miles O Reilly: " And when asked what state he hails from. Our sole reply shall be, He hails from Appomattox And its famous apple tree." Almost equally notable was the speech of James A. Garfield in behalf of John Sherman. Garfield had charge of Sherman s forces and had led the opposition to the unit rule. "Afterwards it was often sneeringly suggested that Garfield spoke for himself rather than for Sherman, but this sneer was prompted by the outcome of the Convention." On the first ballot Grant received 304 votes, Blaine 284, Sherman 93, with the rest scattering, 378 being necessary for a choice. For thirty -four ballots Grant received an average of 306 votes, and these delegates have gone down in history as the "Grant Phalanx." On several ballots Gar- field received one or two votes, and on the thirty- l 04 HECONSTiSUCTION AND UNION fourth Wisconsin gave him sixteen, making his total seventeen. Garfield at once sprang to his feet and protested. But the presiding officer, Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, being anxious for Garfield s nomination, ruled him out of order and commanded him to resume his seat. On the next ballot Garfield received 50 votes, and on the next, the thirty-sixth, 399 and the nomi nation. The convention then nominated for vice- president Chester A. Arthur, whom Hayes had removed from the collectorship of the port of New York. The Democrats met in convention at Cincin nati on the 22d of June. Tilden was the logical candidate, and seems to have expected the nomi nation, but his health was poor, and he had made no active canvass. Tammany Hall and his other enemies worked against him, and pointed out that the party could not afford to nominate any one around whom hung the cloud of the cipher dispatches. At the last moment Tilden wrote a declination which he did not expect would be accepted literally; the convention willingly took him at his word, and on the third ballot nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania. Its selection for the vice-presidency was William H. English of Indiana. Hancock had been one of the ablest soldiers of the war, and was regarded as the hero of Gettysburg and Spottsylvania. Had public confidence in the Democratic party equaled that reposed in him personally, he would probably have been elected. In the campaign the Democrats wasted much breath upon the alleged "Steal" of the presidency. HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 105 They also searched Garfield s Credit Mobilier record and advocated a reduction of the tariff. Unluckily for himself, Hancock characterized the tariff question as "a local issue"; though he really spoke a profound truth, the phrase was pounced upon by his opponents, who succeeded in persuading many persons that in saying it he revealed a total ignorance of political and eco nomic affairs. The Republicans "waved the bloody shirt," denounced the Democrats as having an "insatiable lust for office," and promised further pensions to old soldiers. The October election in Maine resulted unfavorably to the Republicans, but it proved a blessing in disguise. The "Stalwarts," who had hitherto been sulking, now threw aside their apathy and worked hard for Garfield. Conkling and even the silent Grant took the stump and rendered valuable assistance. As usual, the Republicans obtained a large cam paign fund, partly by levying assessments upon office-holders. Disclosures made subsequent to the election seemed to show that Garfield himself had a hand in this discreditable transaction. The election resulted in a Republican victory; Gar- field received 214 electoral votes to 155 for Han cock, but his popular plurality was less than ten thousand. The Republicans also regained ^control of the house. General James B. Weaver, who had been nominated by the Greenback party, received 308,000 votes but carried no state. The new president had risen to his high place from very humble beginnings. For a time he worked as mule-boy on the tow-path of the Ohio Canal between Marietta and Cleveland, but he 106 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION succeeded in obtaining an education and graduated from Williams College. Subsequently he was a professor in and then president of a small college in Ohio and served in the state legislature. He entered the Union army early in the war, and for gallant service at Chickamauga was made a major-general. In 1863 he entered the Federal house of representatives, serving there continu ously for eighteen years and becoming one of the best informed men in public life. He was a powerful orator, an inspiring leader, but he was inclined to be vacillating. The nomination of Garfield had temporarily healed the schism in the Republican ranks. The wound soon broke open afresh. Garfield selected Blaine as his secretary of state, and thereby aroused the ire of Conkling, who considered that it was through his efforts that victory had perched upon the Republican banners. Other appoint ments still further incensed Conkling. In a stormy interview with Garfield at the Riggs House in Washington he charged the president elect with ingratitude and treason to his party. Soon after the inauguration Garfield appointed Robertson, the leader of the New York bolters in the convention, to the collectorship of the port of New York. In this Conkling thought he saw the fine Italian hand of Blaine and fell into a frenzy of wrath. A "committee of conciliation" failed to restore harmony. Resolved to make the president "bite the dust," Conkling gave out a letter written by Garfield during the campaign for the purpose of pressing collection of funds from government appointees. The Republican HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 107 party temporarily split into the Conkling-Arthur party, known as "the Prince of Wales Party" or "Stalwarts," the administration Republicans or " Half -breeds," and the neutrals or "Jelly-fish." On May 16, 1881, Conkling petulantly resigned his position as senator, and was followed by his colleague and henchman, Thomas C. Platt, hence forth dubbed by cartoonists "Me-Too Platt." They expected to be vindicated by an immediate re-election, but the New York legislature thought otherwise, and to the delight of the country, which was disgusted with Conkling s conceit and domineering manner, chose E. G. Lapham and Warner Miller, administration Republicans, in their stead. Conkling never returned to public life; Platt s eclipse proved only momentary, and for years he was the "Easy Boss" of New York. Although the incoming president belonged to the same party as his predecessor, he was forced to attempt the difficult feat of satisfying thou sands of hungry office-seekers with five loaves and two small fishes. It was said that a third of Garfield s time was devoted to listening to the clamor of candidates. They even lay in ambush for him on his way to church. Of course, many were disappointed. Among the number was a certain Charles J. Guiteau, a half-crazed fanatic who had been by turns preacher, editor, reformer, and politician. Guiteau conceived the idea that he would do the party a great service by "re moving" Garfield and thereby reuniting the fac tions into which Republicans were divided. On the 2d of July, 1881, he approached Garfield and Secretary Blaine in the Pennsylvania Rail- 108 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION road station in Washington and fired two shots, one of which took effect in the president s back. The wounded man lingered through more than two months of terrible suffering, and finally died on September 19th at Elberon on the New Jersey coast. The rage of the people at the assassin knew no bounds. Twice attempts were made to kill him. His trial lasted for two months, the defense being insanity. He was condemned and executed at Washington, June 30, 1882. The second article of the Federal constitution provides that "in case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President. " During Garfield s illness a grave question existed as to whether Vice-presi dent Arthur ought to assume the presidential office. But no steps in that direction were taken, and fortunately no emergencies arose that could not be met by the cabinet. The death of the president removed all doubts, and Arthur took the presidential oath, first at his residence in New York City and later in Washington. "Men may die," said the new president on the latter occasion, "but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken." Arthur was a man concerning whom little had been known by the people at large until his nom ination for the vice-presidency. He had been little more than a local New York politician, a member of the so-called " Custom-House Gang," though in private life he was a gentleman of cultivated tastes. The tremendous responsibility HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 109^* he was called upon to bear brought out the best traits in his character, and he displayed in office unexpected sagacity and firmness. The assassination of Garfield had one good result. The attention of the people was called in a tragic way to the evils of the Spoils System, and the movement in favor of Civil Service Re form received a great impetus. A bill drawn by the Civil Service Reform League was reported to the senate by a committee of which George H. Pendleton of Ohio was chairman. The meas ure was bitterly opposed by many politicians of both parties, who sneered at it as "snivel service" and characterized its supporters as "goody- goodies" and "holier than thous." But scandals in the congressional campaign of 1882 demon strated anew the need of such a law, and the bill passed both houses and received the signature of the president. It authorized the president to ap point a commission of three to institute competi-^ tive examinations for persons desiring to enter the government service and provided that ap pointments must be made from among those who passed. It forbade any congressman or govern ment official to solicit or receive political assess- ments from government employes under penalty of fine or imprisonment. Government officials were also forbidden to use their official authority to influence or coerce the political action of any one. President Arthur appointed a commission composed of Dorman B. Eaton, John M. Gregory, and Leroy D. Thoman, all of whom had been earnest advocates of public service purification. The competitive principle was at first applied only 110 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION to the clerks in the departments at Washington, to eleven customs districts, and to post-offices where fifty or more officials were employed. For years "practical politicians" continued to fight the reform, but it gradually won the public favor and had the support of later presidents, particularly Cleveland and Roosevelt. Another factor in the passage of the civil service reform law was the disclosure of grave frauds in the conduct of the postal service. A ring of government officials, including Second Assistant Postmaster-general Brady and Senator Dorsey of Arkansas, had conspired with certain contrac tors engaged in carrying the mails in sections of the West where there were no railroads or steamboats. The ring managed to cheat the gov ernment out of several hundred thousand dollars a year. Attention had been drawn to these " Star Route" frauds late in Hayes s administration, but the main disclosures were made under Gar- field and Arthur. The business was broken up, but unfortunately, through legal technicalities and the political influence of the accused, the ringleaders escaped punishment. Only one con viction was secured and that was of a man who was probably least guilty. Arthur ultimately retained only one of his predecessor s cabinet, namely, Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln, son of Abraham. Elaine gave way to Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey in December, 1881, and was free to push his own political fortunes. Outside the cabinet, Arthur retained many of Garfield s appointees, and some of them shabbily repaid his forbearance. HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 111 In 1882 a stringent law directed against polyg amy in Utah Territory was enacted, and some hundreds of Mormons were convicted and sen tenced under it. Another measure of this ad ministration was the creation of the new American navy, the Chicago, the Atlanta, the Boston, and the Dolphin being authorized and laid down. In 1881 the centennial of the surrender of Yorktown by the British was duly celebrated. In the same year a great industrial exposition was held at Atlanta, followed three years later by another at New Orleans. These expositions directed attention to the rapid development of the "JNIew South/ The rehabilitation of the states wasted by war and negro rule had been slow, yet much had been accomplished. Agriculture^ still continued to be the chief occupation, and the annual cotton crop under free labor greatly exceeded that "made" before the war under slave labor. In 1880 there were upwards of four hundred coal mings, producing one-eighth of all the coal mined in the United States. There were two hundred iron foundries, with an annual product worth $25,0(f6,000. The number of spindles for spinning cotton had increased in a decade from 417,000 to 714,000. Other industries showed rapid devel opment, but, best of all, a new spirit was abroad in the South. The people were emerging from the dark shadow of lethargy and despair into tlje sunshine of hope for the future. Few regretted the past, with its "peculiar institution." "We admit that the sun shines as brightly and the moon as softly as it did * before the war, " said RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Henry Grady of Atlanta in a celebrated speech delivered in 1886 before the New England Society of New York City. "We have established thrift in the city and country. We have fallen in love with work. We have restored comforts to homes from which culture and elegance never departed. We have let economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crab grass which sprung from Sherman s cavalry camps, until we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee, as he manu factures relics of the battlefield in a one story shanty and squeezes pure olive oil out of his cotton seed, against any downeaster that ever swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel sa. ;ages in the valley of Vermont." Popular dissatisfaction with the existing tariff caused congress in May, 1882, to create a tariff commission to investigate the subject scientifically. After due investigation and deliberation The commission brought in a report recommending an average reduction in tariff rates of not less than twenty per cent. It was subsequently the opinion of John Sherman that if the senate finance committee had embodied in its bill the recommendations of the tariff commission with out amendment the tariff question would have been settled for years. Special interests, as has hap pened since, proved too strong. There were plenty of lobbyists and members of congress representing the grasping producer, but the great body of consumers received little consideration. The average reduction effected by the act of 1883 was so small as to be scarcely perceptible; on many articles there was an actual advance. HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 113 While American politicians were engaged in unsavory struggles, American explorers were winning laurels in the Arctic regions. In 1878 Lieutenant Schwatka of the United States navy sailed into the frozen north in search of traces of the lost Franklin expedition of thirty years Before. He made a wonderful sledge journey through the region northwest of Hudson Bay, cleared up some points concerning the fate of the unfortunate British expedition, and made numerous geographical discoveries. In 1879 the Jeanette expedition was sent out by James jordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald. The Jeanette, commanded by aptain De Long, sailed from San Francisco (July 8, 1879), passed through Behring Straits, and after a long battle with the Arctic ice was ultimately crushed (June 11, 1881). Many of the crew, including De Long, perished near the mouth of the Lena River in Siberia. Before news of this disaster reached the United States, Lieutenant A. W. Greely of the army ed an expedition of twenty -two officers and sol diers and two Esquimos to the region of northern jreenland in order to co-operate in an interna tional movement for the establishment of cir- :umpolar stations for the collection of magnetic md meteorological data. A detachment under Second Lieutenant Lockwood attained 83 24 ^orth, the highest latitude that had been reached civilized man. Expeditions sent out in 1882 md 1883 to relieve Greely s party failed miser- ibly, but on June 22, 1884, a party under Com- nander Winfield S. Schley found the wretched 114 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION survivors on the desolate shore near Cape Sabine. Only seven men, including Greely, remained alive, and one of these died on the way home. They had been in a state of semi-starvation for months and had been reduced to the desperate expedient of cannibalism. Tragic as was the out come of the Greely and Jeanette expeditions, they inspired other Americans to engage in Arctic exploration and were doubtless instrumental in producing the grand consummation of all Arctic exploration, when, on April 6, 1909, Commander Robert E. Peary, after more than twenty years of heroic effort, at last "nailed the Stars and Stripes to the North Pole." President Arthur desired to be the standard- bearer of his party in 1884, and had it not been for the popularity of Blaine, would probably have succeeded in his ambition. The " Plumed Knight " hesitated to seek the nomination, for he feared that, if nominated, he could not carry New York. He was resolved, however, that Arthur should not receive the prize, and, in casting about for another candidate, hit upon General Sherman. But the sad experience of his friend Grant had not been lost on the old general. He wrote: "I would account myself a fool, a madman, an ass, to embark anew, at sixty-five years of age, in a career that may become at any moment tempest-tossed." Ultimately Blaine became a candidate. Arthur, Edmunds, John Sherman, and John A. Logan of Illinois also had folio wings. When the convention assembled in Chicago (June 3), it included a number of persons who were to be famous in the future. William McKinley HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 115 and Marcus A. Hanna were members of the Ohio delegation, Benjamin Harrison of that from Indiana, and young Theodore Roosevelt of that from New York. Roosevelt, Senator Hoar, George William Curtis, Andrew D. White, and other reformers sought strenuously to defeat Elaine, for many of them believed that he had prostituted official position for pecuniary gain. It was all in vain. Elaine led on the first ballot, and on the fourth was nominated, largely as a result of support given by the Logan dele gates. Logan was then nominated for the vice- presidency. The selection of Elaine produced a schism in the party. Elaine had no use for reformers, hav ing written of them: "They are noisy, but not numerous; pharisaical, but not practical; ambi tious, but not wise; pretentious, but not power ful." The reformers had an even worse opinion of Elaine. Many Republican papers, including the New York Times and Evening Post, the Boston Herald and Advertiser, and the Spring field Republican, announced that they would not support the candidate. George William Curtis, Carl Schurz, Henry Ward Beecher, George Tick- nor Curtis, and many other individuals took a like stand. A conference of Independents, held in New York City on June 16th, declared that Elaine and Logan "were named in absolute dis regard of the reform sentiment of the nation," and represent "political methods and principles to which we are unalterably opposed. . . . We look with solicitude to the coming nominations by the Democratic party; they have the proper men; 116 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION we hope they will put them before the people." Thus originated what were known as the " Mug wumps," a name coined some years before by the Indianapolis Sentinel but now applied by the New York Sun. It was almost certain that the Democratic candidate would be a man whom the Mugwumps would support. Back in the year 1837 there had been born into the family of a Presbyterian clergyman living at Caldwell, New Jersey, a child who was christened Stephen Grover Cleve land. When Grover was four years old, the Cleve- lands removed to Fayetteville, New York. The lad worked for a pittance in a general store, but managed to secure an education, and for a time taught in an institution for the blind. In 1855 he started for the West, but decided to stop at Buffalo, where he worked in a law office and studied law. In 1863 he was elected assistant district attorney of Erie County, and in 1870 sheriff. In 1881 a combination of Democrats and Independents chose him mayor of Buffalo, / in which position he displayed stubborn honesty, governing the city upon business rather than po litical lines. The following year he received the Democratic nomination for governor of New York. His reform record and Republican dis sensions brought about his election by the un precedented majority of 192,854. Honesty, efficiency, and democratic simplicity were the keynotes of his administration, and men loved him "for the enemies he had made." When the Democratic convention met in Chicago, he was nominated on the second ballot, with HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 117 Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana as his running mate. The campaign of 1884 was one of the bitterest^- on record. The Democrats made much of Re publican extravagance and corruption, while the Republicans invoked the peril of "the South again in the saddle," and tried to convict the Democrats of favoring free trade. Unable to discover any irregularities in Cleveland s public career, his opponents scrutinized his private life and managed to unearth one disreputable epi sode, long since regretted and never repeated. The story was spread abroad with many fanciful additions, and an effort was made to convince the people that Cleveland was guilty of habitual immorality. The Democrats countered by bring ing to light certain alleged scandals regarding Elaine s marriage. Such tactics nauseated all right-thinking people, and reflected disgrace on the whole country. The Democrats delivered a much more legitimate and effective blow by point ing out flaws in Elaine s public record. His con nection with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad received much attention. His supporters defended him vigorously, yet the residuum of all the discussion was that while Elaine was "far from being the unprincipled trickster so often pictured, he had been less scrupulous in office than his best admirers could have wished." It was evident that the outcome probably hinged upon the result in the great state of New York, which both parties made strenuous efforts to capture. As governor, Cleveland had antago nized Roman Catholics by vetoing a bill for state 118 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION aid to parochial schools, and he had also incurred the bitter hostility of Tammany Hall. Hendricks, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, made a special trip from Indianapolis to New York, and after a long and impassioned interview with John Kelly, the leader of Tammany, secured a promise that Tammany would support the ticket. Elaine, being of Irish descent and the son of a Roman Catholic mother, had great hopes of the Catholic vote, but he lost a part of it by a curious accident. As the Conkling faction refused to render any assistance, Elaine himself took the stump in New York and went about the state speaking to great crowds. A few days before the election he received at the Fifth Avenue Hotel a party of Protestant clergymen, the spokesman of which, Dr. Samuel D. Burchard, characterized the Democrats as "the party of Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." Elaine failed to notice the indiscreet utterance or at least to rebuke it, and the alliterative phrase was caught up and spread broadcast by the Democratic press. The election proved unusually close. Cleve land carried every Southern state, besides Con necticut, New Jersey, and Indiana. Everything depended upon New York. For two weeks the outcome was uncertain; excitement was intense. Democrats professed to fear that the "Crime of 1876" would be repeated in some other form. In New York City a mob threatened to hang Jay Gould, the notorious railroad wrecker, whom they accused of a conspiracy to withhold and al election returns. Violent scenes occurred in other cities. But at last the long agony was over/ I HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR 119 The official count, completed on the 14th of No vember, gave Cleveland a plurality of 1,149 votes in the state and the presidency. The Plumed Knight s lance was shattered in his grasp, and the victory was given to the new comer in the national lists, the Man of Destiny from New York. CHAPTER VI BATTLEDOEE AND SHUTTLECOCK ON the 4th of March, 1885, a great throng gathered before the east front of the Capitol to witness the inauguration of the first Democratic president since Buchanan. Southerners were present in much larger numbers than had long been customary on such occasions, and mingled with the crowd were "not a few gaunt figures of an old-time quaintness, intense and fanatical partisans from remote localities, displaying with a sort of pride the long white beards which, years before, they had vowed never to shave until a Democratic president should be inaugurated." When Cleveland took the oath of office from Chief -justice Waite, the assembled clans exulted in the thought that after weary years of waiting they had at last passed out of the Wilderness into the Promised Land. Republicans had indulged in gloomy prophecies regarding the make-up of Cleveland s cabinet; some simple souls had even feared that the results of the war would be undone and the negroes re- enslaved. Cleveland quickly confounded all such absurd predictions. His selection for secre tary of state was Senator Thomas F. Bayard, of a justly famous Delaware family that for five 120 BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 121 generations had been distinguished in national affairs. The secretary of war, William C. Endicott, the secretary of the navy, William C. Whitney, the secretary of the treasury, Daniel Manning, and the postmaster-general, William F. Vilas, were all Northern men of fair abilities, and Vilas had been a Union soldier. Only two members were from the South Senator L. Q. C. Lamar, the secretary of the interior, from Mis sissippi, and Senator Augustus H. Garland, the attorney-general, from Arkansas. Both had been active Confederates, but were now patriotic Americans. Lamar, a scholarly, liberal-minded man, had won high encomiums in the North by a sympathetic oration delivered at the obsequies in honor of Charles Sumner. The pressure upon the new president for posi tions was tremendous. Democratic spoilsmen hoped that he would make a clean sweep. As practically every one of some 110,000 offices was in the hands of a Republican, the temptation for wholesale removals was great. But Cleveland had publicly committed himself to <jj^ i|, geryjce reform. Certain high offices whose incumbents needed to be in sympathy with his policies he very properly intended to fill with Democrats. He also declared that he meant to remove "offen sive partizans and unscrupulous manipulators of local party management." Such officers had often used post-offices and other government buildings as headquarters for political work and for the display of "disgusting and irritating placards. " Cleveland s .policy, ^regarding other offices was gradually to extend the civil service RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION rules, and as vacancies occurred outside the classi fied list to fill them with efficient Democrats. He quickly found, however, that he could not de pend upon the recommendations furnished by the party leaders. It is related that when a Democratic senator complained because the president did not "move more expeditiously in advancing the principles of Democracy," Cleve land flashed back: "Ah, I suppose you mean that I should appoint two horse-thieves a day instead of one." Such a Mugwump policy was disap pointing to men who had expected to see Cleve land put in practice "the good old Democratic doctrine" of Andrew Jackson. A North Carolina senator expressed his dissatisfaction by telling the story of an old farmer who left a small estate to his two sons. Settlement of the estate was so protracted by the court that in disgust the elder son broke out: "Durned