ASIA W NEWTGNWYETO :>!iUbiiUi»iHi^KiHlJi3iiait»i2ifHiaiiliHittlfiiaiiittKiWliMiii!>^ CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library JK 2356.W97 Republican principles and policies :a br 3 1924 023 300 555 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023300555 From an elching by Nuyltens ABRAHAM LINCOLN Republican Principles and Policies A Brief History of the Republican National Party By Newton Wyeth Illustrated by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens Chicago The Republic Press 1916 W«AOK WI7 %^\ COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY NEWTON WYETH PREFACE It is the object of this brief volume to outline the origin, progress and achievements of the Republican National Party, whose career is not simply found in written records but is spread at large upon the liv- ing page of the Nation's history. No other party can show such a history. Sixty-two years have passed since Republicans met "under the oaks" at Jackson and planned the organization of the Party. Within a decade thereafter the Party gained its place of power in the National Government, and for a half- century, save for two presidential terms, continued to build and control the national structure. "Within that half-century the party of opposition was in power in both Houses of Congress and in the Execu- tive Department at one and the same time but two years. The period of Republican rule witnessed a phenomenal growth of the country, and in all things political and governmental — so integral with the life of the people — the principles and policies of the Re- publican Party prevailed. We have but to look upon that growth to observe whose was the responsibility and to whom honor is due. The worth of the Republican Party is realized by its jnembers and those who have experienced its work and progress, and the Party's history is an inspira- tion to the young as they step up to active business and political life. The character, the spirit of a po- litical party is the average sum of the political char- acter and spirit of its members. It becomes, not an @ PEEFACB affair to be lightly cast aside or exchanged for some- thing else as a man takes off one coat and puts on an- other, but a lasting substance, expanding with op- pprtunity. They that took part in 1854 now lie be- neath the sod, as do countless followers in the early struggles. They decided right, and are not forgotten. Their spirit and character have permeated the Party down through the years. Newton Wteth. Chicago, August 15, 1916. REPUBLICAN PRrNCIPLES AND POLICIES Introductory — republican or representative government — necessity for parties — dominant and opposition parties — Eepublican National Party In the Republic of the United States the power to determine and administer public affairs is lodged with the mass of the people, to be exercised by them indirectly through representatives chosen by them. They thus exercise their power under the Consti- tution, which limits the Executive, establishes the Judicial, and provides for the Legislative Branches. Thus we have a representative or republican form of government. Thereby popular government is brought to its broadest liberties consistent with permanency and safety. In this country, self-direc- tion — self-initiative — is a predominating element with the people, but this is consistent with good government, and is even dependent upon it. Ideals, founded in morality, pervade the citizens' thoughts, and it is for these they strive. Patriotism supported by such ideals arises, not from personal motives or the patriot's thoughts of the section in which he lives or the country from which he came, but from concern for the future and the common good. The view-point must be, not one's self, individual, but the general welfare. Thus only is liberty secure. Liberty concerns the whole, and, founded upon such 5 6 REPUBLICAN PARTY ideals, is attained, not by disintegrated pure democ- racy, but through government as an effective and necessary instrument. Individual, absolute freedom may be the subject of oft-repeated, though deceptive, phrases, but co-operation and concession are more important. "With a free people, the view-point men- tioned renders republican form of government nat- ural and necessary, and that governed state is great- est wherein rights and freedom are most certainly found and most permanently secured. It was hardly to be anticipated, before history made it plain, that in a popular form of government the people will naturally and therefore ordinarily divide themselves into two prominent parties of nearly equal membership, which continue as the only great parties; or, further, that one of such parties upon gaining power will by its course of administration, if successful, so impress the people with its principles and invest government with its policies as to become the dominant party for long periods of time, while the other will continue sub- ordinate and a party of opposition only. The gov- ernment becomes a government by party. Now and then sundry new parties come up, either upon some temporary excitement or from some fac- tional split within an existing party ; but in the one case, there being no just foundation, the new party soon disintegrates and dies, and in the other, the differences vanishing or being adjusted, the dis- affected members return to their former allegiance. But as long as an old party is reasonably successful in administration, conserves the public interests ac- cording to its course, and does not attempt the PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 7 solution of new problems ahead of public judgment, or if it makes the attempt and public judgment presently comes to its support, so long will the party command public respect and prevail as the dominant party. The very fact that the two parties are of nearly equal strength in numbers is a con- stant spur to right action by the party in power, as even slight failure may easily throw the opposing party into office temporarily. Thus the established party holds the principle of renovation and growth within its own ranks. An actual revolution in politi- cal views of importance is required to create a new and successful political party. In the history of the Nation, political parties in advocacy or enforcement of just and important prin- ciples have arisen, but for want of favorable cir- cumstances or from having accomplished their imme- diate purpose have passed away, the good in them having been carried on or absorbed by some other party arising upon the time. No great and powerful party has lived to attain ofSce and exert lasting in- fluence that has not had its foundation laid in the just struggles of mankind long before its organiza- tion. In such struggles, prior to the middle of the 19th century, political parties appeared from time to time like islands in the turmoil of waters, flourish- ing for a season only to be submerged. Thereupon, drawing to itself principles of value tested from the first days of the Eepublic, imbued with the spirit of good from passing organizations, and prepared to accept new problems and the task of their solution, the Republican National Party arose like a continent from the sea. II Colonial days — no organized political parties — ^American Patriots or Whigs — ^Loyalists — Independence from Great Britain — Confederation — Constitution — Federalists and Anti-Federalists — Washington President (1789-97), and Adams (1797-1801) — Federalists and loose construction — Anti-Federalists, Eepublicaus or Democratic-Republicans and strict construction — Alien and Sedition laws — Ken- tucky and Virginia Resolutions From earliest colonial days to the eve of the "War for Independence there were no political parties in British North America. There were governments, but they were of royal origin and control. If the colonists took sides in political action, they did so as individuals, in petty and local ways, and not in united movements. Thus it was in the 17th century and far into the 18th. The New England Confeder- ation (1643) was the only noteworthy attempt at a union in the 17th century. It took many steps derog- atory to the Crown, exercised much political activity, flourished for several years, but finally was dissolved by the home government. Benjamin Franklin 's sug- gestions a century later (1754) of a plan for colonial union against the Indians, and otherwise, for local protection met with scant consideration. But the col- onies at that time were afflicted with the greatest jeal- ousies and distrust among themselves, and they were seldom free from such trouble in some degree. They could not unite in any action of importance. England was the first maritime and colonial power of the world, and under headstrong George 8 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 9 III. determined to increase her external rule over the colonies and bring them under full subjection to her own interests. She entered upon this policy, and had not long to wait before losing her most promis- ing possessions in America. Political organizations, called Sons of Liberty, Liberty Boys or Liberty Men, flourished in New York and Massachusetts, and were known at various points from New Haven to South Carolina. They raised their voices against the Eng- lish Stamp and other Acts, and the twenty-six or more colonial newspapers, or most of them, joined in the outcry. John Otis, at Boston, declared that "taxation without representation is tjTanny," and Franklin later at London warned the English that the day was fast approaching when the colonists would refuse representation. Samuel Adams was arousing the Patriot Party. John Adams was a close second in the work, until the governor at Boston was obliged to assure London that he believed the disturbances would be quieted if it were not for "two or three Adamses." In the sharp conflicts, many colonists aligned themselves up as American Patriots, and the name Whig came into use, partly because Whigs in England were among the oppo- nents of her colonial policy and partly because many colonists were from old Whig families over the sea. But there was a surprisingly large number of Loyal- ists, sometimes, and especially later, called Tories. Troubles took on various forms, with more or less violence and fury, through to the conflicts of Lex- ington and Concord, ushering in the war. Mean- while the First Continental Congress met at Phila- delphia (1774), but secured no concessions from the 10 REPUBLICAN PARTY mother country. It reconvened the next year as the Second Continental Congress, the combined action of all the colonies being gained, and advanced towards independence. The Loyalists or local Tories would have stood with the Patriots substantially for colonial rights as such, but they delayed the step towards political independence. The "Whigs or Pa- triots, historically spoken of as American Whigs, continued strenuous. With the help of the "brace of Adamses" in moving the elements, the Congress made progress until the Declaration of Independence was adopted. An American patriotism had been created, under which a Confederation or Union of the colonies was possible. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, urged by the Continental Congress, were adopted by the States by 1781. After the stress of the war was over, the government was soon found to be unworthy its name, and was stigmatized by Washington as "little more than the shadow with- out the substance." While, ostensibly, important powers were conferred upon it, none could be exer- cised without an affirmative vote of at least nine States, and the States did as they pleased. There was no power to coerce a State or a citizen thereof. The several States were to regulate commerce and raise revenue, and they regulated the one by impos- ing discriminating duties against their sister States, and if they raised revenue for the government they paid it when they got ready, or not at all. The Confederation was predestined to defeat, and suf- fered the fate common to most federations that are not subordinate parts of some stronger state. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 11 In the formation of the Articles many Patriots urged a stronger central government, but in the uncertainties and disagreements of the times the framers did the best they could. It is to be remem- bered that the Revolution was not a reconstruction within but a mere separation of the colonies from the mother country politically, leaving the indi- vidual colonies distinct from each other, and almost as much so as if each had secured its own inde- pendence. In this gloomy period, one light shone out with hope for the future. Under the Ordinance governing the Northwest Territory several States gave up their claims to the extended region from the Ohio River north and Pennsylvania west to the Mississippi (1787). This important compact embodied funda- mental principles between the States as to future states in the territory: Freedom of worship and religious opinion, personal rights and liberty before the law, encouragement of schools and education; and it provided that there should "be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory other- wise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." Prom this territory grew the five States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Federalist Party, embodying members of the former Patriot Party and "Whigs, came up and in- sisted that the Confederation was not suitable for national growth, and urged the formation of a closer union and a constitution creating a strong, central, national government that should be adequate to the progress and liberties of the American people. Their 12 REPUBLICAN PARTY opponents came to be called Anti-Federalists, and were skeptical as to the plan of basing a central gov- ernment upon the independent States, advocated the continuance of the league between them, and sub- mitted that the States were to be separate and sovereign. After several untimely efforts, State delegates met at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to suggest amendments in the Confederation, but went farther and after a four months ' session reported the present Constitution to Congress, which approved and sub- mitted it to the States for ratification. In the Con- stitutional convention, the brilliant Alexander Ham- ilton (N. T.) was a leading spirit. James Madison (Va.) regarded the instrument as a compromise be- tween the extremes of democracy on the one hand and of aristocracy on the other, and he was anxious that the evils liable to arise from an overbearing majority should be avoided by constitutional pro- visions, — that majorities should be prevented from oppressing minorities. The Anti-Federalists delayed ratification. They disliked a single executive head, stood for State sovereignty, and feared that the country would lapse to despotism, and its liberties be lost. But the necessity for a strong and enduring national govern- ment was clear, and eleven States ratified the Con- stitution in 1788 and it went into effect as provided. North Carolina approved it in 1789 and Rhode Island in 1790. It was understood among the constitutional fathers that the substance of the first ten Amend- ments should be added promptly, and accordingly these, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, were PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 13 speedily presented, ratified, and declared a part of the Constitution by December, 1791. By this time the Loyalists as a political factor had disappeared. The City of New York was made the seat of gov- ernment, arrangements were completed for the first presidential election, and the first "Wednesday of March, 1789, was set for Congress to assemble. By the Constitution, the presidential electors were to be appointed by the several States in such manner as the legislatures thereof should direct, and each elec- tor was to vote for two candidates for President, the one receiving the highest number of votes, if a majority of the whole number of electors, to be Presi- dent and the one next highest Vice-President. As had been anticipated, George "Washington (Va.) was elected President, and unanimously. John Adams (Mass.) received 34 electoral votes, while 35 were scattered, and he thus became "Vice-President. The first "Wednesday of March, it so happened, fell on the 4th of that month, and that date became fixed for the inauguration and change of administration every four years. If the particular 4th falls on Sunday, then the 5th of March is the date of change. The 4th has fallen on Sunday only three times thus far. March 5th was the inauguration day for Monroe (second term) in 1821, for Taylor in 1849, and for Hayes in 1877; and March 5th will be the date in 1917. However, preparations were slow in 1789, and Washington was not sworn in until April 30. Federal and Anti-Federal conflict was not active, and "Washington, recognizing that opposing forces had united to form the Constitution and had joined unanimously in his election, introduced both ele- 14 REPUBLICAN PARTY ments into his Cabinet. Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalists, became Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas Jeflferson (Va.), Anti-Federalist, Secre- tary of State. Other appointments were upon like lines. Notwithstanding this non-partisan attempt at government, differences in regard to the con- struction of the Constitution soon arose. Those who had urged a change from the extreme democratic form of the Confederation to one distinctively national were for interpreting the Constitution broadly or liberally, so as to give the Government increased and all necessary power. This is broad, liberal or, as it is more generally called, loose con- struction. And it is remarkable how, under this loose construction, the Constitution has proved to be of expanding force to meet ever growing national life. The opposite doctrine is strict, or narrow, con- struction. The Amendments that have been made to the Constitution are, with slight exception, not changes of, so much as additions to, the Constitution. Practically the first measure passed by the first administration was the Tariff Act for revenue, but with obvious provisions for protection. The pre- amble read "for the encouragement and protection of manufactures." Besides the tariff bill, Hamilton pushed forward acts for the assumption of the for- eign and domestic debts of the old Confederation and of the old States. As to the former there was not much trouble, but as to the State debts, and like- wise as to the establishment of a United States Bank, serious questions arose from the opposition. They objected that these measures were unconstitu- tional. Hamilton succeeded as to aU the debts ; also PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 15 in establishing the bank, and it continued a valuable fiscal agent of the Government for twenty years. He justified the tariff by sajdng that the Constitution gave the right to regulate commerce, and that the power to carry out this right to the best advantage was implied; and he and his associates held also that the "common defense" was concerned in the measure. The real grounds of objection by the opponents appear to have been that they desired to retain as much power as possible for the States and to limit the Federal Government accordingly. The lessons of the weak Confederation, which was as nearly no government as is .to be conceived — "the rope of sand" — ^were little heeded by the Anti- Federalists. In the discussions, the old feeling for State sovereignty was apparent, and some sugges- tions of the right of secession opposed the measure for the bank. All these successful measures were upon the side of loose construction, as was also the prod used to cause the last two States to adopt the Constitution. North Carolina and Rhode Island, being treated as foreign territory and import duties laid upon them, soon made up their minds and came into the Union. But, for the most part, there was no striking and sweeping opposition persisted in until Jackson's administration, although the Federalists, as such, were to continue in power but twelve years. All factions joined in a request for Washington to serve a second term and he was again unani- mously elected. Adams received 77 votes as against 50 for George Clinton (N. Y.) and 5 votes scattering, and again became Vice-President. They were in- ducted into ofSce March 4, 1793. In this year the 16 REPUBLICAN PARTY cotton gin was invented, a machine that was to bring about an industrial revolution in the Cotton States and tend to fix slavery upon the country. The French Revolution was in progress, and France and England came to war. Many Americans, especially the Anti-Federalists, including Jefferson, sympathized with the French Radicals and were for giving France aid. Thinking of Republican France, many of these sympathizers called them- selves Republicans. But Jefferson preferred the name Democrat for the political party with which he operated, so far as there was a party. The upshot was that the hyphenated name Democratic- Republican replaced to some extent that of Anti- Federalist. But parties were as yet indifferently organized. So far as the country at large was con- cerned, congressional caucuses soon came to make presidential nominations and in a general way to direct campaigns, a practice that continued for a generation. Organizations grew up in the more populous sections. A Tammany organization in New York City was taught political tricks by Aaron Burr (N. Y.), who used it with much effect, and it has been heard of since in Democratic maneuvers. Substantially all parties seem to have urged Washington to stand for a third term. But this he absolutely refused to do. The Xlth Amendment had passed (1794) and was later ratified (1798). It forbids the extension of the judicial power of the United States to any suit against any State by citi- zens of another State or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. "Washington delivered his Fare- PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 17 well Address, which has been termed a classic in American political literature. John Adams had been a great Federalist. He was experienced in political affairs, his views had been pronounced, and no great opposition to him had been manifested. The conflict between the loose and the strict construction of the Constitution had gone on quietly, in the main. So far as opposition had crys- tallized, Jefferson was the leader. In 1796 Adams was elected President and Jefferson Vice-President, and they entered office on March 4, 1797. "Washington had declared neutrality towards the warring foreign powers at the time the Anti-Federal- ists would have supported France, and was bitterly attacked by opposing partisans. Later, he sent John Jay to England and secured a treaty of peace, where- upon he was again attacked with greatest virulence by these partisans and was even accused of treason and threatened with impeachment. But France did not relish the Jay Treaty, and was unfriendly to us. Adams now sent envoys to France, but they were snubbed, and returned without gaining recognition, save that some persons in France, by letters signed "X. Y. Z.," demanded bribes from them as affording a way to open negotiations. These insults caused great indignation on the part of the Federalists, who put up a rallying cry of "millions for defense; not one cent for tribute." Those "Republicans" who had continued to sympathize with France were quite subdued. Measures in retaliation against the French, known as the Alien and Sedition Laws, were enacted, with the help of the Anti-Federalists or Democratic- 18 REPUBLICAN PARTY Republicans. The Alien laws empowered the Presi- dent to expel aliens who conspired against the peace of the country, and the Sedition laws provided dras- tic measures for punishing persons who were guilty of seditious libels against the Government. How- ever, as the foreign troubles abated, these laws be- came the source of great criticism and party feeling, being considered too large a stretch of power. The Anti-Federalists came to denounce them as uncon- stitutional and declared that the only remedy of the States was nullification. Therefore the Ken- tucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 (the former repeated and added to in 1799) were passed by the legislatures of those States. Jefferson and Madison respectively were the accredited draughtsmen. The Resolutions declared that the Union was a compact, that the laws mentioned were unconstitutional, and that it was the right and duty of the States to interpose and maintain the rights reserved to them. The amended Kentucky Resolution went farther by declaring that a State might rightfully nullify and declare void any act of Congress which it might con- sider unconstitutional ; but in this respect the Resolu- tion, it has been claimed, expressly exceeded Jeffer- son's intentions. The Resolutions afforded a bad precedent. They were the first authorized declara- tions of those elements that were in favor of strict as against loose construction of the Constitution, of particularism as against nationalism. In form, they left room for a yielding to the Union, if neces- sary; but the idea involved in the language used was soon carried much farther, being at various times appealed to as a basis for party expediency PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 19 used as a precedent for nullification, and finally cited as a ground for secession. Though Adams gained credit by measures for a stronger navy, his general administration was not strong enough to suit Hamilton, who threw his in- fluence to Charles C. Pinckney (N. C.) for President. Jefferson and Burr each received 73 electoral votes, while the Federalists stood : Adams 65, Pinckney 64, and Jay 1. The defective provision of the Consti- tution for election of the two high officials was re- vealed. The two highest votes being a tie, and no one having a majority, the election was thrown into the House, where after a long struggle Jefferson was chosen President and Burr Vice-President. Ill Jefferson (1801-09) and Madison (1809-17) — ^many loose con- struction measures — Hamilton's satisfaction — Clay and internal improvements — Louisiana Purchase — Embargo Act — ^protection — Monroe (1817-25) — party lines obliter- ated — slavery — Missouri Compromise — Monroe Doctrine — Tariff of 1824 — John Q. Adams (1825-29) — American Sys- tem, Tariff of 1828 — caucus nominations discredited — Adams and Clay form National Eepublican Party — Jack- son The general expectation of Jefferson's supporters was that he would make a decided change in the conduct of official business and in appointments to office ; and, more than that, it was believed that the Constitution would be strictly construed, and the States be the real government. Fisher Ames said that we were now to witness "government without government." The followers of Jefferson were greatly disappointed. He spoke too much, to suit them, of all being Federalists, all Eepublicans. They found he would remove from appointive office only for cause, though towards the end of his second term he sought to gain strength for his adherents by removing ' ' obnoxious partisans. ' ' About the only change observed was that he reversed the custom of reading messages in person to Congress by send- ing in his first message to be read. The change was followed, and the new custom prevailed for more than 100 years, until President "Wilson appeared in Congress and read his message (1913), in a new increase of personal government. 20 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 21 In Jefferson's first term, the Xllth Amendment, providing with other things for electoral votes to be cast for President and Vice-President distinc- tively, was proposed, passed and went into effect September 25, 1804. Unless it was in respect of the tariff, there was little in the administration to disturb Hamilton. The Democratic-Republicans leaned to a simple life and farming. The domain was boundless, and they preferred no great cities and would let Europe manufacture. Until his death (1804), Hamilton could have looked on with composure ; for, if he had looked for more progress, he did not see destruction of the constructive power he found under the Con- stitution. Even the relation of the Government to the National Bank was undisturbed, and money measures and the tariff were not limted to the "enumerated powers" of the fundamental law. And, speaking generally, if he had been alive to know of the acquiescence in the Louisiana Purchase and of national internal improvements, he could have been content In the election of 1804, Jefferson and George Clin- ton (N. Y.) were elected and took ofSee the follow- ing March. "With war imminent between France and Great Britain, Napoleon was anxious to dispose of the Louisiana Territory, and the United States took it over, adding 1,000,000 square miles to the public domain by the purchase. In this expansion, Jefferson overrode his strict construction ideas, and said so. He thought of having an amendment made to the Constitution to confirm the purchase, but as his course was acquiesced' in the amendment was 22 REPUBLICAN PARTY dropped. When the war came, our commerce was seriously interfered with by both powers. England exercised the right of search, declared paper block- ades of the French coast by Orders in Council, and under the theory of "once a Briton always a Briton," impressed our British-born sailors and some others regardless of their nativity. Napoleon attempted much in the same lines. The administra- tion made the mistake of putting forth what was called the Embargo Act, by which we were to cease commerce with foreign nations. It was soon realized that this course was more detrimental to us than to our enemies. An outcry was made, especially in Federalist New England, and consequently Jef- ferson procured a modification, designated the Non- Intercourse Act, which left commerce open except with England and France. The Government in 1806, through the inspiration of Henry Clay (Ky.), began national internal im- provements, the first being the Cumberland Road. This loose construction legislation was met with ob- jections that it might not be constitutional, and for this reason it was stated in the early acts that the improvements were for defense. Within Jefferson's last term, the time arrived (January 1, 1808) when, by the Constitution, the slave traffic could be prohibited. Congress there- fore took measures for the enforcement of the pro- hibition, and this led to some discussion about slaves, but without apparent conceptions on the part of the North as to the force of suggestions made by the South. Nothing was introduced in the measures which acknowledged that slaves were not property. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 23 In the election of 1808, the Republicans or Demo- cratic-Republicans elected Madison and Clinton, who took office March 4, 1809. New England was the Federalist stronghold, being interested in manufac- tures, and was wrought up by the commerce restric- tions. The rest of the country was lukewarm, and the Federalists as a party were at a low ebb. Soon John C. Calhoun (S. C.) came upon the scene of action, and his criticism of Jefferson's administration has been called a bill of indictment. Though Calhoun himself was a loose constructionist with respect to internal improvements and, at first, with respect to the tariflE, he felt and said that in much Jefferson had made a failure by his indifference to the standing of the States, the bank and the distinctive departments of government. While Jefferson abhorred monarchy and said much against aristocracy, and maintained that the people if left to themselves would be able to "choose best," he saw little of such democracy in his time, and he admitted that the "habits of the governed determined in a great degree what was practicable." He appears to have doubted the ef- ficiency of democratic government, except with an agricultural people. There was much talk about lib- erty and democracy, in the abstract. He opposed an adequate navy, and built only what was ridiculed as a "gun-boat system," and we were imprepared for the coming war with England, although in that war, as fortune turned, our ships, such as they were, won the victory, while our armed land forces largely failed. Madison's enduring fame relates to his work in the formation of the Constitution and in securing its 24 REPUBLICAN PARTY adoption. But, not realizing that citizens' rights and powers would be greater in a greater nation, and fearing imaginary dangers of a monarchy, he in- clined to the retention of large rights by the States. Jefferson having failed to secure peace treaties with England, commerce was carried on at great risk. The Federalists opposed war until they lost prestige, and Madison tried to keep his party a peace party. But American merchant ships to the number of nine hundred had been captured or destroyed at sea the past eight years, and the younger blood in the ad- ministration and Representative Clay were for war, and it was declared in 1812. Everybody became en- thusiastic in sustaining the war, and Madison was easily re-elected, with Elbrjdge Gerry (Mass.) as Vice-President. Their opponents were DeWitt Clin- ton (N. Y.) and Jared IngersoU (Pa.). The war ended (1815) with results fairly satis- factory, and was called the "Second War of Inde- pendence." Protection was advocated to support the wool, iron and cotton manufactures that had begun to grow up during the war. English manu- facturers endeavored to drive Americans out of trade, and the new Tariff Act of 1816 proved to have but slight protective features. Little consideration was given to the interests of the manufacturers and they had to pass through distress and depression until a real tariff for protection was enacted in 1824. The charter for the United States or National Bank, which had expired, was revived (1816) to run twenty years. At this time there was little opposi- tion to the bank and to the tariff, because the advo- cates of restriction were broadened somewhat by PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 25 seeing that it was the Nation and not the States that had prosecuted the war successfully; and the Democratic-Eepublicans published Hamilton's argu- ments for the bank as praiseworthy. Calhoun supported a measure for national internal roads, which Madison believed unconstitutional and vetoed. In the following administration, like meas- ures came up with Monroe. He emulated Madison's example by exercising the veto power, but was gracious enough to say, that as Congress had the power to raise money it had a large discretion in its use. Thereupon all parties brought forward, a lot of appropriations for roads and canals. Madison declined a third term, and James Monroe (Va.) and Daniel D. Tompkins (N. Y.) were elected President and Vice-President, and entered office March 4, 1817. The late war had obliterated political parties and there appeared to be no important matters of dis- pute at hand. Practically everybody supported Mon- roe for re-election, and he received all the electoral votes but one, which was cast for John Quincy Adams (Mass.). Tompkins was re-elected Vice-President. The new term opened on March 5, 1821. Almost without exception the founders of the Re- public recognized in the slave institution an unmiti- gated evil, that should be gradually wiped out. Be- fore Monroe 's presidency, the North, with few slaves at any time, had been freeing itself of the institution until it had now been abolished by law. Many peo- ple of the South were opposed to it on principle, or on economic grounds, or on both. But without much discussion in the open at first the South as a whole 26 REPUBLICAN PARTY was vitally interested in slaves as property. It so happened that, as regarded slavery, the admission of new States had been such that the ntunber of slave States now equalled the number of free States in the Union; and lately there had been some dis- cussion of balanced rights with respect to the num- ber of States with, and the number without, slavery, and some States had been introduced almost side by side in time in order to preserve this balance. Thus Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi had been offset by Vermont, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. In Monroe's first term, a bill was introduced in Congress authorizing Missouri to form a State gov- ernment for admission into the Union. Alabama had applied for admission as a slave State, but Maine de- sired admission, and was free. The two would bal- ance. But this riatter of thus balancing territory against territory might not be kept up, and the ques- tion was becoming important. Missouri had adopted a constitution not only for slavery but forbidding free people of color from settling in the State. The southerners argued that the general Government could not interfere with slavery in the territories, and now submitted that slaveholders had the right to take their slaves into the territories and there keep them as property. It was replied that if Con- gress was by the Constitution forbidden to inter- fere with slavery the inhibition comprised the orig- inal thirteen States only and not the territories, which by the same instrument were placed under the control of Congress; that the territories were the property of the United States and subject to be con- trolled and organized solely by Congress as it should PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 27 determine. Whatever had been thought of slavery before, it now became obvious that, while the anti- slavery sentiment in the New England and Middle States had developed to the exclusion of the institu- tion, in the Cotton States the institution was "first endured, then pitied, then embraced." Upon one ground and another, the struggle con- tinued in Congress for nearly two years, until a so- called compromise was effected. In 1763-7, Mason and Dixon, two English surveyors, ran a line at north latitude 39° 43', to settle the boundary between Penn- sylvania and Maryland. This line was later extended west to the Ohio, and down that river and the Missis- sippi to a point 36° 30' north, whence it extended west and was the boundary between Arkansas and Missouri most of the way. It was here still known as Mason and Dixon's line. By the Missouri Com- promise of 1820, the State was admitted (1821) with its slave constitution, but with a provision that slavery was forever prohibited in all new territory north of Mason and Dixon's line. The South had now shown its hand, and the North knew what it must expect. Opposition to the slave-institution was thereafter gradually crushed throughout the South, and that section became the Slave Power, and in due time Cotton was hailed as King. The North was to struggle to little effect, until the birth of the Re- publican National Party. A momentous historic event of Monroe's adminis- tration was th^ enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine. Spain was busy in attempting to reduce and reclaim her rebellious western colonies. Many other elements contributed, including suggestions of intervention by 28 EEPUBLICAN PARTY European powers. A joint declaration with Great Bijitain, that the United States and Great Britain were opposed to any intervention by Europe in American affairs, was talked of between the two powers. But the policy of isolation came over from Washington's administration, and ex-President Jef- ferson had also warned against ever "entangling ourselves in the broils of Europe," and expressed an additional point — "never to suffer Europe to inter- meddle with cis- Atlantic affairs." It was enough, and now was a time to speak out. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, and President Monroe formed a declaration, which appeared in the Presi- dent's message of December 2, 1823. The declara- tion announced a policy of the United States, and was twofold, being against foreign intervention in the political affairs of independent American states and against future colonization by any European powers. It appears to have involved a converse ele- ment, to which the message referred, that the United States would not meddle with European politics or wars. The basis of the doctrine is hardly, that our government or western governments are or were fundamentally different from the European, but rather that every sovereign state has the right to protect its own interests from all foregin danger- ous aggression. It is to be gathered that Secretary Adams placed the foundation of the doctrine, not up- on the idea that republican governments should be secured from danger, but upon the principle of the supremacy of the United States in its political rela- tions to the Western Hemisphere. However that may be, the power of expansion embodied in the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 29 Monroe Doctrine to meet all new conditions could hardly have been in mind at the time the doctrine was proclaimed. Rear- Admiral Mahan has said: "The virtue of the Monroe Doctrine, without which it would die deservedly, is that through its corre- spondence with national necessities it possesses the inherent principle of life, which adapts itself with the flexibility of a growing plant to the successive conditions it encounters." The Monroe Doctrine has been declared the but- tress of nationalism. The principle of tariff pro- tection, extended and fortified in the new act of 1824, was broad construction and tended to national- ism. This tendency was upheld in the establishing of the supremacy of the Federal judicial power over that of the States, and especially through the judicial decisions of Chief Justice John Marshall. The vetoes of some internal improvement bills as un- constitutional and the passage of the Missouri Com- promise were of the opposite tendency. Some who had inherited Anti-Federalist views looked with suspicion upon all these tariff develop- ments and expansions of the Constitution. The great leader of the expansion ideas was Henry Clay. John Quincy Adams was a hearty supporter, and many others of Federalist descent made the ranks strong. Even John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson (Tenn.) and others of southern interests gave sup- port at first to internal improvements, and Calhoun and Jackson to protection, but their inclinations to foUow in these particulars were dampened by the ris- ing slave interests. It became clear by the time of the Missouri Compromise where Calhoun must stand 30 REPUBLICAN PARTY ultimately regarding protection. The controversy over Missouri and the discussion of the last tariff would naturally have brought up parties and defined party lines again, but such was not the case. AU appears indefinite, and national party names, if used, or so far as used, had little significance. Four can- didates for President came into the field, in a per- sonal "scrub race" rather than in political contest. Jackson obtained 99 electoral votes, "William H. Crawford (Ga.) 41, John Quincy Adams 84 and Clay 37. No one having a majority in the electoral col- lege, the House proceeded, under the Amendment of 1804, by States, each State having one vote, to choose the President from the persons, not exceeding three, having the highest number of electoral votes. Clay was thus excluded. His friends joined with those of Adams and elected him by 13 votes as against 7 for Jackson and 4 for Crawford. The popular votes were: Jackson, 155,872; Crawford, 44,282; Adams, 105,321; Clay, 46,587. No distinct candidate ap- peared against Calhoun for Vice-President, and he was elected to that ofSce by 182 electoral votes, with 78 scattering. Adams made Clay Secretary of State, but the ap- pointment gave rise to a never-ending debate in Con- gress touching some alleged corrupt bargain, where- by Adams had been elected President and Clay put in the Cabinet. There was a certain party ascendency that had been going on for some years. This party was now predominant in Adams. Clay had been a Federalist in principle, though not in name. He was a member of the House, originally in 1803, was later a Senator, and was again a member of the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 31 House from 1811, and, except for one short session, was its Speaker from the second Congress in Madi- son's first term to the end of Monroe's second term. He and President Adams gathered out of the political elements a party standing £> for the old Federalist policies in general. The party was in the minority in Congress, yet being reinforced by tariff Demo- crats, mostly from the North, it put through the highly protective tariff of 1828. The Nation reached its greatest prosperity so far attained. Industries thrived, the national debt was diminished, and a good surplus came into the Treasury. By this time there was a strong party supporting what was called the "American System," of which Clay was the father. The principle of this famous tariff was, the exclusion from our markets of such foreign goods as competed with those manufactured here or the imposition of such duties as would enable new industries to be es- tablished and a diversified industry created. The whole country was benefitted, and the South had nothing to complain of. The annual importation of woolen and cotton goods into the whole country was $8,000,000 each; the exportation of rice, raw cot- ton and tobacco, chiefly from the South, was $24,- 000,000. In addition, liberal appropriations were made for internal improvements. Yet, with this growth, the administration was not to win in the coming presidential election. From 1800, presidential candidates had been nom- inated by congressional party caucuses. The system was almost from the first the subject of criticism and dissatisfaction. Occasionally State legislatures or State party gatherings recommended or indorsed 32 KBPUBLICAN PARTY candidates. The caucuses were feeble in 1820, and did nothing. They acted in 1824, but with slack at- tendance. As Congressmen did the voting when the last election was decided by the House, and there was great strife, followed by flings at Adams and Clay because they succeeded, the caucus system was discredited thoroughly. Now Tennessee became en- thusiastic, and its legislature nominated Jackson in 1825, three years before election time. Other legis- latures followed much later, and some public meet- ings were held, until Jackson and Calhoun became the candidates of the Democrats, or Jackson Demo- crats or Jackson Men, as they were commonly desig- nated. The word Federalist having been lost by dis- use as a party name, the Adams and Clay forces adopted the name National Republicans, which an- swered them for two national campaigns, until it was succeeded by the name Whigs. Jackson and Cal- houn were elected (1828). They had 178 electoral votes (15 States) to 83 (9 States) for Adams, and a like number for Richard Rush (Pa.) for Vice-Presi- dent. The popular vote for the Democrats was 647,- 231, and for their opponents 509,097. The real Demo- cratic Party, with its strict-construction doctrines, begins to date from this time. The electors in the several States now came to be chosen by popular vote, but South Carolina continued to appoint her electors by her legislature until 1868. IV Jackson (1829-37) — ^Democratic Party — spoils system — ^Hayne- Webster Debate — South Carolina nullification — first na- tional conventions — ^Van Buren (1837-41) — ^Whig Party — tariff reductions of '33 and inflation — ^panic of '37 — ^weak Sub-Treasury Jackson was a man lacking in statesmanship, but was endowed with great courage and fierce determi- nation, and was known as Old Hickory. Although he manifested a violent temper and was too often actuated by strong prejudices, he was deemed honest. Owing to his former military success and the per- sonal relations engendered in the new methods of nomination and campaigns, he was very popular. He so far directly represented the people (that were with him) as to advance the presidential power to the detriment of the legislative, if not the judicial, branches. He said he would take the Constitution as the chart by which to sail the ship of state, but that meant — as he understood it. The Cherokee Indians in Georgia were peaceable, had advanced a long way toward civilization, and many of their children were in schools. But Georgia wanted them out and de- sired their lands, and, although the Supreme Court three times decided in favor of the treaty rights of the Indians, their appeals to Jackson were unheeded. He enforced neither the treaty nor the decisions of the court, and under methods and means used by Georgia the Cherokees went beyond the Mississippi, with lamentations. 33 34 REPUBLICAN PARTY Jackson looked upon loyalty to himself as the test both of merit and of patriotism. As there was now contact between the President and the people — which meant his party — ^the people expected their reward. At the last Congress, Senator Marcy (N. Y.) had declared that "to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy." During the preceding 54 years, the Presidents had made but few removals from ofiflce. Jackson made a clean sweep in the public service, and put in his personal partisans. He further determined to create vacancies by the method of rotation in office. By the exercise of this privilege, which had hardly been used before, he removed 500 postmasters and filled their places the first year. Thus the spoils system began in the Federal Govern- ment. Upon a simple resolution of inquiry into the dis- posal of public lands, a memorable debate arose in the Senate. Robert Y. Hayne (S. C), young, bril- liant and rhetorical, advanced the doctrine of nulli- fication — that each State as a sovereignty can judge for itself whether or not a law or any action by the Government is constitutional. Daniel Webster, Sen- ator from Massachusetts, master-figure of the coun- try, became the Defender of the Constitution. He maintained the Union of the States, and the Supreme Court as the ultimate tribunal authorized to decide Federal questions. South Carolina and Georgia were miffed at the tariff of 1828, and had talked nullification, quoting the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798. A modification was made in the tariff (1832), with provisions for enforcing collection, but as protection PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 35 was upheld South Carolina was mad. She called the measure the "Bloody Bill," and declared the law null and void. This "Initiative State" did not mince words nor stop until she had said enough. She made an appeal from any attempt to enforce the law by court proceeding a punishable offense, prescribed oaths to be taken by jurors and State officers to obey her ordinance against the tariff, and warned the other States that upon any force being used against her she would secede from the Union. Old Hickory vowed he would treat nullification as treason, made a proclamation, and backed it up by a naval force and armed guards sent to the City of Charleston. This soon ended the incipient rebellion. Clay's modifications of the year before were passed (1833), commonly called the Compromise Tariff, whereby gradual reductions should be made in the rates for ten years, until the rate should become 20 per cent. Meanwhile, the estrangement between Calhoun and Jackson grew to a breach, and the Cabinet went to pieces. Calhoun resigned as Vice- President and became Senator from South Carolina. Jackson gave up his support of a protective tariff and of internal improvements when he saw the South was not interested in them. ^,^ Political party organizations were now so "far de- veloped that for the first time presidential nomina- tions were made in national conjfehtions. Three were h^ld, preparatory to the el^efion of 1832, all at Baltimore. The Anti-Masoni(>^arty had sprung up in New York, and spread^TO some other States out of popular excitQment^ifgainst secret societies, and particularly agains^Hlie^ Masons. Its other principles 36 EEPUBLICAN PARTY were for the most part the same as those of the National Republicans. Its convention was the first to meet (Sept. 1831) and its nominees were "William Wirt (Va.) and Amos EUmaker (Pa.). Its early eifort was made with a view of drawing the Na- tional Republican Party to itself. But the last-named party held its convention in December and nominated Clay and John Sergeant (Pa.) and campaigned for protection, internal improvements and the bank. The Democratic convention met in March, 1832, re- nominated Jackson and chose Van Buren for its Vice-Presidential nominee. At the election, Jackson secured 219 electoral votes to 49 for Clay and 7 for Wirt. The popular vote was : Jackson, 687,502 ; Clay, 530,189 ; Wirt, 33,108. Jackson had assailed the U. S. Bank in his first term and declared he would sign no renewal of its charter. He claimed the bank was unwarranted by the Constitution, and now called its solvency in ques- tion and astounded everybody. He stubbornly re- sisted the views of his Cabinet, removed the public funds from the bank and placed them in State banks, called "Jackson's pets." A course of extravagant loans was indulged in by these banks, and paper money was issued beyond all reason. Unprecedented speculation, especially in public lands, new city and town sites, prevailed, which with falling rates in the tariff brought on the panic of '37, for the enjoyment of his successor and the country at large. Through Jackson's influence, Van Buren became the next President. The nomination was by con- vention in May, 1835. Many of the National Repub- licans had been using the term Whigs for themselves PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 37 and the party for some years, and this name now be- came the designation of the party, but its nomina- tions for the coming eleption were made by various State legislatures, without a national convention. "William Henry Harrison (0.) was in general lead, and his nomination was acquiesced in by the Whigs. The Whigs, Daniel Webster and John McLean (0.), who was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, were named by their respective legis- latures. The elections were so far away that the campaign languished. Van Buren carried the day, receiving 170 electoral votes and a popular vote of 761,549. Harrison received 73 electoral votes, and his popular vote was 736,656. There was no ma- jority of electoral votes for Vice-President, and the Senate chose Richard M. Johnson (Ky.), Democrat, who had received 147 votes in the electoral college. Van Buren and Johuson entered office March 4, 1837. The reductions of the Compromise Tariff had been going on some four years and had their contributing effect upon business depression. In the inflation and speculation of the times, undue quantities of im- ports came in and were recklessly bought. Jackson had issued his Specie Circular near the close of his term, requiring gold and silver only to be received in purchases of public lands, and an Act of Congress (1836) directed all surplus revenue above $5,000,000 to be loaned to the States. Now paper money was a glut, and, with the scramble for gold and silver, corporations, banks and business men went to the waU in the great panic which broke in all its fury in 1837. What was called the State Bank system, for handling of public funds, had failed of adoption 38 REPUBLICAN PARTY near the end of Jackson's rule. The Independent Treasury System was now devised. It was a kind of Sub-Treasury system, but deficient as a bank, and without the force and provisions of the Sub-Treasury system long afterwards established by the Repub- lican National Party. The practical annulment of the Specie Circular was about all that was done by Van Buren to abate the financial storm and ruin. The public was left by both Jackson and Van Buren to look out for itself. Liberty Party — first party platform — ^Whigs elect Harrison and Tyler, 1840 — ^Harrison's death — ^Tyler becomes Bemo- erat again — Walker tariff "for revenue only" — Whigs de- feated, 1844 — Polk (1845-9) — Texas and slavery — ^Kexican War — Wilmot Proviso — Oregon boundary The Whigs were gaining in strength, and had nearly a majority in the House. They held a national convention at Harrisburg in December, 1839, renom- inated Harrison, and selected John Tyler (Va.) for their nominee for Vice-President. The Democrats met at Baltimore in May, 1840, and renominated Van Buren and Johnson. This convention adopted the first party platform of a national nominating con- vention. It was a strict-construction platform, and was repeated in substance by the Democrats until 1860. Abolitionists were growing up politically, but many of them opposed party action. A considerable faction of them as the Liberty Party met and put forth James G. Birney (N. Y.) and Francis Lemoyne (Pa.) as candidates (1839). The Whigs attacked Van Buren, especially on his financial record, and became enthusiastic in what was popularly known as the "log-cabin and hard cider" campaign, for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Harrison and Tyler were elected (1840) with 234 electoral votes to 60 for Van Buren, and 48 for Johnson, and other votes scattering for Vice-President. The popular votes were : Harrison, 1,275,017; Van Buren, 1,128,702; Birney, 7,059. The elected entered ofSce March 4, 1841. 39 40 REPUBLICAN PARTY The new President called a special session of Con- gress to take measures for financial relief, but he died April 4th. Tyler was of Democratic antece- dents, and failed the Whigs. He repeatedly vetoed measures for a United States Bank, after repeated promises to approve them in modified forms. Al- though he appointed some Whigs to his Cabinet, his desertion of the party that had elected him soon became so obvious that only "a corporal's guard" of the members of Congress belonging to the party supported him. The Democrats, by a party vote, passed the Walker Tariff (1846), for revenue only, without any inci- dents of protection, and the phrase "tariff for rev- enue only" was originated. Some commercial de- pression ensued, and a panic threatened when, in 1857, a like tariff was enacted with further reduc- tions, which brought the rates to the lowest known since the tariff of 1816. Contributing causes to the panic of '57 were speculation that followed the in- flow of gold from California, excessive railroad build- ing for some time prior thereto, and a general be- lief that no undertaking was too great for Americans. But the panic was checked by the close of the Crimean War and the fresh demands of Europe for our merchandise. The manipulations of the tariff by the Democrats were, and remain, on the basis of free trade, the revenue collected being with a view simply to meet the expenses of government. Baltimore was a favorite place for holding national conventions, especially as long as slavery and South- ern interests prevailed, and the Democrats have con- tinued to return there frequently, down to 1912. In PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 41 this southern city, the Whigs, in May, 1844, nom- inated Henry Clay, and for Vice-President chose Theodore Frelinghuysen (N. Y.)- They .adopted a loose-construction platform. Later in May, also at Baltimore, the Democrats nominated James K. Polk (Tenn.) and George M. Dallas (Pa.) for President and Vice-President respectively. The Whigs were not sufficiently united and distinct in opposition to the extension of slavery to satisfy the more pro- nounced anti-slavery elements of their party. The Liberty Party again nominated James G. Birney, with Thomas Morris (0.) for Vice-President. The anti-slavery societies split among themselves as to the methods of fighting sla"very. The Liberty men decided to use the ballot. Others, extreme of view, headed by William Lloyd Garrison, refused to join parties or even to vote, and held that the Constitution itself was a covenant with the slave-power to pro- tect slavery. Texas was an independent Republic, though claim was laid to it by Mexico as part of her possessions. The campaign centered on the proposed annexation of Texas and thereby the expansion of slave terri- tory. The Whigs and Liberty men opposed annexa- tion, and the Democrats urged it. Polk and Dallas received 174 electoral votes, and Clay and Freling- huysen 105. Some 16,000 votes cast for Birney in New York drew that number from Clay there, lost him the State and thereby the election. Forty years later, Blaine was to lose New York by a narrow margin, and so the presidency. Polk's popular vote was 1,337,243; that of Clay, 1,299,068, and Birney 's was 62,300. 