if I ain t almost sorry the old man died." Extreme advocates of civil service reform, men who desired "the millennium right away," were almost equally dissatisfied. Constant drip ping will wear away the hardest stone. Being forced every day to fight anew the patronage battle with leaders of his party, Cleveland re laxed somewhat. Some of his subordinates inter preted the phrase "offensive partizanship " very liberally, and in the end there was almost a clean sweep. The worst state of affairs existed in the post-office department, and the "axe" of Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the first assistant post master-general, became famous. The heads of thousands of postmasters fell into the basket. BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 123 On the other hand, Cleveland enforced the law against the political assessment of office-holders and increased the classified service to 27,380 places. (^JhaJSKhol^civiL^erYice ..reform .gained under his administration. Years later, in speak ing of this time, Cleveland said feelingly: "You know the things in which I yielded, but no one save myself can ever know the things which I resisted." The suspension of officers resulted in a clash between the president and the senate. In an effort to embarrass Cleveland, the Republican majority in the senate passed a resolution (Jan uary 25, 1886) directing the attorney-general to transmit copies of all papers relating to the suspension of the Federal district attorney for the southern district of Alabama. By direction of the president, Garland refused, and in a special message Cleveland flatly denied the senate s right to ask for such papers. The senate censured Garland, and showed a disposition to withhold the confirmation of appointments. In the end, however, it receded and repealed what remained of the Tenure of Office Act. -"-"At no time during Cleveland s first term did the Democrats control both houses of congress; hence the enaction of legislation along purely party lines proved impossible. However, a num ber of important acts of a non-partisan character passed congress and received the president s signature. One of these dealt with the presiden tial succession. Vice-president Hendricks died a fortnight before the meeting of the first congress under Cleveland, and, as the senate had failed to 124 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION elect a president pro tempore, there existed no constitutional successor to the presidential office in case Cleveland should die before congress assembled. The possibility of such a lapse had long been pointed out, but congress was aroused at last to the desirability of providing against it. On January 18, 1886, a bill became a law which fixed the line of succession thus: the vice-presi dent, the secretaries of state, treasury, war, the attorney-general, the secretary of the navy, and the secretary of the interior. A year later congress enacted another law that was designed to remedy another constitutional defect. As early as 1800 an attempt had been . made to regulate more definitely the manner of_ counting the electoral votes, but it and all subse quent attempts had failed. Even the perilous experience of the disputed election had not brought about the desired legislation. The act that now became a law provides that each state shall finally determine every contest connected with the choice of its electors. Where such a deter mination has been made, it must be accepted; but, in case of a conflict of tribunals, that return is to be counted which the two houses concur in receiving. In case they cannot concur, that return is to be received which is certified by the executive of the state. Unfortunately even this law is defective in some respects and leaves loop holes for future disputes. A measure that has proved of far greater prac- t tical importance than either of the acts just de scribed was the Interstate Commerce .ct. The railroads had failed to take warning from the BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 125 "Granger laws," and gross abuses continued in railway management. Not only did the companies often charge excessive rates, but they also failed to clemand the same rate from different shippers, thereby helping to create gigantic business com binations that sought to throttle competition. The most famous instance of a corporation thus fostered was the Standard Oil Company. About the year 1862 two brothers, John D. and William Rockefeller, and an Englishman named Samuel Andrews entered into a partnership at Cleveland for the refining of petroleum, then a comparatively new industry. For years the farmers of northwestern Pennsylvania had known and used in crude form a kind of "rock oil" that was found floating on the surface of streams and ponds. It was first used chiefly as a liniment, and in bottled form, called "Seneca Oil," "Keer s Oil," etc., was sold all over the United States. Presently its inflammable character attracted attention, and in 1859 its production was begun on a larger scale. The oil region soon became one of wild speculation, and the industry expanded wonderfully. The Rockefeller- Andrews partner ship prospered with it, developing about 1870 into what was known as the Standard Oil Com pany, and still later (1882) as the Standard Oil Trust. Not content with ordinary profits, the Rocke fellers and eleven others formed a South Improve ment Company, which entered into a secret agreement with the oil-carrying railroads to the effect that the railroads should carry the com pany s oil at a much lower rate than that of 126 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION competing companies and should help in other ways to crush out competitors. The signers on the part of the railroads were Jay Gould, Thomas A. Scott, and William H. Vanderbilt. As a result of the agreement, most independent pro ducers were forced to the hard alternative of giving up their business altogether or of selling out at a low price to the South Improvement Company. Many men were rendered bankrupt; "the annals of this time show a black record of ruin, despair, and suicide." Efforts to bring the conspirators to justice failed because of the skill of their lawyers or the easy virtue of public officials. Public opinion was so aroused that ostensibly the contract between the railroads and the South Improvement Company was canceled, though freight discrimination was continued as before. By 1877 the Standard Oil Company controlled 95 per cent of all the oil refined in the United States, and could raise or lower prices at will. The case of the Standard Oil Company is illus trative of what was happening in many other industries, such as cottonseed oil, lead, whiskey, cordage, and sugar. Trust defenders urged the advantages gained through economies in large-scale production, improved machinery, etc.; but the tendency of an article to rise in price after it had "gone into a trust" made the people sceptical as to trust benefits to the general public. It was seen that one of the chief factors in the creation of tnistajinci, monopolies was the system of railroad "rebates to favored shigpers,"and a demand developed~fof"Federal legislation. As BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 127 early as 1876 Representative Hopkins of Penn sylvania asked for a house committee to conduct an investigation of the charges against the rail roads with a view to reporting a bill for the cor rection of the evils. Through the opposition of Henry B. Payne of Ohio and other friends of Standard Oil and similar companies the matted was finally referred to the committee on com merce. This committee began an investigation which was never completed; even the evidence that had been taken was stolen. After the lapse of a decade, in the course of which other abortive attempts were made, a conference committee finally reported _a__bill (December, 1886) providing^jpr the appointment of_a^ommission of live members with power to investigate the management of railways engaged in interstate commerce and to denounce unjust rates. The bill forbade rebates, th^mposition of a greater charge for a "short haul" than for a "long haul," and ~tli^"po^mg"_of freight revenues by competing railway Tines. Haflway attorneys both in and out of congress opposed the bill, and expressed great concern lest the proposed act might prove unconstitutional. But public sentiment was deeply roused. The bill passed both houses and became a law by, the signature of the president (January 21, 1887). Unfortunately the commission was not granted sufficient powers, and its work was too often circumscribed by jealous if not corrupt courts. In circumventing the law corporation and rail way managers displayed a Machiavellian ingenu ity that was only equaled by their dishonesty. 128 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Secret rebates, "gentlemen s agreements," etc. con tinued to be great evils. The president and congress were often at odds; they clashed most frequently over pension legis lation,^ The policy of granting liberal pensions to CiviPWar veterans had been early inaugurated, and though the policy in general was laudable, gross abuses had crept in. By 1885 the pen sioners numbered 345,125, receiving annually $65,171,937. Among this number were many men who had never heard the whistle of a hostile bul let, or who had actually deserted from the service; men who had been dishonorably discharged, others who had been accidentally injured while drunk, even malingerers who had maimed their own hands to escape fighting all managed to find a place on the pension list. Applicants whose claims were rejected by the pension office were in the habit of embodying their claims in special pension^ bills _that were presented to congress. In a single sitting the senate once passed five hundred such bills, of course without due consideration of their merits, no one caring or daring to oppose them. Presi dent Cleveland made a careful study oLthe sub ject aricTcame to the conclusion that the system constituted a great abuse. In all he vetoed 233 of the worst of such bills, writing on one occasion that "we are dealing with pensions, not with gratuities." In February^J 1 887, he also. .vetoed. a general dependent pension bilL By these vetoes Cleveland roused great wrath among undiscriminating veterans, and his oppo nents did their best to fan the flame. The old BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 129 soldier was pressed into service as a pawn in the political game. Cleveland was denounced as an enemy to "veterans"; it was said that his policy was dictated by a desire to please "Rebels." The fact that the president had hired a substitute instead of enlisting in person was harped upon whenever possible. While such criticism was at its height the presi dent, with the best of intentions, blunderingly gave still greater offense. In the custody of the war department there were a number of Con federate and recaptured Union flags which tEe adjutant-general suggested should be returned to the respective states in which the regiments bearing them had been organized. The president approved the plan, meaning it no doubt in the spirit of Charles Sumner s bill of years before to the effect that "the names of battles with fel low-citizens shall not be continued in the Army Register, or placed on the regimental colors of the United States." But the " Rebel Flag Order " created a tremendous uproar throughout the North. Scores of Grand Army posts passed resolutions denouncing the act. The "Rebel Sympathizer" was deluged with threats of per sonal violence. Still Cleveland would probably have persevered in his purpose had it not been discovered that the flags could not be returned without authorization from congress. Eighteen years later a Republican president returned the flags without exciting a ripple of protest. The year 1886 was notable for serious^ Jabor troubles similar to those of 1877. Strikes occurred m all parts of the country, the greatest centering 130 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION in St. Louis and Chicago. In Chicago the strike spread until tens of thousands of laborers were idle. Conditions were aggravated by a knot of desperate anarchists, mostly of foreign birth. On the night of the 4th of May, while the police were attempting to disperse a mass meeting in Haymarket Square, a bomb was hurled into their ranKs~mortally wounding seven and injuring many others. Seven anarchists were subsequently sentenced to death for inciting the outrage, and four were executed. One of the condemned men committed suicide, while two had their sentences commuted to im prisonment for life. Some years later both were fully pardoned by Governor Altgeld. An eighth anarchist, who had been sentenced to fifteen years* imprisonment, was also pardoned at the same time. Among the forces active in this period of labor troubles were the Knights of Labor. This organ ization was founded in Philadelphia in 1869 by certain garment cutters who hoped to unite all wage-earners into one great body irrespective of sex, color, creed, or nationality. By 1881 the order had grown until its membership was upwards of a million. Its program included the securing of an eight-hour day, protective legislation in behalf of laborers engaged in dangerous occupa tions, employers liability laws, the single tax on land, and the establishment of government labor bureaus. The Knights did not form an inde pendent political party, but endeavored to throw their strength to the party that would promise most to labor. The failure of the Missouri Pacific strike in this year weakened the order, BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 131 as did the sympathy shown by some of its mem bers for the Chicago anarchists. As the order declined, its place was more or less taken by the great American Federation of Labor. The Federation was composed of already existing unions, and has endeavored in the main to avoid political complications. The methods of these orders have not always been above criticism, but, in view of the great concentration of capital, they seem essential for the protection of the interests of labor. Particularly praiseworthy has been their work in securing legislation restricting the labor of women and children. President Cleveland believed that many of the economic evils of the day were due to the protec tive tariff, which remained at practically the high point reached during the Civil War. He believed that the laboring man did not obtain his share of the profits due to the tax, and, furthermore, he feared that the surplus in the treasury, estimated for"TEe coming year at $140,000,000, was bad for business because it rendered idle too large a part of the nation s circulating medium. With a boldness that did him honor, he determined to devote all of his regular message of December, 1887, to the need of tariff reform^ His friends were aghast at the proposal. They said that such a step would rouse the wrath of powerful interests and would result in the loss of the next election. But Cleveland said: "It is more im portant to the country that this message should be delivered to Congress and the people than that I should be re-elected president." "It is a con dition which confronts us, not a theory," he said 132 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION in the message, and he recommended a reduction of the duties on raw materials and especially upon raw wool. The president was right in believing that the tariff needed reduction, but the people were not yet educated to the step. The Republicans gleefully snatched up the gage that had been thrown down and raised the alarm cry of "Free Trade and the destruction of American indus tries." When the Democratic house passed the Mills Bill providing for lower tariff duties, the Republican senate declined to accept it, and ultimately retorted with a bill that increased duties. The tariff question became the leading issue in the campaign of 1888. For their standard-bearers (since Blaine de clined to run) the Republicans selected Benjamin Harrison of Indiana and Levi P. Morton of New York. Harrison was a grandson of President William Henry Harrison. He was a veteran of the Civil War, a lawyer of high reputation, and had served a term in the senate. The Demo crats renominated Cleveland, and chose for their vice-presidential candidate Allen G. Thurman of Ohio. Thurman had seen long service in the senate and was one of the ablest constitutional lawyers who ever sat in that body. He was a sturdy old Roman, and his use of a red ban danna handkerchief gave a touch of color to the campaign. Roused by the danger to their interests, the manufacturers rallied to the Republican sup port, and there was no lack of funds in the cam paign chest. New York and Indiana were be- BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 133 lieved to be the pivotal states, and every effort was made by both parties to carry them. The Republicans deluged Indiana with money, and from the treasurer of their national committee, W. W. Dudley, emanated the advice: "Divide the floaters into blocks of five and put a trusted man in charge of these five, with the necessary funds, and make him responsible that none get away, and that all vote our ticket." It was generally believed that corruption by both parties was conducted on a greater scale in this campaign than in any that preceded it. The abuse alarmed patriotic men in both parties, and important ballot reforms resulted. Hitherto the absence of secrecy in voting "opened a wide door to bribery and intimidation." A party worker would place a ballot in a man s hand, march him to the polls, and watch him deposit it; the worker could thus be certain of hav ing obtained "value received." Weak or non existent registration laws also rendered possible the most flagrant "repeating." Gangs of men would go from one polling place to another, voting at each. The evil was particularly marked in cities, where the legitimate voters were more or less strangers to each other. The author once knew personally a veteran of the Civil War who confessed that while home on a furlough he voted forty -nine times for Lincoln and Johnson. Just prior to the election of 1888 Massachusetts adopted the secret or "Australian" ballot, which greatly diminished the grosser forms of election corruption. Before the next presidential election thirty-four other states adopted secret ballot laws 134 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION of varying merit. The laws did much to eliminate election cheating and corruption, but proved less successful than reformers had hoped. The inge nuity of unscrupulous politicians devised ways of discovering whether a "floater" had held to his bargain, while, particularly in the slums of cities and in backward country districts, the letter of the law was not always enforced by election officers. Then, too, it is unfortunately a trait of human nature that a man may be dishonorable enough to sell his vote but "honor able" enough to abide by the terms of the corrupt bargain. In New York Cleveland suffered from the covert hostility of Tammany Hall and the open hostility of certain newspapers, notably the New York Sun, then edited by the vindictive Dana. The opposition within the party centered around David B. Hill, "the Sage of Wolfert s Roost," who was the Democratic candidate for governor. Hill was accustomed to say proudly, "I am a Democrat"; but he and his friends treacherously arranged trades whereby Democratic support for Harrison was bartered for Republican support for Hill; flags bearing the inscription "Harrison and Hill" were brazenly displayed all over the state. A campaign coup whereby the English minister, Sir Lion^l_^Saiiky^e-West,was_tricked into ad vising a supposea naturalized fellow countryman to vote for Cleveland as the candidate more favorable to British interests also aided the Republicans. The Republicans made much of the letter, alleging that it convicted the Demo- BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 135 crats, with their tariff reform ideas, of playing into the hands of foreign nations. Democratic politicians were greatly exercised over the inci dent, fearing that it would lose them part of the Irish vote. For once Cleveland lost his head and foolishly demanded Sir Lionel s recall; when the British ministry demurred, he sent the diplomatist his passports. II But all such efforts were in vain. Harrison ^^L carried both Indiana and New York by small majorities and received 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleveland. The Democratic treachery in New York had succeeded, for Hill was elected by about eighteen thousand, while Harrison would have been defeated without the state r s 36 elec toral votes. The result occasioned great rejoicings among the victors, for they believed that the only enemy who had defeated them in many years was dis posed of forever. On the night before Harrison s inauguration a crowd of Republicans of the baser sort gathered close to the White House and sang discordantly a ditty which had been popular during the campaign: " Down in the cornfield hear that mournful sound, All the Democrats are weeping Grover s in the cold, cold ground." Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president, was an abler lawyer than his predecessor, but he was jiot so striking a^personality. In appearance he was sho^C~w?^aDo^y^abii6rmally long for his legs, and with a custom of holding his chin down 136 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION upon a somewhat protuberant chest a man nerism that led his enemies to compare him to a pouter pigeon. He was an unusually effective public speaker and possessed acute intellectual ability. To his family and to a few chosen friends he was genial and warm-hearted, but the demands made upon him by politicians caused him to adopt towards them and others a cold, reserved de meanor. The late Senator Hoar wrote: "Elaine would refuse a request in a way that would seem like doing a favor. Harrison would grant a request in a way which seemed as if he were denying it." An American historian, not then well known, once called at the White House in company with the president s son Russell for the purpose of ascertaining certain facts regarding the presi dent s grandfather, William Henry Harrison. The president was excessively frigid and had little to say until his son, losing patience, said sharply: "Father, there s no politics in this!" Thereupon the president s reserve melted, and he became talkative and even genial. As a result of such incidents, it was popularly said that "Harrison sweats ice-water." Harrison s attitude toward the civil service was at first disappointing to reformers. To the position of first assistant-postmaster-general he called J. S. Clarkson of Iowa, a spoilsman whose guillotine equaled "Adlai s axe." In a single year the new "headsman" decapitated thirty thou sand officials. Harrison was also guilty of flagrant nepotism, giving office to a large number of relatives by blood or marriage. He refused to extend the civil service rules to the census office, BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 137 with the result that the superintendent complained that he was "waist deep in congressmen." He likewise failed to check the political activities of office-holders; in the convention that renom- inated him there w r ere 142 Federal appointees. On the other hand, within the classified list, Harrison gave strength to the reform movement. He rendered the cause of efficient government inestimable service by appointing Theodore RopseYfilLtQ_the civiLservice commission. Roose velt revivified the commission, and gave the reform a standing with the public it had never before enjoyed. "No longer was there an air of apology; blow was given for blow." In a denunci ation of political assessments Roosevelt declared that much of the money thus secured was retained "by the jackals who have collected it." In a public address he characterized an attack by Clarkson upon the commission as "loose diatribe equally compounded of rambling declamation and misstatement." In the end Harrison dis missed Clarkson and broke with Senator Quay and other leading spoilsmen. Almost of necessity Harrison selected Elaine as secretary of state. It was a post that admi rably suited the "Plumed Knight s" tastes, for he enjoyed doing large things in a large way. Prophets correctly predicted that under him the country would have a vigorous foreign policy. An opportunity for testing the new secretary s diplomatic mettle was already at hand. At this time Germany was entering upon a policy of colonial aggrandizement and was searching the seven seas for land that had not yet been seized 138 EECONSTRUCTION AND UNION by other powers. The eyes of the German foreign office fell upon the Samoan Islands in the southern Pacific. Taking as a pretext a drunken brawl between some German sailors and Samoans, the Germans deposed and deported the native king, Malietoa, and set up in his place a creature of their own named Tamasese. The Samoans re mained loyal to Malietoa and defied the Germans. Both England and the United States had com mercial interests in the islands that were opposed to German absorption, and in 1872 the United States had been granted the harbor of Pago Pago for a coaling station. The consuls of both nations protested against the German action. On one occasion the commander of the American gunboat Adams, a belligerent Irishman named Leary, went so far as to run his vessel between the German ship Adler and a native position which the Germans were about to shell. Later an American news paper correspondent named Klein led a party of Samoans who inflicted (December 18, 1888) a severe defeat upon a German landing party. The Germans thereupon shelled and burned in discriminately, regardless of American property, and offered insults to the American flag. In response to a request from the American consul, the Cleveland government sent out an American squadron under Admiral Kimberly. A German squadron lay anchored off Apia. Rumors of a clash between the two reached the United States and roused great excitement. In reality, there had been only a battle of the elements. A terrific typhoon had swept over the islands (March 16, 1889), destroying or disabling BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 139 every vessel in the two squadrons. All thoughts of war were put aside, and Admiral Kimberly took temporary possession of Apia to preserve order. Chancellor Bismark now proposed that the dispute be submitted to a conference, expecting doubtless to gain his ends by the blustering diplomacy for which he was famous. The United States and Great Britain accepted, and such a conference met in Berlin on the 29th of April. Bismark was determined to gain a concession of German predominance, and resorted to his usual bullying tactics. The American representa tives reported to Washington that the chancellor was very irritable. Blaine cabled back: "The extent of the Chancellor s irritability is not the measure of American rights." Ultimately Ger many modified her claims and consented to the restoration of Malietoa and to the establishment of a tripartite protectorate over the islands. A decade later the agreement was rescinded, Eng land waived all claims, and the islands were divided between the United States and Germany. The American part in the Samoan imbroglio caused widespread comment abroad and was particularly pleasing to England, which was beginning to resent German aggressiveness. The episode turned attention to the need of building up the infant navy, and during Harrison s admin istration many new vessels were authorized. The chief historical significance of the affair lies, however, in the fact that the United States threw aside old precedents and insisted upon her right to participate in affairs outside what had hitherto been regarded as the American sphere of influence. 140 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Secretary Elaine was less successful in his at tempt to establish the principle of a closed sea for Bering Sea. The primary object in contending for such a principle was to enable the United States to protect the diminishing herds of fur seals against Canadian and other poachers. Great Britain objected peremptorily to the seizure of Canadian sealing vessels that ventured into the sea, and the dispute, which had dragged on for some years, was ultimately submitted to a mixed tribunal, which refused to uphold the American claim and held that the jurisdiction of the United States in those waters ended "outside the ordi nary three-mile limit." In a quarrel with Italy resulting from the lynch ing of eleven Italians in New Orleans for alleged complicity in the assassination of the chief of police, Blaine upheld the dignity of the United States. He also emerged with credit from a quarrel with Chili. The Chilean trouble arose out of a revolution against the authority of President Balmaceda. The American department of state refused to recognize the rebels or Congression- alists, and this aroused much indignation among them. In May, 1891, a ship called the Itata, which had been chartered by the Congressional- ists, was seized at San Diego for violating neu trality laws by taking on munitions of war. The crew overpowered the United States officers, and the Itata escaped. The cruiser Charleston was ordered in pursuit, and the Congressionalists sent out a cruiser to protect the fleeing vessel. A battle was expected, but peace was preserved, for, though the Itata escaped to Chili, the Congres- BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 141 sionalists unwillingly surrendered her to the United States. This episode bred bad blood between the two peoples. The situation grew yet more serious when the Congressionalist cause triumphed and Santiago fell. Many of the Balmacedists, to save their lives, took refuge in the American legation. Their surrender was demanded but firmly refused. While popular feeling was thus inflamed a mob of Chileans at Valparaiso fell upon a party of American seamen on shore leave, and, aided by the police, killed or wounded a score of them. Elaine demanded an apology and an indemnity. While the matter was still pending, the Chilean minister of foreign affairs, Senor Matta, unwisely made public a document in which he reflected insultingly upon the president of the United States and other American officers. President Harrison was already in a belligerent mood but had been held back by Blaine. Both now agreed that the time had come for vigorous action. They ordered a large squadron to Pacific waters and dispatched (January 21, 1892) an ultimatum demanding an indemnity, an apology for Matta s indiscretion, and a safe conduct for the refugees in the legation. Chili complied. The only other diplomatic affair of much im portance during the Harrison administration had to do with the affairs of the Hawaiian Islands. These rich islands, first brought prominently to civilized attention by Captain James Cook a century before, now contained a considerable foreign white population, largely American, while the Kanakas themselves had attained a fair degree 142 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION of civilization. The queen, Liliuokalani, a woman of education and charm but a stickler for divine right, planned to subvert the existing liberal constitution and promulgate another less favorable to popular rights and to foreigners. The ministry refused (January, 1893) to comply with her wishes and issued a proclamation declaring the throne vacant. A provisional government was formed, headed by Sanford B. Dole, a justice of the supreme court, and this body called upon the American minister, John L. Stevens, for help in preserving order. Sailors and marines landed from the cruiser Boston, and Stevens formally recognized the new republic and proclaimed it under the protection of the United States. "The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe," Stevens re ported to Washington, "and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it." The administration partially disavowed Stevens s course, but Harrison and John W. Foster, who had succeeded Elaine, desired to annex the islands. By the president s direction Foster negotiated a treaty to that effect with a Hawaiian commission that had come to Washington for that purpose. The American public generally favored the treaty. It was apparent that the islands, lying as they did in the heart of the Pacific, possessed much commercial and strategic value and would serve admirably as a half-way house on the way to the Orient. But before the senate acted upon the treaty, the Harrison government retired from office. Grover Cleveland believed that the Hawaiian monarchy had been subverted by the BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 143 active aid of the American minister and through "the intimidation caused by the presence of an armed naval force of the United States." The heiress-apparent to the Hawaiian throne, Princess Kaiulani, a charming dark-eyed girl, had appeared in the United States to plead the cause of her house and made a great impression upon the president and Mrs. Cleveland. Cleveland not only withdrew the treaty lofjmnex a i ion, but offered to restore "Queen Lil," provided she would grant an amnesty. This the vindictive woman refused to do; she was determined to have the blood of some of her enemies. Congress failed to support the new policy, and ultimately Cleveland had to recognize the republic, which was then firmly established. The desire for union with the United States still persisted in Hawaii, however, especially among the ruling foreign class. In July, 1898, in the midst of the war with Spain, the islands were formally annexed by joint- resolution of congress as in the case of Texas. The first congress under Harrison was notable for important legislation. The Republicans now had a majority in both branches of congress, and in the house, Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine, who became known as the "Czar," repressed Democratic filibustering with an iron hand. A^ForceBill," designed to protect colored voters^ in the SoutF, served u> revive secHonaTITnTmosities but failed to pass the senate. A^dependent _j)en^ sion Jjil^along the lines of the one vetoedby CleVelanJl)ecame a law (June 27, 1890L__Under its operation^he^annuaTpension outlay increased in four years from eighty-eight millions to one j > 144 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION hundred and fifty-nine millions. An anti-lottery law, aimed at the notorious Louisiana Lottery Company, which had long misused the United States mails in its nefarious operations despite state laws against it, an original package law regulating interstate shipments of liquors, and a law forfeiting land grants made to railways that had failed to fulfill the terms of the contract were also enacted. But the measures that require most attention were the Sherman Silver Act, the Sherman Anti-trust Act, and the McKinley Tariff Act. The Sherman Silver Act, passed in 1890, was a concession J&JJie popular demand for die larger use of silver as a circulating medium. It was so called because Senator Sherman of Ohio was the most active membe^ of the joint committee that framed it, though he gave the measure a reluc tant support. The law repealed the Bland- Allison Act of 1878 andT provided that each month the government should purchase four and one-half million ounces of silver and issue against it legal tender notes redeemable on demand in "coin," either gold or silver at the discretion of the sec retary of the treasury. The ratio between the two metals was fixed at sixteen to one, although the market ratio was about twenty to one. The measure did not go far enough to satisfy the members of the Farmers Alliance and the mine owners of the West, but it alarmed conservative financiers. The Anti-trust Act was designed to meet a popular demand for the regulation of great trusts and monopolies that were choking out competition. BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 145 The act was partly a result of an investigation made by a congressional committee in 1888-89, which had brought to light some startling facts regarding the operations of the Sugar Trust, the Standard Oil Trust, and the dressed meat combination, at the head of which stood Armour and Company of Chicago. Similar investigations producing similar results had also been made by certain state legislatures. Senator Sherman introduced the bill, and it usually goes by his name, but he probably introduced it by request, and the judiciary committee radically recon structed it. It received strong popular support, for thousands of business men had felt the heavy hand of the various combinations, and millions of people were paying monopoly prices. The bill passed by a non-partisan vote, though many sleek senators and representatives affected to doubt its constitutionality. It held illegal and provided penalties against combinations in the form of trusts and conspiracies in restraint of interstate trade. The law proved for a considerable period little more than mere lip service in the people s cause. It did not have "teeth enough," and courts that interpreted it too often displayed more regard for private interests than for those of the public. For more than a decade the law was allowed to lie almost dormant. It is true that it helped to make the "trust agreement" unfashionable, but "com munities of interest" and "holding companies" chartered in complaisant states, particularly New Jersey, took its place. The Standard Oil Trust, for example, forsook the trust agreement in 1892; 146 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION a "community of interest" between nine control ling stockholders held the business together until 1899, when the device of a holding company was resorted to. The same congress that enacted the Sherman law passed another act which, in the opinion of tariff reformers, served to tighten the hold of blood- \^ sucking monopolies upon the people. This was the McKmley_Tarifl[Act,j so named from the chairman aPEEe houslTcolmmtiEee on ways and means that framed it, Representative William McKinley of Ohio. The success of the Republicans in the election of 1888 was interpreted by them as a mandate to raise the duties on imports to a yet higher point, and the bill was a very radical one. It laid heavy duties upon necessities of life, com- nioHTties meet in every household, and the aver age rate was upwards of 50 t per cent, its chief redeeming feature was that it made~sugar free, but it provided for a bounty to home producers, and levied a duty of one-tenth of a cent a pound on sugar coming from countries that paid bounties on sugar production. Secretary Elaine, who had never been accused of being a free-trader, protested vigorously against some of the bill s provisions. He declared that there was "not a section or a line in the entire bill that will open a market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of pork." He urged trade concessions to foreign countries that would admit our commodities on favorable terms, but artfully described the plan as "reciprocity" in order not to alarm protectionists. Most of his protests went unheeded, and the reciprocity BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 147 clause that was finally grafted upon the bill was of a negative character. Instead of authorizing the president to reduce rates in return for con cessions, it empowered him to impose discrim inating duties in case reciprocity was withheld. The bill was framed in fulfillment of the new theory that high duties and high prices were a distinct advantage to the country. It was justly characterized as "protection run mad." Osten sibly it was designed primarily to aid the laboring man, but it was soon seen that the chief benefi ciaries were the manufacturers. Organized com binations that already controlled a given com modity on which tariff rates were raised hastened to increase the price, being safe in doing so be cause the tariff wall precluded competition from abroad. In industries that had not yet entered a trust, producers met together and over sumptu ous dinner tables agreed that on such and such a date the price of their commodity should be raised to such and such a price. Even before the bill became a law prices advanced sharply. Arti cles that were not mentioned in the law were sympathetically affected. Soon hundreds of thousands of families began to feel the pinch of a higher cost of living. The increase was felt the more keenly because the manufacturers usually forgot, while counting their increased profits, to raise correspondingly or at all the wages of the laborers in whose interests the measure was supposed to have been passed. The law proved, as Elaine had predicted, a protection that would "protect the Republican Party into a speedy retirement." Other causes 148 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION such as the Force Bill and congressional extrav agance played a part, but the McKinley Bill was the chief factor in producing a political cataclysm unequaled since the "Tidal Wave" of 1874. In the congressional election of 1890 only 88 Republicans were returned to the house, as against 235 Democrats, while the Republican majority in the senate was reduced from 14 to six. McKinley himself was defeated for re-election and was forced into temporary retirement. A notable feature of this election was the ap pearance of a new party which elected nine repre sentatives and two senators. There had been weak third parties before, such as the Green- backers and the Prohibitionists, but the " People s Party/ as it later came to be called, developed / strength enough to carry states and cast electoral y votes. It was made up of Greenbackers, Gran gers, and Farmers Alliance men, aided in some instances by the Knights of Labor. Its strength lay in the West and South, its chief center being Kansas, the mother of radical movements. Its grievances, though often fanciful, had a sub stratum of real justification; the remedies it proposed, though often absurd, were usually more sensible than the sneering East then realized. In fact, a comparison of progressive platforms of to-day with Populistic platforms of the early 90s reveals some startling similarities. Some of the policies of the Roosevelt administration were Populistic in their origin. The populists distrusted both the old pnrtv organizations, believing tTiaf^nBotn were "un- scfu^ulous oligarchies, controlled by the rich. A BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 149 few astute and wealthy managers and magnates, called * business men, controlling the party managers as their henchmen, set things up in private conferences, while the masses were being fooled and manipulated like voting herds. Then the hiisinpgg mf> CTftt^8 who dictated the nomi nation of the candidates and furnished the sinews of war for the campaign^ were, of course, to con duct the government; and, equallyrT5f course, the" laws were to be made and administered in such a way as to take good care of the managers business interests." In case honest and coura geous public officers attempted the enforcement of just and equal laws against the moneyed forces that controlled, then some silent but powerful influence would retire such persons to private life. The part that the new party was able to play was rendered more important by the recent ad mission of six new states in which Populistic tenets found a foothold. The extension of rail roads westward had made possible the rapid settlement of vast stretches of the public domain, and the 80s had witnessed a great rush into the rich wheat lands of the Northwest. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washing ton were admitted in 1889, and were followed the next year by Idaho and Wyoming. Utah, with a much larger population than some of those ad mitted, was kept out until 1895 because of Mor- monism and polygamy. In 1889 the foundations were laid of what was later to be another great state. For years white men had coveted the fertile land lying within 150 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION the limits of the Indian Territory, and lawless "boomers" had even sought to settle it, only to be driven out by Federal troops. Finally the district called Oklahoma, "the Beautiful Land," was purchased by the government from the Indians, and preparations were made to throw it open to settlement. On the 22nd of April, 1889, at the signal of a bugle, fifty thousand people, on foot, on horseback, and in every conceivable vehicle rushed madly over the boundary in search of "claims." Many failed to satisfy their hunger for land, but others secured by a small expenditure of time and energy free farms of unexcelled fertility. By nightfall the town of Guthrie, which in the morning was without a single inhabitant, contained several thousand people, who had taken steps toward forming a municipal government. Within a year Okla homa had a population of sixty thousand. In the new congress any party program was naturally impossible, and the administration dragged listlessly along. As the time for the presidential election drew near, it became ap parent that Harrison would probably be renomi- nated by the Republicans. It is true that he had roused no great enthusiasm and that some of the leaders of his party, notably Senator Platt of New York and Senator Quay of Pennsylvania, disliked him, but there was seemingly no man to oppose him. Blaine, being a member of Harri son s cabinet, was estopped by political eti quette from seeking the nomination, though there were many of his old supporters who were anxious for him to do so. There had never been BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 151 much cordiality between the two men, and on the 4th of June, only three days before the meeting of the Republican convention at Minneapolis, Elaine petulantly resigned and permitted his name to go before the convention. But it was too late. Harrison was renominated, with Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, as the vice-presidential candidate. Among the candidates for the Democratic nomination were Senator David B. Hill of New York, Governor Boies of Iowa, Senator Gorman of Maryland, Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, and Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland retired from the White House three years before, he settled down in New York to the practice of law and spent his summers at "Grey Gables" on the Massachusetts coast, where he entertained his friends and indulged his well-known fondness for angling. Personally he seems to have cared little to return to public life. In February, 1892, in the estimation of many, he ruined his chances for a renomination by writing an open^ letter denouncing _the free coinage~bi silver a moWS^ ment in favor of which was sweeping over the West like a prairie fire. But the memory of the victory of 1884 was still vivid to Democrats, and there were hundreds of thousands of Ameri cans who admired a man who was not afraid to speak his mind, Ajnovement in his favor began tCLjtake shape, In the hope of defeating it his enemies in New York, led again by David B. Hill, held a "snap convention," which instructed the New York delegates to support Hill. The act proved a political boomerang. Democrats else- 152 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION where had not forgotten Hill s treachery four years before, and again they loved Cleveland for the enemies he had made. When the Democratic convention met in Chicago (June 21, 1892), Cleveland s manager reported: "I can t keep the votes back. They tumble in at the windows as well as at the doors." Cleveland was renominated on the first ballot, with Adlai E. Stevenson as his running mate. The chief^ plank in the Democratic platform was a declaration in favor of a tariff for revenue qnTy7~Republican protection was declared to be a~7raud, a robbery of the many for the benefit of the few. In his letter of acceptance, however, Cleveland promised that no exterminating war would be waged against any industry and denied any intention of precipitating free trade. The Populist or People s Party, which by this timeTiaoT been more definitely organized, held a convention at Omaha in July and nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa, a former Greenback Iea3er7 and James G. Field of Virginia. The platform declared. Jor_ the free and- unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of sixteen to one, postal savings banks, a graduated income tax, and public ownership of railways, telegraphs, and telephones. Jt denounced both the old par ties as subservient to the capitalists, asserting that "from the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes of tramps and millionaires." The movement was decidedly to, .the advantage of the Democrat&p for in certain western states that would have been almost certainly Republican, the_J)empCTats supported BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 153 the^Populist electoral tickets and thereby de- privecT IHe RepiiBlicans oF electoral votes Tfifey would have obtained had there beeir"Tro such fusion. In Oregon the Democrats placed a Popu- fisTTelector upon their ticket, and in Minnesota the two parties agreed upon a mixed ticket of four Democrats and four Populists. The progress of events worked in favor of the Democrats. Employers were decreasing wages, and outbreaks of labor against capital occurred in several states. In June, 1892, the Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pennsylvania, cut the wages of some of its employes and refused to recognize the Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers, thereby precipitating a strike that resulted in a shutdown which threw thousands out of employment. A pitched battle took place between the strikers and a force of Pinkerton detectives acting as guards, and much blood was spilled on both sides. Such even Is militated against the party in power and dis credited the Mclvinley Act, for it was difficult for HepubTican orators to explain why a highly protected industry should be lowering the wages of its employes., "The election resulted in an even greater yictojy for the Dem.ocrais than the most sanguine had aiiticipateoT Cleveland received 277 electoral^ votes, Harrison 145s and Weaver "22^ Even" Indiana, Harrison s own home, repudiated him, while rock-ribbed Republican Ohio, McKinley s native state, gave Cleveland one electoral vote. Illinois, California, and Wisconsin also joined the Democratic column. For the first time since 1855 154 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION the JDeniacrats -were to. control the presidency, the senate, and the house of representatives. But it proved a^Pyrrhic victory. The edifice of business, raised upon stilts by the McKinley Act, was tottering to its fall. A^great financial^ pajiic was already on the way. The IJemocrats returned to power in time to reap the whirlwind which their enemies had sown. A majority of the members of Cleveland s second cabinet were appointed for purely personal reasons. The fact that it was so brings into relief his one great fault as an executive he lacked tact in dealing with the party leaders. He was intelligent, he was conscientious, he was coura geous, but he did not know how to lead. As the country is governed by party, unity of party action is essential to successful administration, and this Cleveland was unable to secure. Having decided that a certain course was the proper one, he was inclined to be intolerant of those who differed with him; coercion came to him more naturally than conciliation. The captain and crew needed to understand each other, for breakers were ahead. For a time the spirits of the nation were kept up by the gorgeous celebration at Chicago of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus, but even as myriads of people were visiting the magic "White City" beside Lake Michigan the financial affairs of the country were falling into a state of chaos that was to bring ruin and misery to millions. When Cleveland retired from office four years before, he had turned over to his successor a net BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 155 surplus nf almost, a Jnmdred .nullipiis. But the McKinley Tariff Act was so prohibitive in char acter that customs receipts had fallen off nearly sixty millions annually, , jwiiile__th^ IM?pgn^ pni Ppninn~Art anH nthpr K-gpyfrlfcfrfi meaSUTCS had greatly increased expenditures. The resulting stringency was the more serious because of an immense quantity of outstanding notes that the treasury might be called upon to redeem in gold. When specie payments had been resumed, the treasury had set aside a gold reserve for the re demption of greenbacks, and later usage had decreed that this reserve must not fall below $100,000,000. In 1892 there were $346,000,000 of greenbacks outstanding. In addition, there were outstanding $147,000,000 of "coin certifi cates" issued under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. Harrison s secretary of the treasury had ruled that the holders of these notes might at their option call for gold, and this precedent the Cleveland administration stubbornly followed. Even when redeemed, the notes must be reissued. Furthermore, the government must each month purchase four and a half million more ounces of silver and against this issue new certificates. The coin certificates, therefore, constituted a sort of growing endless chain for the depletion of the gold reserve. In flush times the monetary system might not have given serious trouble, but a world-wide bii^ns^_depressioii_was__at Jband. The great money centers of Europe were clamoring for the yellow metal, and American gold was drained from the country to meet the demand. Whereas be- 156 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION fore the Silver Purchase Act of 1890 at least 85 per cent of the customs receipts had been paid in gold, after February, 1892, the payment in gold in no month of that year exceeded 19 per cent. Rates of exchange were against the United States, and in 1892 the net loss of gold was $59,000,000, as against $34,000,000 in 1891. Stocks fluctuated violently, bankers were conser vative in making loans; before Harrison quitted office the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was declared bankrupt, and a stock panic ensued (February 20, 1893). The gold reserve fell so low that it was only by such temporary expedi ents as delaying to meet requisitions and borrow ing eight millions of gold that the Harrison admin istration avoided the issue of bonds. Preparations for such an issue were actually made. To_meet the situation President- Cleveland (June 30, 1893) summoned congress to meet in special session on the 7th of August. By use of the patronage and thanks to assistance from a majority of the Republicans, he managed after a desperate struggle to_secure the repeal of the^Sil^erJPiirchaseJict. ButtHsbyno means solved the problem. Congress failed to enact legislation to protect the gold reserve, which had meanwhile fallen to $80,000,000. The step also alienated hundreds of thousands of Western Dem ocrats, who saw in the still freer use of silver the panacea for all the nation s ills, and it came too late to avert a panic. The panic was already come. It is a fact well known to physicists that perfectly still water will sometimes reach a temperature below the BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 157 freezing point without congealing, but let a shock be given, and, presto, the liquid has changed to ice. The financial situation in the early summer of 1893 was such that only a shock was needed. The_sho.ck came in the shape of the suspension by the Indian government (June 26) of the free coinage oL silver at its mints. In the United States the intrinsic value of the silver dollar quickly dropped from 67 to 60 cents, people began hoarding gold, banks contracted their loans ancj refused new" ones. Failures and suspensions followed, and a whole chain of shaky banks founded by a certain Zimri Dwiggins in the West came down in one grand crash. Currency was quickly at a premium; clearing house certificates were resorted to. The silver mines of the West shut down, securities fell, and in four months de posits in national banks diminished $378,000,000. During the year some twenty- two thousand miles of railroad went into the hands of receivers; 642 banks closed their doors; the liabilities of mercantile failures amounted to $347,000,000; the production of iron fell off almost a fourth. The moment was not particularly propitious for tariff tinkering, but the Democratic platform had promised the repeal of the McKinley Act, and, besides, some^ new tariff measujajgaS-jieeded. j/ to_jirovi<te ^d^rHo^^e^nuelllQclihe depleted treasury. After a struggle a bill that had been "reported from the committee of ways and means by William L. Wilson of West Virginia passed the house in February, 1894. It was not a radical measure, but it placed many kinds of 158 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION raw materials, such as wool, coal, iron ore, and lumber on the free list, and made moderate re ductions on many manufactured goods. Into the original bill was also inserted a provision for a tax of two per cent on all incomes of more than $4,000 a year. This clause was adopted partly as a revenue measure, partly as a means of reach ing the rich, many of whom were thought to be evading their share of the financial burden. The bill fared badly in the senate. Many Democratic senators desired tariff reductions except upon goods produced in their own states. The senators from Louisiana bitterly opposed free sugar. Those from Maryland, Alabama, and West Virginia could see no good in free coal and iron ore. Senator Murphy of New York, being a resident of Troy, insisted upon high duties on linen collars and cuffs. It was the old story of the tariff s being