42 REPUBLICAN PARTY Calhoun, Secretary of State under Tyler, connived by a secret treaty to admit Texas. Under certain clauses of a joint resolution of the two Houses, he and Tyler, on the last day of Tyler's term, managed to dispatch messengers to Texas with a proposition. Texas accepted, and its date of admission became July 4, 1845. War with Mexico ensued. Naturally, the members of the Liberty Party and the Abolition- ists could not give hearty support to the war. But their position did not hurt them, because of their de- cided attitude against slavery. The "Whigs, having large strength in the south, catered to it, and while they were patriotic so far as the war was concerned their weak position on slavery hurt them, and as a party they began to decline. Anticipating that, with our success in the war, new territory west of Texas and upon the Pacific coast would be wrested from Mexico, the northern Whigs in Congress began to feel that the question of slavery or no slavery in the territories was again becoming vitally important. They, therefore, con- ferred upon the subject. David Wilmot (Pa.) pre- sented in the House his famous resolution, ever after- wards called the Wilmot Proviso: "That as an ex- press and fundamental condition to the acquisition of new territory from the Republic of Mexico, by the United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of any moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime where- of the party shall first be duly convicted." A Peace Treaty, closing the war and adding territory, was PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 43 signed (February, 1848), but the proviso was de- feated in the House. However, this agitation served the purpose of drawing together various elements that were opposed to slavery extension, and many northern Democrats espoused the movement. The Oregon question, or the controversy with Eng- land over the Northwest Boundary, threatened war with that power. Many, especially Democrats, in- sisted we should maintain the line at 54° 40', and they had so declared in their last platform. William Allen, afterwards Democratic governor of Ohio, was fierce for yielding nothing, and in hot speech orig- inated the noted phrase "fifty-four forty or fight!" Whether the prospect, that if the line was thus fixed more free territory would be open for the North, induced the Democrats to yield, is not certain; but by treaty (1846) 49° north was accepted as the boundary. VI Democrats divide on slavery — ^Whigs' southern pro-slavery members — Free Soil Party, 1848 — Whigs elect Taylor and Fillmore — Taylor dies, 1849 — Fillmore weakens to slavery — Squatter Sovereignty — Compromise of 1850 — Calhoun- Webster debate — Whigs begin to disintegrate — campaign, 1852 — Democrats elect Pierce — Free Soil influence The Democrats met in national convention at Balti- more in May, 1848, and nominated General Lewis Cass (Mich.) and General William O. Butler (Ky.). They held a stormy session and divided on the ques- tion of slavery. Particularly, the New York dele- gation was ruptured. The majority of its members, styled Barnburners, bolted the convention in their de- termined opposition to the extension of slavery. The rest of that delegation accepted the southern view, and were designated Hunkers, because they "stood by" and were against progress or change in political matters. The Whigs held their convention at Phila- delphia in June. Having many southern members who were liable to lean in a pro-slavery direction to save their personal interests, the convention was weak enough to take no expressed position on slavery, and it put forth no platform. General Zachary Taylor (La.) had a brilliant record in the Mexican War, was popular throughout the country, and as he had no political record there was no of- fense on that score. There were other prominent and popular candidates, among them Clay, Webster and General Winfield Scott; but Taylor was nom- 44 PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 45 inated for President, and Millard Fillmore (N. Y.) for Vice-President. By this time agitation regarding slavery had come to such a pass that the Liberty Party elements, many dissatisfied Whigs and Democrats of the Barnburners order, assembled in national convention at Buffalo in August, organized a new party and adopted the name Free Soil Party. This party came out sharply on the slavery issue. It declared that the Constitu- tion was hostile to slavery and limited it to the States where it in fact existed by virture of local law. The Free Soilers were unfortunate in the selection of ex- President Van Buren for their leader. After his re- tirement from the presidency, he had declared him- self to be opposed to slavery extension, but when President he was a tool of the South, and he now weakened the moral tone of the new party. The nominee for Vice-President was Charles Francis Adams (Mass.). The Whigs carried the day for Taylor and Fill- more, with half of the thirty States, 163 electoral votes, while the Democrats took the other half, 137 votes. The popular votes were : Whigs, 1,360,101 ; Democrats, 1,220,544; Free Soilers, 291,263. Taylor and Fillmore entered upon their term on March 5, 1849. The faithful followers of Clay, who in heroic spirit had done so much for the progress of the country, were destined to repeated defeats in their endeavors to make him President. In high compliment, James G. Blaine, of a later day, and who also met a like defeat, was likened to him in spirit and popularity. Horace Greeley, inspirited and powerful writer, him- 46 KEPUBLICAN PARTY self long afterwards to be disappointed politically in his aspiration for the presidency, never forgot Clay. Upon the day of General Taylor's inaugura- tion, Greeley at Washington wrote, as if giving a toast: "I turn from this imposing pageant, so rich in glitter, so poor in feeling, to think of him who should have been the central figure of this grand panorama — ^the distant, the powerless, the forgot- ten . . . the lifelong champion of diversified Home Industry, of Internal Improvements. More grateful to me in the stillness of my chamber, this cup of crystal water in which I honor the cherished memory with the old familiar aspiration — 'Here's to you, Harry Clay.'" California adopted a constitution prohibiting slavery and applied for admission. At that inter- esting time, the Scales of Power, if not of Justice, were equally balanced — 15 free States in one end and 15 slave States in the other. Vehement discus- sion was precipitated. The South demanded that neither should slavery be prohibited in the territories nor should its existence at any time be an objection to the admission of a new State, and insisted that the people of a territory should determine for themselves whether they should or should not have slavery. This was the famous doctrine of Squatter, or Popu- lar, Sovereignty, whose champion was Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the Little Giant (111.). The Democrats in their recent national convention had voted down a resolution for popular sovereignty and declared that Congress had no power to interfere with slavery in the territories. These changed views now suddenly presented were combatted by the Free PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 47 Soilers, many "Whigs and anti-slavery men. The agi- tation penetrated every corner of the country, and the clash of opinions was to continue until de- termined by the clash of arms. Clay made proposals, which became the Compro- mise Bill, and other measures, to the effect that Cali- fornia should be admitted under her constitution; that the other new territory then under considera- tion be organized as New Mexico and Utah, with- out mentioning slavery; that any new States when properly formed from Texas be admitted; that slave auctions be prohibited in the District of Columbia, and that a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law be enacted. In the progress of these matters South Carolina and Mississippi issued a call for a congress to frame a government for a "United States South." Jefferson Davis (Miss.) in the Senate urged the ex- tension of Mason and Dixon's line to the Pacific, as President Polk had done, with "a recognition of the right to hold slaves in the territory below that line." Clay was unwilling and declared "that, if the citizens of those territories come here with constitu- tions establishing slavery, I am for admitting them into the Union; but then it will be their own work and not ours, and their posterity wiU have to re- proach them and not us. ' ' President Taylor had been a slaveholder, but did not sympathize with the extreme southern views. His only message to Congress lu-ged the action which came to be embodied in the Compromise Bill of 1850, but he died before its enactment. Fillmore, upon becoming President, espoused the pro-slavery cause, though he made Webster his Secretary of State. 48 REPUBLICAN PARTY Approaching the Clay Compromise Bill, came the most famous debate upon the Constitution within our history. In the Senate, Calhoun argued that the Constitution itself extended to the territories, and pronounced itself to be the supreme law of the land — the territories as well as the States ; that it not only goes into the territories but carries with it and ap- plies all its force to them, so that they become not merely possessions, but an integral part, of the Union. This is the same argument — the Constitution follows the flag — that was used by the Democrats after the Spanish "War in their objections to the retention of Porto Rico and the Philippines, in order to avoid consequent imperialism, as they claimed. "Webster maintained that the Constitution was made for the States, and not for the territories, and that Congress alone made laws for the territories and governed them independently of the Constitution; that when new territory has been acquired it had always been subject to the laws of Congress, in its intermediate government, until it was ready to come into the Union as one of the family of States ; that the Con- stitution provided that "it and the laws of Congress passed under it shall be the supreme law of the land, " and that thus a definite law of Congress was re- quired to establish slavery in a territory. For this Seventh of March Speech, "Webster was accused of abandoning his anti-slavery position and joining the enemy. "While, later, the North learned to look at it in a better light, the "Whig Party, with its extreme northern and southern elements, was breaking up. Calhoun, the most strenuous advocate of States PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 49 Rights and of southern institutions, died (1849) be- fore the passage of the Compromise Bill. "Webster continued Secretary of State until 1852. In that year, both he and Clay died. No public men were more endeared to the people. Of one, they were proud ; the other, they loved. In the days of those three was the "golden age of American oratory." In the passage of the Compromise Bill, the stand- ing of the Missouri Compromise and the legality of the former Fugitive Slave Law were acknowledged. The effort had been to settle the political questions touching the institution of slavery. But agitation did not cease. The Fugitive Slave Law had always been obnoxious to most of the people of the North. Now, with added stringency in methods provided for return of fugitive slaves and increased favors to slave-catchers in the process, the Law became odious. The Underground Railroad was established, and over its lines in various States thousands of negro fugi- tives were forwarded by anti-slavery people through to Canada. Active in this institution, was Frederick Douglass, born a Maryland slave, afterwards a free- man by his own procurement, and resident of Rochester, N. Y. He became a delegate to the Free Soil convention of 1852, was a powerful orator and lecturer, supported the Free Soil and early Repub- lican tickets, received appointments from Lincoln in the District of Columbia, and was President of the San Domingo Commission at the appointment of Grant. The mention of Douglass calls to mind some of the possibilities of the colored people. "Within ten 50 REPUBLICAN PAETY years of the passage of the Compromise of 1850, the slavery-bound Supreme Court was to say that the negroes had no rights before the law. Not a few of this down-trodden race early rose through their own personal efforts from direct poverty and bond- age to power, freedom and responsibility. Their success might well have been the emulation of the fortunate of any favored race. John M. Langston, who was born in Virginia the son of a negress slave, graduated at Oberlin College one year before the date of this Compromise. He was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, was inspector of the Freed- men's Bureau under President Grant, became dean of the law school of Howard University, was Minister to Haiti, president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, and a Representative in Congress from Vir- ginia in 1890. To make Booker T. Washington the "force of nature . . . joined the former two." He was Virginia-born, of a mulatto slave, worked in the salt furnaces and coal mines of "West Virginia after the Civil War, paid for his educational course by janitor service at Hampton Normal and Indus- trial School, taught school in West Virginia, at- tended Wayland Seminary, became instructor at Hampton, organized and opened (July 4, 1881), in an old church and a shanty, at Tuskegee, a Normal School, and afterwards developed it to the Tuskegee Institute, with its important and successful indus- trial courses for members of his race. Harvard con- ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts, and Dartmouth that of Doctor of Laws. In public ad- dresses he developed to one of the ablest of speak- ers and most powerful of orators. The valient col- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 51 ored soldiers of the Civil War avenged the sting of the Dred Scott decision. Their services at San Juan Hill are remembered, and, without the colored men, how few of twenty-three returned prisoners from Carrizal Mexican treachery would there have been to walk over El Paso's international bridge. The next Democratic national convention met at Baltimore, June 1, 1852, and endorsed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1789, declared the 1850 Compromise a finality, and that all further attempts to open up the slave question would be resisted. The Democrats dropped their prominent men, such as Cass, Buchanan and Douglas, and nominated Frank- lin Pierce (N. H.) on the 50th ballot. William R. King (Ala.) was selected for Vice-President. The Whigs, at Baltimore in mid-June, indulged in a six days' session. Through the influence of southern members, they approved the Compromise, but other- wise set forth a carefully worded loose-construction platform and finally named General Winfield Scott (Va.) on the 52nd ballot. Fillmore and Webster were prominent candidates before the convention. William 0. Graham (N. C.) was selected for Vice- President. The Free Soil Party, sometimes termed the Free Soil Democrats, at Pittsburgh in August, adopted a platform declaring slavery to be a sin against God and a crime against man, and de- nounced the Compromise and the other political parties. It nominated John P. Hale (N. H.) and George W. Julian (Ind.). The situation was uncertain. The Free Soilers had a good organization and put many effective speak- ers upon the stump. Scott for the Whigs made 52 REPUBLICxiN PARTY speeches in the campaign, and was the first to break the tradition against the entry of presidential can- didates into public speaking contests for the high oflSce. Douglas took the stump in 1860, Garfield and Hancock spoke from their homes or locally, and _ Weaver for the Greenback-Labor Party toured the country, in 1880, and by 1912 six presidential can- didates spoke throughout the campaign. Many of the Democrats, who had broken away from their old party lines four years before and who now felt that the slavery question had been put to rest, returned to their old party at the election ; and many "Whigs, who had formerly voted with the Free Soil Party, now voted for the "Whig candidates, hop- ing to defeat the Democrats. Thus the Free Soil Party was cut into both right and left. Pierce and Bang received a popular vote of 1,601,474, securing 254 electoral votes ; Scott and Graham, 1,386,578 and 42 electoral votes. Hale and Julian's vote was 156,- 149, and no electoral vote. The Whigs, notwith- standing their large popular vote, which with the Free Soil vote nearly equalled the Democratic vote, had as it soon proved met fatal disaster. It was said that the Whigs died of an attempt to swallow the Fugitive Slave Law. The North was divided up again. William H. Seward (N. Y.) in the Senate became leader of the Whigs upon the death of Webster. Horace Greeley, an Abolitionist, but an active and powerful Whig as to party, was mighty with his pen, through his New York Tribune. These leaders had hoped to guide their party over to anti-slavery, but the party was passing, and the goal was not to be reached in that PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 53 f orna. However, the influence of such hopes was not to be lost. The Free Soil Party had been responsible for the election of Taylor, through its holding the balance of power in New York. More important, it was successful in electing nine members of Congress in 1848, and in the legislatures of Ohio and Massa- chusetts secured Salmon P. Chase (1849) and Charles Sumner (1851) as United States Senators. Hale was already a Senator, and this triune co-operated power- fully with Seward; while in the House, such men as Joshua R. Giddings (0.) and Julien were ever in the forefront of battle for freedom. Chase had been influential in the National Republican, Whig and Liberty Parties. He continued a Senator till 1855, was Republican governor of Ohio, 1856 to 1860, was returned to the Senate, 1861, but resigned to become a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, and became Chief Justice in 1864. JOHN CHAELBS FREMONT 1813-1890 Nominee for President, 1856 VII Eesumfi — Kansas-Nebraska Bill — Know-NotMng or American Party — ^Ripon meeting, 1854 — Border Euffian War — "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Ostend Manifesto, assault upon Sumner, Dred Scott decision, "The Impending Crisis," John Brown's raid — Eepublican meeting, Jackson, Mich., 1854 — informal convention at Pittsburgh — ^first Eepublican national con- vention, 1856 — Fremont for President — ^Lincoln-Douglas debates — Buchanan elected, truckles to slave power In the foregoing chapters have been outlined the rise and progress of the Federalist Party, its admin- istrations continuing twelve years (1789-1801) and its organization lasting until all parties united in the election of Monroe for his second term in 1820 ; of the National Republicans, composed of Federalist ele- ments, in power four years (1825-9) ; of the "Whig Party, heir to Federalist and National Republican ideas (1832-52), being in power eight years (1841-5, 1849-53), but losing each of its Presidents by death, and with southern members weakening it on slavery ; of the Liberty Party (1840-8) ; and of the Free Soil Party (1848-54). It has been noted how and to what extent these parties have stood for a broad and en- during general government, a Union, a liberal con- struction of the Constitution, a tariff protecting and developing home manufactures and protecting labor, national internal improvements and national banks. The Democratic Party stood for opposing policies, strict construction and States Rights, and espousing the slavery cause eventually lost its character and reputation. And it has been noted also how the 55 56 REPUBLICAN PARTY slavery question, overshadowing all other interests, at length pressed itself to the front for some new and final solution ; how it involved an awakening of the human conscience, and threatened with extinc- tion all parties opposed to the extension of slavery, or to slavery itself, if they should fail in the "irre- pressible conflict." Now approaches the most humane, most moral, most successful and important political party of modern times. Prepared soon to gather up and ab- sorb the great and beneficent elements and principles that prevailed or sought recognition from the very foundation of the Government and to carry them on apace with the expanding life of the Nation, in the throes of the anti-slavery contention, the Republican National Party is born. In the election of 1852 the Solid South easily prevailed against a broken North. The Democratic Party, upon coming fully into power again, disre- garded the promise of its platform — that the Com- promise of 1850 forever settled the slavery question — and urged in Congress a repeal of the prohibition of slavery north of Mason and Dixon's line. The an- tagonists of that party were now justified in their continued distrust of it and its leaders as both heart- less and unfaithful. The country inevitably split in political contest on the sectional line of slave labor and no slave labor, and if the danger should not be averted would separate into two republics. True only to its habit of declaring everything to which it was opposed unconstitutional, the extreme leaders of the Democratic Party now proclaimed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to be contrary to the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 57 Constitution, proposed its repeal, and presented the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Their design was to secure two new slave States from the fertile plains west of the Missouri, and cutting off the spread of free States westward gain in time all territory to the Pacific to the slave power. Deep moral questions were involved, but politically the struggle on the part of the North took the form of resistance to the territorial extension of slavery. The extreme Gar- risonians had long before pledged themselves to fight to the death slavery as a covenant with hell. Constitution or no Constitution, and the Liberty Party had sworn to regard the Constitution but to fight for officials who would champion the liberty of all men, white or black. Other and numerous individuals, who believed the Constitution was es- sentially anti-slavery, were looking for some new organization that would maintain their principles. Out of all these, the tendency was, as it for the time being appeared, to the Free Soil Party. The Know- Nothing or American Party, which declared for a citizenship of twenty-one years in the country before the right to vote or hold office should be conferred and was hostile to Catholics, sprang to an amazing membership after 1852, with many leaders and mem- bers of quality and worth. Its members were oath- bound to certain secrets, and when questioned would reply ' ' I know nothing. ' ' But its adherents, mostly from the "Whigs, were foot-loose, and as the slavery agitation increased, though they put forward Fill- more for President, the most of them passed over into the new Republican Party. The bill as at first introduced (1853) was for the 58 EEPUBLICAN PARTY organization of Nebraska Territory, and by a new bill (January, 1854) which provided for two States, Kansas and Nebraska, it was declared that the slavery restriction of the Missouri Compromise was void, and that it was the true intent and meaning of the proposed act, not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof free to form and regulate their own domestic institutions, subject only to the Constitution of the United States. Thus in place of national was substituted popular control or "squat- ter sovereignty." Abraham Lincoln (111.) char- acterized this doctrine of Douglas as, in effect, "that one man had the right to enslave another, but a third man had no right to interfere." Opposition to the bill was championed by such men as Sumner, Edward Everett (Mass.), Benjamin F. Wade (0.), John Bell (Tenn.), Chase and Seward, and after long and bitter debate it passed and was ready for the signature of Pierce. The territory comprised what is now Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and part of Colo- rado. Against the encroachments of slavery, a vast movement of the people began, which was soon to control the country on that subject, not only for the good of the States but for the Republic in sustain- ing Lincoln's words, presently to be uttered: "This government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free." In apparent efforts to discourage the passage of the bill, a notable gathering of Whigs, Free Soilers and anti-slavery Democrats at Ripon, Wisconsin, in February, 1854, threatened to "throw old party or- PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 59 ganizations to the winds and organize a new party on the sole issue of the non-extension of slavery." But the bill was signed in May, and the administra- tion speedily opened the vast new areas to settle- ment. Thousands of brave and intelligent settlers from the north naturally pushed into Kansas and Nebraska for the purpose of securing homes and anxious as well to save those States to freedom. So-called emigrants from Missouri and farther away in the south hastened into the same sections, but the distance was too great for practical migration with slaves, had the locality been suitable. Even Missouri kept her slaves at home, but armed men from that State rushed over the borders. The early northern settlers in Nebraska were mobbed and ordered to leave, and the Border Ruffian War was opened. Old John Brown, who with the members of his family had long before taken an oath to do all possible to abolish slavery, now followed five of his sons to Osawatomie. He came into this storm center, with its fierce struggles, its pro-slavery intimidation, elec- tion frauds and outrage, and to him armed force was the only remedy. He was not frenzied, but well- nigh a fanatic in his decision and determination. To his inspiration was due the unfortunate Pottawa- tomie Massacre, following hard upon the sacking and burning of Lawrence by pro-slavery forces. His courageous, if violent, spirit was an inspiration to the saving of Kansas, as a free State. "It is safe to say that in its scope and conse- quences the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the most mo- mentous measure that passed Congress from the day that the Senators and Representatives first met to 60 REPUBLICAN PARTY the outbreak of the Civil "War. It sealed the doom of the "Whig Party; it caused the formation of the Republican Party on the principle of no extension of slavery; it aroused Lincoln and gave a bent to his great political ambition. It made the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter at the North; it caused the Ger- mans to become Republicans; it lost the Democrats their hold on New England ; it made the Northwest Republican ; it led to the downfall of the Democratic Party. " (J. F. Rhodes, Hist of U. S.) Meanwhile, the soil that had been upturned by the hated Act proved fertile, and seed, planted by the forerunners of the new party, was fast germinating and taking root. All other political parties having fallen in moving against the institution of slavery, the members of the party devoted to it believed that their institution and their party were founded upon the rock, whereas they were built upon the sand. Certain particular events were a- powerful contri- bution to "the irrepressible conflict." In 1851-2, was published Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly," a story of unprecedented circulation and influence. In 1854, a strange event occurred. It was no less than a secret effort to gain Cuba for future slave territory or to re-open the slave trade. "William L. Marcy, Secretary of State under Pierce, directed James Buchanan, Robert Y. Mason and Pierre Soule, American Ministers respectively at London, Paris and Madrid, to confer as to a method of obtaining Cuba. The conference was held at Ostend, and a message was sent to our Government recommending the purchase of Cuba, and a threat of seizure if PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 61 Spain should refuse. The scheme, afterwards called the Ostend Manifesto, fell through, but aroused indignation abroad and renewed distrust of the slave power at home. In May, 1856, Charles Sumner made a speech in the Senate, upon the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, in which he passed some reflections upon the position of Senator Butler (N. C). After the Sen- ate had adjourned, Sumner remained working at his desk, when Representative Brooks (N. C), a relative of Butler, stole in and made a brutal and unwarned assault upon Sumner, striking him to .the floor with a heavy cane and beating him upon the head. Be- cause of this injury, Sumner was absent from his seat two years, and never fully recovered. In 1857, the Dred Scott decision was rendered, shocking the .humanity of the North. It was one of the greatest decisions ever made by the Supreme Court of the United States, and as, whether right or wrong, it declared the law and therefore it was the law, its far-reaching effect to establish slavery under the Constitution throughout the Nation could be over- come only by an amendment to the Constitution, which with slavery was impossible. The sole alterna- tive was war. Dred Scott had been a Missouri slave of African blood, was taken to the free State of Illinois and to free territory of what afterwards be- came Minnesota, a part of the Louisiana Purchase, wherein slavery was, under the Missouri Compro- mise, never to exist. He was afterwards returned to Missouri, and having been technically assaulted or arrested by one Sanford, to whom he had been sold as a slave, claimed his freedom because of his residence in free territory. He brought suit against 62 REPUBLICAN PARTY Sanford for damages, claiming that he was a free- man and not a slave. This simple state of facts raised the momentous question. Dred Scott was defeated, and some one, conceiving that a decision could be obtained in the Supreme Court establishing the law for the slave interests throughout the land, caused the case to be carried up to the high court. The Supreme Court, of which better things might have been expected, — and it had a straight open door to decide for humanity, as well as what the law should be, — was in thorough sympathy with pro-slavery Democracy. Five of its members were from southern States, two from northern States were appointed by Democratic Presidents, and the other two were appointed by Taylor, the "Whig. Two of the Northern justices dissented from the opinion and decision of the majority of the court. It was decided that the Constitution and the Declara- tion of Independence referred to persons of African blood only as property, and that a slave or a descend- ant of slaves could not be a citizen of the United States or have any standing in a Federal court. About 1859, a book, "The Impending Crisis," was published, which treated the South from an economic point of view, showing that its relative poverty and failure to develop was due to the false economy of slave labor. The book appealed to the smaller farmers to throw off the institution of slavery as the only way in which to attain real progress. It had an enormous sale, but incensed the South, which forbade its circulation. John Brown, the "Liberator of Kansas," invaded Harper's Ferry in the fall of 1859, and with an army of 17 whites and 5 negroes tore up the rail- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 63 road tracks, and seized and held the United States Armory for several days. His intentions were to filibuster against slave-owners and arouse a negro insurrection, and his authority was, according to his own statement, God Almighty. His act being an invasion of the South, that section considered it as having the indorsement of the Republicans, if it was not instigated by their party. The conception and carrying out of the bold attempt was within and from the breast of Brown himself. He was, of course, overcome within a few days by State and Federal forces, 100 to one against him in numbers. The law took its speedy course and he was executed in December. The South assumed to believe an actual negro uprising was imminent, probably to be augmented by inroads of the same race from the West Indies, all of which was ridiculous. But the spirit of the whole affair stirred the North to the depths, and brought the country on rapidly toward war and emancipation, and within a year and a half from the execution of the fearless instigator of the remarkable raid the 2nd Massachusetts regiment of infantry, marching through Baltimore to southern battle-grounds, sang "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, His soul goes marching on.'' Within one year from the month in which John Brown paid the human penalty for his human conduct, South Carolina by ordinance declared the "compact entitled 'the Constitution of the United States of America' " dissolved. Soon after the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, the notable State convention at Jackson, Michigan, met and formally adopted the name Republican, 64 EEPUBLICAN PARTY July 6, 1854. Other like conventions rapidly fol- lowed in Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Ohio, In- diana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. New York "Whigs came into substantial accord with the move- ment, but clung to their party organization. Where credit for the use of the name for the party should be placed is uncertain and unimportant. Seward had suggested the name at a council of Anti-Ne- braska Congressmen at Washington in February, and it was favored at a local meeting in Wisconsin in March, following upon the Eipon gathering, and Greeley wrote it to one of the delegates of the Jack- son convention. But the name spread and was gen- erally adopted tliroughout the North. Republican candidates for Congress were placed in the field for the fall elections. The Whig Party kept up its organization in New England, Pennsylvania, and throughout the South. When Congress met in De- cember, 1855, there were in the House 108 Repub- licans, 83 Democrats, and 45 Americans or Know Nothings; in the Senate, 15 