a local issue; of the London fish monger who said: "I am in favor of free trade in everything but herring." A great lobby repre senting the manufacturers appeared in Washing ton, and the Sugar Trust at least secured favorable changes by bribery and corruption. Senators Gorman of Maryland and Brice of Ohio played the part of the protected interests with such astuteness that upwards of six hundred changes were made in the house bill and its original purport was utterly destroyed. President Cleveland denounced the senate measure as involving "party perfidy and party dishonor. * But the senate,__.jindeE_J Gorman s leadership, insisted trporf all the r changes, and the house could force no concessions. Ultimately BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 159 the president permitted the abortion to become a law without his signature. Even the jncome tax, which was regarded as the one redeeming feature of the act, was the next year held unconstitutional by the supreme courtby a vote of five to four. The ground for the decision was that the income tax was a direct tax and that the law had not apportioned it according to population. As the same court only fifteen years before had unanimously held an opposing opinion, the decision was severely criti cised. There were not wanting men who attrib uted the decision to the same sinister influences that had crippled tariff reform in the senate. While the tariff bill was under consideration business rnnHitinns_4ffgwLJgr>rse instead of better . The winter of 1893-94 saw Imndreds ol.thousands of men_oiit oi-work, with their families on the verge of starvation. In some way the idea of marching- to the_capital and petitioning , the government Jor a re^ejsjoLgrifi^auices-spread-through the country-r Presently crowds of unemployed, swelled by tramps and other vagabonds, were making their way, sometimes on foot, sometimes on captured trains, toward Washington. The chief points of depart ure were Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Mas- sillon, Ohio. The course of these bands was marked with lawlessness, petty thievery, and some bloodshed. The movement quickly col lapsed, and only about 300 of Cojce^s_picJLiiresque "Arjny-^ reached the Capitol^ where some of them were arrested (May 1, 1894) for walking on the grass and displaying banners without a permit. More serious was a widespread conflict between 160 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION capital and labor which began soon after Coxey s disillusioned " Commonwealers " turned their backs on Washington. The__great ___ jPullman Palace Car_Cpji]^aji^^ dismissed many of its emj^oyeSj cut the wages of others, and steadfastly refused arbitration. The result was a strike, whicTTlpreaH TapiHly^^ecause the American^Kailway Union, to which some of the Pullman employes belonged, refused to allow its members to handle Pullman cars. The Railway Managers Union stood by the Pullman Company. The railways running out of Chicago were para lyzed, and the strike spread rapidly to 27 states and territories. In Chicago mobs of j strikers, hoodlums, and professional criminals looted and burned hundreds of cars and defied all the efforts of the police to restore order. The Populist- Democrat governor of Illinois, Altgeld, sympa thized with the strikers and w^ould render no effec tive aid. The strike seemed in a fair way to succeed, but the strikers made the mistake of stopping trains carrying the mails, and this brought about the interference of the Federal government. A Federal judge issued a "blanket injunction" forbidding Eugene V. Debs, President of the Railway Union, all of its members, and "all other persons whomsoever" from interfering with the business of 23 specified railroads. Debs and three of his associates were also indicted for a conspiracy in violation of the Sherman anti trust act. To prevent further obstruction of the mails and to enforce the processes of the courts, President Cleveland ordered Federal troops to the scenes of disturbance. Governor Altgeld BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 161 protested vigorously against the presence of the troops in Illinois and declared that the railroads were paralyzed, "not because of the obstruction of strikers, but because the companies could not get men to operate the trains." The energetic interference of the Federal govern ment broke the backbone of the movement. A bloody conflict between troops and strikers occurred at Hammond, Indiana, but before the end of July the presence of the troops was no longer needed in Chicago. Debs was found guilty of contempt of court in failing to obey the injunction and also of conspiracy in violation of the Anti-Trust Act and was sentenced to six month s imprisonment. Some of his associates received shorter terms. The action of the courts in these cases provoked criticism not only among laboring men but among others as being an alarming stretch of judicial power. "Govern ment by injunction" was added to the long list of grievances of which labor complained. Meanwhile the government had been put to great embarrassment by the (Decline qf^ the gold esere JL _By January 17, 1894, the reserve bad fallen thirty millions below its proper figure. The president, notwithstanding bitter opposition from the friends of silver, determined to issue $50,000,000 in 5 per cent bonds in exchange for gold. But the terms called for a premium of not less than 17 per cent and the reserve had fallen yet lower before leading financiers on appeal from the secretary consented to subscribe for the loan. The advantages proved only momentary. Sub- 162 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION scribers, by presenting notes, took out of the treasury what they put into it. Financiers saw that they could so deplete the treasury as to compel new bond issues out of which they could make large profits. By November 14th the reserve stood at only $61,000,000, and the administration decided to float a new issue of $50,000,000. The issue was taken up by a syndicate of banking houses, which bid for all or none. The game was so good that early in February the reserve In this, .emergency the ^ , . president. caJled__into conference an Street financier, James Pierpont Morgan, and an agreement was reached whereby Morgan and associates agreed to take uj^ a_ new issue of^ $62,315,400 in 4 per centTxmds, paying gold in" exchange. They promised to use^lnfluence to prevent the further withdrawal of gold, pending the performance of the contract, and to import at least half the amount needed from abroad. The syndicate paid 104^, and the price quickly jumped to 118, thereby assuring Morgan and associates millions in profits. The deal disgusted well-nigh the whole country, and yet it has found earnest defenders. Westerners turned their backs on Cleveland almost en masse. Henceforth he was practically a president without a party. That the government made a mistake in award ing this issue is seemingly proved by subsequent events. By January, 1896, the reserve had again fallen so low that it was decided to issue a new 4 per cent loan of $100,000,000. This time, in deference to public opinion and the attitude of congress, the bonds were opened to public sub- BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 163 scription, and were several times oversubscribed. The lowest bid which the treasury found it neces sary to consider was 110.6877, or over 6 per cent more than the Morgan syndicate had paid for the previous issue. At the time the last bond issue was made the United States was seemingly on the verge of war with England over a disputed boundary between ^Venezuela and British Guiana. The dispute had existed ToF more than half a century. In 1880 and later Venezuela offered to submit the question to arbitration, but England refused, and diplo matic negotiations were broken off in 1887. The United States repeatedly tendered its good offices, but each time the British ministry declined them. The discovery of gold within the disputed region increased the unwillingness of Great Britain to relinquish control; she even enlarged her claims. President Cleveland believed that England was encroaching upon the territory of Venezuela _and thereby traversing the Monroe Doctrine. In July, 1895, his new secretary of state, Richard Olney, informed Lord Salisbury, the British premier, that under that doctrine the United States was "entitled to resent and resist any sequestration of Venezuelan soil," and strongly requested the submission of the whole case to arbitration. Lord Salisbury replied cavalierly that the Monroe Doctrine was not a part of the law of nations and declined to arbitrate the ques tion as a whole. Great Britain would arbitrate concerning her right to some of the territory in dispute but not concerning any territory east of what was known as the Schomburgk Line. This 164 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION line, which was now put forward with so much assurance, had years before been characterized by the British government itself as "merely a preliminary measure open to further discussion." President Cleveland thereupon did a character istically daring thing. He sent a special message to congress (December 17, 1895) recapitulating the points in the controversy and declaring that since Great Britain refused to arbitrate, the United States must itself ascertain the true boundary. He asked congress to appropriate money to defray the expenses of a special commission to make the necessary investigation. He declared that in case the disputed territory should be found to belong to Venezuela, it would be "the duty of the United States to resist by every means in its power" any British aggressions upon it. He added: "In making these recommendations I am fully alive to the responsibility incurred, and keenly realize all the consequences that may follow." The message struck a popular chord. The country resounded with applause. In four days congress voted $100,000 for the commission* without division or debate. Great Britain suddenly awoke to the serious ness of the situation. For a time there seemed grave danger of war, but the raid of Dr. Jameson s freebooters into the Transvaal and the Kaiser s congratulatory dispatch to Kruger turned British attention from the Venezuelan question. Peace was preserved in the only way possible Lord Salisbury ^accepted the_ngw_ Jnterpretation of thlT MonroeL>pctrine and consented to arbi trate "the whole question. A formal treaty to BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 165 that effect between Great Britain and Vene zuela was signed (February 2, 1897). The decis ion of the arbitration tribunal proved, on the whole, favorable to England, but the tribunal awarded to Venezuela some territory east of the Schomburgk Line territory which England had claimed to be so clearly hers that she would not allow her title to it to be called in question. The outcome of the dispute marked a signal victory of American diplomacy. In the words of the London Times, Great Britain admitted "that in respect of South American Republics the United States may not only intervene in dis putes, but may entirely supersede the original disputant and assume exclusive control of the negotiations." It was an assertion and a conces sion of American hegemony in the New World. The Venezuelan message gave President Cleve land temporary popularity, but it did not enable him to recover control of his party. In the West and South particularly that party was thoroughly inoculated with the free silver virus. In those sections most Democrats regarded the president as a traitor who had betrayed party and nation to the "Gold Bugs" of Wall Street. The Repub licans were themselves divided on the financial issue, but they had won an overwhelming victory in the congressional elections of 1894 and were extravagantly confident as to the future. It was their common boast that in 1896 they could nominate " a rag-baby or a yellow dog and elect it." The chief candidates for the Republican nomi nation were Thomas B. Reed of Maine and Wil liam McKinley of Ohio. Reed had made himself 166 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION conspicuous by his arbitrary course as "Czar" of the house, but it was felt by many politicians that he was too openly a friend of the gold stand ard to be acceptable in the West. McKinley was regarded by many as a more available can didate. As a member of the house in 1878 he had voted for the Bland-Allison Bill on its first pas sage and subsequently when it was passed over the president s veto, but his exact position on the money question was unknown, and his record was more closely associated with the tariff. It was his bill of 1890 that had brought defeat to his party in that year and again in 1892, but a reaction had come, and it was now possible to arouse enthusiasm among those who attributed the hard times to Democratic rule by shouting "Bill McKinley and the McKinley Bill." Fol lowing his defeat in the congressional election of 1890, he had twice been elected governor of Ohio, and his course in that office had been eminently satisfactory to the powerful financial interests that were now grasping at the government. Mc Kinley was a man of moderate abilities and pure private life. Being the son and grandson of iron masters, he understood the manufacturer s point of view and sympathized with it. The decisive part in the campaign for the nomination and some assert in the years that followed was played not by McKinley but by his political manager, Marcus Alonzo Hanna of Cleveland. "Mark" Hanna P as he_was usually called, was an Ohio business man who had ac cumulated a large fortune in coal, iron, and other industries. He owned street railway and other BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 167 franchises, and had participated in local and state politics as an adjunct to his business. In private life he was a blunt, coarse-fibered man, with many likable human traits. As regards his theoretical knowledge of political science, it is enough to say that one of his favorite expres sions of denunciation was: "He s a Socialist and an Anarchist." Hanna was frankly cynical of popular government. He was a corruptionist of the most dangerous type. In the words of one who was long associated with him in politics, "Mark Hanna never tried to carry an election merely by a sober appeal to the sense and con science of the people. When he wanted a thing, jt was his idea to go out and buy somebody." While governor, McKinley became involved in financial obligations to the extent of about $100,000, but Hanna and other wealthy friends gave him the money that saved him from bank ruptcy. What influence this transaction later had upon McKinley s career it is impossible to say. This much is certain, that their relations were very close, and that Hanna s was the stronger nature. Men who knew both have gone so far as to say that "McKinley was not, for Hanna took him," but this is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Hanna was determined to secure the nomina tion^)? his friend foj^t^pft^Mton^y, ffp d ftjTrnn- ducted I3ie ^"campaign to that end with consum mate skill. Through the lavish use of money secret influences were set to work, particularly in the South and West, to fan into a flame the already latent friendliness felt among Republi- 168 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION cans for "the advance agent of prosperity." It is notorious that many of the Southern delegates to Republican national conventions are venal, and Hanna was especially successful in obtaining delegates from that section. When the Republi can convention met at St. Louis in the middle of June, McKinley was nominated on the first ballot, with Garret A. Hobart, a wealthy lawyer and business man of New Jersey, as the vice- presidential candidate. Up to the meeting of the convention it had been uncertain what attitude the party would take on the coinage question. Hanna had skill fully kept his candidate s opinions on the subject in the background in order not to alienate the free silver West or the gold East. But with his consent, and perhaps through his secret manage ment, a platform was adopted which opposed the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement. Senator Teller of Colorado and thirty-three other delegates, including three other senators and two members of the house, at once seceded from the convention. Their withdrawal was serious, but the convention s action had secured the support of the sound money East. Meanwhile it was becoming certain that the Democrats would declare for free silver. In the West the free-coinage craze had become an obses sion. "It was a fanaticism like the Crusades. In deed, the delusion that was working on the people took the form of religious frenzy. Sacred hymns were torn from their pious tunes to give place to words which deified the cause and made gold and all its symbols, capital, wealth, plutocracy BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 169 diabolical. At night, from ten thousand little white schoolhouse windows, lights twinkled back vain hope to the stars. . . . They sang their barbaric songs in unrhythmic jargon, with some thing of the mad faith that inspired martyrs going to the stake. Far into the night the voices rose, women s and children s voices, the voices of old men, of youths and of maidens rose on the ebbing prairie breezes, as the crusaders of the revolution rode home, praising the people s will as though it were God s will and cursing wealth for its inequity." When the Democratic convention met at Chi cago in July, the free-silver wing had full control. The old conservative leaders were swept aside. Cleveland s administration was repudiated. Gold monometallism was denounced as the mischief * which had locked fast the prosperity of an indus trial people in the paralysis of hard times." The platform demanded "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." Much uncertainty existed as to who would lead the crusade in behalf of the white metal. The man most talked about at first was the "Father of Free Silver," Senator Richard P. Bland of Mis souri. But while the platform was still under discussion there appeared upon the stage to plead the cause of silver a young man of thirty-six from Nebraska. The speaker had a magnificent presence and a marvelous mellow voice that penetrated to the farthest recesses of the great convention hall. Practically unknown to the nation, utterly un- 170 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION known to many of the delegates present, he pro ceeded to deliver an oration the like of which, judged by its effectiveness, had rarely been heard since the days of Clay and Webster. And when he closed by saying: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold! * he had won in an hour what other men had striven a lifetime for and had failed to win. "Silver Dick" Bland was forgotten; the next day William Jennings_ Bryan was nominated for the presidency! /&Uco-x*/o*-K7 TThe new leader was a graduate of Illinois College, and a lawyer of Lincoln, Nebraska. His public experience was practically limited to two terms in the lower house of congress, where he had been an active insurgent against Cleveland s financial policy. He was the youngest man who had ever been nominated for the presidency. The action of the Chicago convention dismayed Eastern Democrats. Many prominent leaders and newspapers declared that they would not support the "Boy Orator of the Platte." The bolters organized a "Gold Democrat" party, which held a convention at Indianapolis in September and nominated ex-Senator Palmer of Illinois and General Simon E. Buckner of Ken tucky for the presidency and vice-presidency. With this movement President Cleveland and his friends were supposed to be in sympathy. On the other hand, the Populists and Silver Re publicans, meeting in separate conventions at St. Louis, decided to support Bryan, but the Populists substituted Thomas E. Watson BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 171 of Georgia for the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. The campaign was fought almost solely on the financial issue. The Democrats urged that the scarcity of money depressed business and worked a great injustice upon the debtor class. Con traction, they declared, is as dishonorable as inflation, and it has the added disadvantage of falling most heavily upon those who have borrowed money rather than upon those who have been rich enough to lend it. They contended that if even one great commercial nation like the United States should restore the historic value ratio between the two metals, other nations would be compelled to co-operate, the money famine would be ended, and business would improve. They had no fear of fiat value. One of their campaign songs ran thus: "You may say what you will of the fifty cent dollar, But I tell you it beats none at all all holler." Bryan made a whirlwind campaign, traveling eighteen thousand miles and speaking to probably five million hearers. For_a. time it seemed that he had &^hance_of _ Grejat numbers of people wrongly laid all the blame for the hard times upon Democratic rule, and the cry of " McKinley and Prosperity " won labor votes. Many people, though agreeing that something was wrong with the nation, could not agree that free silver was the rightful remedy.* They were inclined to accept the Republican view that to adopt it would mean national ruin 172 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION and national disgrace. The financial interests contributed to the Republican cause a greater campaign fund than any that had hitherto been gathered. Laborers were told that if the Demo crats won they need not return to work. City banks brought pressure to bear upon country correspondents. Orders for goods were made contingent upon the choice of the Republican candidate. When the votes were finally counted in November, it was found that McKinley would be the choice of 271 electors, Bryan of only 176. The money question had served to obscure the real issue and to postpone the solution of an evil that had resulted from a long course of economic evolution. A little more than a century before there had begun in England a new movement in history that in its effects upon the daily lives, thoughts, and habits of men has been vastly more important than any political revolution of which there exists a record. By the invention of labor- saving machinery such as the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, and the steam-engine, man freed himself from the limitations of his own puny strength and harnessed Nature to work for him. Society passed from the handicraft into the in dustrial stage. This Industrial Revolution, of which too little is said in our school histories, has had both its bright and its dark sides. The amount of goods that could be created for human enjoyment was vastly increased, but the new system brought with it the growth of factories, child labor, the capitalistic system, with all the complicated BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK 173 problems that these things entail. In the evo lution of industrial society there developed a system of combinations having the activities of an individual and infinitely greater power, but without an individual s responsibility. The control of these giant combinations was the real problem of the day, but the party of reform unwisely "sought a remedy through an attempt to establish an unsound economic prin ciple. The result was their defeat, and for a time the defeat of the cause for which they were con tending. The way to deliverance was not to be opened to them through the door of the national finances. Mr. Bryan resembled a champion who rushes forth to meet a powerful antagonist, and who has armed himself with a sword of which the blade is flawed. At the very crisis of the combat, his weapon was shattered in his grasp, and the victory was given to his adversary." President Cleveland retired from office the most unpopular ex-president since Andrew John son. His party had openly repudiated him, and among Western Democrats his name was anath ema. But as the years passed more and more men paid tribute to his integrity and to his stubborn stand for sound money. In one respect his break with his party was an unmixed blessing, for it left him a freer hand to advance civil service reform. He retained Theodore Roosevelt on the Civil Service Commission, and worked in har mony with him until Roosevelt resigned to be come police commissioner of New York City. Finding on his second inauguration 42,928 places under civil service rules, Cleveland ex- 174 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION tended the classified list until the positions numbered 86,932, of which only 1,513 were due to growth. His successor deemed the extension somewhat too sweeping to suit his idea of the fitness of things. He withdrew some thousands from the classified list and placed over six thou sand under a modified system more flexible to the desires of Republican spoilsmen. CHAPTER VU THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN IN the year 1868 the people of the island of *)se against their Spanish rulers in an attempt to obtain self-government. The proxim ity of the island to the United States helped to rouse a strong interest in the great Republic for the struggling revolutionists. In August, 1869, President Grant signed a proclamation recog nizing the belligerency of the insurgents, but owing to the influence of Secretary Fish it was never issued. Four years later a Spanish gun boat seized a filibustering steamer, the Vir ginius, on the high seas and carried her into the harbor of Santiago, where fifty-three of the passengers and crew, including eight American citizens, were summarily shot. The war spirit flamed high in the United States, for when cap tured the Virginius was flying the American flag. Hostilities seemed likely, but after vex atious delays reparation was made by Spain for the affair. American feeling was also soothed by the discovery that the Virginius had ob tained her registry by perjury and fraud. The war languished for a decade, but ultimately peace was restored in the island upon promises being 175 176 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION made of important concessions. Hardly had the patriots laid down their arms when the promises were broken, and Spain proceeded to govern as tyrannically as ever. Early in 1895 another revolt broke out in the island, among those engaged in the movement being many who had participated in the Ten Years War. Unable to meet the Spanish regulars in the field, the insurgents resorted to guerrilla tactics, and by the end of 1896 roamed at will over three-fourths of the inland country. Plantations were laid waste by both sides, villages and towns were burned, and great stretches of country reverted to the wilderness. Under the humane leadership of Governor-general Campos, the Span ish at first waged warfare in accordance with civil ized usages; but Campos failed to suppress the revolt, and in January, 1896, was superseded by General Weyler, whose harsh policy gained for him the name of the "Butcher." Weyler put into effect a policy of gathering the peasants and vil lagers into fortified towns in order that they might not afford assistance to the insurgents. Being improperly supplied with food and shelter, the unhappy reconcentrados died by tens of thousands. The revolt quickly won American sympathy, and not a few adventurous spirits betook them selves to Cuba to fight in the insurgent ranks. The American government tried hard to enforce its neutrality laws, but numerous vessels managed to escape the vigilance of the authorities and to land volunteers and sorely needed munitions of war in Cuba. As the war dragged slowly along, as newspaper and magazine correspondents sent THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 177 out stories of Spanish cruelty and the awful sufferings of the non-combatants in the recon- centration camps, American interest became intensified, and more and more people began to feel that our government ought to intervene to put a stop to such horrors. Since at least fifty millions of American capital was invested in the island, Americans also had a pecuniary interest in the return of peace conditions. In spite of growing pressure, however, President Cleveland and President McKinley after him preserved a perfectly correct attitude, but plainly intimated that the United States could not be expected to display forbearance forever. In September, 1897, Stewart L. Woodford, the American minister to Spain, renewed to the Span ish government previous tenders of our friendly offices in settling the contest, at the same time giving warning that American patience was about at an end. Seftor Sagasta, the head of a new Liberal ministry, replied that Spain was about to grant the Cubans the right of self-government under Spanish sovereignty. The brutal Weyler was superseded by General Blanco, the con centration order was somewhat modified, and all American prisoners were released. But the revolutionists refused to trust Spanish promises, while the loyalists in the island, in riotous out breaks, denounced autonomy and the United States. Fearing for the safety of Americans in Havana, Consul-general Fitzhugh Lee asked for naval protection. Orders were issued for the North Atlantic squadron to rendezvous at the Dry Tortugas, only a few hours* sailing from Cuba, 178 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION and the second-class battleship Maine was sent to Havana. To preserve appearances, the Spanish armored cruiser Vizcaya visited New York. About this time a letter from the Spanish minister at Washington, Senor Dupuy de Lome, in which he spoke cynically of Spain s grant of self-govern ment to Cuba and disrespectfully of McKinley, was published in the American press and re sulted in his resignation. The tension between the two countries, already high, was soon increased well-nigh to the break ing point by a tragic incident. On the night of February 15th, the Maine, at anchor in Havana harbor, was blown up by an explosion, resulting in the death of 266 American seamen. Public indignation in the United States was intense, for it was generally believed that the tragedy was due to dastardly treachery, and there was a deep desire for vengeance. An American court of in quiry reported that the disaster had been caused by an external explosion; a Spanish court that the explosion was an internal one. The pressure of the war party upon congress and the president now became irresistible. Con gress appropriated $50,000,000 "as an emergency fund for the national defence." War vessels, guns, and other munitions were purchased abroad. Certain European states endeavored to intervene in behalf of Spain, but the attempt was frustrated by the attitude of Great Britain; it ended in a mere tender of friendly offices. On the 19th of April, the anniversary of Lexington and Concord, congress adopted a joint resolution declaring Cuba free and independent and authorizing the THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 179 president to force Spain to relinquish her sover eignty. A formal declaration of war followed six days later. Volunteers were called for, but it was evident that in the coming conflict sea-power would play the decisive part. On paper the two navies were apparently about equal in strength. Continental sympathizers with Spain affected to believe that the Spanish fleets would sweep the seas. But the new American navy, begun in the administration of Arthur, contained some splendid vessels, manned by officers and men filled with the tra ditions of a service that had produced a Paul Jones, a Decatur, a Macdonough, a Perry, two Porters, and a Farragut. Partly through the energetic preparations of a strenuous assistant- secretary, who had foreseen the war and under stood what was needed, the vessels had been kept in fighting trim, and the crews had been trained to use the guns. As a result, the navy displayed an efficiency that astonished even its creators and admirers. The first blow was not long delayed. Commo dore George Dewey had for some time been sta tioned with a small but highly efficient squadron at Hong Kong within striking distance of the Philippine Islands. In obedience to a cablegram from Washington, he sailed into the harbor of Manila on the early morning of May Day, and in a few hours utterly destroyed a much inferior Spanish fleet without the loss of a man. The victory put the city of Manila at his mercy, but he forbore taking it until land forces could arrive from the United States. While waiting, 180 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION he blockaded the city, suffering meantime some vexatious annoyances from the too officious behavior of a German fleet. Sufficient troops were hastily sent from the United States, and on the 13th of August, with some assistance from the natives, who had risen in revolt against the Spaniards, the Americans took the city. Spanish rule in the Orient was at an end. Meanwhile even more decisive events had been taking place in and around Cuba. With the first outbreak of war, a powerful squadron under Acting-admiral Sampson had blockaded Havana and other ports of the island, while a "Flying Squadron" under Commodore Schley was as sembled at Hampton Roads in readiness to meet the movements of a Spanish squadron of four armored cruisers and three destroyers that had been sent from Spain under Admiral Cervera. The battleship Oregon, stationed at San Francisco, set out on a long and spectacular voyage of 14,000 miles round South America, arriving in West Indian waters in time to do splendid service. As the destination of Cervera s fleet was unknown, much uneasiness was manifested in coast towns and summer resorts. But it presently developed that Cervera had no intention of attempting anything so bold. After touching at various West Indian ports he finally, with all his vessels except one destroyer, put into the harbor of Santiago. Here he was soon blockaded by the Flying Squadron, and presently by both American fleets. As the entrance to the harbor was long and narrow and commanded by fortifications, it was deemed inexpedient for the American vessels to THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 181 attempt to enter, and it was also thought that it would be well if the egress of the Spanish fleet could be rendered impossible. On the night of June 2d Lieutenant Richmond Pearson Hobson, with seven volunteers, sailed with the steam collier Merrimac into the channel under a terrific fire and endeavored to sink her at a spot that would block the exit of the Spanish ships. The Merrimac did not sink quickly enough, and the attempt failed fortunately, as the event proved. Hobson and his men were captured, but were presently exchanged. The gallantry of the exploit won high praise from a world-wide audience. In order to insure the capture of the blockaded fleet, a land attack was now planned against Santiago. In the middle of June some thirty transports, convoyed by men of war, sailed from Port Tampa, Florida, bearing about sixteen thousand troops. The embarkation was attended with great disorder, for the war department had broken down under the strain of actual warfare. The army was commanded by Major- general Shafter, an officer from Michigan. It consisted chiefly of regular troops, but included in it were three volunteer regiments. Not so much because of its services in this campaign but rather because of its indirect in fluence upon political history, one of these volun teer regiments demands more than passing notice. Officially it was called the First Volunteer Cayalryj, popularly it went by the name~ of the fiough Biders,J)ecause it was composed in large measure of western cowboys, prospectors, and Indians, with a sprinkling of eastern football players. 182 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION It was commanded^ by Colonel__I^gjd_WoQd, an ex-army surgeon who haoT^vxm the coveted Medal of Honor by heroism in campaigns against the Apaches. Its second in commjjjidjwas Theo dore Roosevelt. At this time Roosevelt wasfhbt quite "Forty years of age, and came of a long line of Knickerbocker ancestors. After graduating from Harvard he had entered the New York legislature, where he quickly won an enviable record as a reformer. In 1886 he was the Republi can candidate for mayor of New York but was defeated. He spent some years ranching in western Dakota, and was an enthusiastic hunter of big game. He did valuable service as a civil service commissioner, as police commissioner of New York City, and as assistant secretary of the navy. In the midst of these varied activities he found time to write the best history then extant of the naval War of 1812 and a more elaborate work on "The Winning of the West," which set in true perspective the importance of the great westward movement over the Alleghanies. Per sonally he was frank, impulsive, courageous, strenuous, an ardent American in the best sense of the term. When congress authorized the rais ing of "three cavalry regiments from among the wild riders and riflemen of the plains," he was offered command of one of them, but, doubting his technical military knowledge, secured the appointment of his friend Wood, with himself as second in command. The regiment quickly caught the popular fancy, because of its pictur- esqueness. The dispatches of war correspondents from the front gave the Rough Riders a promi- THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 183 nence out of all proportion to their military per formances excellent as these proved to be. The army safely disembarked at Daiquiri and Siboney near Santiago. On June 24th General Joseph Wheeler, a distinguished ex-Confederate cavalry officer, moved forward with a force of dis mounted cavalry including the Rough Riders and struck an advanced Spanish force at Las Guasimas. After a fierce fight in the hot tropical forest the Spanish fled in confusion. On the 1st of July the army moved against the outer defenses of Santiago, and fought two spirited actions on and around San _sLuaH- HilL _and at El Caney. Owing to the illness of the unwieldy Shafter, both actions were won through the efficiency of the soldiers and regimental officers rather than through skillful generalship. At San Juan the Rough Riders were again in the thick of the fight. Roosevelt, who was now in com mand of the regiment, Wood having been pro moted, led the charge in his part of the field and was one of the first in the Spanish intrenchments. On the morning of the 3rd, fearing capture from the besieging army, all the Spanish fleet except one vessel emerged from the harbor and endeavored to escape to the westward. A running fight ensued, at the end of which every Spanish vessel was a blackened wreck on the coast of Cuba. Only one American was killed and one wounded. In the conflict ,the Oregon especially distinguished herself, both by her speed and fighting efficiency. At the time of the battle Admiral Sampson was absent with the flagship New York, and the senior officer present was 184 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION Commodore Schley. As he issued no orders to the other ships, the battle was really a "captains fight," but there was "honor enough for all." Two weeks later Santiago surrendered, with more than ten thousand prisoners. The destruction of Cervera s fleet proved the decisive battle of the war. Another Spanish fleet that was on its way eastward to the Philip pines turned back at the news in order not to leave the coast of Spain undefended. It was evident that the Spanish troops in Cuba, cut off from supplies and reinforcements, could not long hold their own. An army under Major-general Miles landed in Porto Rico and carried everything before it. European pressure was brought to bear upon Spain, whose finances were in a de plorable state. Spanish honor being satisfied, a protocol was signed at Washington on the 12th of August, followed in December by a definitive treaty. By this treaty Spain abandoned all claims to Cuba and Porto Rico. She also ceded Guam in the Ladrones archipelago and the Philippines, consisting of some three thousand islands with a heterogeneous population of upwards of seven millions. As a solatium for the Philippines Spain received $20,000,000. A striking feature of the conflict had been the unpreparedness of the army. Although our troops were victorious in every battle, it was due to the splendid personnel rather than to good management. The department of war showed itself lamentably inefficient. Political favoritism, red tape, and general incompetence, if not criminal carelessness, produced a state of chaos in military THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 185 matters that might in a war against a more re doubtable antagonist have resulted disastrously. Many of the troops were sent to the burning climate of Cuba in heavy woolen clothing, while the rations furnished were not at all suited for such work. A part of the food supplied consisted of beef that had been so treated with injurious chemicals that it gained the name of "embalmed beef." After the surrender of Santiago the department displayed such poor judgment that it ordered the army, which was practically the only efficient force the United States possessed, to remain in a fever-infested region where it would quickly have been "ripe for dying like rotten sheep" had not Colonel Roosevelt and other officers united in a "round robin" which secured its removal home. Even in the United States much incompetence was shown in the manage ment of camps of volunteers, with the result that hundreds needlessly lost their lives from disease. Popular indignation produced an investigation by a commission, which brought in a report "whitewashing" the department, yet admitting that Secretary Russell A. Alger had failed to "grasp the situation." President McKinley feared to bring discredit upon the administration by dismissing him, but a coolness between the men ultimately developed. The president then asked for Alger s resignation, which was forth coming (July 19, 1899). Alger was succeeded by Elihu Root, a New York lawyer, under whose energetic and intelligent administration great reforms were accomplished in military matters. 186 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION As a war the conflict had been so small as to be contemptible. Fewer Americans had fallen in it than had been killed in combats of the great Civil contest that had not risen above the dignity of skirmishes. But in its effects the war was a world movement. For better or for worse, the United States had quitted its traditional policy of isolation and had stepped at last upon the broad stage of international affairs. The restless energy that had conquered the continent west ward to the Pacific had now carried the flag beyond the narrow confines of the western hemi sphere. Doubtfully, somewhat unwillingly, the nation stooped to take up "the White Man s burden," and assumed the government of strange peoples, "half devil and half child," in lands beyond the seas. At the outbreak of the war congress had expressly disclaimed for the United States all intention of acquiring the island of Cuba. There were Americans dishonorable enough to counsel that this solemn pledge should be broken, but the great majority favored giving the Cubans independence. A provisional government was instituted by the United States to prepare the way for self-government, and many improvements in law, education, and sanitation were introduced. Yellow fever was practically stamped out, and Major Walter Reed, a United States army sur geon, made the important discovery that the disease is transmitted by a mosquito. The sani tation question was one in which the United States was itself deeply interested, for in the past many THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 187 of the outbreaks of yellow fever within the States were traceable to Cuba. In February, 1901, a Cuban convention com pleted a constitution for the island closely mod eled after that of the United States. Upon demand from Washington there was subsequently em bodied in this constitution an amendment to the effect that no foreign power should be per mitted to acquire or control any Cuban terri tory, that the Cuban government should not incur a debt not justified by the revenues of the island, that the United States should be given naval stations on the Cuban coast, that the Cuban government should attend to the sanitation of the cities of the island, and that the United States might intervene to protect Cuban inde pendence or to maintain "a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty." This so-called "Platt amendment * roused considerable feeling among the Cubans, for it was practically an admissioii of an American protectorate. A treaty embodying the provisions of the amendment was subsequently negotiated and ratified (1904), and the United States ob tained naval stations at Guantanamo and Bahia Hondo. In December, 1901, a general election was held in the island, resulting in the choice of Tomas Estrada Palma as the first president of free Cuba. On May 20, 1902, Governor Leonard Wood turned over his authority to the new presi dent. American occupation for the time being was at an end. Porto Rico and the Philippines were retained 138 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION h^Llhe_Urdted-States. Regarding the Philippines there was grave difference of opinion, and the treaty of cession was ratified by the narrow margin of one vote. Many patriotic Americans thought that the same course should be followed in the Philippines as in Cuba. Others gravely doubted whether a people so heterogeneous in race, reli gion, and customs could govern themselves. It was believed that if the Filipinos were given their independence, anarchy would break out, and that the islands would fall a prey to Germany or some other power. Exaggerated ideas were afloat as to the tremendous wealth of the islands, and there was much talk about trade "following the flag." It was popularly supposed that possession of the islands would add greatly to our revenues and would powerfully increase our prestige in the Orient. Under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, an educated man of mixed Spanish and Tagalic blood, the Filipinos had aided in the capture of Manila and felt that they ought to be allowed to occupy it. The continued arrival of fresh Ameri can troops and the publication of a presidential proclamation that seemed to show an intention on the part of the United States to retain the islands produced a state of mind that led to a rash step. On the night of February 4, 1899, the Filipinos attempted to capture the city. The attack was repulsed, and in course of time the Americans took the offensive. The fighting that followed was too unequal to deserve the name of warfare. The Filipinos THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 189 frequently fought with desperate courage, but they were poorly armed with bolos and a few rifles, and were no match for the stalwart, straight- shooting Americans. The combats were massa cres rather than battles. The Filipinos were unable to keep the field, and the struggle degen erated into a guerrilla contest that was much more trying to the conquerors than open hostili ties. Famine and pestilence added their horrors to the ravages of war, and it has been estimated that in the three years that the conflict endured some hundreds of thousands of Filipinos perished. In March, 1901, by means of a clever stratagem, Brigadier-general Frederick Funston, an officer who had served with the Cubans as a filibuster, captured Aguinaldo, and gradually resistance ceased. The conflict had been attended by many regret table incidents. The Americans justified their presence in the islands on humanitarian grounds, but their behavior was too often that of barbarians. In isolated instances American officers, angered by treachery or the persistence of the "Insur gents," resorted to torture, and the "water cure** became a name of ill-omen in the United States. One such officer, "Hell Roaring Jake Smith," issued orders to "make Samar a howling wilder ness . . . kill everything over ten." For this order and as being indirectly responsible for the shooting of prisoners without trial, he was sum marily dismissed from the service. On the 4th of July, 1902, the president offi cially declared the islands pacified. The war had 190 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION cost the conquerors about $170.000.000. The indirect expenditures resulting from the necessary increase of the army and navy are more difficult to determine, and the end is not yet. It is recognized that in a military way the islands are a source of weakness to the United States, while the golden dream of expansionists of the great commercial advantages that would result from annexation has not been realized. The total imports of American goods into the islands for the fiscal year ending June SO, 1901), amounted to only about $0,000,000, but under the freer trade conceded by the Payne- Aldrich tariff the amount has greatly increased. In April, 1900, a civil commission of five Ameri cans, headed by Judge William H. Taft of Ohio, was appointed to organize a civil government to supersede the military eovernment. A year later (July 4, 1901^1 Judge Taft became civil governor of the archipelago. Associated with him was a council of four other Americans and three Filipinos. A mixed supreme court was also created. Every effort was made to deal fairly with the Filipinos and to justify the American occupation by a government conducted in their interests. A system of secular schools was established, and about a thousand American teachers were sent out to educate the natives and fit them for self-government. The movement resembled a new crusade, and like the crusades some of its results were disappointing. The question of the ownership of the friars land, which had long disturbed the islands, was ami- THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 191 cably settled (1903) by negotiations with the Vatican. An act of congress (July 1, 1902) confirmed what the Taft commission had done up to that time and provided for a legislative body composed of a representative assembly and the commission, acting as a council. The suffrage was so hedged about with educational and property qualifica tions that only about a tenth of the adult maha could qualify. This course was necessary because many of the people were little more than savages, some, in fact, being "head hunters"; compara tively few were capable of casting votes intel ligently. Congress retained a veto power over all insular legislation, and provided for appeals from the insular supreme court to the United States supreme court. The first general election was held in the islands on July 30, 1907, and resulted in a decided victory for the Nationalist or independence party. The legislature held its first session on the 16th of the following October. The acquisition of the Philippines and other islands aroused grave doubts as to whether the American Federal system was adapted to the government of such dependencies. Territory previously acquired by the United States had been sparsely populated, and the land and cli mate were such as to lend themselves to white settlement. But the Philippines were already thickly inhabited by "inferior races," while the tropical climate was unfavorable to Caucasians. It seemed improbable that Americans would ever 192 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION migrate to the islands in large numbers; it was almost certain that the great majority of the people would always be Malays and Mongolians. To admit such a country into the Union as a state seemed out of the question; it must always re main a dependency. If, as some contended, the constitution follows the flag, it was evident that the administrators of such a dependency would be greatly hampered by parts of that document, particularly by those amendments which are known as the "Bill of Rights." Some people even denied the constitutional right of the United States to acquire such territory at all. The administration took the ground that the constitution does not apply to new territory until expressly extended there by act of congress. It held that the constitutional clause, "Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all need ful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States," is in effect a plenary grant. In what are known as "the Insular Cases" the supreme court, though badly divided, in effect adopted this view. Congress and the president were therefore left unhampered m the work of providing govern ments for the new dependencies. The theory adopted regarding the status of the inhabitants was that they were neither citizens of the United States nor foreigners. The Foraker Act of April 12, 1900, described the denizens of Porto Rico as "citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the protection of the United States." THE WHITE MAN S BURDEN 193 The acquisition of the Philippines practically forced the United States to play a part in general Qrjental affairs^ At the time of the Spanish- American war a movement was in progress among certain European powers to partition China. Fearing for American commercial interests, {fac Secretary of State John Hay, in September, 1899, addressed notes to the various powers insisting upon the policy of the "jupen door*! t. 6., that Chinese ports open to the trade of the world should be kept open, no matter under whose control they might fall. Not all of the powers responded favorably, but the United States assumed that the principle was established. The exploitation of China by the powers aroused intense anti-foreign sentiment culminating ^ 1900 in what was known as the Boxer movement. Many missionaries and native Christians were massacred, the German minister was murdered, and the foreign diplomatic corps at Peking were besieged in the British legation. For weeks their fate was uncertain; it was feared that all had been killed. Ships of the powers shelled the Taku forts, and ultimately an allied force, in cluding about 2,500 Americans under Major- general Chaffee, fought their way to the capital, captured it, and rescued the beleaguered band. The relieving troops behaved in many cases with the utmost barbarity, slaughtering the Chinese and seizing great quantities of "loot." The worst offenders in this respect were the Russians. The American troops generally behaved admirably, and American influence was exerted in the direc- 194 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION tion of moderation and magnanimity. A great indemnity was exacted by the powers. The share assigned the United States was subsequently found greatly to exceed the damages done, and the excess was returned to China. CHAPTER VIII THE GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM DOUBT still exists as to the value of the terri torial results of the Spanish-American War, but in one respect the conflict was an unmixed bless ing. The war roused a great wave of patriotic feeling in the South such as had not been expe rienced since Taylor and Scott led their armies into Mexico. For the first time since the sad days of secession the nation became a real Union of hearts. Volunteers for the struggle came for ward as freely in the South as in any other section, and a number of distinguished ex-Confederates accepted high commands. Both officers and men performed their duties with high credit to themselves, and no one felt inclined to criticise if now and then a Southern officer, in the heat of action, forgot himself and adjured his men to "give the Yankees hell!" Says Roosevelt in describing the progress of his regiment from San Antonio to Tampa: "We were travelling through a region where practically all the older men had served in the Confederate Army, and where the younger men had all their lives long drunk in the endless talcs told by their elders, at home, and at the cross- 195 196 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION roads taverns, and in the court-house squares, about the cavalry of Forrest and Morgan and the infantry of Jackson and Hood. The blood of the old men stirred to the distant breath of battle; the blood of the young men leaped hot with eager desire to accompany us. . . . Everywhere we saw the Stars and Stripes, and everywhere we were told, half-laughing, by grizzled ex-Confed erates that they had never dreamed in the by gone days of bitterness to greet the old flag as they now were greeting it, and to send their sons, as they now were sending them, to fight and die under it." In many other respects the war was most un fortunate. As invariably happens in such cases, the conflict turned the attention of the people from internal affairs and directed it to international questions. There can be little doubt that needed reforms were delayed, and that the people sub mitted longer to a form of tyranny none the less oppressive because it was less tangible than tyrannies are wont to be. Although the chief issue in the election of 1896 had been the currency question, the first impor tant act of the McKinley administration was to call a special session to revise the tariff. No revision was needed to secure revenue, but the manufacturing interests were clamoring for the fruits of victory, and both McKinley and Hanna were in full sympathy with their desires. "Busi ness" was at last in full control of the government. Hanna honestly believed in the absorption of public franchises by the favored few and the creation of special interests by special legislation. GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 197 If he had defined his idea of a beneficent govern ment, it would have been something like this: " Legislate for the rich man, and some of the bene fits will filter down to the poor man." Materi alism was his divinity, and he was not a disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau or Thomas Jefferson. He had secured the election of McKinley, and besides he now personally occupied a public post of importance, for old John Sherman had been "kicked upstairs" from one of the Ohio senator- ships into the secretaryship of state in order to make a place for Hanna. Through the splendid discipline of the Repub licans, and under the fostering care of Thomas B. Reed, who was again "Czar," a tariff bill framed by a committee of which Nelson Dingley of Maine was chairman, was quickly carried through the house. Modifications in the further interests of the powers that ruled were made in the more plutocratic senate, and toward the end of July theJDingley Bilj_ became a law. In the main it followed the lines of the once repudiated measure of 1890, though the average rate was slightly Ipwer^ Still the act was an extremely high tariff measure, being practically prohibitive upon many articles.