Republicans, 42 Demo- crats, and 5 Americans. The Whigs, as such, had disappeared. The Republicans had carried most of the northern States, and by a combination with Americans elected Nathaniel P. Banks (Mass.) Speaker of the House. Encouraged by this signal success, the Repub- licans had strengthened their organizations in the northern States during the preceding year, and in February, 1856, an informal national convention con- vened at Pittsburgh. This convention took steps toward perfecting a national organization, and ap- pointed a committee to issue a call for a national PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 65 convention to nominate candi3ates for President and Vice-President. At the Pittsburgh convention, in the convention which followed, and in the councils of the Repub- lican Party now appeared many illustrious and mem- orable men. Some of these came over directly from the "Whigs, many through the Free Soil and Amer- ican Parties, and others from the Abolitionists with- out distinct party organization. To attempt a list of names is only to omit many that should be men- tioned. But not to be overlooked, there were from prominent political life Charles Francis Adams, Na- thaniel P. Banks, Montgomery Blair, Zachariah Chandler, Salmon P. Chase, Schuyler Colfax, "Wil- liam Dennison, William Pitt Fessenden, Joshua R. Giddings, Horace Greeley, John Parker Hale, George W. Julian, John A. King, Preston King, Henry S. Lane, Abraham Lincoln, "William H. Seward, John Sherman, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Al- phonso Taft, Benjamin F. "Wade, Gideon Welles, David Wilmot and Henry Wilson ; from Anti-Slavery Democrats, Simon Cameron, Hannibal Hamlin and Lyman Trumbull; anti-slavery agitators, William Lloyd Garrison and Owen Love joy; distinguished civilians, Henry Ward Beecher, William CuUen Bry- ant, Henry Wadsworth Longefellow, James Russell Lowell, Prof. Benjamin Silliman and John Green- leaf Whittier. And of women, may be mentioned Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle-Hymn of the Republic, written in a Union camp early in the Civil War. The first Republican national convention met in Music Fund Hall, Philadelphia, in June, 1856, and 66 REPUBLICAN PARTY was called to order by Edwin B. Morgan, later gov- ernor of New York. Robert Emmett (N. Y.) was the temporary chairman, and Henry S. Lane (Ind.) the permanent president of the convention. James G. Blaine (Me.) was a delegate and one of the secretaries. David Wilmot, of Wilmot Proviso fame, reported the platform. It declared that the mainte- nance of the principles promulgated in the Declara- tion of Independence and embodied in the Consti- tution were essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the Constitution, the rights of the States and the Union of the States, should be preserved; resolved it was a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pxirsuit of happiness, and that the primary and ulterior designs of the Constitution were to secure those rights to all per- sons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as the Republican fathers, when they abolished slavery in all the national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, the duty arose to main- tain this provision, of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in any territory, by positive legislation pro- hibiting its existence or extension therein; declared against the extension of slavery into the free Ter- ritory, and denied the authority of Congress, or of a Territorial legislature, or of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory. The third and vitally important resolution was "that the Constitution confers upon Congress PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 67 sovereign powers over the Territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and duty of Con- gress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism, — polygamy and slavery." The plat- form further discussed the condition of Kansas, de- nounced the policies of the Democrats as applied to the Territory, and demanded its admission as a free State ; attacked the doctrines embodied in the Ostend Manifesto as the highwayman's plea that "might makes right ' ' and as unworthy American diplomacy. It declared in favor of national internal improve- ments, national aid for a railway to the Pacific, and for appropriations by Congress for rivers and har- bors of a national character required for existing commerce, and that same were authorized by the Constitution. Upon this platform, the Pathfinder, John C. Fre- mont (Cal.), was nominated for President and "Wil- liam L. Dayton (N. J.) for Vice-President. The principal candidate for nomination against Dayton was Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic convention met at Cincinnati earlier in June, and its nominees were James Bu- chanan for President and John C. Breckenridge (Ky.) for Vice-President. Its party platform de- clared that the Fugitive Slave Law must not be repealed or changed; resolved that the Democratic Party would resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt should be made; and would uphold the principles of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 68 REPUBLICAN PAETY and 1799 as the main foundations of its political creed. The Know-Nothings or Americans nominated ex- President Fillmore and A. J. Donelson (Tenn.) as their candidates. Some Whigs held a convention at Baltimore and ratified the Elnow-Nothing nomi- nees. Fillmore was no help to the Know-Nothing Party. In an address at Albany, he predicted the most serious consequences should the Republican Party succeed, and declared the South would be justified in a course of violence should that "sec- tional" party prevail at the election. The Know- Nothing or American Party, having no broad prin- ciple and failing to grasp the vital question of the time, was on the wane. "While it afforded oppor- tunity for many old "Whigs to pass through it into the Republican Party, it now still held many of its members from the ranks of the new party to which they naturally belonged. "Whatever the people might conclude, the Demo- crats, — forgetting all their words uttered for a gen- eration that free speech and a free press are the very foundation of the people's liberties — were go- ing to insist that there should be no agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color, in Congress or out of it. They had "settled" the ever- lasting question several times, and why should it be open any further? The campaign began without hesitation. Fremont was a magnetic leader, and the stir of the old log- cabin contest of 1844 was equalled or surpassed. The battle-cry was "Free soil, free speech, free men, Fremont and victory. ' ' Every city and village was PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 69 fired up ; the groves resounded with fervid oratory ; even the welkin rang. Lincoln and Douglas, striv- ing for the Senate, led the vital onset in their speeches and famous joint-debates in Illinois. The former advocated the right and duty of Congress to forbid slavery in the Territories ; the latter shifted some of his positions, but stuck to his squatter sover- eignty. The Little Giant subjugated the throngs with his energy; the force of Honest Abe's words sank into their hearts upon reflection. This contest in Illinois was the key-note for the country and caught its attention, and Lincoln's speeches became the foundation of much Republican doctrine. The Republicans were not to win yet, but, when it is recalled that only four years before all resisting parties went down before the Compromise on- slaughts, the progress now made was without paral- lel. The result of the election gave Fremont 114 elec- toral votes, Buchanan 174, and Fillmore 8. The total popular vote was 4,053,967, of which Fremont received 1,341,264, Buchanan 1,838,169, and Fillmore 874,534. Fremont carried the entire North, except Pennsylvania (27 electoral votes), Indiana (13), and New Jersey (7). His vote combined with that of Fillmore exceeded the Democratic vote in Illinois by 28,285, in California by 3,491, and in New Jersey by 5,510. It fell short in Pennsylvania 1,025 and in Indiana 1,909. The combined popular vote of Fremont and Fillmore was 2,215,798, exceeding the vote for Buchanan by 377,629. There were 31 States and 296 electoral votes. The Republicans ran no ticket whatever in the 15 southern States (having 70 EEPUBLICAN PARTY 102 electoral votes), in 11 of which they received at the polls no vote, and in 4, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia, only 1,200 scattered votes. The Americans poUed a large vote throughout the South, obtaining there 479,892 votes as against 611,- 879 for the Democrats, and in this carried Maryland (with its 8 electoral votes) by 8,064. Buchanan proved to be unequal to the tasks pre- sented. Though a northern Democrat, he was in large sympathy with the South, hesitated and vacil- lated, and finally went over to the slave cause alto- gether. After Kansas elected a Republican delegate to Congress by a vote of two to one, a fraudulently conducted convention at Lecompton put up a con- stitution committing the State to slavery. This, at a second honest election, was decisively rejected. Buchanan now proposed to force a constitution upon Kansas against its will, but Douglas, who (be it said to his credit) was no coward, defied the Presi- dent, and in a speech in the South said, "if Kansas wants a slave constitution she has a right to it. It is none of my business which way the slavery clause is decided." His party committee in Illinois put him up (1858) as its candidate for United States Senator for a new term, and Lincoln was nominated for the same position at the Republican State con- vention. Lincoln consulted his friends as to some points he proposed to announce in his speech of acceptance. His advisers were fearful, but he saw both policy and principles were one in his case, and so said to the public : "We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 71 purpose of putting an end to slavery agitation. Un- der the operation of that policy it has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opin- ion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or aU the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, — North as well as South." And again, referring to the subtleties of the Dred Scott decision, he said: "We shall lie down, pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free; and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State." vin I860 — second Eepubliean national convention — liincoln and Hamlin — ^Idneoln (1861-5) — tariff — Civil War, Emancipa- tion, Gettysburg, war income tax, National Bank, Home- stead law — third Eepublican national convention — ^Lin- coln assassinated — ^Johnson — ^Xlllth Amendment As the Eepublican Party came into the great year 1860, the events of the preceding four years were no serious discouragement. A little more organization would have carried Pennsylvania and Indiana for the Republicans in the first contest, and with those States they would have won the election. The party had now grown in strength in Congress, its prin- ciples were gaining hold with the people, and the troubles and conflicts everywhere simply brought the political parties of the country up to a definite issue. "Without question, most grave and formidable strug- gles were at hand, but with the Republicans convic- tion of right was deep-set and determination to win was intense. Undaunted, the Republican Party began to climb the rugged paths of duty, while the Democratic Party straightway came to "stairs of sand." The Republicans gathered in their second national convention at Chicago in May, and in their platform struck the key-note — ^the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States and the Union of States, must and should be preserved. The platform again quoted from the Declaration of Independence as to the freedom and equality of all men, and pronounced the 72 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 73 re-opening of the slave trade a crime; denounced all schemes for disunion and the Democratic adminis- tration in its measureless subserviency to the exac- tions of a sectional interest, reasserted that the nor- mal condition of all territory of the United States is that of freedom, and declared for a protective tariff, internal improvements, the building of a Pa- cific Railroad and for a Homestead Bill. Success appearing within the grasp of the party at the fall election, great interest lay in determining who should be the standard-bearers. The convention assembled in the Wigwam, a wooden structure built for the purpose, and was again called to order by Gov. Morgan. David Wilmot was the temporary chairman, and on the second day George Ashmun (Mass.), a congressman in Webster's days and his champion, was made permanent chairman, or presi- dent as the position was then designated. Both made speeches arousing the utmost enthusiasm. The convention continued for three days, with great excitement, much after the manner of modern con- ventions. William H. Seward, ex-governor of New York, conspicuous as a United States Senator and recognized generally as the leader and expounder of the party on the bearings of slavery, was naturally the expected nominee. William M. Evarts (N. Y.) was there to place him in nomination, supported by George William Curtis from the same State. But Horace Greeley also was there, in the interest of Edward Bates (Mo.) or any other good man to beat Seward. He was at outs with the New York leaders, including Thurlow Weed. As he had ex- pressed it in his Tribune, "the firm of Seward, Weed 74 REPUBLICAN PARTY & Co. was dissolved." He was not a delegate from his own State, so Oregon conferred that representa- tive power upon him, and in his swallow-tail coat he was one of the busiest, in the convention, about the hotels, in the counsels, night and day. On the third day Evarts, without a speech, placed Seward before the convention. Norman B. Judd (111.) named Lincoln. Other prominent candidates were Bates, William L. Dayton (N. J.), Simon Cam- eron (Pa.), Gov. Chase and Justice McLean, and Jacob CoUamer (Vt.). Seward merited the honor of a nomination, but in his already long public career he had necessarily made enemies and it was feared that these would endanger his election. He led on two ballots. Aside from the general strength and popularity of Lincoln, the belief that the States of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, lost in 1856, would be carried by him, cast the majority to him on the third ballot. His nomination was thereupon, on the motion of Evarts, made unanimous by accla- mation. The party went east for its candidate for Vice-President and chose Gov. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, a wise and able statesman. The Democrats, at their convention at Charleston in April, looked for an invisible line along which they could sail the ship of slavery. Some thought they could see it, and some not. The southern dele- gates mutinied. The regular convention reassembled at Baltimore in June, and for President nominated Stephen A. Douglas and for Vice-President Benja- min Pitzpatrick (Ala.). The latter subsequently resigned, and Herehel V. Johnson (Ga.) was sub- stituted. This branch took the name of Independent PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 75 Democrats, but was commonly known in the cam- paign as Douglas Democrats. Its platform in sub- stance declared that the party would abide by the Dred Scott decision and seek conquest by ' ' squatter sovereignty." The bolters met at Richmond, Va., and called a convention to be held at Baltimore late in June, at which they nominated John C. Brecken- ridge (Ky.) for President and Joseph Lane (Or.) for the second place. A remnaiit of Know-Nothings or Americans, not yet seeing their way clear to unite with the Repub- licans, and many of them thinking to worry the Democrats in the South, met at Baltimore, with some stubborn Whigs, adopted the name Constitutional Union Party, and nominated John Bell (Tenn.) and Edward Everett (Mass.). It was a hot and stirring campaign. Douglas took the stump, but Lincoln remained silent. The selection of Lincoln as Republican standard-bearer was most fortunate. It is true, a reason for his nomination was his availability to obtain electoral votes, but he was by no means unknown over the country or inexperienced in public life. His political speeches and prominence in Illinois for many years, his term in Congress, the Douglas debates, and his Cooper Union address, delivered in the preceding February, all worked out in his favor. Torch-light processions paraded every night in the north, hat- bands of red, white and blue, badges of "Wide Awake Clubs, were worn. The Republicans, in the inspira- tion of conviction, were united and confident. As the campaign progressed, the only fear was that the two Democratic Parties might fuse, as they did at- 76 REPUBLICAN PARTY tempt to do, and carry some nortnern States, whereby the election might be thrown into the House of Representatives and lost. But the two factions were bitterly opposed nearly everywhere, and the Republi- cans carried the entire North, — all the free States, — except New Jersey. In that State, the refusal of the Douglas Democrats to support a fusion ticket gave Lincoln 4 of its 7 electoral votes. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, Breckenridge 72, Bell 39 (Va., Ky., and Tenn.) and Douglas 12 (9 Mo., and 3 N. J.). The popular vote was : Lincoln 1,866,352 ; Douglas 1,375,157 ; Breckenridge 845,763 ; Bell 589,581. The combined vote of Lincoln and Bell was 2,455,933; of Douglas and Breckenridge 2,220,920; total vote 4,676,853. It was the first time within the life of the Nation that the President and Vice-President had been elected without an electoral vote from a slave State. It is worth space to recall Buchanan's subserv- iency, and his weakness, in contrast with Old Hick- ory's valor. Jackson put down South Carolina's attempt at nullification by sharp and decisive action by land and sea. Buchanan stated his inability to enforce the law, warned the South to obey, but said he did not know what to do, for he did not believe Congress could constitutionally make war upon a State. Although the South Carolina legislature was indif- ferently slow in casting the electoral vote of the State, and was still engaged in that tardy business when the news arrived that Lincoln was elected, that Initiative State now abandoned the task and called a convention, which presently declared her PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 77 separation from the Union ana readiness to join other states of like erratic mind. Some of the southern States sent commissioners to Washington, asking recognition as independent States, and Bu- chanan was for giving it, but Jeremiah S. Black (Pa.) and Edwin M. Stanton (Pa.), both Democrats and respectively his Secretary of State and his Attorney-General, set their feet down, and the com- missioners went back crest-fallen. The South did not wait to see what action the new administration would take, but at once took steps to secede. By February a rebel government was set up at Mont- gomery. In theory it should have been a counterfeit of the Confederation that failed and was superceded in 1789, but its greatest compliment was that its Constitution was nearly a full copy of the Constitu- tion of the Union. It differed therefrom principally in that it recognized slavery as an institution and forbade a protective tariff. That was enough. The Confederate States of America was thus composed of South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, Louisina, and Texas. Richmond, over against "Washington, was selected as the capital. Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia joined in May, and Tennessee in June, 1861. "West "Virginia in time broke off and remained loyal to the Union. The secession of the South brought Douglas to the support of Lincoln. He declared, "there can be no neutrals in this war. ' ' "When all futile plans for conciliation had passed by, withdrawals of southern members from Con- gress left the Republicans in power, before March 4 had arrived. Kansas was at once admitted as a 78 REPUBLICAN PARTY State, the protective Morrill Tariff was enacted March 2, 1861, and provisions were made for loans and the issue of Treasury notes. It was, however, a depressing condition fraught with extreme perils to individuals and to the Nation that confronted Lincoln as inauguration day approached. Treason in the State, War, Treasury and Navy Departments had dispersed the navy to distant waters, thrown much of the army and its officers to the South, seized the yards and arsenals in the southern States and filled them with supplies, and bankrupted the Treasury. The South certainly had the move on the North at the start. A lot of people in the North temporized badly and thought that secession was a bluff, that the "erring sister States" did not mean ' it, and would come back upon some concession made to slavery. When Lincoln began to prepare his inaugural ad- dress at his Illinois home, he had little need of advice. He was equipped for all emergencies. How- ever, he was considerate of friendly counsel, and sought it. Further, he called for Henry Clay's speech on the 1850 Compromise, Jackson's proclama- tion against nullification and Webster's reply to Hayne, which three requisites he probably knew almost by heart. It was business of momentous im- port. His inaugural speech was up to the progress of the country, as then made. Salient points of easy memory, were: "I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. ... To the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 79 enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. . . . One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. ... In your hands (to the southerners), my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while, I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' ... I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle fleld and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angel of our nature. ' ' Despite all, the black wings of the eagles of war first spread their shadows over the land of brothers for four terrible years. The President formed his Cabinet: Secretary of State, William H. Seward; Secretary of the Treas- ury, Salmon P. Chase, — from July 1, 1864, William P. Fessenden (Me.) — (Chase was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Dec, 1864) ; Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, — from Jan. 15, 1862, Edwin M. Stanton — (Cameron was made Minister to Rus- sia) ; Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles (Ct.) ; 80 REPUBLICAN PARTY Secretary of the Interior, Caleb P. Smith (Ind.) — from Jan. 8, 1863, John P. Usher (Ind.) ; Attorney- General, Edward Bates, — from June 22, 1863, Titian J. CofEey (Pa.)— from Dec. 2, 1864, James Speed (Ky.) ; Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair (Md.)— from Sept. 24, 1864, William Dennison (0.). The Union flag fell at Fort Sumter in April. Northern Democrats, who felt themselves betrayed by their former allies, joined with the Republicans for war, and it was soon on its way. These staunch Democrats were determined for the preservation of the Union, for the exclusion of slavery from the North, and many of them for its complete extinction, and they continued to co-operate with the Republi- cans throughout the war, and many of them after- wards. In some of the biennial State and Congres- sional elections, the name Union Party was used for combination of Republicans and these Democrats. Other Democrats in the North, as the war progressed with seeming delays and uncertain results, fell into treasonable movements, as did Vallandigham in Ohio, or as did the Knights of the Golden Circle in Indiana, and in the election of 1862 nearly threw the House into a Democratic majority. Vallandigham was exiled for publicly expressing disloyal senti- ments and sympathy with the armed rebellion. "While in exile, he was run for governor of Ohio, but John Brough defeated him by the largest ma- jority, 100,000, that had ever been known in the Buckeye State. It is not necessary to outline the Civil "War. The Executive Department and both Houses of Congress were in strong Republican hands, and the history PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 81 of the war is a history of Republican achievements in that period. When, in 1863, after the Emancipation Proclama- tion went into effect, Vicksburg was captured and the battle at Gettysburg was won, the Republican Party came up in greatest strength. Not that plenty of trouble was lacking in the North. "When the Republicans met with success, a lot of inferior Democrats east aside their pretensions of sympathy with the Union cause and well-nigh turned traitors. Their feelings ran high; they, and their boys and girls, wore pins made from butternuts to signify sympathetic relations to southern soldiers and peo- ple, who from necessity wore homespun dyed with butternut juice; and on account of their apparent treachery they were dubbed "copperheads." Draft riots occurred in New York City, which Democratic Governor Seymour failed to quell. They were finally suppressed by United States troops, and quite a conspiracy by the "Sons of Liberty" was put down in Indiana by War-Governor Oliver P. Morton. So the chameleon hue of a too numerous band changed with the varying success of northern arms. For a time the President's policy was to secure gradual emancipation by co-operation of the slave States ; then a compensation method, by national aid to slave owners, and colonization plans were sug- gested. But nothing was successful along these lines, and at the same time anti-slavery aspects of the national struggle gained head. So far from ris- ing in insurrection, as the South had pretended to fear, the poor blacks of the Confederate States were in fact toiling for their masters in endeavoring to 82 REPUBLICAN PARTY supply the inhabitants and the soldiers with food and clothing. They could not see or understand any- thing that they could do for themselves. The Presi- dent finally concluded it was a legitimate wai* measure to weaken the enemy's strength by cutting off supplies, in the shape of slaves. Accordingly, in September, 1862, he issued a proclamation to the effect that the States in rebellion should lose their slaves unless they ceased resistance to the Union, and that on January 1, following, all persons held as slaves in any State in rebellion should be then and forever after free. Of course, no such States gave attention to the warning. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, attempted late in De- cember a retaliatory proclamation, ordering that captured negro Federal soldiers and officers should be delivered over to the Confederate State in which captured, and that General Benjamin F. Butler, who had used the phrase "contraband of war" in rela- tion to slaves who came to Fortress Monroe for pro- tection, should, if captured, be hanged. At the appointed time, Lincoln issued the celebrated Eman- cipation Proclamation, freeing 4,000,000 slaves. This epoch-making event met approval in the North and tolled all public opinion that upheld slavery. Thence- forward the Confederate contest meant the mainte- nance of slavery, and any recognition of the Con- federacy by foreign powers would approve that institution. The anti-slavery sentiment in France and Great Britain was thrown against further recog- nition to the South by those countries. Though the Proclamation brought a certain turmoil and re- adjustment among various political elements that PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 83 had been aiding the Repuljlican Party, it cleared the atmosphere and there was no longer any doubt in regard to what success to the Union cause would mean. The master of thought and feeling is revealed in Lincoln's speech at the dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery (Nov., 1863). Its theme was the founding of the Nation, the sacrifice of lives for it, and the call to the living to preserve it. The protective tariff, with amendments, afforded protection long after the war. Before Lincoln's first term closed, laws were passed for an income tax, for a system of National Banks, for an internal revenue, and to amend the Homestead law. The Fugitive Slave law of 1850, being still in form upon the statute books, was repealed. The National Banking system was supported by the desire to provide a market for United States bonds and to supplant the local and State bank issues of paper money ever subject to wide fluctua- tions in value. From long prior to the panic of '57, loose systems of State banking and money issues led to "wild-cat" banks. These contributed to the panic of that year, and continued to disturb and render business uncertain in and between many States. Public dissatisfaction with State banks and the financial exigencies of the war caused Secretary Chase to advance the new system. It was decidedly a broad-construction measure, and was ever attacked by the Democratic Party in one way and another. But the National Banking system has ever expanded under Republican direction to the lasting benefit of the commercial interests of the country. It intro- 84 REPUBLICAN PARTY duced a uniform currency, resting upon Federal authority, from the first. Amendments to the laws were made from time to time. From 1867, State banks were forced rapidly to conform to the national system and certain reserves were required to be main- tained. In 1900 and later, further amendments regu- lated capital and introduced other important changes. The Republican cohorts convened at the Front Street Theatre, Baltimore, in June, 1864, for their third national convention, and put up a platform in accordance with facts. To gain the co-operation of all lovers of the Union, the call had been for a Union National Convention. For the third time. Gov. Mor- gan, who was still chairman of the national com- mittee, called the convention to order. Robert J. Breckenridge (Ky.), on the recommendation of the committee, was temporary chairman, and Gov. Wil- liam Dennison (0.) was later regularly elected presi- dent of the organized convention. All business was concluded within two days. The platform declared it to be the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain the integrity of the Union and the para- mount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States, resolved to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor and approved the deter- mination of the Government not to offer terms of peace except "unconditional surrender," being Gen. Grant's words to his foe. It further denounced slavery as the cause and strength of the rebellion, and as a "keystone" to the platform commended an amendment to the Constitution to forever prohibit slavery. It resolved for ample pensions to disabled PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 85 soldiers and sailors, and approved the proposed en- forcement of the Monroe Doctrine against the French who had gone into Mexico. An informal ballot for presidential nominee de- veloped 484 votes for Lincoln and 22 from Missouri under instruction for Grant, whereupon Lincoln was unanimously renominated by acclamation. Vice- President Hamlin, Daniel S. Dickinson (N. Y.), An- drew Johnson (Ky.) and others were presented for Vice-President. The last was selected upon the sec- ond ballot, and the party had abundant cause later to rue its miserable mistake. The war had in reality been won by the North within a year and a half from the time it began, as the South under its wrong economical condition because of slave labor was weak in resources and it was only a question of time when that sectioq would wear out. Though the South was now far spent, its resources wasted, and it and its northern sympa- thizers should have seen that its hopes of European intervention or effective recognition were blasted, yet the Democratic Party met in its convention at Chicago in August and declared the war a failure and demanded restoration to peace on a basis of a Federal Union of the States. (Which meant that slavery should progress.) It denounced the Repub- lican administration for violating the Constitution in every part, for treading on liberty, justice and humanity, and for destroying prosperity. This bit- terness gained it no votes in the election. Its nomi- nee for President was Gen. George B. McClellan (N. J.), who had been discredited as a Union general for delays in the war and superceded by Gen. Burn- 86 REPUBLICAN PARTY side, in 1862. George H. Pendleton (0.) was the nominee for Vice-President. To his credit, MeClel- lan, in his letter of acceptance, departed from the platform by advocating a vigorous prosecution of the war. The life of the Nation as such was the grave issue at the ballot-box. After an exciting and aggressive campaign, the Republicans swept the country, carry- ing every state not in rebellion except Kentucky, Delaware and New Jersey. The States in rebellion, of course did not vote. In the victory, Lincoln re- ceived 212 electoral votes and McClellan 21. The Republican popular vote was 2,216,067 ; Democratic, 1,808,725; Republican majority, 407,342; total vote cast, 4,024,792. When Lincoln came to his new term in March (1865), he made but one change in his Cabinet — ^he appointed Hugh McCulloeh (Ind.) Secretary of the Treasury. Lincoln had depended implicitly upon Grant in the war, satisfied not to be told by the General what his plans or intentions were, and satis- fied with the results. Sherman made his march to the sea and turned north. After a council of war between him and Generals Grant, Meade, Sheridan and Ord, terrific fighting broke out on every hand. Richmond was evacuated, and Lincoln and Seward went there and walked about the streets practically unattended. The populace was overjoyed. Lee sur- rendered to Grant at Appomattox (Apr. 9), and the war was over. Peace was welcome, north and south. The Xlllth Amendment, providing that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun- ishment for crime whereof the party shall have been PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 87 duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction," was passed (Feb., 1865) and became a part of the Con- stitution in December. Thus what was said in the Ordinance of 1787 became the law of the whole country. On the night of April 14, — foui^ years to a day from the fall of Sumter's flag, — the first of three assassinations of Chief Magistrates of the Nation occurred. Lincoln, as the victim of a wretched and crazed conspiracy of revenge and hatred, was shot, and died. He had led the Republican Party from its first day of success, and imbued it with his life and spirit. He saved the whole people to nationality. His death was a universal loss, and a loss beyond degree as all came to realize and acknowledge. Lincoln was very human and humane. He was fond of anecdote, and was a master of humor, which he often put in the shape of fable or at times used to light up some sad event. He followed the writings of Orpheus C. Kerr and the "Nasby Letters." To the author, Petrolium V. Nasby (David R. Locke), he wrote: "Why do you not come to "Washington and see me? Is there no place you want? Come on and I will give you any place you ask for — that you are capable of filling — and are fit to fill." Withal, he was profoundly serious, honest, tender- hearted, and often depressed beyond measure under the burdens that bore upon him. He was both a statesman and a politician, and no one knew better how to handle men. The lighter aspects of his nature, the sombre hues that fell upon his life, are not lost to view; his work as statesman was vastly 88 REPUBLICAN PARTY great and overshadows all else individual in the history of his time. Having reached "the highest rung in the ladder of fame, he stepped into the skies." (—Colfax.) IX Eepublicans vindicated by .war — Reconstruction — ^XlVth Amendment — Johnson deserts party — Stanton — impeach- ment of Johnson — XVth Amendment — "force bills" — Alaska purchase — French withdraw from Mexico — ^fourth Eepublioan convention, 1868 — Grant and Colfax (1869-73) — Alabama Claims — ^Ku-Klux-Klan — Civil Service — San Domingo — ^Liberal Party, ratified by Democratic Party — fifth Republican convention, 1872 — Greeley dies — Grant and Wilson (1873-7) — Bland-Allison Silver Bill— scandals — Resumption Act In the success of the war the Republican Party- was vindicated. The party had before it the task of bringing the Nation back from a condition of war to that of peace; matters of dispute with Prance and England were to be settled, and the different States lately in rebellion were to be reorganized or reconstructed and brought into the Union. The achievement of disbanding the armies and returning the soldiers to their homes and civil pursuits was readily accomplished, and the facility with which this was done and its completeness were the surprise of the world. Reconstruction was an exceedingly hard and diffi- cult task, but in the storms and prejudice of the times it in the main resulted as was best. The greatest wisdom and firmness on the part of the administration were demanded, and in the condition of anarchy in which the South was and in view of imforeseen troubles and opposition, — ^virtually a sec- ond war in import, — it is remarkable that as good, 89 ULTSSBS SIMPSON GRANT 1822-1885 President, 1869-1877 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 91 though belated, results were achieved as subsequent years proved. No one can say what would have been the complete course Lincoln would have taken, had he lived, or whether the outcome would have been different from what it was. Had the aims of Republi- can opponents succeeded, the equivalent of slavery of the down-trodden negroes and of many whites would have prevailed to the defeat of much of the desired ends of the war, and the industrial and com- mercial, if not the social, condition of the South would have been permanently retarded and weak- ened. As it was, the South was blindly to persist in retarding its own progress as long as possible. It was still back in pre-Jacksonian times, clinging to an aristocracy and culture consciously superior to plebeian democracy, little modified by the boasted democracy of Jackson's day and afterwards. There was still class distinction, and labor and toil marked a servile condition. The South would, if possible, retain a maximum of the old regime and resist social and industrial progress. It was easy for the South to fall into such course, in its blind prejudice excited upon beholding a race freed by force and those de- spised whites, who sympathized with the negroes, about to rise. "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad." In this environment the South would spite itself, however great the resulting in- jury, to show it would have its way and that it haS not been whipped in the war. When reconstruction began, the South was already occupied by Union military forces, and that condi- tion facilitated military governments until full order could be established. The Republicans, in broad in- 92 REPUBLICAN PARTY terpretation of the Constitution, properly treated the southern States as Territories xmder the full control of Congress, and therefore they could and would be restored or brought into the Union as new States. Johnson, on succeeding to the presidency, entered upon a course of reconstruction with great hostility to the South. Conflict arose between him and Con- gress upon the point that the subject-matter be- longed to Congress and not to the Executive. As this conflict advanced, he changed front entirely, fav- ored all contentions of the South, and became in- imical to Congress and the party that had elected him. He asserted, in fact, that his office was superior to the authority of Congress. In March (1866) the Civil Rights Bill — ^the constructive work of Charles Sumner — ^was vetoed by the President, as he had vetoed many other measures, to carry out his pro- gramme against the Republicans. Though it was passed over his veto, by Republican votes exclusively. Congress soon proceeded to embody it in the XlVth Amendment, conferring upon the freedmen full civil rights, and providing for enforcement of such rights. Johnson's tactless conduct was in marked contrast with the powerful composure that had been char- acteristic of Lincoln. He was impudent, hot of speech and appeared unbalanced in hatred against Con- gress. His course prejudiced the interests of the South and delayed pacification. Stanton, the illus- trious War Secretary under Lincoln, had never hesi- tated to criticise Lincoln's measures or his adminis- tration whenever he saw subjects of criticism or differed with Lincoln as to policy. He displayed un- flinching courage in the direst disasters and sustained PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 93 Lincoln, and the two could conform. When John- son came to the chair, Stanton tendered his resigna- tion, but it was declined. "When now the Secretary- conducted his Department as though there was no Johnson, he was asked to resign, but refused. Diplo- matically, it was, "public considerations of high character" required the President to ask him to re- sign, and Stanton's prompt reply was "public con- siderations of high character" forbade him to do so. Under the Tenure of Office Act, which had been passed, the removal could not be made without the approval of the Senate. When Congress was out of session, the President removed Stanton and appointed Grant to the office ad interim. When Congress met, the Senate refused to agree to the removal (January, 1868). General Grant vacated the office and Stanton resumed it, whereupon the President disregarded the Act and again removed Stanton. The Senate voted the removal illegal, Stanton having been vindicated, now resigned. The Reconstruction Acts had been passed, but the defiance by Johnson of Congressional measures made rupture in the Government manifest. Charges of im- peachment were laid against him by the House and he was brought to trial before the Senate. At length he was practically acquitted by a formal vote of 35 Senators for holding him guilty and 19 not guilty. A change of one vote would have convicted him. The two-thirds vote required for impeachment was not reached and the proceedings were practically abandoned. Chief Justice Chase, who presided, di- rected the entry of a judgment of not guilty. The two Amendments, and the XVth Amendment, 94 EEPUBLICAN PARTY which was in course of adoption (1869), — commonly called the "War Amendments, — ^reveal the growth of public sentiment and the changes wrought. The last Amendment was ratified by March, 1870, and provides that neither the United States nor any State shall abridge the right of any citizen to vote, on ac- count of race, color or previous condition of servi- tude. It does not confer suffrage. "Who is or shall be entitled to suffrage is left to the States, but where suffrage is given it shall not be denied or abridged on any of the grounds mentioned. The application of the Amendments — the outcome of the Reconstruc- tion policy, — ^was universal, but their particular effect was to secure to the emancipated slaves the equal legal and political rights of full citizenship, the same as the colored people would have enjoyed had they been recognized as freemen at the time of the adop- tion of the Constitution. The laws presently passed (1870) in just attempts to enforce these Amendments, the Democrats chose to call "force bills." Napoleon III., having claims against Mexico for loans to the fallen Miramon in what proved to be a French invasion, had placed the crown upon Maxi- milian, who undertook to rule that war-riven coun- try. The French Emperor had secured (1861) a con- vention signed with Great Britain and Spain for armed intervention, but the next year these powers had abandoned the project when they realized France intended to overthrow the Mexican Republic. Na- poleon had counted on the success of the Confederate arms to prevent the United States from compelling the withdrawal of French troops. After the Civil "War, the Republican administration, pursuant to its PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 95 last platform, asserted the non-intervention Monroe Doctrine. Maximilian fell in due course and Prance gained no footing on the Continent. Suggestions by Russia for the sale of Alaska were not overlooked by Seward, and he negotiated a treaty for the purchase in 1867, and we took possession late that year. The value of the new territory was doubted at the time, but the vast expanse of the land and its wealth developed in the minds of the people later. The fourth Republican national convention as- sembled at Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, in May, 1868. It was called to order by Gov. Marcus L. Ward (N. J.). Carl Schurz (Mo.) was temporary chair- man, and Gen. Joseph R. Hawley (Conn.) president of the convention. The platform indorsed the War Amendments, the Reconstruction Acts, and declared it the duty of the Government to sustain the Consti- tutions of the States lately in rebellion, as they re- turned to the Union and to prevent their people from being remitted to a state of anarchy. It denounced as a national crime all forms of repudiation so much advocated by the Democrats, and announced that national honor required the payment of the public debt in the uttermost good faith. It declared for radical reform of the corruptions which had been fostered by Johnson, deplored the tragic death of Lincoln, regretted the accession of Johnson to the presidency, and declared that he had been in effect impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. It denounced the doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that because a man is once a sub- ject he is always so, and resolved that naturalized 96 REPUBLICAN PAETY citizens were entitled to protection in all rights of citizenship as if native born, and should be protected from arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country ; fav- ored a just and liberal policy for foreign immigra- tion and the removal of disqualifications imposed upon those lately in rebellion in a measure consistent with the safety of the loyal people, and approved liberal bounties and pensions. Attempts had been made to nominate General Grant by acclamation or by roll-call of the delegates before the committees on permanent organization and on platform had reported. Later, Gen. John A. Logan (111.) placed Grant's name before the convention in a half -minute speech. The result was "unconditional surrender." The roll of States was called, and the chairman announced: "Gentlemen of the conven- tion, you have 650 votes. You have given 650 votes for Ulysses S. Grant." The sole contest was as to vice-presidential nominee, and the names of many prominent men were presented, among them Schuyler CoLfax (Ind.), Benjamin F. Wade (0.), Reuben E. Fenton (N. Y.), Henry Wilson (Mass.), Andrew G. Curtin (Pa.), Hannibal Hamlin, James M. Speed (Ky.) and James M. Harlan (la.) . Colfax, for fifteen years a member of Congress and in his third term as Speaker of the House, was chosen on the sixth ballot. The Democrats met in New York in July. Their platform took grounds the opposite of those of the Republicans. It denounced the Reconstruction Acts as revolutionary, unconstitutional and void, declared for taxation of government bonds in violation of the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 97 conditions under which they were issued or their terms, announced that under the repeated assaults of the Republican Party the pillars of the Government were rocking on their base, and prophesied that if that party should succeed in the fall election and inaugurate its president we would meet as a subjected and conquered people amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the Constitution, and de- clared that the bonds and obligations of the Govern- ment, as they did not expressly state upon their face that they were payable in coin, ought in right and justice to be paid in the lawful money of the United States (thereby meaning greenbacks), and that the southern States should be immediately and uncon- ditionally admitted to representation in Congress, with self-goverUment. Johnson had attempted to construct a personal party following of his own, but the Democrats would have no more of him. The nominees were Governor Seymour (N. Y.) and Francis P. Blair, Jr. (Mo.). Seymour had been hos- tile to all measures of the Republicans, and was chosen in spite of strong efforts of many Democrats to induce the party to accept the results of the war. Grant's brief letter of acceptance of the nomina- tion concluded with his celebrated "let us have peace" clause. The issues were submitted to the people and decided in favor of the Republicans. As distinct issues were the policy of reconstruction and whether a State which had seceded and been de- feated by war must not be re-admitted by Congress as new territory, those issues were likewise decided by the people. The electoral vote stood : Grant and Colfax, 214; Seymour and Blair, 80; the popular 98 EEPUBLIOAN PAETY vote, Republican, 3,015,071; Democratic, 2,709,613; total, 5,724,684. Prominent in Grant's Cabinet, within his two terms, were : Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish (N. Y.) ; of the Treasury, George S. BoutweU (Mass.), "William A. Richardson (Mass.), Benjamin H. Bristow (Ky.) and Lot M. Morrill (Me.) ; of War, Gen. Will- iam T. Sherman (0.), W. W. Belknap (la.), Alphonso Taft (0.) — afterwards (1876) Attorney-General — and J. D. ("Don") Cameron (Pa.) ; of the Navy, George M. Robeson (N. J.) ; of the Interior, John D. Cox (0.), Columbus Lelano (0.), Zachariah Chandler (Mich.) ; Attorney-General, Bbenezer R. Hoar (Mass.) ; Postmaster-General, J. A. J. Creswell (Md.)-. James G. Blaine was elected Speaker of the House, which position he held by re-elections until the Demo- crats obtained a majority in the House in 1875. The policies of the Republicans were carried out and those of the opposition defeated. The ratification of the XVth Amendment was by Congress required of Virginia, Mississippi, Texas and Georgia. The con- ditions were complied with, and these last States to be returned to the Union were in by 1870. Though restrictions upon freedom at the polls in the South were the source of grievances to that sec- tion, it was fortunate that Federal arms afforded the voters protection, as thereby Grant's election was secured against fraud at the poUs. Further precau- tions were taken by new election laws in early 1873, which the Democrats termed the Force Bill. At about that time a General Amnesty Bill, removed political disabilities of all but about 750 southerners. Great Britain having been guilty of a breach of PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 99 neutrality in allowing to be fitted out in her ports Confederate cruisers which wrought havoc with Fed- eral commerce on the high seas in the war time, the administration set about compelling amends. Under what is commonly called the Alabama Claims, an award of $15,000,000 was finally fixed, and later paid by Great Britain. The Union and the Central Pacific Railways, begun pursuant to Republican efforts (1863), were completed (1869), connecting the East and the "West in nearer relations over the almost impassible Rockies. "While the public press for many years gave the North some conception of the atrocities committed upon the negroes as well as upon the "offending" and unoffending whites in the South, the whole truth was not realized. It was finally said, with conviction, that for the sole crime of being Republicans more men lost their lives through the outlawry of the Ku- Klux-Klan than fell upon any one battle-field of the war. The North at length wearied of its efforts and the monotony of crimes gradually aroused less at- tention. "While justice would hardly sanctior abandonment of the demoralized communities, leav- ing them to fight out their own battles with prob- able victory to the guilty, yet there was a feeling in parts of the North that such course would work out a final relief. The policy of change appeared possible, and after due consideration was determined upon by the President, and before the close of his second administration he gave orders for removal of the troops from South Carolina and Louisiana, and his successor, President Hayes, executed these measures. 100 REPUBLICAN PARTY The "spoils system," so effectually introduced by Jackson, was used without attempts at reform by the various parties to perpetuate themselves in power down to 1860. The Civil War coming on, the Govern- ment assumed a military character and of necessity Lincoln made as clean a sweep as can well be im- agined, leaving no old appointees unremoved in the body of officials and servants, constituting the Civil Service, about whom there might be the least doubt of faithful work and sympathy with the new party. No "reform" in the service was seriously considered until Grant took up the subject by a message to Congress. In 1871 he was authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for the public service, and to appoint a Civil Service Commission. He appointed such a commission, with George William Curtis as chairman, who was later succeeded by Dorman B. Eaton. By 1874, the Commission was so far unsup- ported by appropriations sufllcient for its work that it was practically out of commission. President Hayes, however, advanced the principles of the re- form, but it was not till Arthur's term that an ade- quate Act was passed, authorizing the President to appoint an efficient commission, and to extend the merit system by executive orders. The officials chosen under the system compose what is termed the classified list. The Republicans continuously greatly extended the merit system until it reached great efficiency and the old evils were substantially and practically removed. In Missouri, in 1870, B." Gratz Brown and others had fused with the Democrats to secure remission of efforts to restore peace by armed force in the South, PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 101 and they had met with victory in the State election. While the adherents of Grant were so entrenched in the strong Republican States that his renomination was assured, these Missouri opponents determined upon an early move to obtain, if possible, strength to thwart the regular Republican organization. Their strategy was to hold an early convention of their own making, and by combining all the disgruntled elements within the party bring the party over to their movement, through fear that otherwise it would suffer defeat at the polls. Accordingly, by a call made by the State of Missouri, the Liberal Republican con- vention met at Cincinnati, in May, 1872. In their platform, the Liberals failed to come to any agree- ment on tariff measures or policy, and the main thing they presented referred to a change of policy for conciliating the South, and some talk about cor- ruption in office. The convention was largely at- tended and its apparent strength inspired its lead- ers with encouragement. They sought to nominate Charles Francis Adams for President, believing that he would draw powerfully from the Republican forces. But in this they failed, and the convention was practically stampeded for Horace Greeley as the nominee for the head of the ticket. Gov. B. Gratz Brown (Mo.) was nominated for Vice-Presi- dent. The Democrats met at Baltimore in June, ready to be impaled upon one or the other horn of the dilemma facing them. On the one ^and, they as a party feared such defeat in the coming election upon any ticket of their own, for the Liberals would draw from their ranks indefinitely and the Republicans were coming 102 REPUBLICAN PARTY up strong to disregard the Liberal movement. If, upon the other hand, they fused with the Liberal Party, they would abandon the positions they had taken on all questions since 1860. They chose the latter horn, and were badly gored. Greeley had been a champion of the old abolitionists and a leading spirit in the Republican Party for a protective tariff. In approving the Liberal platform, the Democratic Party took a position contrary to all its prior con- tentions, save that a free rein should be given the South. The Democratic Party was wholly demora- lized. The fifth Republican national convention was held at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, early in June. "William Claflin (Mass.), chairman of the national committee, called the convention to order, and Morton McMichael (Pa.), journalist, was the temporary chairman. It was a most enthusiastic gathering and many notable speakers occupied the time of the first day's session. Judge Thomas Settle (N. C.) was made president of the convention. Be- fore the platform was adopted, Shelby M. Cullom (111.) in language, with apparent intention, almost identical with that used by Logan four years before, renamed President Grant for a second term. In the midst of the wildest excitement and enthusiasm, the roll-call gave Grant the entire 752 votes of the con- vention, representing every State and Territory in the Union. The real contest was over the nominee for Vice-President, Colfax contesting with Senator Henry Wilson, who was nominated on the second ballot. The resolutions or platform recited the party's past achievements, and advocated a strong PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 103 protective tariff; reiterated adherence to the War Amendments, and declared that Congress and the President had only fulfilled an imperative duty in suppressing violent and treasonable organizations, and in protecting the ballot-box, and that Civil Serv- ice reform should be more completely carried out. The platform of 1868 was in general restated and reaffirmed. A National Labor Reform Party had nominated Judge David Davis (111.) and Joel Parker (N. J.). The latter declined at once, and the former soon, in view of the Liberal movement. Thereupon a disaf- fected contingent of the Democrats met in Louisville in June and nominated Charles O'Connor (N. Y.) and John Quincy Adams, who received but 29,408 votes at the election. The whole campaign was exceedingly vigorous and exciting. With respect to the South and smoothing out the old war feelings, the Liberals were for "shaking hands over the bloody chasm;" but the form of their attack rapidly passed to the idea and assertion that the effort of the Republicans in ap- pealing to northern patriotism to sustain the recon- struction policies was but the "waving of the bloody shirt" in an endeavor to retain power. Greeley sailed forth and delivered many speeches, but could not stem the tide that set against him. The Liberals, so far as they came from Republican ranks, were looked upon as bolters, and the fusion of the Demo- crats with them was plainly ill-advised and insincere. The fusion movement was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls, and the Liberal Party did not survive. The policies and course of the Republican Party 104 REPUBLICAN PARTY were distinctively approved. The Republicans car- ried all States, except six southern. Grant received 286 electoral votes, and Greeley carried States repre- senting 80 votes. The popular vote for Grant was 3,597,070, and that for Greeley 2,834,079. Greeley was much loved by the Republican Party and by hosts of his countrymen. He died shortly before the electoral vote was counted. His unfortunate political mistake, the strain of the campaign, and his personal disappointment were so great that they broke him down and caused his death. Of the 80 votes secured by the Liberal Party, 17 were not counted, and the others were cast by way of compli- ment to Thomas A. Hendricks, B. Gratz Brown, Charles J. Jenkins and David Davis. The silver dollar had been uncoined since 1806. The Bland-Allison Act (1873) revived the existing provisions of an old act of 1837 for the coinage of silver dollars of 4121^ grains troy of standard silver, authorized the Treasury to purchase not less than 2 nor more than 4 million dollars worth of silver bullion per month, and provided that such coinage should be a legal tender except where otherwise stipulated in the contract, and that the President should invite other governments of the Latin Union and such European nations as he might deem ad- visable to a conference with respect to adopting a common ratio between gold and silver in matter of coinage. It was already evident that common action would be necessary to preserve silver as money and avoid fluctuations in its value as such or as a legal tender and to avoid driving gold from trade. The Act was substantially non-partisan, but when the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 105 Democrats later on ran to free silver, they were, for their purposes, led to berate the "demonitization" of silver (which legislation they then professed to "discover" for the first time) and to abuse the act as the "Crime of 73," and as committed by the Republicans, and they, declared in their platform for the "restoration" of silver at a stated ratio "without waiting for the consent of any other nation." The pressure upon President Grant, from friends of war-time, with political backing, led to some ap- pointments which resulted in unfortunate scandals; and also developments of the Credit Mobilier, where- in various Congressmen, including some Republicans, had purchased stock, caused considerable loss of prestige to the Republican Party. But the general policies of the term were a continuation of the pre- ceding, and the foreign policy was strong and digni- fied. The administration, which had been criticised by its foes as so corrupt that the end of the party was at hand, could not hold the party up altogether, in the face of further attacks by the disgruntled and Liberals, even after the great victory won at the presidential election. As a . consequence, the party lost many Congressmen in the elections of 1874. Speculation and loose feelings for cheap money brought on financial stringency, or the Panic of '73, and much trouble from "carpet-bag" governors and officers in the South, particularly in Louisiana, was still on, and these were contributing causes to the turn against the Republicans. But this condition was soon relieved. The party whose "career was closed" was to work out its own salvation, and, in 106 EBPUBLICAN PARTY the Congressional elections of 1875, it regained much of its lost ground. The people began to realize that they had made a mistake, and that the Democratic Party, on its record, should not be trusted with power. Grant combatted all efforts for repudiation and inflation. The national currency or greenbacks — promises of the Government to pay — were the neces- sary "forced loans" to meet the vast needs of the war, but had always been attacked by the Democrats as unauthorized and unlawful. Gold was, and at times past, gold and silver had been, the standard of value, but gold was already or soon to be the world standard. The Democratic Party was for a time to be struck with a great affection for green- backs, still much depreciated