^ Under its operation the people were to continue to behold the strange anomaly of great industries selling articles at a much lower rate abroad than at home and paying the freight thither. There can be^ncL^doubt that the jact tended to put American consumers at the mercy of monopolies by rendering foreign competition almost impossible, but that was exactly what many of the framers of the act desired. 198 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION A redeejiiiiig_Jeature _ cjf the Dingley that it gave the president power for a period of two years to negotiate reciprocity treaties pro- _ viding for a reduction of not more than 20 per cent of the Dingley rates or to place on the free list natural products that were not produced in the United States. The president was also authorized to make, without the consent of the senate, certain limited reciprocity agreements. Several of these limited agreements were entered into, and seven formal reciprocity treaties were negotiated. The treaties would have given only moderate relief from the excessive Dingley rates, but special influences proved so powerful in the senate that not one was ratified. The senate s failure to ratify these treaties was the more reprehensible because while the bill was pending it had been distinctly understood that the high rates in it were to be reduced by reciprocity agreements. The country acquiesced in the Dingley Act and in the defeat of the reciprocity treaties with better grace than might have been anticipated, for the cause of freer trade had received a heavy blow in the panic of 1893, which many people attributed to the dread of tariff tinkering, forgetting that the business depression was world-wide and that it was on the way even before Cleveland s election. A lull in political agitation, the confidence of the financial classes in the new administration, the abatement in the money stringency as a result of greatly increased gold production in South Africa and the Klondike, renewed faith in America s Boundless resources all these and other causes GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 199 combined to produce a great business revival. The claims of protectionists were seemingly justified, and the people, with attention dis tracted by foreign affairs, generally accepted the Dingley Act. Few realized that it was help ing a comparative few to reap an altogether disproportionate share of the country s rich harvest. The demand for protection was carried to such an extent that the nation failed to deal justly in trade matters with its new possessions, Porto Rico and the Philippines. Common fairness demanded that there should be free trade between these possessions and the United States. Even President McKinley declared it "our plain duty to abolish all customs-tariffs between the United States and Puerto Rico." But the disciples displayed more zeal than the apostle. Repre sentatives of protected interests grafted upon a bill providing a system of civil government for the island an amendment levying duties on goods coming from the island to the United States and going from the United States to the island. The Democrats and some Republicans took the view that such a tax would not only be unjust but also illegal, and cited the constitutional clause which provides that "all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." Supporters of the measure denied that Porto Rico was a part of the United States, hold ing that the constitution does not of its own force apply to new territory. Ultimately congress imposed a tariff of 15 per cent of the Dingley 200 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION rates, the proceeds of which were to be used in conducting the government of the island. As a concession to aroused public sentiment, congress further provided that the tariff should continue for only two years and that if in the meantime the island should establish a system of taxation for local needs, the president might suspend the tariff. Porto Rico took advantage of the loop hole, and the president proclaimed (July 25, 1901) free trade with the island. The Philippines were less fortunate. On goods coming into the islands duties were for a time collected under Spanish laws, but a tariff revision act was presently prepared by the Philip pine Commission and submitted to the war de partment at Washington. Home interests brought pressure to bear upon the department, and the measure was decidedly modified to the disad vantage of the Filipinos. American goods going to the Philippines were to be admitted on payment of duties of from 15 to 30 per cent., whereas upon Philippine goods coming to the United States the much higher Dingley rates were to be col lected. It was a miserable act, unworthy of men whose Revolutionary sires had rebelled against Acts of Trade conceived in the same selfish spirit. In 1901, however, the Federal supreme court held that the Philippines were no longer foreign territory within the meaning of the Dingley Law and that the collection of duties under that act upon goods coming from the islands was illegal. Congress thereupon enacted (March 8, 1902) a law providing that Philippine products should GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 201 receive the benefit of a reduction of 25 per cent, and that the export duty levied in the islands should also be deducted. Governor Taft had pleaded for a reduction of 75 per cent, but selfish domestic interests, notably the Tobacco Trust, proved too strong. The control which the protected interests exercised over tariff legislation was symptomatic of a condition pervading the whole public service and the country as well. The pursuit of wealth was glorified as never before, and the millionaire was regarded by many as worthy of admiration, no matter how he had obtained his money. Imperialistic methods abroad were reflected in imperialistic methods at home. The laws meant to repress and restrain lawless wealth remained in abeyance, and the people were left to the tender mercies of plunderers. The period was especially notable for the rapid formation of great business combinations. The depression of 1893 had caused a lull in consoli dation, but with the revival of business an unpre cedented rush to combination began. Before 1897 only 63 such combinations had been formed; within the next three years 183 were organized, with a total capitalization of over four billions of dollars, or more than twice the money circulation of the entire country. Wherever a semblance of a monopoly could be secured, a promoter stood ready to effect an organization, and a gullible public proved eager to buy the securities. By effecting these organizations the "Captains of Finance" were not only able to crush competi- 202 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION tors, but also to make millions in floating schemes the ultimate object of which was to oppress the public that furnished money for its own undoing. Exaggerated ideas were abroad concerning the great profits of combination, and these ideas the promoters sedulously cultivated. Practically every combination formed was excessively over capitalized. Little attention was paid to actual investment; the savings of combination, good- will, the profits accruing from tariff protection, even those due to the evasion of Federal laws against rebates and restraint of trade all these and other assets equally intangible were capitalized. And such was the fever for speculation that the public bought these watered securities with the avidity of gudgeons. "To the imagination of millions of Americans, the financial centres of the country seemed to be spouting streams of gold into which anyone might dip at will ; and every Wall Street gutter figured as a new Pactolus." The largest combination effected in this period was the United States Steel Corporation, formed in 1901 under the financial management of J. P. Morgan and Company. Ten of the leading steel and iron concerns enlisted in the movement, the most important being the Carnegie Company. Each of these concerns was in itself a combination of smaller companies, representing more than 200 originally independent companies. The cash value of the investment in all the plants was about $278,000,000; their combined stock and bond capitalization amounted to $911,700,000. But, as a result of favorable natural conditions GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 203 and high protection, the steel and iron industry was enormously profitable, and it was expected that combination would make it much more so. The par value of the securities issued by the United States Steel Corporation reached the enor mous sum of $1,404,000,000. Numerous instances of yet more flagrant overcapitalization could be cited, but this must suffice. There is space only for the observation that when the necessity of paying dividends on so much "water" is borne in mind, it becomes evident that the promoters of such companies had no intention of allowing the general public the consumers to reap any of the much vaunted benefits of combination. For a time the financial frenzy continued, but in 1903 the inevitable came to pass. Investors discovered how poorly performance matched promise and awoke to the fact that the demi-gods of finance were too often no better than vulgar swindlers. The disillusionment, combined with the threatening attitude of the Roosevelt adminis tration, stopped the wild rush to consolidation. Stock exchanges were bloated with "undigested" and "indigestible" securities. Inflated values dropped like the barometer before a cyclone. Some combinations failed altogether. United States Steel preferred stock, which had once sold for 101%, touched 49; the common stock, which had been as high as 55, fell to 8%. For some time both stocks stood at figures not much higher. Measured by the stock market s estimate of value, the concern had been overcapitalized the 204 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION enormous sum of upwards of $800,000,000. Yet the business prospered, and yielded large returns on the actual investment. Prices fluctuated enormously, but rose until even the common stock surpassed its previous high "water" mark. It is safe to say that this would never have hap pened had it not been for the assistance given by the protective tariff. Subsequent to its formation the Steel Trust absorbed other companies, and also adopted the policy of admitting representatives of independent companies to meetings at which prices and the division of business were discussed. Whether in the trust or not, the men who attended such meetings managed their business in accordance with the informal understandings there brought about. Thus the trust ruled the steel industry and built up a power never exceeded in the com mercial history of the world. Furthermore, the men controlling the trust were also interested in many railroad and steamship lines, in the manufacture of parlor-cars and farm machinery, in telegraph lines, banks and trust companies, and by a system of interlacing directorates produced a wide-spread community of interest that tended to destroy competition throughout its range. Men came to call the great octopus with tentacles thrown out The System, and believed that its influence was "incompatible with the healthy commercial life of the nation." In the midst of the period of "frenzied finance" occurred the presidential election of 1900. When the Republican convention met at Philadelphia GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 205 (June 19, 1900), it renominated McKinley by acclamation. The only real problem the con vention had to solve was the selection of a vice- presidential candidate. Several names were suggested, but it was generally felt that the man who would add most strength to the ticket was Theoplore_ J RQD ; se_velt. Upon his return from the ~SjpSnish-American~War Roosevelt had become governor of New York. He soon antagonized certain great business interests and by no means pleased Thomas C. Platt, the Republican "boss" of the state. Roosevelt hoped for a renomina- tion, but Platt determined to make him vice- president in order to get rid of him. Roosevelt had future presidential aspirations and had no desire to be "shelved," but Platt s political influence and his own great popularity proved too much for him. Among those who urged the convention to nominate him was Senator Depew of New York, who spoke of "William McKinley, a Western man with Eastern ideas ; and Theodore Roosevelt, an Eastern man with Western charac teristics." Roosevelt received the vote of every delegate present except his own, and perforce bowed to the party s will. The Democratic convention, meeting in Kansas City (July 4, 1900), renominated Bryan by ac clamation and selected ex- Vice-president Adlai E. Stevenson for second place on the ticket. The platform pronounced imperialism " the paramount issue of the campaign." Banners were carried about the hall bearing such inscriptions as: "Lincoln abolished slavery; McKinley has re- 206 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION stored it," and "The Flag of the Republic for ever, of an Empire never." For the sake of consistency Bryan forced through a re-affirmation of the free silver plank of four years before, but it was generally recognized that the currency question was a dead issue. Owing to the greatly increased output of gold by the mines of the world our circulation had in four years increased up wards of four hundred millions of dollars, and money was no longer scarce. In the preceding March congress had passed an act making the gold dollar of 25.8 grains, nine-tenths fine, the standard of value, and as the senate was certain to be Republican for at least two years, the repeal of this act was not immediately probable or even possible. The platform also denounced the Dingley Act as a "trust-breeding measure," and advocated laws to "protect individuals and communities from discriminations and the people from unjust and unfair transportation rates." In the campaign Bryan again received the support of the Populists. Many of the Gold Democrats of four years before returned to their old party, and some anti-imperialistic Republi cans, such as Carl Schurz and George S. Boutwell, declared for the Democrats. Thousands of Re publicans were dissatisfied with the administra tion s Philippine policy, for in their inmost hearts they could not help feeling that we had entered the war to free a race and had ended by enslaving one. But the silver heresy of the Democrats repelled many of these, while others felt that talk of "the consent of the governed" fell with ill- GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 207 grace from the lips of a party that was strongest in a section where negroes were deprived of political rights. The Republicans dwelt with unction upon the fat years of McKinley s rule and hoisted on high "the full dinner pail." They endeavored to represent the Filipinos as aggressors, and the idea embodied in McKinley s flamboyant sentence, "Whenever the flag is assailed the only terms we ever make is unconditional surrender," weighed heavily with the mob. The Democratic effort to convince the people that imperialism abroad meant oppression at home failed to carry conviction, while the plutocratic tendencies of the administration were not as yet fully realized. McKinley received 292 electoral votes to Bryan s 155, and a popular plurality of 832,280. McKinley did not long enjoy his new honors. In September, 1901, he visited Buffalo for the purpose of attending the Pan-American Expo sition. On the 5th he delivered a speech which was notable because in it he indicated a decided modification in his old theory of protection in the direction of freer trade with other nations. " Iso lation," said he, "is no longer possible or desir able. . . . We must not repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. . . . Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not." On the following day he held a public reception in the Temple of Music and shook hands with all who came to greet him. While thus engaged he was shot twice in the body by a young anar- 208 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION chist named Leon C. Czolgosz, who was subse quently executed for the deed. The wounded man survived for a few days, and the physicians held out hopes of his recovery. But one of the wounds proved more serious than they had supposed; on the 14th the president died, the third American president to be assassinated in less than forty years, a record of which the nation has no reason to be proud. He was buried at his old home in Canton, and at the hour of the cere monies, by universal agreement, all business ac tivities throughout the country were suspended. In the dead man s private life there had been much to commend. He was religious, devoted to his wife, temperate, dignified, kindly, gentle. Intellectually he was not endowed with originality, but he possessed shrewdness, tact, and the faculty of taking advice. Although no orator, he always secured a hearing. As a politician, he knew how to hold his ear close to the ground and under stood the immense advantage to be derived from the support of great financial interests. An opportunist rather than a statesman, he was consistent only in that he shaped his action to the party s wishes and demands. Yet he was not truly democratic nor did he guard carefully the true interests of democracy. His complai sance towards men of wealth and interests repre senting wealth and the influence exerted over him by the corruptionist Hanna form blots that time will hardly efface, yet in his behalf it can be urged that probably he did not thoroughly understand the tendencies of the times. It was GOLDEN AGE OF MATERIALISM 209 his fortune to be president at a period that was epoch-making, and hence his place in history will probably be larger than that of some abler men. Under him the United States definitely forsook its time-honored policy of isolation and became a world power. He also ruled in the golden age of American materialism. CHAPTER IX THE REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY AFTER taking the oath as twenty-fifth presi dent Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would retain his predecessor s cabinet and would endeavor to continue his policy. Yet his tragic accession to power constituted a political revo lution of the first magnitude. Although both called themselves Republicans, Roosevelt was McKinley s exact antithesis in an infinite variety of ways. And in one respect at least he differed from all of his recent predecessors he had both the will and the courage to attempt to enforce the laws of the land against the gigantic financial interests that had become so sinister and dominant an influence in the politics of the nation. In some respects Roosevelt resembled Andrew Jackson more than any other president. Unlike Old Hickory he had enjoyed the best of educational advantages, but he had Jackson s impulsiveness, his frankness, his courage, his ability to lead, and his love of a fight for a fight s sake. In reality, he was less impulsive than he seemed, for he thought and worked more quickly than most men, and often an apparently hasty decision was a well matured judgment. It happened not 210 REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 211 infrequently that his enemies believed they had caught him in a serious mistake, only to discover themselves entrapped in a mesh of circumstances whose existence the president had discreetly held in reserve. In his interests he was more versatile than any other president with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson. As a political leader Roosevelt proved to be unapproached since Lincoln, and he enjoyed a personal popularity unequaled since Jackson. Independents liked him because they remembered his long struggle for civil service reform and his efficient work as police commissioner of New York. Westerners waxed enthusiastic over him because he had made himself one of them. Young men admired him because he had the vigor and enthusiasm of youth. Politicians supported him because of his ability to produce pluralities. Journalists approved of him because he afforded them abundant "copy." In him millions of Americans saw, or thought they saw, qualities or interests that they themselves possessed. The more discriminating forgot faults that would have been serious had they not been submerged in more positive virtues, and, as it was, merely helped to round out a vigorous, picturesque, human personality. Enemies he had and virulent, but, except for short intervals, they were of classes that do not figure largely in the census returns. Never before had a president been so talked about, written about, photographed, and applauded. Roosevelt s course regarding the civil service was on the whole what might have been expected of a man with his record on the subject. His RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION policy early in his administration of appointing Southern Democrats to office in sections where thoroughly competent Republicans could not be found gave especial satisfaction to friends of efficient government. Unfortunately the good feeling caused by this policy was temporarily dissipated by what in Northern eyes seemed an unimportant episode. The president had an interview at the White House with Booker T. Washington, the negro educator, and at its con clusion entertained him at luncheon. Washington was a worthy man. From nothing he had created one of the most useful educational institutions in the country. He was constantly preaching to his race the much needed doctrine of thrift, sobriety, and labor. His influence for good was so widespread that a prominent Southern historian called him the greatest man, with the exception of Robert E. Lee, born in the South in a hundred years. But politicians and sensationalists took up the episode and succeeded in convincing Southerners that the president had offered a deliberate affront to their section. The tension between the races was increased, and in the few instances in which the president saw fit to appoint a negro to office in the South a great outcry was raised. At the village of Indianola, Mississippi, opposition to negro officeholders developed to such an extent that mob violence was threatened against a negro postmistress who had filled the office effi ciently for some years. As the local authorities could not insure her protection, the president ordered the delivery of the mail at Indianola sus pended. A fact that added to Northern bewilder- REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 213 ment was that the patrons themselves engaged a colored man to carry their mail from the nearest office, so that they received it from black hands after all. In reply to protests against the appoint ment of negroes to office Roosevelt declared em phatically that he could not consent to "close the door of hope of opportunity " to any man because of race or color. Like most sudden effervescences Southern wrath soon subsided, and ultimately the presi dent won a host of warm admirers in that section. The most dangerous opposition he had to en counter came from an altogether different source. Certain great corporations had already felt the force of his arm while he was governor of New York, and "interests" of the same sort in all parts of the country covertly watched his course as president. Among many worthy business men there already existed a certain dread of his youth and impulsiveness; this dread the "in terests" secretly fostered. It was given out that the new president had a "lawless mind," that he was dangerous to prosperity. The time was ripe for the appearance of such a man as Roosevelt upon the stage of action. Even in the conservative East men were begin ning to question recent economic tendencies and to realize that measures must be taken to rule the new power that had arisen. Keen thinkers conceded the benefits that accrue in the way of economy and efficiency from confederated in dustry, but they doubted the worth of such results if they were gained at the cost of law lessness such as obtains in a bandit s stronghold, 214 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION and if, furthermore, all the benefits were to go to a few favored individuals. The belief was gaining ground that brilliant as were our recent economic victories, American business was rot ten at the core, and that the great fortunes that were being built up were too often obtained by the use of methods that would have excited the admiration of a Machiavelli. The prestige of King Laissez Faire, Laissez Alter, was still powerful, but the day was at hand for a revolt against even his long unquestioned authority. For a score of generations the Anglo-Saxon race had been plodding along the stony road that led to political equality. In America this goal had in theory been reached. But men were beginning to see dimly that political equality of itself is a poor thing unless accompanied by something approaching equality of economic opportunity. For the new battle in behalf of industrial democracy they now began to gird themselves. The tendencies of the times were Socialistic, though few Americans were as yet Socialists. They fought not for equal wealth but for a fair start. And assuredly there could be no fair start when the government was ad ministered in the interests of a plutocracy of special privilege. Some economists advocated government owner ship as the solution of the problems of the day, but President Roosevelt favored government control. In his first message to congress he recommended Federal supervision of all industrial combinations engaged in interstate commerce and the enaction of legislation that would render impossible the REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 215 railway rebates which had proved so instrumental in enabling great combinations to strangle weaker competitors. Such recommendations were not greeted with any great enthusiasm by congress. Their reception in the senate, many of whose members were rather the paid attorneys of pow erful financial interests than representatives of the states they were supposed to serve, proved particularly cold. It soon became apparent that congress would do nothing unless Roosevelt could rouse the people and thereby force congress to legislate along progressive lines. During the summer and autumn of 1902 he made numerous speeches in New England and the Middle West in which he elaborated his theory of a "square deal" and appealed for support in the enforcement of the law. At Cincinnati (September 20, 1902) he said: "We must resolutely purpose to proceed by evolution and not by revolution. . . . The evils attendant upon over-capitalization alone are in my judgment sufficient to warrant a far closer supervision and control than now exists over the great corporations. . . . We do not wish to de stroy corporations; but we do wish to make them subserve the public good. All individuals, rich or poor, private or corporate, must be subject to the law of the land; . . . and the Government will hold them to a rigid obedience. The biggest corporation, like the humblest private citizen, must be held to strict compliance with the will of the people as expressed in the fundamental law. The rich man who does not see this is in his interest is indeed short-sighted. When we 216 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION make him obey the law, we insure for him the absolute protection of the law." Meanwhile the president endeavored to en force the laws already on the statute books. By his direction Attorney-general Knox brought suit against the Northern Securities Company, a holding company organized under the laws of New Jersey for the purpose of " merging " the inter ests of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways and destroying competition. The govern ment was sustained both by the Federal circuit court (April 9, 1903) and by the supreme court (March 14, 1904). The company was forced to dissolve, but the public good resulting proved disappointingly small. It was becoming more and more apparent that some sort of government control over rates was necessary. Proceedings were also begun against a powerful combination of meat packers known as the Beef Trust, and an injunction was secured (1903) restraining the defendants from combining, fixing prices arbi trarily, curtailing supplies of meat, enforcing penalties upon retail dealers, and otherwise restraining trade. Such activity more than ever confirmed the "interests" in the opinion that Roosevelt was "unsafe." He was bitterly de nounced as revolutionary if not anarchical. In the summer and fall of 1902 the country received a striking object lesson in the evils of uncontrolled monopoly. In Pennsylvania, one of the worst corporation-ridden states in the Union, certain coal-carrying railroads had man aged, despite the prohibition of the state consti tution, to secure control of practically all the REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 217 anthracite coal mines. Although protected against foreign competition by the Dingley tariff, the companies displayed little of the concern for the interests of their workingmen that is so prom inently put forward when tariff laws are in course of enaction. Wages were low, and the companies, by manipulating freight rates, reduced the osten sible profits of mining in order to justify a refusal to raise wages and to furnish an excuse for raising the price of coal. The miners offered to submit their claims to arbitration, but the companies curtly refused, and a strike followed (May 12, 1902), involving about 150,000 men. Under the leadership of John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America, a man of singularly sane views, the strikers generally re frained from violence and retained the sympathy of the public. The deadlock continued through the summer, and when the cold days of autumn came, Eastern cities were practically without coal. Prices soared high, and in many places fuel could not be obtained for any money. The poor suffered, and even hospitals had to go without fires. The mine owners behaved in a most arrogant manner, and in the hope of producing a reaction against the strike withheld most of the coal they had on hand. Popular indignation flamed high against the monopolists; some ordinarily conservative men even advocated the seizure of the mines by the Federal government under the right of eminent domain. A widespread appeal was made to the president to take some action that would give relief. Although realizing that he had no legal 218 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION authority in the matter, Roosevelt summoned representatives of both parties to Washington and appealed to them to sink personal considerations for the public good. Mitchell promptly offered to submit the issues to a tribunal which the presi dent should name. The operators haughtily refused, and denounced the president for not having stopped the strike. Public anger and disgust proved so intense, however, that the operators soon found it expedient to reconsider and accept arbitration. Work was at once re sumed in the mines, the suffering from the want of coal was quickly relieved, and the arbitration tribunal brought in a decision favorable in the main to the miners. The outcome greatly en hanced the president s influence among the people, but it did not increase his popularity among the representatives of predatory capital. After a long and bitter fight the president s efforts began to bear fruit. In December, 1903, he managed to force through congress, against the opposition of the cane sugar producers of Louisiana and the beet sugar interests of the North, favorable reciprocity concessions to Cuba. At the same session congress consented to estab lish a new department of commerce and labor, with a bureau of corporations to collect infor mation concerning combinations engagedan foreign and interstate commerce. The president also secured the passage of the so-called Elkins Act directed against rebates, but the law was much less drastic than the administration desired. Meanwhile important events of a diplomatic nature were occurring. In 1903 an arbitration REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 219 tribunal decided the long disputed Alaskan boundary question in a manner decidedly favor able to the United States. During 1902-05 the attempt of Germany and other powers to collect debts owed their citizens by Venezuela and Santo Domingo threatened grave international compli cations. Through American influence, the claims against Venezuela were ultimately submitted to The Hague tribunal, which scaled them down (February 22, 1904) very decidedly. In the Santo Domingo case the United States took charge (1905) of the republic s custom-houses and ad ministered its finances in the interests of the creditors. As a corollary to the Monroe Doc trine the president announced the responsibility of the United States, in flagrant cases of a similar character, to exercise "an international police power," and to act as the agent in such collection. Of far greater public interest were developments on the Isthmus of Panama. For centuries men had dreamed of a canal across the Isthmus, and following the great rush of gold seekers to Cali fornia, the United States had taken tentative steps to make the canal a reality. For almost half a century there was a vast amount of talk about a canal, but little was actually done. The long voyage of the Oregon around South America served as a popular object lesson of the crying need of such a canal from a naval point of view, while the exorbitant freight rates on goods going to and coming from the Pacific coast furnished an effective commercial argument. It was felt, however, that such an enterprise ought to be under purely American control, and the Clay- 220 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION ton-Bulwer Convention of 1850 with Great Britain stood in the way. Numerous efforts were made to abrogate the treaty, and shortly after Roose velt came to power the work was accomplished. The new treaty, signed by Secretary Hay and Lord Pauncefote, in effect provided that the United States might construct a canal entirely under its own auspices and manage the highway as it deemed proper. At this time it was generally supposed that the canal would follow the Nicaragua route. An American company had dore some work on such a canal in the early 90s, and the Federal govern ment had expended considerable money in inves tigating the practicability of the Nicaragua route. Even before this a French company, headed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, had begun a canal on the Isthmus of Pan ama, but the affair was badly managed, and work had to be suspended. About the time of the abro gation of the Clayton-Bulwer Convention the af fairs of the French company reached such a crisis that early in 1902 it offered to sell all its rights to the United States for $40,000,000. Under author ization from congress a commission headed by Admiral John G. Walker was already investigating the comparative practicability of the respective routes; the commission now recommended that the Panama route be adopted. Congress author ized the president to purchase the French com pany s rights for a sum not exceeding $40,000,000 and to acquire from the republic of Colombia perpetual control over a strip of land not less than six miles wide extending from sea to sea. REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 221 An argument that weighed heavily in inducing congress to favor the Panama route was that it was less subject to earthquakes and volcanic disturbances than that through Nicaragua. The argument proved particularly effective because of the popular excitement over the terrible out break of Mont Pelee on the island of Martinique. A treaty was presently negotiated with the Colombian charge (January 22, 1903) leasing a strip of land six miles wide, in return for which the United States agreed to pay $10,000,000 down and an annuity of $250,000. The United States senate soon ratified the treaty, but strong opposition to the pact developed in Colombia. In the hope of obtaining a better bargain and perhaps of confiscating the property of the French company, whose concession would soon expire, the Colombian senate rejected the treaty. The residents of the Panama region had ex pected great things from the canal, and felt deeply disgruntled at the dog-in-the-manger policy of their government. Encouraged and assisted by agents of the French company, they seceded from Colombia and set up an independent state. The American government kept clear of the move ment until it was actually begun, when a naval force carried out an order from Washington to "prevent the landing of any force with hostile intent, either Government or insurgent, at any point within 50 miles of Panama." The justi fication for this order lay in the treaty of 1846 which contained a stipulation that the United States should keep open the right of way of the Panama Railway Company. Under this article 222 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION President Cleveland had in 1885 landed troops at the time of the Prestien rebellion. But it can hardly be denied that the administration s ac tion in the present case created a situation very favorable to revolution. The revolutionists quickly mastered the isth mus, American marines landed at Colon, and American ships stood in the way of Colombia s sending any more troops to the seat of the trouble. On the 6th of November, three days after the revolt began, Secretary Hay instructed the American consul to recognize the de facto govern ment. A week later Philippe Bunau-Varilla, former chief engineer of the French company but now minister of the new republic, was formally received by President Roosevelt. Other powers followed the American lead, and Colombia found herself powerless to do more than protest. A convention was quickly negotiated with Panama (November 18, 1903) whereby the United States agreed to guarantee the independence of the new republic. In return Panama ceded to the United States perpetual control of a zone ten miles wide across the Isthmus, the United States agreeing to pay therefor $10,000,000 down and an annuity of $250,000 beginning nine years thereafter. De spite opposition, the treaty was duly ratified by the senate (February 23, 1904) by a vote of 66 to 14. Grave difference of opinion existed as to our course in the matter. President Roosevelt justi fied his action on the ground of Colombia s mercenary conduct and her inability to preserve order. He contended that Colombia had no right REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 223 "to bar the transit of the world s traffic across the isthmus," and argued that "intervention was justified by the treaty of 1846, by our national interests, and by the interests of civilization at large." To many his arguments were not con clusive, but Colombia had behaved in so un- neighborly a fashion and the prospect of a canal was so fascinating that the great body of Amer icans applauded the accomplished fact and did not care to scrutinize too closely the means by which it had been brought about. The purchase of the French company s inter ests was consummated, and steps were taken "to make the dirt fly." Transcontinental rail roads and political opponents of the president did what they could to make the enterprise a failure, and for a time the engineers selected to manage the work proved themselves in one way or another unfitted for the task. But much was accomplished in the way of sanitary precautions and the assembling of material, and the lock type of canal was fixed upon. Early in 1907 the president took the wise step of committing the great undertaking to army engineers. Since then, under the capable direction of Lieutenant-colonel George W. Goethals, progress has been rapid. Present indications point to the completion of the canal not later than 1913. President Roosevelt inherited from his prede cessor some flagrant frauds in the post-office department. Many politicians urged that the matter should be hushed up, but with character istic energy the president worked to purge the administration of the wrong-doers. In 1903-04 224 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION a searching investigation conducted by Fourth Assistant-postmaster-general Bristow disclosed the fact that conspirators by collusion in con tracts and in other ways had cheated the govern ment out of some hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many officers resigned or were removed. Upwards of forty were indicted, and many were convicted, but some of the leaders escaped by invoking the statute of limitations. Under Roose velt s inspiration, Senator Burton of Kansas was prosecuted for illegally using his influence with the post-office department to prevent the issue of a fraud order against a company of question able character. Burton was convicted and sentenced to a year in the penitentiary. Another senator was tried on a charge of bribery in connection with the post-office but escaped conviction. The president s action in these cases greatly increased his popularity, but some of the party leaders and the "special interests" failed to de velop any notable enthusiasm for him. In the winter of 1903-04 a movement was begun to prevent his nomination and to substitute Senator Hanna, head of the Republican national com mittee. But in February, 1904, Hanna died; and popular feeling, aroused by the conspiracy, made itself felt in so unmistakable a fashion as to enable Roosevelt to dominate the party com pletely. When the convention met in Chicago in June, it nominated him by acclamation, with Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana as his associate on the ticket. Fairbanks represented the conservative wing, and his reserved and REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY formal manners won for him the nickname of "Icebanks." The Democratic convention met at St. Louis on July 6th. Bryan s successive defeats had weakened his hold upon the party, and the " safe and sane" element controlled the convention. Nevertheless, Bryan succeeded in excluding from the platform all reference to the money question. On the first ballot, Alton B. Parker, chief judge of the New York court of appeals, was nominated for the presidency, his nearest competitor being William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the Hearst newspapers. Judge Parker immediately telegraphed to the convention that he considered "the gold standard as firmly and irrevocably established," and that if this view was unsatis factory to the majority, he must decline the nomination. Contrary to the wishes of Bryan, the convention replied that the platform was silent on the money question because it was not regarded "as a possible issue in this campaign." For the vice-presidency the convention nomi nated Henry Gassaway Davis, an octogenarian millionaire of West Virginia. Judge Parker owed his nomination to conserva tive influences, and he was more satisfactory to "the interests" than Roosevelt. But it presently became apparent that Parker would be defeated, and "Big Business," not being in the habit of backing losing causes, rendered him compara tively little aid. Bryan supported the ticket loyally, but hundreds of thousands of his ad mirers could not forget that the influences behind Judge Parker had repudiated the candidate in 226 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION 1896. The Democrats made the mistake of fight ing the campaign largely on the issue of Roose velt s personality and raised the cry that the constitution was in danger. As a forlorn hope, Judge Parker took the stump, but his abilities as a speaker and leader proved mediocre. He made extravagant charges regarding the govern ment of the Philippines that he was unable to substantiate, and in speeches at Madison Square Garden and elsewhere he insinuated that his opponent had placed George B. Cortelyou in charge of the Republican campaign because Cortelyou, having been secretary of the depart ment of commerce and labor, possessed corpora tion secrets that put him in a favorable position to blackmail the trusts into making campaign contributions. Roosevelt issued a heated reply characterizing the charge as "unqualifiedly and atrociously false." He admitted that corporations were contributing to the Republican fund as others were to the Democratic fund, but he pointed out that the department of commerce and labor had been so recently organized that as yet it had no corporation secrets. He declared that, if elected, he would go into the presidency unhampered by any pledge or promise except to "see to it that every man has a square deal, no less and no more." The returns from the election showed that Judge Parker was the worst defeated man since Horace Greeley. The apostle of "the square deal" received 336 electoral votes as against 140 for his opponent, and a popular plurality of upwards of two millions and a half. He carried even REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY Missouri and Kentucky and received one electoral vote in Maryland. The moment that the result was no longer in doubt Roosevelt issued a short statement to the effect that he would under no circumstances be a candidate for re-election. It was his declaration of independence from the politicians. A notable feature of the election was the inde pendence displayed by the voters. In five of the states carried by Roosevelt, Democratic governors were elected, and in many places smashing blows were delivered at political machines. Every where there was a revolt against political corrup tion and the rule of the plutocracy. The result is attributable in large measure to the president s utterances in favor of reform and to a campaign along the same lines conducted by certain power ful magazines. Franchise-looting was falling into disfavor, and in several cities, notably Chicago, Toledo, and Cleveland, mayors were chosen who advocated municipal ownership of public utilities. Both before and after the election the "muck rakers" stirred every political cesspool to its depths, and though the results often distressed patriotic Americans, there was promise of better things. Bad conditions still continued in many places. Some cities and states remained "cor rupt and unashamed." Selfish interests still lurked in the shadows watching covertly for the first signs of public indifference in order to ac complish their corrupt designs. But the atmos phere had been cleared. The years of Roosevelt s rule will always be notable for a revolution in the attitude of men toward political and financial matters. 228 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION In the summer of 1905 President Roosevelt stood on perhaps the highest pinnacle of fame ever attained by an American in his own lifetime. At home the voice of faction was temporarily stilled; even Democrats paid homage to the president s honesty of purpose. By aiding in bringing to a close the bloody Japanese-Russian war he performed a service for humanity at large that won for him the coveted Nobel prize and the admiration of both hemispheres. Even by his bitterest enemy among newspapers he was re spectfully greeted as "the world s first citizen." Such homage was flattering, but it could not last. As time passed, the president s prosecution of powerful lawbreakers and his efforts to secure further reforms roused an opposition that grew more and more bitter. His last administration proved a period of almost constant struggle, and his conflicts with congress and with individ uals assumed a personal character that reminded the historian of the days of Johnson and Jackson. In the fall of 1907 a financial panic reacted upon his administration as such an event always reacts upon the party in power. By dismissing from the service without honor a battalion of colored troops, some of whom had "shot up" the town of Brownsville, Texas, he also alienated many negroes. Yet throughout his term of office his influence with the people remained the despair of his enemies. During these four years the government se cured the conviction of numerous shippers and railroads for rebating, and practically broke up the practice. One great disappointment was REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 229 experienced. The powerful Standard Oil Company was convicted in a Federal court of repeated violations of the anti-rebate law, and Judge Kenesaw M. Landis inflicted (1907) the extreme penalty of the law a fine of $29,240,000. But the case was carried to higher courts, and the company escaped on a technicality. This and similar miscarriages of justice roused bitter criticisms of the courts and system of jurispru dence which culminated in some Western states in a movement favoring a constitutional provi sion for the "recall" of unsatisfactory judges. In 1907 actions were begun to dissolve both the Standard Oil Company and the American To bacco Company. After four years of tedious litigation the Supreme Court decreed that both companies were guilty of violating the Sherman Act. But the order of dissolution was in some respects so perfunctory that many people believed the public would derive little benefit from it; that the trusts in question would "merely change their clothes." By reading the word "unreason able" into the statute the court also brought upon itself the charge of emasculating the law by "judicial legislation." A few months after these decisions were handed down the Taft adminis tration brought suit against the United States Steel Corporation, which hitherto had enjoyed immunity from prosecution. In both radical and conservative circles it was felt, however, that the Sherman Act was unsatisfactory and ought to be repealed or amended. Many economists believed that efforts to break up the great combinations ran counter to natural business evolution; they 230 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION held that control by the Federal government was the rightful remedy. Roosevelt s greatest victory in the way of reform legislation was won during the long session of the fifty-ninth congress. With the aid of many Democrats, and after a bitter fight, he secured the passage of a pure food law, a meat inspection law, and a more stringent railway rate law. The last-named act increased the membership of the interstate commerce commission to seven and fixed their salaries at $10,000 per year. It authorized the commission to fix a maximum, just, and reasonable rate of transportation when the rate in force has been complained of, but granted to the transportation companies the right of appeal to the courts. In 1910 a special commerce court was created to deal with such cases. The act forbade rebates under heavy pen alties. Pipe-lines, sleeping-car companies, and express companies were declared common carriers and were made subject to the law. The act also forbade the granting of passes to any except specified classes of persons and thereby struck a blow at a custom whereby railroads had managed covertly to influence the action of public officers, including even judges. The president failed, how ever, to obtain a reduction of the Philippine tariff and an act requiring railroads and other corpora tions doing interstate business to obtain Federal charters. Popular support in favor of such measures was increased by repeated disclosures of the nefarious operations of "Big Business." In New York a joint-committee of the legislature REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 231 revealed grave mismanagement in the affairs of certain great mutual life insurance companies. It appeared that some of the companies had contributed large sums to the Republican cam paign fund and that they were in the habit of using stockholders money to influence legislation and the press. Gross favoritism existed in ap pointments and salaries, and the chief officers were guilty of manipulating company funds for their own private advantage. Subsequently it was asserted that Senator Foraker of Ohio, Senator Bailey of Texas, Governor Haskell of Oklahoma, and other public officers had accepted large sums of money from the Standard Oil Com pany or other monopolies under circumstances which, to say the least, showed gross indelicacy on their part. These and other disclosures went far to justify radical charges of dishonesty in the management of great business enterprises. The insurance revelations resulted in the enaction in 1907 of a national law prohibiting corporations from contributing to campaign funds. Throughout his presidency Roosevelt devoted much attention to the public domain. He secured the reclamation of vast areas of arid lands by irrigation, and he did much to build up the nation s forest reserves, adding at one time 17,000,000 acres to such reserves. In public speeches and in messages to Congress he urged the desirability of conserving natural resources and the retention of mineral wealth and water-power sites in public hands. The public lands had long been a prey to sharks of every sort, but a stop was put to their activities by the conviction and punishment of 232 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION one United States senator, two congressmen, and many smaller thieves. Thoughtful men had long realized the desirability of conserving our natural resources against the criminal waste that had so long obtained, and the conservation movement enlisted powerful support in all parties. In August, 1906, a rebellion broke out in Cuba against the Palma administration. The movement quickly became so formidable that Palma, feeling himself unable to protect life and property, re quested the United States to intervene under the Platt amendment. After some hesitation Presi dent Roosevelt sent Secretary of War Taft and Acting-secretary of State Bacon to Cuba to in vestigate the situation. They found it so bad that on the 29th of September Taft issued a proclamation taking temporary possession of the island in the name of the United States. Six thousand troops were sent thither as an army of occupation, and Charles E. Magoon was appointed provisional governor. Subse quently an election was held, and when the new officers were installed (February 28, 1909), the United States withdrew a second time from the island. About the time the Cuban occupation began, a strained situation developed between the United States and Japan. The old hostility to Orientals had again flamed up on the Pacific coast, and the San Francisco school authorities excluded Japanese children from the white schools, while mobs mistreated adult Japanese on the streets and attacked their shops. Japan protested against the school order (October, 1906), REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 233 and President Roosevelt sent the secretary of commerce and labor to San Francisco to make an investigation. As it was doubtful whether the Federal government had power to interfere in the affair, the president used moral suasion upon the San Francisco authorities, who consented to withdraw the segregating order provided the president would take steps to prevent the further introduction of Japanese laborers into the country. Roosevelt also used his influence with the governor and legislature of the state to prevent the passage of anti-Japanese legislation. The sensational press greatly increased the tension by insisting that the two nations were on the verge of war. Ulti mately the trouble was settled amicably, but in December, 1907, the president judged it expedient to send the most powerful fleet ever gathered under the American flag on a cruise around the world. As the fleet first proceeded to Pacific waters and touched at Japanese ports, most people believed that the demonstration was intended as a warning to Japan and other powers that America was ready. President Roosevelt naturally desired to be succeeded by a man who would carry out his policies. The pressure upon him to stand for a re-election proved tremendous, but he resolutely withstood it and lent his support to the candidacy of William H. Taft. As governor of the Philip pines and secretary of war, Taft had made an enviable record for himself as a subordinate, and many believed that he would do well in a position where he could make policies as well as carry them out. There existed no great enthusiasm 234 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION for Taft personally, but his candidacy was fur thered by the use of large sums of money fur nished by his family and by the political influence of the administration. The latter was undoubt edly the determining factor, for the progressive elements of the party generally supported Taft merely upon Roosevelt s recommendation. An anecdote of the times hits off well the actual facts in the case. It represented a graduate of Yale, Taft s alma mater, talking to a graduate of Har vard, the institution at which Roosevelt was edu cated. Said the Yale man: "This is a Yale year. We ve got the president." "Yes," retorted the Harvard man, "but he had splendid Harvard interference." The Democrats, meeting at Denver, renomi- nated Bryan for the third time, with John W. Kern of Indiana for the vice-presidency. Roosevelt had stolen so much "Democratic thunder" that there was little conflict of principles between the two parties, and the campaign proved a listless one. In the light of subsequent events, the most important feature of the campaign was the pledge of the Republican platform to revise the tariff. In several speeches Taft explained that this meant revision downward. The election resulted in a Republican victory. Taft received 321 elec toral votes, Bryan only 162. Upon his retirement from the presidency Roosevelt departed for a hunting trip into the wilds of East Africa, and for once it was the set ting, not the rising, sun that received most popular attention. As president, Roosevelt had accom plished a great deal of constructive work, but REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 235 undoubtedly his main achievement was that of rousing the American people to the problems of the day. For the fruition of his labors much depended upon his successor. Prftfli/font. Tall!