from the gold standard. It was to rest with the Republican Party to sustain the credit of the country, to bring back the green- back to the value of gold and dispose of it, and, though endeavoring to find a way for a gold and sil- ver standard or bi-metalism, to establish the gold standard or basis for all money, and aU else as mere experiment and risk. When the Democrats were in power in the House (1874) they took a slump towards cheap money and advocated the issue of greenbacks in unlimited quantity. With the aid of peeving Re- publican members, an Inflation Bill was passed, but it was promptly vetoed by Grant. Louisiana gave the President much torment. Adverse Legislatures were organized, but Governor William Pitt Kellogg, a northern Republican, was supported by Federal troops. It is somewhat difficult if not impossible to determine from the accounts given by the two factions which was in the right, perjury having been PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 107 at a premium at the time. The President in his message to Congress defended his course, but prayed for measures that would relieve him from the trials of southern governments. Besides, trouble was brew- ing with what was termed the ' ' whiskey ring, ' ' which was defrauding the Government of large revenues on distilled spirits. Grant directed and caused vigor- ous prosecutions, emphasized by his noted mandate, "let no guilty man escape." Many ringleaders were indicted and convicted, and the ring was broken up. In spite of all these worries, the Republicans passed the famous Resumption of Specie Payments Act (1875), which was fought and criticised by the Demo- crats at every stage, and until and even after it was fully carried out. By the Act the Secretary of the Treasury was on and after January 1, 1879, to re- deem United States legal-tender notes in coin. "Withal, the administration came forward with strength to- wards the next presidential election. The cartoonist, Thomas Nast, originated the use of the Elephant as a pictorial symbol or emblem of the Republican Party, the first publication being made in Harper's Weekly in November, 1874. With the added abbreviation G. 0. P., for Grand Old Party, the symbol has been quite gratifying to the Repub- licans. From an expression used by Theodore Roose- velt upon arriving at Chicago for the Republican con- vention fight in 1912, to the effect that he felt "fit as a bull moose," that quadruped quickly became the cartoon representation of Roosevelt elements and of the Progressive Party, the party being also popularly known as the Bull Moose Party. AU Republicans concede that in pictorial efforts, if not otherwise, the 108 REPUBLICAN PARTY Donkey fittingly represents the Democratic Party, the animal known by that ;name being not simply stubborn and liable to kick and oppose, but pre- eminently wrong-headed. General Grant possessed unflinching courage and displayed great simplicity of character. He was a soldier without pomp, went on stolidly to success, and rose to the heights of military genius. He was quiet and gentle in manner and revealed strong do- mestic affection. His greatness was not external. He was of fine mind. He was trustful of others, and to a degree that caused him trouble politically when in office and brought financial ruin in his later days ; but he retrieved himself from financial wreck by completing his Memoirs while suffering continuous pain of disease and approaching death. The trials of his presidency were second only to those experi- enced by Lincoln. Great as he was as Executive, his- tory regards him as greatest and his countrymen go back to revere him most, as the "Silent Man on Horseback." Gov. Hayes and sound money — soft money dogma — sixth Be- publicau convention, 1876 — ^Hayes and Wheeler (1877-81) — reformation within party — South pacified — resumption accomplished — Isthmian canal The soft-money idea was destined to live for some time, only to prove to be a fiasco in the end. The fiat money doctrine — the people say, let whatsoever be money and it is money — as advocaited in 1874 and afterwards by Bryan and a host, is an illustration of the allurements that sometimes endanger a people blinded to truth and fact; but, falsehood being ex- posed and dangers of the illusion escaped, even those who advocated the proposed measures come to re- gard their former acts with amazement, as being never desirable under any circumstances. In the brilliant contest for the election of a gov- ernor in Ohio in 1875, the greenback craze came up afresh. The old line Democrat, William Allen, — sometimes called "Fog-Horn" Allen, in allusion to the carrying power of his voice in open air campaign speeches, — was already governor and was renomi- nated. Rutherford B. Hayes, who had been governor two terms (1868-72) was pitted against him by the Republicans. The soft-money fancy had permeated the rank and file of the Democratic Party in that State and infected some others. Not only did its leaders, of whom Allen was champion, denounce the Act for the Resumption of Specie Payments, and in- sist that interest on the national debt should be paid 109 RUTHERFORD BIROHARD HAYES 1822-1893 President, 1877-1881 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 111 in paper money, but many of them asserted that the principal should be paid in like currency. In this dogma, they were widely supported by a large part of the Democratic public press. Paper money, pro- vided for and issued out of the necessities of the war, then denounced by the Democrats as illegal, was, these partisans said, now so good that the coun- try should not only have more of it but have it in un- limited quantities. Further, it was to be irredeem- able. Issue greenbacks, they said, pay the debts with them, let them wear out, and thus square accounts. If more money should be needed at any time, print more. Against such fallacies and the popular tide reset- ting in that direction, the Eepublicans set their hard faces and strove to create counter-currents of straight- forward honesty. They insisted upon honest money redeemable in coin, and ridiculed the soft-money craze as "the rag baby." This "Ohio idea," as the Democratic folly was called, spread in discussion and interest over the entire country. It was difficult to stem the tide, but the Eepublicans were finally suc- cessful in electing Hayes governor by a small ma- jority. The political waters smoothed and the fog- horn sounds died away. Hayes' career and his effi- cient terms as governor of the Buckeye State were brought to the favorable attention of the country by his rigorous stand for sound money, and as a success- ful governor for a third term he was on the way to the presidency of the Nation. The sixth Republican national convention met at Cincinnati in June, 1876. Besides adhering to for- mer party doctrines, the platform declared for main- 112 REPUBLICAN PAETT tenance of the public credit, and commended the pro- visions made for the resumption of specie payments; resolved for an investigation of Chinese immigration, opposed appropriations for sectarian schools, and at- tacked polygamy. James G. Blaine, who was by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, placed before the convention as the "prince of parliamentarians, the leader of lead- ers," was the prominent candidate for President. Others were Senator Morton (Ind.), Benj. H. Bris- tow (Ky.), Governor Hayes, Roscoe Conkling (N. Y.)j and Governor Hartranft (Pa.). Bristow had support from many Liberals who had come back from 1872. Hayes had many strong and prominent friends who stood out against Blaine, the antagonism against the latter being largely personal. Great excitement prevailed in the Convention. Hayes was nominated on the seventh baUot, the vote then standing, Hayes 384, Blaine 351, Bristow 21. Congressman WiUiam A. Wheeler of New York was nominated for Vice- President. The Democrats met in convention at St. Louis in the latter part of June, and demanded all kinds of reform. Ha,ving been on all sides of all questions, de- mands for reforms within their own party would ap- pear to have been the most crying need, but to such matters they gave no attention. Substantially, they were satisfied with denouncing the Republican Party in all respects that could be imagined. They parti- cularly denounced the Resumption Act and demand- ed its repeal, and they did not fail to denounce the tariff, as advocated by the Republicans. This last plank appears to be the only one upon which the Dem- ocrats have stood, but even then only with variations. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 113 They nominated Samuel J. Tilden (N. Y.) and Thomas A. Hendricks (Ind.). The Greenback Party, acting upon the Ohio idea, was formed and adopted a platform along the lines of paper money. Its nomi- nee for President was Peter Cooper (N. Y.) and for Vice-President, Samuel F. Gary (0.)- The Prohibi- tionists m^t at Cleveland and nominated Green Clay Smith (Ky.) for President and Gideon T. Stewart (0.) for Vice-President. Their platform called for a constitutional amendment prohibiting the liquor traffic. In his letter of acceptance, Hayes laid stress on civil service, the currency, and pacification of the South. The campaign was carried on with great ani- mation, especially throughout the North. The whole South was under Democratic sectional control. The election was so close that the result remained in doubt for a long time. Duplicate returns were made from Florida, South Carolina and Oregon, and triplicate returns from Louisiana. Feeling was so intense that civil war was feared, but at length the parties in Con- gress established an Electoral Commission, oonsistiug of 15 members, 5 each from the House, Senate and Supreme Court. After nearly two months' investi- gation, the commission decided the contest in favor of Hayes. He received 185 electoral votes and Tilden 184. The Greenbackers and Prohibitionists secured no electoral votes. The popular votes were: Hayes 4,033,950; Tilden 4,284,885; Cooper 81,740; Smith 9,522. Hayes and Wheeler took office March 5, 1877. The reformation which had been urged by the Lib- eral Party movement and struggled for in the second administration of Grant, was accomplished with con- 114 EEPUBLICAN PARTY siderable success in Hayes' administration. Full success, however, was thwarted by the Democrats who were in power in the House during the first two years, and in power in both the Senate and House in the last two years. The record of the party and its stand for nationality finally brought it through to renewed power in this administration. The party which had been denounced as corrupt, its mission declared ful- filled and its death at hand, was thus renovated and renewed within its own lines. Hayes had much con- tention within the party and lack of loyal support, yet he carried his administration on to increased re- forms within his term, which came to fuller fruition in the terms of Garfield and Arthur and of Harrison. The problems of the tariff, currency and commercial relations, were taken up and efficiently handled. An obvious attainment of his administration was the suc- cessful resumption of specie payments in 1879. That and the concurrent refunding of the public debt were ably supported and carried on by John Sherman as Secretary of the Treasury, and the country was re- lieved from the stigma of an irredeemable paper cur- rency. In the investigation of election frauds in the South (1877-8) a ■committee appointed by Congress dis- covered a secret cipher and telegraphic correspondence, the source of which involved a nephew and close friends of Tilden. These were arrangements for brib- ery of the election returning boards. Tilden denied all knowledge, but the wizard of Granunercy Park was greatly discredited in the estimation of the peo- ple, and the title of Hayes to the presidency strength- ened. Hayes finally withdrew the Federal troops PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 115 from South Carolina and Louisiana, although it was clear that the governments in those States would speedily fall into Democratic hands and be run with hatred towards the colored people and Republican whites. In a word, it must be said that, in spite of much opposition from politically disappointed elements within the party and of great opposition from a Demo- cratic House and later a Democratic Senate, Hayes' administration was crowned with success to the per- manent interests of the country and the future growth of the Republican Party. Owing to the dissatisfac- tion of certain powerful political elements within the party, who did not secure that recognition from the President to which they thought they were entitled, the full value of Hayes and his administration was tardily acknowledged, but as time advanced became apparent. Toward the end of Hayes' term the Democrats, being in power, sought to coerce him into signing re- peals of certain laws, particularly the Federal Elec- tion Laws. Such laws were hateful to the Democrats on the theory that they conflicted with States Rights, but in reality because they were intended to prevent election frauds. The southern Democrats did not now so much attempt to prevent voting by colored citizens or to dictate how they should vote, but were content to do the counting. They had recourse to "riders", by attaching to the Army Bill a repeal of the law for troops to keep peace at the polls, to the Judicial BiU a clause forbidding pay to Federal offi- cials for election services, and to the Legislative Bill a clause forbidding Federal officials to count the vote 116 REPUBLICAN PARTY at congressional elections. Part of these repeal meas- ures, such as use of troops at the polls, were false is- sues, there already being laws forbidding the use of troops for political purposes. The Executive firmly vetoed the bills, and asserted this independence of the Executive from the congressional department. The Democrats threatened to break down the govern- ment by refusing to grant supplies, but they finally yielded in this demoralizing course and passed the necessary appropriation bills, without riders. A French company secured a concession from Col- ombia to construct a canal across the Isthmus, and began work (1881). President Hayes announced that any such canal would be a part of the coast line and the United States must assert and maintain such authority over it as would protect our national in- terests, and Secretary Blaine sent dispatches to Great Britain (1881) to the effect that the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was no longer in force, or, if it was, should be modified. The United States possesses Porto Rico, and our re- lations with Cuba may or may not answer for our dominancy in the West Indies, important in view of the Isthmian Canal and Canal Zone. In President Roosevelt's administration, these Danish Islands were all but annexed. The treaty failed by a tie vote in one of the Parliament Houses of Denmark. Not so long ago, threats of European powers to use force to collect for their subjects debts in San Domingo, if the United States would not step in and supervise the customs, led President Roosevelt to prompt ac- tion. After considerable opposition in the Senate, he secured a convention treaty, and the United States by PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 117 its appointee entered upon and continued financial supervision to insure payment to Dominican cred- itors, interest on the nation's debt, and a sinking fund. Chinese laborers were excluded by a treaty (1880). By legislation in Arthur's term (1882), the exclusion was made operative for a further period of 10 years, and under Harrison (1892) was continued another 10 years, when by further legislation in Roosevelt's first term the exclusion was extended indefinitely. JAMBS ABEAM GAEPIELD 1831-1881 President, 1881 XI Seventh Bepubliean convention, 1880 — Grant and third term — Garfield and Arthur nominated — Conkling — ^tariff issue — Garfield President, 1881 — ^assassinated — ^Arthur's admin- istration (1881-5) — Stalwarts and Half-Breeds — Chinese exclusion — civil service — tariff of 1883 — ^Knights of Labor The historic Republican national convention, which assembled at Chicago early in June, developed a most impressive but bitter struggle in the selection of a nominee for President. Prior to the convention of 1876, a number of influential leaders desired Grant's renomination at that time, but there was too much well considered feeling in the country against a third term, and several Republican State Conventions in 1875 passed resolutions declaring against so electing any President. However, these leaders had never given up their plans, and the chief among them was Roscoe Conkling. He had great oratorial power, ex- ceptional ability in debate, was an able lawyer, had long been in conspicuous public life, a member of the House and afterwards of the Senate, and was of first influence as a political leader. Two other supporters of Grant, of great power and influence, were Senators Cameron and Logan, and others, popular and of force, were not lacking. In 1877 Grant went abroad, spending two years in his noted trip around the world. As a representa- tive of the American Nation and in recognition of his military career, he was everywhere greeted by rulers and people with the highest distinction. These un- 119 120 REPUBLICAN PARTY precedented honors given him were gratifying to his countrymen. Upon his return, mention and discus- sion of him and a third term for him spread. The silent man remained silent. His popularity could not be denied and expediency appeared to demand his nomination. But a large majority of the Republican Party, especially in the North, could but feel that such a nomination would violate party traditions not only of the Republicans but of their opponents as well. These opponents would have a strong argu- ment against any nominee for a third term, that his election would tend too strongly towards personal government. Many of these anti-third term Repub- licans desired Blaine for President. There were the "favorite sons" of several States. Besides Grant and Blaine, Senator George F. Edmunds (Vt.), Blihu B. Washburne (HI.), recent Minister to Paris, Secre- tary of the Treasury Sherman, and Senator "William Windom (Minn.) were candidates. When Conkling rose to nominate Grant, to make a contrast with the mention of candidates as of certain States, he opened with the lines: "And when asked what State he hails from. Our sole reply shall be. He hails from Appomattox, And its famous apple-tree." Stalwarts, as they were afterwards called, to the number of 304 (on occasion, the number rising to 306, and at one time to 313) never wavered in cast- ing their votes for Grant through 34 ballots, in the contest lasting from one week over into the next. The first ballot was: Grant 304, Blaine 284, Sherman 93, Edmunds 34, "Washburne 30, "Windom 10. James PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 121 A. Garfield, leader of the Ohio Delegation, had in a nominating speech of great force, named Sherman. On the second ballot Garfield received one vote, and on the third two votes. The balloting continued sub- stantially as on the second and third ballots through to the 34th. On this ballot, "Wisconsin threw its 10 votes to Garfield. On the 35th ballot a further break came, part of the Indiana vote with other scattering votes bringing Garfield up to 50, and on the 36th Gar- field was nominated. This vote stood: Garfield 399, Grant 306, Blaine 42, Sherman 3, Washburne 5. Gen- eral Chester A. Arthur, (N. Y.) a Grant man, was nominated for Vice-President. A "dark horse" had first place, though in this instance against his protests. The first instance of a dark horse, was Polk, in 1844. The platform endorsed civil service reform, advo- cated the protection of the honest voter in the South, government aid to education, and declared that tar- iffs for revenue should discriminate in favor of Amer- ican labor, that polygamy must be destroyed, and Chinese immigration restricted. The Democrats held their convention at Cinciimati late in June. Their platform consisted largely in a denunciation of the Republican administration. It also opposed "centralization" and the tendencies to "despotism" and sumptuary laws, declared for a tar- iff for revenue only, and announced that the Demo- cratic Party pledged itself to protect the laboring man "alike against the cormorants and commune." Although it was seven years since the "Crime of '73" had been committed by the Republicans, it was not yet discovered by the Democrats, and nothing was said about it. Winfield Scott Hancock (N. Y.) was CHESTER ALAN ARTHUE 1830-1886 President, 1881-1885 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 123 nominated for President and "William H. English (Ind.) for Vice-President. The National or Greenback-Labor Party, at Chi- cago in June, nominated James B. "Weaver (la.) and B. J. Chalmers (Tex.) for its candidates. The Pro- hibition Party named Neal Dow (Me.) for President. The campaign at first was dull, and languished. It began to be feared that the Grant forces would not rally to the support of the Republicans, but an end came to this when an immense mass meeting was held at "Warren, in Garfield's congressional district. Simon Cameron called the meeting to order and intro- duced Grant, who presided and read a brief address. Conkling was the master-orator of the day. Maine, in its State elections in September, was carried by the Democrats with the aid of Greenbackers, and elec- tions in Ohio and Indiana — "October States" — ap- proaching, the Republicans became aroused, attacked in earnest the tariff-for-revenue-only plank of the Democrats and stood upon the principles of protec- tion. The Republican victory would have been more decisive had it not been for a trick played on the eve of election. A letter, purporting to be signed by General Garfield, expressing sentiments in favor of the Chinese, was published. This letter was after- wards investigated and found to be a forgery, but the loss of California and Nevada was laid to its publi- cation. Claim that Garfield had in some way been touched by the Credit Mobilier was industriously cir- culated, and "329", as representing that number of dollars consideration, was pasted on the door-posts over the country. As it was, Garfield received 214 electoral votes, and Hancock 155. The popular votes 124 EEPUBLICAN PARTY were : Garfield 4,442,950 ; Hancock 4,442,035 ; Weaver 306,867; Dow 10,305. Blaine was given the portfolio of State, and he en- tered upon duties of that first position in the Cabinet with great enthusiasm and promise. Windom was Secretary of the Treasury, and Robert T. Lincoln (111.) Secretary of War, Wayne McVeagh (Pa.) At- torney-General, Thomas L. James (N. Y.) Postmaster- General, William H. Hunt (La.) Secretary of the Navy, and Samuel J. Kirkwood (la.) Secretary of the Interior. Conkling fell into controversy with Garfield respect- ing Federal patronage, and when W. H. Robertson, a political opponent of Conkling, was appointed col- lector of the Port of New York, Conkling resigned from the Senate, in which course he was followed by his associate, Thomas C. Piatt. The latter was a man of force, but as he appeared to trail Conkling, he was dubbed "Me Too." Both Senators appealed to the New York legislature for vindication, but failed of re- election. They, with many of their convention col- leagues at Chicago in 1880, and others who stood out against the Executive's course, were long known as Stalwarts, while those who favored the administra- tion were nicknamed Halfbreeds. More strictly, how- ever, these names were confined to the two factions in New York State. These Halfbreeds opposed Charles J. Polger, the regular Republican candidate for Gov- ernor, and brought about the election of Grover Cleveland as governor of the State (1882). The unfortunate quarrel between the Executive and the Stalwarts was the occasion, though not the cause, that led a disappointed, but eccentric and un- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 125 fit, office-seeker to conceive designs upon the life of ' the Executive. This person's unbalanced mind worked up to the verge of criminal insanity. As President Garfield and Secretary Blaine entered the main room of a railway station at the Capitol, on the morning of July 2, 1881, the assassin fired two pistol shots. One supposed to have been intended for Mr. Blaine, missed. The other struck the President vitally, and he died at Elberon, N. J., on September 19. General Arthur, upon succeeding to the office of Chief Executive, retained all the old members of the Cabinet for a time, and the appointments made by Garfield were not materially interfered with. The Senate was convened in extra session and confirmed such new appointments as the new executive made, and adjourned. Blaine asked for relief and resigned in December, and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (N. J.) was selected in his place. Charles J. Folger (N. Y.) became Secretary of the Treasury (October) Ben- jamin H. Brewster (Pa.) Attorney-General (Dec.) and Timothy 0. Howe (Wis.) Postmaster-General (Dec), aU in 1881. The following year William E. Chandler (N. H.) entered the Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy and Henry M. Teller (Colo.) as Secretary of the Interior. W. H. Hunt, who had been Secre- tary of the Navy, was appointed Envoy and Minister to Russia. James Russel Lowell (Mass.), who had been appointed (1880) by Hayes as Envoy and Min- ister to Great Britain, was continued in the appoint- ment. Andrew D. White (N. Y.), appointed by Hayes Envoy and Minister to Germany, filled the ap- pointment until March, 1882, when A. A. Sargent (Cal.) succeeded him. 126 REPUBLICAN PARTY Arthur's administration proved business-like and excellent throughout. An anti-polygamy bill (Ed- munds' Bill) was passed and became law, and an act to exclude Chinese immigration was enacted and went into force. A most excellent civil-service meas- ure was adopted and the necessary funds were pro- vided for its execution. It was so faithfully carried out that the course of the Republican Party was great- ly strengthened upon that question before the coun- try. The country was very prosperous, and the revenues created a large surplus in the treasury, so that it be- came necessary to revise the tariff. The efforts of the Republicans were to retain the features of protection, and of the Democrats simply to reduce the revenues. The tariff bill became law (1883), but still there was too much surplus. In the first session of the last Congress under Arthur, a new tariff law had been brought forward and discussed but failed of passage. Though the Knights of Labor formed a most ex- tended secret organization, setting forth the principle of a combination for a universal strike for protection against pools or trusts, the importance of the tariff remained the leading issue between the Republicans and Democrats. Political matters continued quiet during the most of Arthur's term. XII Eighth Republican convention, 1884 — platform — Blaine and Logan nominated — sketch of Blaine — ^Mugwumps — Cleve- land elected — Civil Service — ^Mills Tariff Bill fails — Presidential Succession The Republicans held their eighth national conven- tion at Chicago, early in June. The platform was re- ported by William McKinley (0.)- It advocated broad-construction principles, called for control of corporations by interstate-commerce regulations, ad- vocated national labor bureaus and an eight-hour law, further civil service reform, the resumption of lapsed land grants, and charged ballot frauds by their opponents in the South. Liberal pensions and the building up of the navy were strongly urged. Above all, the party took distinct and advanced ground on the tariff question, which was more clearly defining itself between the two great parties, and announced its determination to protect American industries, and maintained that revision of the tariff should not be made by the process of horizontal reduction. Blaine was the leading candidate. He was loyally supported by most of his old adherents of 1880, but arrayed against him were the Stalwarts, whose principals had been defeated by him in that year's convention, and combined with them were other elements which had not been able to carry out their former individual plans as to nominees. But there was no stemming his popularity now. At two preceding conventions, his nomination seemed probable, now it looked certain. 