^ administration quickly proved disappointing to those persons who had been most ardent in securing his nomination and election. Soon after his inauguration, in com pliance with a campaign pledge, he called a special session of congress to revise the tariff. The announcement roused great expectations among reformers. Under Roosevelt railway re bates, one of the two chief props to trusts and monopolies, had been removed; and it now was hoped that the other prop, the protective tariff, would at least be weakened. But as usual in such cases, the protected interests sent swarms of agents to Washington to urge high duties, while few persons presented themselves to speak for the consumer. A decided rift quickly appeared in the Republican ranks. The "Progressives" or "In surgents," for the most part followers of Roose velt, advocated genuine tariff revision, among their leaders being Senators La Follette of Wis consin, Cummins of Iowa, Beveridge of Indiana, Bourne of Oregon, and Bristow of Kansas, and Representatives Norris of Nebraska, Murdock of Kansas, and Hayes of California. The Pro gressives had strong popular support and ex pected aid from Taft, but he, instead of swinging his predecessor s "Big Stick," seemed, in the main, to hold with the "Stand-pat" machine, headed by Senator Aldrich and Speaker Cannon. The result was that the Payne-Aldrich Bill, as 236 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION finally passed by congress and signed by the president, lowered duties so little that thousands of Republicans were unable to accept the meas ure as an honest redemption of the party s pledge. In some cases duties were openly increased, while in others seeming reductions were nullified by re- classifications and other underhand devices. A praiseworthy feature of the act was that it con siderably lowered the tariff rates between the United States and the Philippines. Taft ad mitted that the wool schedule was indefensible, but defended the bill as a whole as the best tariff ever enacted. He had few followers except among the protected interests. A scandal in ,the department of the interior / served to widen the rift in the party. At the head of that department the president had placed Richard Achilles Ballinger, a Seattle lawyer whose sympathies witlfRoosevelt s conservation policy appear to have been conspicuous by their absence. Ballinger restored to entry large tracts of land containing valuable power sites, and dis missed from the service three officers who op posed his course concerning certain questionable Alaskan coal claims, for the owners of which he had once acted as attorney. Among Ballinger s critics were ex-Secretary of the Interior Garfield and Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot was a gentleman of large wealth who had studied forestry abroad and introduced the first systematic work of the kind ever attempted in the United States. In 1898 he became chief of the forest service (then the division of forestry) and by disinterested and efficient work won a high place in the public REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 237 confidence. Both he and Garfield were close friends of ex-President Roosevelt. Public sym pathy was generally with Pinchot in the contro versy, yet Taft dismissed him from the service and insisted upon retaining Ballinger. A major ity of a congressional investigating committee brought in a report "whitewashing" Ballinger, but many uncomfortable facts concerning the affair and Ballinger s previous career were brought to light; the pressure of public opinion continued so strong that at last Ballinger resigned. By his course in the matter Taft alienated many supporters, yet he remained a friend to conserva tion. To the vacancies created by the retirement of Pinchot and Ballinger he appointed men who were enthusiastic conservationists. He also se cured legislation to safeguard the movement, and withdrew from entry many million acres of water power sites, and coal, phosphate, and petroleum lands. By December, 1910, the existing with drawals totaled 91,000,000 acres. The new tariff act and the Ballinger scandal provoked a great outcry. There also existed much dissatisfaction with the conduct of affairs in the house of representatives, where a knot of con servatives, headed by Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, had long ruled with a high hand. Cannon was a picturesque representative from the Danville district of Illinois, much given to the use of pro fanity and fine cut tobacco. He had at one time been highly popular and had won the nickname of "Uncle Joe," but the people had come to be lieve that he represented extremely conservative, if not predatory, interests. A somewhat similar RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION state of affairs obtained in the senate, where the chief power was Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island. Aldrich had long been regarded as a rank conservative, and popular confidence in him was not increased by the fact that he was the father-in-law of the son of John D. Rocke feller. In the sixty-first congress. Progressive or Insurgent representatives and senators fought to overturn the Stand-pat oligarchies. President Taft lent his support to the Stand-patters, and in the interest of party solidarity even wielded the patronage club against the Progressives. Nevertheless, in March, 1910. the Progressive representatives, aided by the Democrats, wrested control from the speaker and circumscribed his authority. Progressive senators also suc ceeded in weakening the power of the senate Popular discontent with the party in power was strongly reflected in the elections of 1910. The Democrats carried Massachusetts, Connecti cut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and other states that in recent years had ordinarily been Republican and won a large majority in the house of representatives. The election and the nominating conventions and primaries that preceded it retired many Stand-pat Republicans to private life, but, in general, the Insurgents were strikingly successful. The election was interpreted as a signal rebuke to the administration and the reactionary forces that had controlled congress. Ex-President Roosevelt participated in the campaign, but he sedulously refrained from indorsing the administration, and usually REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 239 confined his efforts to supporting Insurgent candidates. Even his great popularity proved unequal to saving New York to the Republicans. A significant feature of the election was the enor mous Socialist vote. For the first time a Social ist, Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee, won a seat in congress. Undoubtedly, however, the party was not yet so strong as it seemed. The Socialist mayor of a Western town well characterized the true situation when he said that twenty per cent of the vote he received was Socialistic and eighty per cent protest. The result of the election was not lost upon President Taft. The Payne-Aldrich Act had created a tariff board to assistThe president in applying certain maximum and minimum pro visions of the act. Taft obtained further appro priations for this board and set it to work collecting information against a future attempt to revise the tariff. He also carried through negotiations for a reciprocity agreement with Canada. The agreement was bitterly opposed by a portion of the farming interest, for farmers believed that it took from them most of their effective protection without relieving them from the high duties on goods which they consumed. Manufacturers also inclined to oppose it because they feared it would prove an entering wedge for further tariff changes. The sixty -first congress expired before the senate took any action upon the agreement, and Taft called a special session of the new congress to con sider it. Largely through the aid of Democratic votes he managed to obtain his wish. When the Democrats and Progressive Republicans united, *40 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION however, to pass a farmers free list bill and a bill lowering the excessive duties on wool and woolen goods, the president vetoed both measures. Canada later unexpectedly rejected the reci procity agreement. The mountain had labored without bringing forth even a mouse. The early weeks of 19H found political condi tions more chaotic than for many years. Through out the country, and especially in the West, the people were striving to secure a more effective con trol over public affairs by adopting such devices 93 primary elections, the initiative and referendum, and the recall of unsatisfactory officers. In both the old parties there existed a progressive and a reactionary wing, and it was questionable whether mere names could much longer hold together things which were unlike. In congress Progressive Republicans openly acted with the Democrats on such matters as tariff legislation, while conserva tive Democrats secretly aided the Stand-pat Re publicans. President Taft had failed to retain the confidence of a large section of his party, Senator La Follette early began a campaign for the Republican nomination, and there arose a widespread demand for the return of Roosevelt. In February*, in reply to a joint appeal from seven Republican governors, the ex-president indicated that be would accept a renomination. Among the Democrats the leading candidates seemed to be Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, Gov ernor Judson Harmon of Ohio, and Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri; but the outcome was doubtful, with the nomination of some %< favorite son* or "dark horse" not improbable. REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 241 The results of the census of 1910 served to emphasize the fact that the United States of to-day Ls not the United States of 1865. Its total area has increased over 700,000 square miles, and its population of 101,100,000, including Alaska and the insular possessions, is almost treble the number who welcomed the peace that closed the great civil conflict. Vast areas in the West which were then without a single white inhabitant have since been won from the Indians and from the desert for civilized settlement. The population in 1870 of the region west of the Mississippi, excluding the older states of Texas, Iowa, Mis souri, and Arkansas, and parts of Minnesota and Louisiana, was only a million and a half; to-day it is upwards of thirteen millions. Throughout the period a decided drift to the cities took place. The percentage of urban dwell ers in 1870 was only 20.9; it had increased to 46.3 in 1910. During the last decade many rural districts actually decreased in population. The desire to live in cities, however, was diminishing. Better roads, rural mail delivery, the telephone, and other factors rendered country life more attractive. A growing desire for a simpler and more open-air existence, a realization of the truth of the old adage that "God made the country and man the town" caused many people to heed the slogan "Back to the farm!" Statistics show that the very blood of the nation is changing. Irish, Germans, and English formed most of the tide which flowed through Castle Garden in the ante-bellum period. People of these races continued to come, but in the 70s 242 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION and 80s emigrants from other nations began to set their faces westward in large numbers. Nor wegians, Swedes, and Danes made up a large part of the swarm that settled the Dakotas and other Northwestern states. Later more southerly peoples Russian Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Ital ians, Greeks, and Syrians flocked in, and too often added to the congestion of population in metropolitan centers. During the decade 1900-10 the number of immigrants from the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire increased 1,021,732; of Italians, 857,837; of Rwtmnff (mostly Jews, Finns, and Poles), 999,228; of Greeks, from 8,513 to 101,100. During the same period the number of Irish decreased 808,892, and of Germans, 814,213. New York City is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in the world. It contains more Jews than ever lived in Jerusalem except during the feast of the Passover, more persons of German extraction than reside in any German city except Berlin, more people of Irish blood than inhabit Dublin. About two-thirds of its inhabitants are of foreign parentage. A similar situation on a smaller scale obtains in Chicago and elsewhere. In prosperous times the horde wliich in a single year enters New York harbor exceeds the total number of the West Gothic nation which in 878 began the Barbarian migrations into the Roman Empire. The influx is so prodigious that some thinkers fear that just as Rome fell because there craned to be any real Romans, so America will fall because there will cease to be any true Americans. Most of the immigrants are poor, most are ignorant, many come from nations having widely different REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 248 social and political customs, and to fuse them all into Americans has tested even the capacity of the greatest "melting pot" the world has known. Undoubtedly the salvation of the country from the deluge has been its system of pul>lic schools, the development of which is one of the marvels of the age, equaling the wonderful story of steam and electricity. Higher education has also progressed rapidly, and there are more college graduates to-day than there were high- srh.M.l v_Taliiati-N in lsi;.V l ; ifty yrars ago iii.--t colleges and universities were little more than academies; graduate work was not even at tempted. There are now dozens of well-equipped institutions that bestow the higher degrees. In fact, there seems almost to be danger of over doing such work, and a witty Harvard professor remarked not long ago that there will come a time in tin- ( nit*.! Stairs wlirn thrrr will IN- a new order of mendicant monks, and tlu*ir namr shall be Doctors of Philosophy! Printing and publishing have kept pace with education. The voice of the printing press M never stilled. A mere list of the periodicals pub lished in the United States, with a few facts concerning the management, circulation, etc. of each, fills a great book of 982 pagBl. The develop ment of the magazine has been esjxvially rapid. One volume of 1,444 pagrs Mffieed for the titles of articles and stories puMMird down to lss-j; the years 1905-09 alone required one of 2,491 pages. 1 Books, too, fall from the press like 1 Titles in English ^f 1 arr included in but the greatest development has been in America. 244 RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION autumn leaves, yet it must be said that, in general, Americans read ephemeral newspapers and maga zines rather than books. Many persons who habitually devour two or more newspapers daily will not read one book a year. And of the books in demand at the libraries a large proportion are works of fiction. Notwithstanding progress in education and the increase in publishing and in the rewards given authors, creative literature seems to have retrograded rather than advanced. There are no poets in 1912 who could be matched with Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, or even Holmes, and no novelist who compares with Hawthorne, who died in the last year of the war. In the field of history, however, such writers as Rhodes and McMaster worthily uphold standards created by Parkman, Bancroft, and Motley. In general culture and in appreciation of music, painting, sculpture, and architecture the Ameri cans of to-day have advanced far beyond their fathers. It is a promising sign that some workers in all of these lines have ceased to be mere imi tators and have done creative work that is dis tinctly American. In theoretical science Ameri cans lag behind their brethren abroad, but in the field of applied science they are unsurpassed. The names of the Wright brothers, conquerors of the air, will undoubtedly fill as honorable a place in history as those of Fulton, Stephenson, and Watt. With a total wealth of upwards of one hundred billions, the United States is to-day the richest of all nations; and, with the single exception of REVOLT AGAINST PLUTOCRACY 245 Russia, it is the most populous of civilized nations. Every year the shadow of its future looms larger across the world, and the measure of its possible achievement seems well-nigh boundless. Yet mighty as may be the victories of the future all that it holds in store cannot be good. Day by day our civilization drifts further from the old simplicity of an agricultural age, and its problems grow more complex. Day by day, as the land fills with inhabitants, as the soil decreases in fertility, as the mines lose their pristine richness, the struggle for existence must more and more approximate that bitter, grinding struggle that now obtains in Europe. In politics grave problems must be solved if the nation is to be one of " equal rights for all, special privileges for none." Signs are not wanting that the very framework of government is outgrown and that the constitu tion must be modified to meet the conditions of the new age. The future js^bright, but it is full of labor. Let no man repineTrTthe~footish befigf that all things worth doing have been done. Of what tremendous struggles may not this" land be the arena in ages yet far distant! America is still in the process of finding herself, and democracy is still on trial. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF general works on recent American history the most complete is The American Nation, a History (27 vols., 1903- 1907), a co-operative work edited by Albert B. Hart. The volumes dealing with the United States since 1865 are William A. Dunning s Reconstruction, Political and Economic; Edwin E. Sparks s National Development; Davis R. Dewey s National Problems; and John H. Latan6 s America as a World Power. E. Benjamin Andrews s The United States in Our Oum Times (1903) covers the period from 1870 to the date of publication and is popular in character. Harry Thurston Peck s Twenty Years of the Republic (1905) treats the period from 1885 to 1905 and is well written and entertaining. Of books dealing with Reconstruction, James G. Blame s Twenty Years of Congress (2 vols., 1884-86) is written by a Republican statesman and is not always accurate as to details. A Democratic view is given in S. S. Cox s Three Decades of Federal Legislation (1885). John W. Burgess s Reconstruction and the Constitution (1902) treats the subject from the legal point of view and is somewhat dogmatic in conclusions. Walter L. Fleming s Documentary History of Reconstruction (2 vols., 1906-07) contains much illuminating material. Walter L. Fleming s Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905) is excellent for the single state with which it deals, but is marked by a strong Southern bias. James W T . Garner s Reconstruction in Mississippi (1901) deals with the course of affairs in Mississippi and is rigidly impartial. J. S. Pike s The Prostrate State (1874) gives a vivid view of negro rule in South Carolina. Paul L. Ha worth s The Hayes-Tilden Election (1906) deals exhaustively with the disputed election. No 249 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY student should fail to consult James F. Rhodes s History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (7 vols., 1893-1906). On the race problem Ray S. Baker s Following the Color Line (1908) is a careful analysis of present-day race conditions. W. E. B. Dubois s The Souls of Black Folks (1903) is the work of a Harvard Ph.D., a mulatto brought up in New England, but at present a professor in Atlanta University. Booker T. Washington s Up from Slavery (1901) is the autobiography of the noted negro leader and educator. G. S. Merriam s The Negro and the Nation (1906) contains a Northerner s view of the race problem. Thomas N. Page s The Negro, the Southerner s Problem (1904) is a book by a well-known Southern novelist. The best analysis of American political conditions is given in James Bryce s The American Commonwealth (2 vols., many editions). Another book of great merit is Moisei Ostrogorski s Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties (2 vols., 1902). James A. Woodburn s Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States (1903) is an excellent book in more compact form than Bryce s work. The most exhaustive history of the War with Spain is F. E. Chad wick s The Spanish-American War (2 vols., 1911). For the naval and administrative side of the conflict see John D. Long s The New American Navy (2 vols., 1903). Extremely interesting is Theodore Roosevelt s The Rough Riders (1899). The books on economic and social conditions are almost numberless. E. W. Bemis s Municipal Monopolies (1899) is the work of an advocate of municipal ownership of public utilities. The tariff struggle is treated in Frank W. Taussig s Tariff History of the United States (1910). ^W._ F. Johnson s Four Centuries of the Panama Canal (1906) is sufficiently~de- scribed by its title. One of the earliest books dealing with plutocratic tendencies is Henry Lloyd s Wealth against Com monwealth (1894). The trust problem is discussed hi Ida Tarbell s History of the Standard Oil Company (2 vols., 1904); Gilbert H. Montague s Trusts of To-day (1904); and J. W. Jenks s The Trust Problem (1903). John Mitchell s Organ- BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 ized Labor (1903) was written by one of the sanest of the labor leaders. Of biographies and reminiscences George E. Hoar s Auto biography of Seventy Years (2 vols., 1903) is the work of one who had an intimate knowledge of many public occurrences. Somewhat similar in character are George S. BoutwelTs Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (2 vols., 1902) and John Sherman s Recollections (2 vols., 1885). John Bigelow s Life of Samuel J. Tilden (2 vols., 1895) is particu larly valuable for New York state politics and the disputed presidential election. Albert B. Paine s Thomas Nast, His Period and His Pictures t is profusely illustrated with some of the great cartoonist s most famous pictures. Francis E. Leupp s The Man Roosevelt (1904) is a brilliant character sketch, but not a formal biography. INDEX Adams, 60, 65 Aguinaldo, 188-189 "Alabama Claims," 60-63 Alaska, 38, 219 Aldrich, 238 Alger, 185 Altgeld, 130, 160 "Cipher Dispatches," 90-91, 104 Civil Rights Bill, 25, 2, 84 -^-v Civil Service Reform, 109, 121- 123, 136-137, 173-174, 211 Clark, 240 Clarkson, 136-137 Clayton-Bulwer Convention, 220 American Federation of Labor, Cleveland, 59, 110, 116-135/142- 131 Ames, 68 Arm-in-Arm Convention, 28 Arthur, 87, 104, 108-114 Australian ballot, 133 Ballinger, 236-237 Babcock, 70-72 Beef Trust, 145, 216 Belknap, 71 Berger, 239 Beveridge, 235 Bismark, 139 "Black Friday," 64 Black Codes, 16-18 Elaine, 73, 102, 106, 110, 114-119, 132, 137-141, 146, 147, 150 Bland, 169 Bland-Allison Act, 93-94, 166 Bradley, 79 Bristow, 70, 72 Bryan, 170-173, 205-207, 225, 234 Bunau-Varilla, 222 Burchard, 118 Butler, 33, 63 Campos, 176 Canadian Reciprocity, 239 Cannon, 237 Cervera, 180, 184 Chaff ee, 193 Chamberlain, 53 Chandler, W. E., 88 Chandler, Z., 88 Chase, 37 Chinese Exclusion, 101 Chili, 140-141 143, 151-174, 177 Colfax, 69 Conkling, 63, 87, 101-107 Cortelyou, 226 Coxey s "Army," 159 Credit Mobilier, 60, 68 , , Cxolgoez, 208 Davis, D., 64, 79 Davis, H. G., 225 Davis, J., 14, 55, 82 Debs, 160-161 Do Lome, 178 De Long, 113 Dewey, 179 Dingley Act, 197-200, 206, 217 Douglass, 9 Dudley, 133 Eaton, 109 Electoral Commission, 78-79 Elkins Act, 218 Evarts, 34, 86 Fairbanks, 224 Farmers Alliance, 148 Fifteenth Amendment, 42, 83 Fish, 58, 61, 175 "Force Bill," 143, 148 Foster, 142 Fourteenth Amendment, 25, 26, 41, 84 Freedmen s Bureau, 10, 24, 26 Funston, 189 Garfield, J. A., 69, 103-108 Garfield, J. R., 236J Goethals, 223 253 254 INDEX 1 Gold Democrats, 170, 206 Gorman, 151, 158 Gould, 63, 118, 126 "Government by Injunction," 161 Grady, 8, 112 "Grandfather Clause," 83 Granger Cases, 96 Grangers, 95, 148 Grant, 23, 33, 35, 36, 38, 54, 56- 71, 101-103, 175 Great Reconstruction Act, 32, 40 Greeley, 64-67 Greely, 114 Greenbackers, 37, 105, 148 Guiteau, 107 "Half-Breeds," 107 Hanna, 115, 166-168, 196-197, 208, 224 Harmon, 240 Harrison, 132-153 Hawaii, 141-143 Hay, 193, 220 Hayes, L., 87 Hayes, R. B., 73-80, 86-101, 104 Hendricks, 37, 74, 117, 118, 123 Hill, 134, 151 Hoar, E. R., 58 Hoar, G. E., 104, 115 Hobart, 168 Hobson, 181 "Insular Cases," 192 " Insurgents," see "Progressives " Interstate Commerce Act, 124- 127, 230 "Jelly-fish," 107 "Jim-Crow Cars," 84 Johnson, A., 12, 13, 14, 20, 23, 25 27, 28, 30-38, 39 Johnson, R., 60 Joint Committee on Reconstruc tion, 20, 21, 25 " Kearneyism," 99 Kellogg, 49 Kern, 234 Knights of Labor, 96, 130 Ku-Klux-Klan, 43, 45, 47, 52, 54 Ku-Klux Act, 54 La Follette, 235, 240 Landis, 229 Lee, F., 177 Lee, R. E., 7 Liberal Republicans, 64-66, 74 Liliuokalani, 142 Lincoln, A., 7, 11, 12 Logan, 33, 101, 115 "Maine," 178 Malietoa, 138-139 Maximilian, 39 McKinley Act, 144-148, 153-154, 166 McKinley, 114, 146, 148, 155, 157, 166-172, 174, 177-178, 185, 196, 199, 205-210 McMaster, 244 Mills Bill, 132 "Molly Maguires," 97 Morgan, 162, 202 Morton, O. P., 31, 72 Morton, L. P., 132 Napoleon III., 38 "Naturalization Clause," 83 New Orleans Riot, 28-29, 46 "New South," 111 Norris, 235 Northern Securities Company, 216 Oklahoma, 150 "Open Door," 193 "Oregon," 180, 183 Pacific Railroad, 59 Palma, 187, 232 Panama Canal, 219-223 Panama Republic, 221-223 Parker, 225-226 Pauncefote, 220 Payne-Aldrich Act, 235-239 Peary, 114 Pelton, 90 Pendleton, 37, 109 People s Party, see Populists Philippines, 184, 187-193, 206, 230, 236 Pinchot, 236-237 Platt, 107, 205 "Platt Amendment," 187, 232 Populists, 148-149, 152, 170, 206 Porto Rico, 184, 187, 192, 199 Potter Committee, 89-91 "Progressive," 235-240 Pullman Strike, 160 Quay, 137, 150 INDEX 255 "Rebel Flag Order," 129 "Reconcentrados," 176 Reed, T. B., 143, 165, 197 Reed, W., 186 Reid, 64, 151 Resumption Act, 70, 92 Rhodes, 81, 244 Robertson, 103, 106 Rockefeller, J. D., 125, 238 Roosevelt, 110, 115, 135, 173, 181-185, 195, 203, 205, 210- 234, 238, 240 Root, 185 Rough Riders, 181-183 Sack ville- West, 134 Samoa, 138-139 Sampson, 180, 183 Santo Domingo, 60, 63, 219 Schley, 113, 180, 184 Schurz, 22, 23, 64, 74, 86, 115, 206 Schwatka, 113 Seymour, 37, 38 Sheridan, 29, 39 Sherman, W. T., 7-8. 114 Sherman, J., 70-71, 92, 102, 112, 114, 197 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 144- 146, 202, 227 Sherman Silver Act, 144, 155, 156 South Improvement Company, 126 "Stalwarts," 88, 107 Standard Oil Company, 125-127, 145, 229 "Stand-Patters," 235-240 Stanton, 33-35 Star Route Frauds, 110 Stephens, 18 Stevens, 20, 21, 22, 25, 29, 33, 35, 81 Stevenson, 122, 151, 205 Stewart, 57 Sugar Trust, 145 Sumner, 21, 25, 31, 61, 81, 121, 129 Taft, 190, 191, 201, 224, 232-240 Tammany Hall, 74, 104, 118, 134 Teller, 168 Tenure of Office Act, 31^-34, 58- 59, 123 Thirteenth Amendment, 16, 25, 26 Tildon, 74-77, 88-91, 104 Tobacco Trust, 201, 229 Treaty of Washington, 62 "Understanding Clause," 83 Union League, 42 U. 8. Steel Corporation, 202-204, 229 Vanderbilt, C., 95 Vanderbilt, W. H., 126 Venezuela, 163-165, 219 "Virginius," 175 Washburne, 57-58 Washington, B., 212 Weaver, 105, 152 Weyler. 176^177 White Camelm, 43, 46 White League, 49 Wilson, H., 69. 78 Wilson, W., 240 Wilson-Gorman Act, 157-159 Wood, 182, 187 Woodford, 177 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed bifrlii m iiuliM REC D CD Jill 8 64 -KM H 65 -9PM r fcr2 b4-ll)MM REC D LD < 14^ >6& ^* M/W i 9 -6R -1 PM ..-w-iJ LD Ml 4 fi5-7p 2Mar 65GP IN STACKS FEB i 6 1965 K^VviiisS^ v- "101.