127 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE 1830-1893 Nominee for President, 1884 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 129 On the first ballot he received 334l^ votes; Arthur 278; Edmunds 93; Logan GBYz; John Sherman 30; Joseph R. Hawley 13, Robert T. Lincoln 4, and Wil- liam T. Sherman 2. On the fourth ballot Blaine re- ceived 541 out of 813, (Arthur having 207), and the nomination was made unanimous. Senator Logan, the "Black Eagle," and "premier volunteer general of the civil war," was chosen for vice-presidential nominee. The Democrats gathered at Chicago in July. Their platform declared for reforms generally, charged the Republicans with maladministration, but the position they took upon the tariff was the most striking or sigr nificant. Considerable portions of the South stiU saw that a proper discrimination in tariff duties would greatly benefit its industries and encourage its manu- factures. The platform declared that "the necessary reduction in taxation can and must be effected with- out depriving American labor of the ability to com- pete successfully with foreign labor, and without im- posing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any increased cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. ' ' Grover Cleveland was put upon the ticket for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks (Ind.) for Vice-President. Upon General Benjamin F. But- ler (Mass.) and General A. M. West (Miss.) double honors were cast. They were nominated for Presi- dent and Vice-President by both the National or Greenback Party and the Anti-Monopoly Party. But- ler had been a picturesque and even strong figure in the country. He served the Union forces in the Civil War with great ability, but was regarded as often un- 130 EEPUBLICAN PAETY scrupulous ; was a Republican in Congress afterwards, a leader in the impeachment trial of Johnson, re- joined the Democratic Party, and succeeded in be- coming governor of Massachusetts. The Prohibition- ists declared for the complete suppression of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, and also favored woman suf- frage. The nominees were John P. St. John (Kas.) and William Daniel (Md.). Blaine resided at Augusta, Me., where, years be- fore, he had edited the Kennebec Journal and later the Portland Advertiser, — influential newspapers, the one Whig, the other Republican. He became a leader of the Republican Party in the State, was a delegate to the Party's national convention in 1856, a member of the lower house of the State, 1861-2, and Speaker 1861-2; was a representative in Congress 1863-77, Speaker 1869-75, and a United States Senator 1876-81. He was a supporter of Lincoln, opposed Johnson's reconstruction policy, was skeptical as to the pro- priety of impeaching Johnson, believed in the Repub- lican course as to the South in reconstruction and election matters, and has been regarded as the author of the XlVth Amendment. He supported sound money and was a staunch protectionist. He made great political friends, and some lasting political enemies in his own party. He suffered from charges to the effect that he had improperly accepted favors from certain railroads, which charges upon congress- ional investigation failed of proof. He opposed the Bland Silver BiU, favored ship subsidies, urged re- striction in Chinese immigration, was a prominent candidate for presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880; was Secretary of Sliate under Garfield and PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 131 again under Harrison (1889-1892), and as Secretary his course concerned most important treaties and for- eign relations of the Nation. His policy has been designated as one of "national expansion, national self-assertion, national participation in world poli- tics." Blaine was ever brilliant in debate and ready at repartee. From an expression used by Robert G. Ingersoll, in placing him in nomination at the con- vention in 1876, he was popularly termed the Plumed Knight. "Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the de- famers of his country and the maligners of his fair reputation. ' ' He was now at the full of his intellectual vigor and rose to every conception of an ideal political chief. The campaign grew in enthusiasm. Blaine had a vast following of old-time friends who stood by him with the utmost loyalty, and the young voters of the country came to look upon him with devotion^ only to regret with great feeling for years his final defeat. The Republicans who revolted were designated Mug- wumps. They voted for Cleveland or the Prohibi- tionists, on the assumption that Blaine was a pro- fessional politician and a spoilsman and on the theory that they were independents superior to affiliations of the party with which they had co-operated. The platforms were too much lost to sight, and the revolt in the party brought the campaign to a per- sonal one between the two leading candidates. Great bitterness and much abuse became features. "While Cleveland was unmercifully attacked as to his per- 132 REPUBLICAN PARTY sonal character and qualification, Blaine was assailed by the Mugwumps and their friends after the man- ner of the contemptible charge made upon Garfield. As Senator Henry Cabot Lodge said, the question came to be simply whether Blaine should or should not be President of the United States. Defection of the Irish from the Democratic ranks more than offset the Mugwump slump, until at a hasty reception in New York a few nights before the election an unfortunate expression was used by the Reverend Burehard. In presenting formal resolu- tions, he made some oral remarks, in the midst of which he applied the phrase "rujtn, Romanism and rebellion" to the antecedents of the Democratic Party. Others spoke briefiy, when Mr. Blaine, apparently not having noticed the unfortunate phrase, at once made response to the resolutions. Two days later, Blaine in an address said that at no previous time had there been in public interest relating to the fate of the Government "such cordial and hearty co-opera- tion among the great religious denominations, Pro- testant, Catholic and Hebrew." Had there been any reason to reply to the unnoticed expression, this would seem to have been enough. But by this time the unfair enemies of the candidate and of his party began to ascribe to him the w'ords of Burehard. At New Haven, he said : "In the city of Hartford, I had a letter put into my hands asking me why I charged the Democratic Party with being inspired by "rum, Romanism and rebellion," and explained that they put in his mouth the unfortunate expression of an- other, and that he was the last man in the United States who would make a disrespectful allusion to an- PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 133 other man's religion. But it was too late. The op- posing public press spread comment to the effect that Blaine had either sanctioned or uttered the hateful words, and printed slips, with like contents, were cir- culated in public places and in street-cars in the large cities upon Sunday preceding election day. Thus came the first defeat in the election of a Republican President within twenty-four years. Blaine received 182 electoral votes; Cleveland 219. New York had 36 electoral votes, and in that State Cleveland's pop- ular plurality over Blaine was 1149. A change there of 575 votes would have made Blaine President. The popular vote in the 38 States gave Blaine 4,848,334 and Cleveland 4,911,017. Cleveland's plurality was 62,683. Butler's popular vote was 133,825 ; St. John's 151,809. By the time Cleveland entered office, the Civil Ser- vice Law had attained a great deal of efficiency. The new President was much limited in patronage and had some strenuous trials with his constituents. They were, as a prominent speaker had said in the preced- ing Republican convention (but who turned Mug- wump), "very hungry and very thirsty." Yet Cleveland was stubborn and enforced the service with commendable results, and yielded only towards the end of his term to placate the elements preparatory to the next election. An important act in regulation of interstate commerce was passed (1887), which the Republican platform had urged. The Democrats de- layed doing anything to revise the tariff, because there , was a strong protectionist faction in the party. The President at last sent in a message attacking the pro- tective system and asking for decisive reductions in 134 REPUBLICAN PAETY the revenue rates. The party did not hang together, but finally the Democratic House prepared the Mills' Bill and after months of debate passed it, only to have it defeated by the Eepublieans in the Senate. Thus all efforts at "tariff reform" failed, and the tariff was made the issue for the approaching presidential cam- paign, in which the Democrats were to meet defeat. The large surplus in the Treasury had excited "log- rolling," and the largest appropriation for rivers and harbors so far known was created. The death of Vice-President Hendricks in 1885 brought up the important matter of the Presidential Succession, which the Republicans had considered after the death of Garfield, but had not finally acted upon. As the law stood, there being no Vice-Presi- dent, the succession would fall, in case of the death of the President, upon the president pro tempore of the Senate, or, if he could not act, upon the speaker of the House ; but between terms of Congress there were no such officers, and if the death of the President should occur under such circumstances, the government would be for a time without an executive head. The necessity of prompt settlement of the succession was realized by all parties, and an act was passed placing the heads of the Executive Department in the line of succession, if otherwise qualified, as by age and birth. Thus the succession is : Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of "War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secretary of the Navy, etc., in the order in which the Departments have been created by law. Thirty-five persons have been Presidents and thirty, Vice-Presidents. Five Presidents and six Vice-Presi- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 135 dents have died in office. William Henry Harrison died (1841) within one month of his inauguration, and Zachary Taylor (1850) within a year and a half. Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, three Republican Presidents, were assassinated. Lincoln had but en- tered upon his second term when death removed him. Garfield was but a few months into his term, and Mc- Kinley a like time in his second term, when a like fate overtook each of them. Of Vice-Presidents, George Clinton (1812), Elbridge Gerry (1814), William R. King (1853), Henry Wilson (1875), Thomas A. Hen- dricks (1885) and Garrett A. Hobart (1899) died at varying times, early and late, in their terms of office. Of the five Vice-Presidents who succeeded to the Chief Executive's Chair, two, Arthur and Roosevelt, proved qualified and equipped, and two, Tyler and Johnson, turned out to be recreants and rebels to the parties and policies by and upon which they were elected. These considerations point to the growing conviction of importance to be attached to the office of Vice-President and the nominations of candidates therefor. BENJAMIN HAERISON 1833-1901 President, 1889-1893; Renominated, 1892 * XIII Ninth Eepublican convention, 1888 — Harrison and Morton (1889-93) — "Czar" Eeed — "pork barrels," and filibustering — ^Blaine Secretary of State — Pan American Congress — foreign relations — Sherman Silver Act — Sherman Anti- Trust Law — Civil Service — McKinley Tariff — reciprocity — ^Knights of Labor; Farmers' Alliance — inflation opposed — "Billion Dollar Congress" — tenth Eepublican convention, 1892 — Harrison and Eeid nominated — tariff issue — silver question — Cleveland elected — financial crises — Wilson Tar- iff unsigned — Treasury deficits and bond issues The Republican convention was held at Chicago, in the new Auditorium in June, and adopted a plat- form uncompromisingly in favor of protection, for further Civil Service Eeform, for a merchant marine, bi-metallism and the admission of the Dakotas, Mon- tana and Washington to statehood; opposed all com- binations organized to control arbitrarily the con- ditions of trade among citizens, and attacked the Democratic administration for its weak foreign pol- icy, vetoes of pension bills and failure on the tariff. The convention proceeded, with animation at times, with adjournments or recesses at other times, to af- ford delegations, or rather their managers, time to consider. A lot of adherents of ex-Governor Russell A. Alger (Mich.) in the galleries raised enthusiasm by a yell — "What's the matter with Alger? He's all right!" During temporary recesses, with most dele- gates out, the audience was entertained by speeches. The great orator, "Bob" IngersoU, at such a time, sought to disclose that Walter Q. Gresham (Ind.) 137 138 REPUBLICAN PARTY was choice presidential timber, but the audience by uproar refused to believe it, and after repeated ef- forts the orator was obliged to retire. Blaine dele- gates were in strong evidence, but finally his name was withdrawn. General Benjamin Harrison (Ind.) received 85 votes on the first ballot, with increased votes thereafter ; 217 on the fourth, 544 on the eighth, and thus on the 6th day of the convention, became the candidate for President. His nomination was then made unanimous by viva voce vote. Governor Levi P. Morton (N. Y.) was selected for Vice-President on the first ballot. The Democrats met at St. Louis earlier in the same month, and went away as far as they could from what they had said four years before. While they did not declare for free trade they demanded such reductions as would amount almost to the same thing, in spite of the efforts of the increasing number of pro- tective Democrats. They renominated Cleveland for President by acclamation, and named Allen G. Thur- man (0.) for Vice-President. American, Equal Rights, Union Labor and United Labor were four minor parties that appeared in the field. They were negligible forces, their combined vote at the election being about 150,000, of which the Union Labor can- didate, Alison J. Streeter, received 144,608 votes. The Prohibitionists' convention nominated Clinton B. Pisk (N. Y.) and John A. Brooks (Mo.) for can- didates, and at the election polled 246,406 votes. The campaign was earnest and aggressive. The tariff issue turned the manufacturing and industrial interests to the support of the Republican ticket. The party won where it had lost before, in New York. Har- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 139 rison received 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleveland'. The popular vote stood 5,441,923 for Harrison and 5,536,524 for Cleveland. Harrison carried all the States, except the solid South and Connecticut and New Jersey. Harrison was a native of Ohio, and became a resi- dent of Indiana in 1854. He rendered conspicuous service in the Civil War and at its close was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers ' ' for ability and man- ifest energy and gallantry in command of a brigade. ' ' He was defeated as Republican candidate for gov- ernor of Indiana in the close election of 1876. He served as United States Senator (1881-7), and was tendered a portfolio by Garfield (1881), but declined. As Senator, he was an active advocate of protection, of civil service reform and for the building up of the navy. Harrison Avas genial and cordial with inti- mates, but was regarded as cold and stern to the world. He was, in fact, earnestly serious and thought- ful in his profession and public business, and threw no time away. No one ever questioned his integrity. He believed in his party, adhered to it, and touched elbows with Congress. He was a forceful orator, often eloquent, and never used platitudes. It was not intended he should speak in the campaign; but he made nearly a hundred impromptu addresses, never slipped, and was tactful beyond criticism. He was a lawyer, and nothing short of it. He came to the presidency in his matured powers, and made no mis- takes. After his term, he was retained in cases of first importance; was chief counsel of Venezuela in its boundary dispute with England at the Paris Arbitra- tion, and principal representative of the United 140 REPUBLICAN PARTY States at the Hague Conference (1899), and closed his career as a statesman of international ahility. That the people of the whole nation had passed from sectional feelings and old strifes to stable and united interests, was the belief and hope of the President. "Mill fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery," he said; "the emancipation was hid in the depths of the earth, as well as in the sky ; men were made free, and natural things become our better servants. The sectional elements having been elimi- nated, every State is open to the advantages of the protective system." The Department of Agriculture was established (1889). As urged by the Republican platform, North and South Dakota, Montana and "Washington were ad- mitted as States before the inauguration of Harrison and Morton, and later Idaho and Wyoming were in- troduced, and the Territory of Oklahoma was or- ganized. Blaine was Secretary of State; "William Windom, followed by Charles Foster (0., 1891), Secretary of the Treasury; Redfield Proctor (Vt.), followed by Stephen B. Elkins (W. Va., 1891), Secre- tary of "War, William H. H. MiUer (Ind.), Attorney- General; John Wanamaker (Pa.), Postmaster-Gen- eral; Benjamin F. Tracy (N. Y.), Secretary of the Navy; John W. Noble (Mo.), Secretary of the Inter- ior; and Jeremiah M. Rusk (Wis.), Secretary of Ag- riculture. Robert T. Lincoln was appointed Envoy and Minister to Great Britain. William W. Phelps (N. J.) to Germany, Whitelaw Reid (N. Y.) to France, and Allen T. Rice (N. Y.), followed by Charles E. Smith (Pa., 1890), to Russia. Thomas B. Reed (Me.) was elected Speaker of the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 141 House. Both branches of Congress and the Executive Department being in Republican hands, real business began. To prevent filibustering delays, Reed counted every member present to determine quorums, whether the member answered to the roll-call or not. Through approval by rules of the House he thus counted a quorum, holding that the Constitution required, not a voting, but a "present" quorum. This course created increased power in the Speaker, and the Democrats designated him "Czar." Progress en- sued, though with some loss to minority proposals. When at the next election the House became Demo- cratic, its Democratic members, having theretofore roundly denounced "Czar" Reed for his methods of enforcing legislative business, now, true to the in- stinctive nature of the party to change front, adopted precisely the same tactics. The rule was thereafter followed. Rules are for the dispatch of business, and the party in power is bound to take steps to push legislation through, or otherwise make an apparent or actual failure of its administration. House rules are the subject of revision and adoption at the opening of each new Congress, though changes even upon change of parties are no longer very marked. The minority party simply has a good chance to criticize and make a noise about the "high-handed" methods of the party in power, and thus it is "Czar," "Can- nonism, ' ' or something else. The Senate, being small in numbers and large in mind and dignity, has few restrictions in the way of rules. There is no limit to debate beyond the member's choice. Attempts have been made from Henry Clay's tiitie to enact a rule limiting debate, but the Senators are jealous of their 142 REPUBLICAN PARTY privileges and no limit has ever been put in the form of a rule on this subject. Therefore, in the Senate, "talking a measure to death" is one method of fili- bustering frequently employed. By this means a minority can defeat bad legislation or a measure it may determine shall not pass. By such a course towards the end of a Congress a bill may die for want of coming to a vote, or at other times prolonged de- bate may bring concessions from the other side. As a rule this method of filibustering has been used suc- cessfully where some measure is obviously bad, and its defeat will be supported by public opinion. But always, there must be great criticism from the other side, for it makes a vast difference whose ox is gored. Of course, sometimes a bad or questionable matter is secured through this method. Democratic Senator Benjamin R. Tillman (S. C.) in his "pitchfork" days, by threat of a long speech, forced into a bill an addi- tional appropriation to his State of $47,000, when the proper amount was alleged to be 34 cents. A fre- quent application of the privilege of defeating a meas- ure by "argument" has reference to "pork barrels" — excessive appropriations for river and harbor im- provements, and the like. The pressure is so great upon Congressmen to make a showing of something concrete done for their local constituents, that they, favoring one another, sometimes run the appropria- tions up to unconscionable figures. A conspicuous example of a filibuster in such a case was the defeat of the "pork" in the Democratic river and harbor im- provements bill in the Senate in 1914, resulting in cutting of vast millions from the appropriation for proposed new work and confining the bill to work PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 143 already begun. Republican Senators Kenyon (la.), Gallinger (N. H.), Senators from Nebraska, and Borah (Ida.), spoke at length against the bill. It fell to Senator Theodore E. Burton (0.), a "master of them that know," to surpass all efforts ever before made in length of address upon any subject in Con- gress in the attack he made upon the iniquities of this "pork-barrel" bill. He was reported to have made a continuous speech of 17 hours. Mere length of speech was an interesting feature and desirable in a filibuster, but the crowning feature of the address was the powerful argument and array of facts brought out by the Senator. Tracy did excellent work in the Navy Department in building up a modern fleet. The picturesque and unconventional Secretary, "Uncle Jerry," of the New Department of Agriculture, now established, which had been a part of the Interior Department from 1862, carried on his administration with great suc- cess. President Harrison may have had some qualms about appointing so popular a leader as Mr. Blaine to the first position in his Cabinet, but, if so, he did not reveal them. Nor did his vigor and sterling worth suffer by any over-shadowing from the bril- liant Secretary. Their characteristics were very dif- ferent, but the two persons moved with the utmost respect in their spheres. Blaine was tactful and quick, and the public, although engrossed in its pros- perous affairs, was relieved from attention to do- mestic policies, which were lately in turmoil following the Civil "War and reconstruction, but now settled, and the public inclined to look beyond the confines of 144 EEPUBLICAN PARTY the country to anything interesting. In short, a more vigorous foreign policy was expected. Whatever there had been of scandal and invective of other days, that was now past history, and the qualities of Blaine fitted him beyond question for handling our foreign rela- tions. In' fact, there was presently marked increase of public interest in foreign relations, commercially and politically. The Pan-American Congress, presided over by Sec- retary Blaine, was held in Washington (Oct. 1889). Such Congress had long been desired by the Secretary, and its session fostered sentiment for commercial reciprocity between the country and the other Ameri- can republics, and the policy advocated found lodg- ment in the reciprocity . provisions of the McKinley Tariff BiU the following year, under which recipro- city treaties were soon negotiated with Brazil and Spain. Already under Cleveland troubles in the Samoan Islands had caused some of our vessels, manned by good sea-dogs, to hasten thither. But little else was doing, and Germany seemed about to gain complete control in disregard of English and American resi- dents, our naval station, and neutrality. Probably a war was averted by a typhoon, which swept the is- lands and adjacent waters. A mob in New Orleans lynched a number of Italian subjects (1891), and straightway the question arose whether an old States- Rights proponent would handle the trouble with ef- fect and make reparation for the killed. Louisiana did nothing, and a near rupture came with Italy, going so far that she withdrew her Minister from Washington. Congress then succeeded in making sat- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 145 isfactory reparation, and the good will of Italy was restored. Anarchy prevailed in the Isthmus of Pan- ama, and in concurrence with treaty obligations an armed force was sent there and protected the Isthmus. The Samoan experience was a spur to a more power- ful navy. Congress appropriated $41,500,000, and by 1890 we had under construction five battle-ships of the then first class, ten steel cruisers, an armored cruiser, an armored ram and half a dozen vessels for coast defense. The platform's further declarations were not forgotten. The unsatisfactory Bland Sil- ver Act was repealed, and the Sherman Silver Pur- chase and Coinage Act was enacted in its place (1890) . This was a most important piece of legislation, re- sulting in great benefits at the time. It was not wholly desirable, as developed later. But silver bul- lion had continuously been falling in value, and an effort was thus made to check the fall and to satisfy some of the Middle-West Republican States, where the Farmers' Alliance was gathering up and demand- ing the unlimited coinage of silver. The Dependent Pension Act was passed, in justice to disabled sol- diers and their dependents, doubling the number of pensioners and increasing the amount of pensions to $160,000,000 annually. This course was in sharp con- trast to the 300 vetoes of pensions by Cleveland. The combination of corporations in emulation of the Standard Oil Trust's elimination of competition began to cause dissatisfaction and criticism through the country, and in response the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was enacted (1890). This measure declared combinations in wrongful restraint of trade affecting interstate commerce or commerce with foreign na- 146 EEPUBLICAN PARTY tions illegal and punishable. An object of the Act was to prevent oppression of smaller concerns, and to rectify what State legislation could not reach. The full force and import of the act developed more as time went on, although early and for some time the corporations were active in devising and carrying out methods for avoiding the law. One of the early cases of importance and influence in bringing out the efflciency of this law, was the Addyston Pipe case, which was instituted in McKinley's administration. The opinion on appeal in the Circuit Court of Ap- peals, Sixth Circuit, was written by Judge "William H. Taft, and the decision was affirmed, with slight modification in some details, by the Supreme Court. The promotion of civil service reform in this ad- ministration was highly commendable. A new immi- gration law was enacted to shut out criminals, idiots, the insane and paupers from our shores. Seal fishery troubles, commonly designated as the Bering Sea Controversy, caused serious disagreement with Eng- land, but were referred to arbitration (1891) and final adjustment was thus reached two years later. The Inter-State Commerce Law was much extended. As the protective policy, inaugurated by the Re- publican Party and maintained by it since it had been entrusted with the administration of the Gov- ernment in 1861, had been the distinctive issue upon which the campaign had been waged and won, it was up to the party to secure and perpetuate that policy by legislation in strict accordance with its principles and purpose of protection. This was the mandate upon the party, and it proceeded to act accordingly. The surplus was large and the task was to remedy the PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 147 evil by reducing duties and yet preserve protective principles. The Committee on Ways and Means was headed by William McKinley, and it began its work early in the administration, opened doors for informa- tion and consideration of all interests and after great labor reported the Bill which passed and went into effect. The McKinley Tariff Act proceeded on the theory of admitting free whatever did not compete with home productions and imposing strong duties upon whatever did thus compete. On specified free goods, the President was authorized to lay duties should the country importing such goods unduly tax our exports to such country. This was the new and important principle of Reciprocity. The successful tariff policy of the Republican Party ever tended to entrench the party in the respect of the people, and consequently has always been the chief point of attack by the opposition. Republicans main- tain that reciprocity is in strict accord with a pro- tective tariff, and is designed to attain the same bene- ficial ends. This rule applies, unless it is determined, for instance, that an uneconomical industry is to be established for protection in case of international war. The full report and ultimate purposes of the new phase — reciprocity — were not at first realized in the public mind, but its far-reaching value was revealed later. The principle of reciprocity is that the Nation agrees with another nation to admit free of duty cer- tain desired articles which the Nation cannot raise or produce either at all or in sufficient quantities to advantage, and in return the other nation admits to its ports free of duty certain articles which our Na- tion produces but which the other does not, or not to 148 REPUBLICAN PARTY its required amounts. As was anticipated by the Re- publicans, these reciprocity features of the McKinley Tariff attained most desirable ends, and in two im- portant bearings: One was commercial. Before the close of Harrison's administration some twenty re- ciprocal treaties had been negotiated to the great ad- vantage of the country's trade involving imports, in- cluding sugar, molasses, coffee, tea, and hides, and ex- ports including pork, flour and other bread-stuffs, clothing, cotton manufactures, hardware, engines, tools and machinery. Our foreign market in this line of products increased 70 per cent within 21 months after the treaties were concluded, and more than doubled what it was for 21 months before the treaties. The other beneficial result was of political signifi- cance — the Nation's increased friendly relations with the Southern Republics. Our political ascendency with those Republics, and its supreme importance, begin to divulge as Mexican anarchy and grave in- ternational troubles springing out of the present Eu- ropean "War threaten, and the Yellow Peril, a pos- sible war with Japan, may involve us, if not other parts also of the "Western Hemisphere. Despite the fact that under the McKinley Act re- vival of business was expected — ^by the Republicans, because they maintained that industries and manu- factures would increase and employ labor, and by the Democrats, because they argued that the industries and manufactures would thrive unconscionably and prices go up (which state of things, could it be had instead of stagnation, was just what was to be de- sired) — ^there was a growing unrest in parts of the country, especially west and south. This began long PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 149 before the Act went into force, October 1, 1890. The prospect was that the Republicans would lose Con- gressmen in the November election. The reaction (as often happens in such cases) may have been due to a swing back from the strong victory of two years before, without any obvious intervening cause due to party action. The Democrats assailed the tariff and predicted ruin to follow, and unmercifully stabbed at reciprocity as a fraud and humbug. They also said, if reciprocity is good for South America why is it not good for Great Britain? To this, the obvious answer, of course, was. Great Britain had nothing with which to reciprocate. She did not have a line of products like those of South America and in some other countries, but manufactured and fur- nished only goods which substantially we ourselves desired to produce. The unrest appeared to mani- fest itself mainly in relation to money and the cur- rency, a subject upon which a vast proportion of the people were soon to run into error and mistake. For some time silver bullion had shown signs of falling in value in its established ratio with gold. In some hope of staying the fall, the Sherman Act was inter- posed. While it did good, it could not in the end keep up a value that did not in fact exist, either here or in the commercial world elsewhe^re. Although a tailor has been spoken of as the ninth of a man, a tailor in Philadelphia started something when he originated the Knights of Labor. This or- ganization increased enormously throughout the country. In 1887 it approximated a membership of 800,000. Though its course led to disastrous strikes, which injured the order, it still flourished with vigor 150 KEPUBLICAN PARTY (1890), and had an untold number of votes. The Farmers' Alliance was fast coming up, and destined to grow by 1890 to a membership of 1,269,000. Be- sides, there was a Colored Farmers' Alliance, soon to have a membership of 1,000,000. The former held a national convention in Florida, and adopted a plat- form demanding laws prohibiting speculative deal- ings in agricultural products, laws for governmental control or ownership of means of transportation, and a project for public loans to farmers on grain stored in county warehouses. More, the Farmers' Alliance had united (1889) with the Knights of Labor in a plat- form demanding not only the free and unlimited coin- age of silver but increased issues of legal-tender green- backs and the abolition of National Banks. In the year now at hand (1890) the Alliance, though not amalgamating with the Democratic Party, dictated that party's nominations throughout the South very largely, and spread with great strength in several of the mid-west and western States, wielding in some of them (Illinois, Minnesota and South Dakota) the bal- ance of power and in others carrying congressional elections. It elected 9 Congressmen and 3 Senators. It soon after passed largely into the People's Party. These delusive financial schemes once started proved seductive and could not be stopped for years. The upshot of all these matters was, that in the fall elec- tions the Republicans lost control in the House, and for the remainder of Harrison's term. An interesting feature is that the party's adversaries declared then, and reiterated afterwards, that the Republican Party lost because of depression and evil effects due to the new tariff, whereas the tariff did not go into effect PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 151 until October, just preceding the election, and could and did, in truth and in fact, have little or nothing to do with the slump. The expenses of a vastly enlarged Government brought the appropriations of the first Congress in Harrison's term to such a sum that it was termed the "Billion-Dollar Congress." Though the Democrats participated actively in the ' ' log-rolling, ' ' and though the appropriations by the next Democratic Congress were to exceed this sum by some 38 millions, and the day was not far distant , when these appropriations would be doubled, the opportunity to lay the "of- fense" to the Republicans in power was not lost, and the Democrats rolled the expression — billion-dollar Congress — as a sweet morsel on the tongue. Speaker Reed's retort was that this was a "billion-dollar Na- tion." The Republicans assembled in national convention at Minneapolis in June, 1892. William McKinley; was permanent chairman. They introduced in the platform the substance of their planks of four years before ; stood by the McKinley Tariff, but in fear of party dissention were not very clear on silver. In this respect, they might well have done better, for all the harm it would have done them from loss of silver Republican votes at the polls; and they came to it straight a little later. Shortly preceding the conven- tion, Blaine had suddenly resigned as Secretary of State, and there was great excitement as to whether some defined plan was not on foot by which he would secure the nomination for President. His resigna- tion was construed to mean that he would accept the nomination if tendered him. Harrison was renomi- 152 REPUBLICAN PAETY nated on the first ballot. He received 535^e votes, McKinley 182, Blaine 181%, Whitelaw Reid, 4, and Lincoln 1. The nomination was then made unani- mous. Reid was selected for Vice-President. The Democratic Convention met at Chicago later in June. The platform denounced the McKinley Tariff in particular as the source of all evils ; declared for a revision of the tariff downward, but. for some protection; claimed to favor reciprocity, trimmed on the money question, but attacked the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. After much opposition, particularly from his own State, Grover Cleveland was again nom- inated for President. Adlai B. Stevenson (lU.) was selected for Vice-President. The People 's or Populist Party, at Omaha, in July, took a gloomy view of corruption in government, busi- ness prostration, labor oppression, farms mortgaged, and capitalists possessed of land and money. The proposed remedy was to restore the government to the "plain people," to have free and unlimited coinage of silver at the legal ratio of 16 to 1, and to issue na- tional currency directly to the people in volume ade- quate to give everybody some and check the tendency to "breed tramps and millionaires." The nominees were Weaver and James G. Field. The Prohibition- ist Party was for prohibition, woman suffrage, uni- form marriage and divorce laws, and tariff for rev- enue only. Its nominees were John BidweU (Cal.) and J. B. CranfiU (Tex.). There was also a Socialist Labor Party, of which Simon "Wing (Mass.) and Charles H. Matchett (N. Y.) were the candidates. The campaign began fuUy upon the tariff issue. Though many business and commercial ^Democrats PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 153 in the South realized their need of a protective tariff, their prejudice with respect to the "force bill" (1890), caused the Democratic press and campaign orators to shy at expressions in the Republican plat- form, — that every citizen should be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot at all public elec- tions and that laws should be passed to secure such rights. As this law, in their view, smacked of reach- ing through to protection of the colored voter and tended to protect him in his civil and political rights, they would have none of it. They could not, rather would not, stand for such measures, and therefore chose to fight on that line, business or no business. The protective feature of their platform was scouted, in order to vent their hatred toward anything that would "coerce" them into acknowledging any such rights of colored citizens. The southern Democrats determined to belie the professed meaning of the term "democracy" by retaining class distinctions and looking upon labor as marking a servile race. It was a persistent remnant of the ante-bellum period and a continuation of the choice made in opposition to re- construction. It was sectionalism greater than na- tionalism, but the south could, if it desired, stay be- hind in the progress so obvious over the rest of the country. In the west the silver question, was quite in issue. The Democrats in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and North Dakota, had no electoral ticket but voted with the People's Party. In Nevada they had a ticket, but in general voted with the Populists. In North Dakota they partially, and in Minnesota wholly, fused with the People's Party. In Oregon one of the four elec- 154 REPUBLICAN PARTY tors on the People's ticket was also on the Democrats' ticket. It was a fine mix-up. Some Republicans, not to be behind and being infected with silver or some other disease of the People's contingent, united with that party in Louisiana and in Alabama, and that was all the good it did them. Not so with the Democrats. They took away Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Nevada from the Republicans and gave those states to the People's and Populist Parties, and consequently the Democratic Party had no lack of a majority of elec- toral votes in the landslide. John Sherman, referring to the affirmative prin- ciples of the Republican Party, that it "adopted, de- clared and executed great public measures of vital im- portance, while the Democratic Party was simply a negative party, opposing all the Republican Party's measures but acquiescing in its achievements," wrote, in the New York Independent: "Republicanism, on the other hand, holds fast to everything that is en- nobling and elevating in its history. It is the party of national honor, which has removed the foul re- proach of slavery, and redeemed the plighted faith of the Government in financial legislation and ad- ministration. It is the party of equal rights, an un- sullied ballot and honest elections. It is the party of national policies, of comprehensive scope and enlight- ened self-interest, by which industry is diversified, labor systematically protected, and the prosperity of all classes and sections promoted. Between its pres- ent policies and the traditions of its glorious past there is unbroken continuity of patriotic action." The upset of the country had put out of mind the reliance that the people should have placed in the Re- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 155 publican Party, and they came to reverse themselves two years later in the congressional and State elec- tions. In November, 1894, the Republicans were vic- torious in every northern State and in every western State except California, and in southern States they succeeded in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Delaware. They elected Levi P. Morton governor of New York over David B. Hill by 155,792. But in 1892, the results were : Harrison received 145 electoral votes, Cleveland 277, and Weaver 22. Har- rison's popular vote was 5,175,201; Cleveland's 5,554,267; Weaver's, 1,042,531; Bidwell's 269,299; Wing's, 21,266. The Democrats for the first time in thirty-two years came into full power in both Senate and House and in the Executive Department. They held this pos- ition but two years and were not to gain it again until 1913. It was a first-class opportunity that knocked at their door. In April, 1893, a business panic began and caused great depression by mid-summer. The Democrats deemed this disaster due to the Sherman Act, passed by the Republicans as a compromise and steadying measure. Cleveland convened Congress in special session, and after a three months' struggle the act was repealed. This did neither harm nor good. Busi- ness was neither restored nor improved. The busi- ness depression continued while the Democrats worked in the next Congress over the Wilson Tariff Bill. The biU went back from the Senate, where it had received 600 amendments giving more or less protection, nulli- fying the "revision downward," and was passed by the House as received (August, 1894). The sturdy 156 REPUBLICAN PARTY Cleveland might have signed it, hut did not. He wrote letters to two of his party in the House denouncing the hill in unsparing terms, and in effect character- izing his party as guilty of perfidy and dishonor, and he suffered the bill to become law without his signa- ture. Prosperity did not return for four years. In the spring of 1894, "Coxey's army" mobilized in Ohio and marched upon "Washington, to ask the Govern- ment to issue half a billion of greenbacks. The ranks, in ntimber 100, swelled to 350 by the time the Capitol was reached, but the bravado which was in them at a distance had oozed out at their finger ends, and there was nothing very definite they had to say. After having been "escorted" about the capitol by the po- lice, the army dispersed. Other "armies of the un- employed," even from the Pacific Coast, set out for various destinations, especially having the national seat of government in mind, and caused some con- sternation along their lines of travel. But their num- bers sometimes increasing, but soon diminishing, their campaigns dwindled and soon all was over without a conquest. Strikes of bituminous coal workers dis- tressed the country. A strike of employees in the Pullman Car works, at Chicago, involved dangerous numbers; also strikes involving the railroads and manifesting disorder, violence, the burning of freight cars and other destruction of railroad property, es- pecially at and near Chicago, were a small war. The Democratic governor, John P. Altgeld, of Illinois, did nothing, not even calling out the militia. The sturdy Cleveland intervened with Federal troops, the Fed- eral courts assisted by a determination that the carry- ing of the mails should not be interfered with, with- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 157 out arrests and punishment of the guilty, and after a time peace was restored. The Republicans pricked up their ears and went into the fall congressional campaign with great earn- estness. They put before the people the whole failure of the administration thus far, denounced its course in matters of the tariff and finance, to which they al- leged was due the continued trade depression and fall of revenues, criticized its weak foreign policy, and won back much of their lost ground in Congress. They gained 7 seats in the Senate and upwards of 100 in the House. Nevertheless, Cleveland would not acknowledge the verdict, and, in his message to Con- gress (Dec, 1894), favored free ships and recom- mended that coal and iron be placed on the free list and that the differential rates on sugar be taken off. Meanwhile foreigners returned their securities and withdrew gold. The gold reserve, which protected the greenbacks and treasury notes, shrank to the danger point. Under the "Wilson Bill the revenues fell off, the deficiencies for the four years of Democratic ad- ministration being $156,000,000. The surplus in the Treasury vanished, and Cleveland sold $50,000,000 of gold bonds (1894), and before the close of the year made another sale in the same amount. He convened a special session of Congress in January (1895), and recommended that authority be given the Secretary of the Treasury to issue low interest-rate bonds, but the Democratic Congress failed to approve. The Presi- dent was obliged to deal with a syndicate, represent- ed by J. Pierpont Morgan, whereby he obtained $65,- 000,000 gold. Gold bonds of the Government were good, but there was dissention and disruption within 158 REPUBLICAN PARTY the councils of the Democratic Party. The President, a second time, urged Congress to authorize a bond issue, but it again failed to grant authority. The next year Cleveland was fortunate in raising $100,000,000 by sale of bonds to the public at the favorable rate of 3.4 per cent. Loss of revenue under the Wilson Bill was also in part met by an income tax and some in- creased internal revenue. Later, the Democratic in- come tax, from its non-apportionment, was declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional. XIV Eleventh Eepublican convention, 1896 — McKinley and Ho- bart (1897-1901)— Democrats for silver, "16 to 1"— Ding- ley Tariff — Spanish War — Cuba — new possessions — world power — Porto Eioo and Philippines — Hawaii — twelfth Ee- publican convention, 1900 — McKinley and Eoosevelt — McKinley assassinated, 1901 In 1896 the people became profligate in national conventions, there being no fewer than eight. The Republicans gathered at St. Louis in June. Senator Charles W. Fairbanks (Ind.) was temporary, and Hon. John M. Thurston (Neb.) was permanent, chair- man. The platform, reported by Hon. Joseph B. For- aker, (0.) declared for protection to all products and the wages of workingmen against the fatal competi- tion of low-priced labor abroad; declared that pro- tection and reciprocity are twin measures; recom- mended a protectorate over Hawaii, and insisted that the United States should actively use its influence to restore peace and give independence to Cuba. The party, in the face of threatened defection throughout the "West, stood on its nerve and declared for the gold standard, and that it was unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase the currency or impair the credit of the country. It opposed the free coinage of silver unless by international agreement its parity with gold could be maintained; asserted the right of the United States to give effect to the J.Ionroe Doctrine by responding to the appeal of any 159 WILLIAM McKINLBY 1843-1901 President, 1897-1901 PEINCIPLBS AND POLICIES 161 American State for friendly intervention in case of European encroachment; declared the party mindful of the rights and interests of women ; favored the ad- mission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and announced that the protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. Upon refusal by a vote of 812 to 110 of a declara- tion for the use of both gold and silver as equal stand- ard money, twenty-two delegates from Nevada, Utah, Montana and South Dakota, headed by the Honorable Henry M. Teller (Col.) withdrew. There were prominent candidates for President, in- cluding Speaker Reed, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (Mass.), Governor Levi B. Morton, Senators Mathew S. Quay (Pa.) and William B. Allison (la.). These were presented in nominating speeches, although it was evident "William McKinley was the available can- didate. He was everywhere known as the author of the Tariff Act bearing his name, and in view of the failure of the Democrats to revise the tariff law it was hoped the protective tariff principle would be the ab- sorbing question before the people, and the silver and gold controversy be avoided. Whatever might hap- pen, McKinley had been neither extreme nor promi- nent in these threatened troubles. His position was that neither gold nor silver should be at a premium over the other, but that the free coinage of silver, in the absence of the co-operation of the other commer- cial nations, would surely bring gold to a premium. He was nominated on the first ballot by a vote of 6611/^ to 2391^ for other candidates, and the nomina- tion was then made unanimous. Garrett A. Hobart 162 REPUBLICAN PARTY (N. J.) was chosen for Vice-President on the first bal- lot, his chief opponent being H. Clay Evans (Tenn.). The Democratic Convention, at Chicago, in July, became radical and declared for the free coinage of silver at the legal ratio of 16 to 1, and denounced the "crime of 73." This turn to silver was the outcome of a conference held at Washington (1895) which gave a momentum to the silver propaganda. South- ern influences prevailed in the Democratic Party, and Eastern influence preserved the Republicans. Upon the fifth ballot the nomination for President fell to William J. Bryan (Kas.), who had made in the con- vention an impassioned and eloquent appeal — ^the "cross-of-gold" speech — supporting the money doc- trine of the platform. ArthTir Sewall (Me.) was named for Vice-President. The delegates from New York and many from New England and New Jersey refrained from voting. The National Silver Party followed at St. Louis, and accepted the Democratic nominations of Bryan and Sewall. The People's, or Populist, Party met at St. Louis, concurrently with the National Silver Party. "Middle-of-the-Road" Populists opposed coalition with the other parties, but the result was that Bryan was nominated, with Thomas E. Watson (Ga.) for a running mate. The National Democratic Party, outgrowth of those who refused to vote at Chicago, and of revolt in the Demo- cratic ranks, held a convention at Indianapolis in Sep- tember. It stood for the gold standard, repudiated the Chicago silver platform and nominees, but de- nounced protection. General John M. Palmer (111. and General Simon B. Buckner (Ky.) became its PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 163 candidates. The Prohibition Party, at Pittsburgh in May, stood by its generally announced principles and nominated Joshua Levering (Md.) and Hale John- son (111.)- There was, however, a split in the conven- tion. Some delegates, who had failed to secure a plank for free-silver, withdrew and held a convention of their own. They assumed the name of the Na- tional Party, and succeeded in naming Charles E. Bentley (Neb.) and J. H. Southgate (N. C.) as can- didates for the highest offices within the gift of the people. The Socialist-Labor Party convened at New York (July) and named Charles H. Matchett (N. Y.) for first position and Mathew Maguire (N. J.) for the second. Sound money became the supreme issue. Intense interest and excitement pervaded this remarkable campaign. In the opinion of many, the patriotic and moral excitement of the campaign surpassed that of 1860. The "Gold Democrats" aided the Eepublican ticket, some of them voting for it and none of them voting for Bryan. McKinley and Hobart were elected, receiving 271 electoral votes ; Bryan received 176, and Sewall for Vice-President 149 votes, 27 going to "Watson, the "Middle-of-the-Road" Populist. The popular vote for the Republicans was 7,104,779 ; for the various parties who had named Bryan 6,506,- 835 ; for the National Democratic ticket, 133,590 ; for the Prohibitionist 144,379; and for the Socialist- Labor 36,576. The majorities in many States were overwhelming. New York gave McKinley 268,000 plurality, besides 19,000 votes for Palmer; Pennsyl- vania 295,000 and 11,000 ; Massachusetts 173,000 and 164 EEPUBLICAN PAKTY 11,000; while to Bryan, Texas gave 202,000 plurality, and Colorado 135,000. John Sherman, now venerable of age, — ^being sev- enty-four and having been in illustrious public life long years — became Secretary of State. Lyman J. Gage (111.), Gold Democrat, became Secretary of the Treasury; John D. Long (Mass.), Secretary of the Navy; Joseph McKenna (Cal.), Attorney-General; James A. Gary (Md.), Postmaster-General; Cornelius N. Bliss (N. Y.), Secretary of the Interior, and James "Wilson (la.). Secretary of Agriculture. Both Senate and House were Republican, though not strongly so, and a sprinkling of free-silver Ee- publicans in the Senate dampened decisive action for sound money. However, the protectionists were strong, and in an extra session of Congress, called immediately upon the inauguration, the Dingley Tariff, highly protective and including reciprocity (which had been repealed by the Wilson Bill) be- came law in July, 1897. Cuban troubles were such a nuisance that it was difficult to preserve neutrality. Many strong men were for intervention, by war even, to drive the Spaniard from the Western Hemisphere. The War Department, with its efficient Secretary and the activities of Theodore Roosevelt, its Assistant Secretary, fast brought the navy into formidable shape, and the regular army was to be supported by volunteers. Attention was very much upon fertile Cuba in its struggle for independence. Spain had 200,000 troops in Cuba, but held only the cities while the rebels held the interior. Finally, the tyrannical General Weyler was in charge, and established his policy of PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 165 reeoncentration. Under this the rebels, to the num- ber all told of 400,000, were driven into the vicinity of the fortified cities, to lie on the ground and die with disease. Mobs breaking out in Havana, the Maine was sent to that harbor under declaration of a friendly act, and the North Atlantic squadron was in rendezvous at the Dry Tortugas. Negotiations with Spain looked to our peaceful intervention to abate cruelties, when one of the most momentous events in our history occurred. The Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor (Feb. 1898). In April, Congress resolved that the people of Cuba were and of right ought to be independent. It granted McKinley authority to intervene by force, and April 21 war was in effect declared. The patriotism and power of the country, from every quarter, made short work of it. Comodore Dewey won in Manila Bay, destroying ten enemy-vessels and the battery of Cavite (May 1). Theodore Roosevelt, of "Rough Riders" fame, Colonel of the First U. S. volunteer cavalry, came into his element at San Juan Hill, not to mention many others brave to face death, or taste it, without fear. The Spanish ships, attempting to escape from Santiago, were met, pursued and de- stroyed in hot July, and the war was virtually over. At the close of the war, the United States found it- self in possession, under military control, of Cuba, Por- to Rico, and the Philippines, — of the last, with insur- gent Aguinaldo yet to be captured. Spain, who had once ruled half the world, whose islands had dotted the encircling seas, whose possessions in America had ante-dated the American Colonies, whose Balboa had first seen the Pacific, was swept from the Western 166 REPUBLICAN PARTY World, and in her humbled Castilian pride pleaded for retention of the Philippines. While the brief war was in progress, other foreign powers gave us no trouble, save Germany appeared at Manila with a fleet surpassing Dewey's. Germany was building a navy to support her colonial enterprises. She caused some friction, but informal suggestions from Washington led her to moderate her note of protest, and especially as England had cheered our declaration of war. Nor were the peace negotiations interefered with by more than a few words from the Great Powers. Peace was concluded by the Treaty of Paris, transmitted by the President to the Senate and there approved (Feb. 1899). Our plenipotentiaries were WiUiam R. Day, Secretary of State, Senators Cushman K. Davis, Wil- liam P. Frye and George Gray, and Mr. Whitelaw Reid. Spain relinquished all claims to Cuba, ceded Porto Rico and other islands of her sovereignty in the West Indies, the islands of Guam and the Philippine archipelago. Opposition in the United States to the course taken was on the ground that the Nation should not ac- quire the Philippines, thereby embarking upon a colonial or imperial policy of conquest and of govern- ment without the consent of the governed. The United States of America had, without pre-design, now be- come a dominant factor, in a broad sense not before experienced, in world politics. The vastness of the change politically, whatever may be thought of theo- ries or of expediency, had in fact come. The imme- diate cause of the war, — the independence of Cuba, — was now a secondary matter ; the immediate, mo- mentous elements in the Nation's destiny concerned PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 167 its relations in the Caribbean Sea and dominancy in the Pacific ; but there was an unf orseen expansion of the United States in world empire. What was the United States to do with its new pos- sessions, inevitably in hand from the war? As to Cuba, the course to be pursued was clear, having al- ready been announced. There was, with us, much sentiment and considerable argument for annexation. But we stood in honor bound before the world to grant independence, and President McKinley would con- sider nothing different. A military government was therefore established, with General John R. Brooks as governor, who was succeeded (1899) by General Leonard "Wood. To the Cubans, Congress proposed pledges, that no foreign power should be permitted to control any part of Cuban territory, that the Cuban Government would incur no debt not justified by its revenues, and that the United States would be per- mitted to establish naval stations in Cuban waters and to maintain the independence of the Island at any time, by force, if necessary. These terms were embodied in the Constitution adopted by the Cuban convention, in forming a republican plan of govern- ment (June 1901), and our supervision ceased, ex- cept for a brief second military occupation under Roosevelt (1906), when the Cubans became impotent in government. The phrase — the Constitution foUows the flag — is in substance that the limitations of the Constitution upon Congress and the other departments of the na- tional Government apply immediately and of their own force to all territories brought under the sover- eignty of the United States. Congress legislates for 168 REPUBLICAN PARTY the territories, and the only question had been whether certain limitations apply when that body is legislat- ing over territory which has been annexed to, but not "incorporated" into, the United States. Is such ter- ritory foreign, so that existing tariff laws, for instance, apply to it, or can special tariff provisions be applied? The supreme Court first determined the question authoritatively in the "insular cases," decided in 1901. The Court determined that the Constitu- tion, when it went into operation, applied to the States and the territories then within the boundaries of the United States, that new territory may be acquired by treaty, but that it becomes an integral part of the United States only by the assent of Congress, express or implied ; that, when once incorporated by an act of Congress or in pursuance of such act, a territory comes under the general revenue laws of the United States and its inhabitants become entitled to all privileges of the Constitution. The conquest or military occu- pation of new territory does not of itself operate to "annex" territory to the United States. The ex- pression — the Constitution follows the flag — does not apply, in the sense and to the extent used by the Democrats, to our insular possessions. They are not so far foreign as to be subject to the regular tariff as to imports, but it is within the powers of Congress to enact special tariffs or grant free trade and to guar- antee civil rights, and to dispose of or regulate the territory and other property in accordance with ex- igencies as they exist or may arise. When the Spanish War was in progress, the ad- ministration made provision for the issue and sale of government bonds up to $400,000,000. Cleveland had PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 169 sold bonds to meet a deficit under a Democratic ad- ministration, in a time of profound peace, — except within Democratic ranks. Whether the Democratic spirit of opposition to correct business methods at that time was still uppermost in the Democratic mind may be unknown, but the Democrats now strenuously op- posed the new bond issue, and but six members of their party in Congress could be found to vote for it. The issue was most popular, and bids were promptly received, exceeding sixteen times the re- quired amount. Porto Rico was treated upon broad construction ideas, as a possession and not a part of the United States, and was organized (1900) as a territory and made a customs district, without customs duties as between it and the United States. It is governed by officers appointed by our President and a legislature elected by the people of the Island. Our military possession in fact of the Philippines raised the crucial question. "We could not, in hu- manity, restore the Islands to Spain, in whole or in part. "We could not abandon them, and they could not, either then or at any near day, care for them- selves. The President felt that upon the Nation had been cast the most solemn obligations, which must be in time carried out in the interests of humanity by the exercise of the highest political wisdom attainable. The sentiment of the American people crystallized towards this ideal, and, as to method, the Islands were to be taken over and their ultimate disposition should rest with the future. The course pursued was not to incorporate the inhabitants of the Islands into United States citizenship nor to annex the Island as an in- 170 REPUBLICAN PARTY tegral part of its territory, but to establish a suitable government, prepare the inhabitants for stable local self-government, and in due time make such disposi- tion of the territory as will best promote the interests of the inhabitants thereof and of the citizens of the United States. The general course pursued in pacifying the Fili- pinos and instituting government among them con- tinued under the Republican administrations with- out great comment or attention, save for occasional and sundry attacks of the Democrats to air themselves on the so-called imperial and foreign colonial policies. Military occupation was continued in the Philippines. The army there consisted of 50,000 men, which reached 60,000 before the insurrectionists were overcome, and President Roosevelt was able (July, 1902) to declare the Islands pacified. Meanwhile, under President McKinley, government was worked over to non-mili- tary administration as fast as practicable and at length provision was made for a colonial government by commission. This consisted of a Governor, Vice- President, department heads, and courts ; and a repre- sentative assembly, whose members are elected under a restricted suffrage. William H. Taft (0.), who had been chairman of the commission to establish muni- cipal government (1900) and was civil governor by appointment of McKinley (1901), continued under Roosevelt until he resigned (1903) to become Secretary of War (1904). The legislative duties and executive work in the Islands were extensive, highly important, and successful. Governor Taft submitted complete and extended reports of progress made and of the civil and incidental military status. Insurrections PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 171 and rebellions, from time to time, were unavoidable in some of the islands and provinces. The people of Hawaii, like many others around us, have experienced various wars and revolutions. They adopted the Ten Commandments as their funda- mental law (1825), but later substituted a constitu- tion of their own composition ; granted universal suf- frage, and were about going to pieces in a rebellion, when they applied to us for annexation. A treaty was proposed to President Harrison, but his term closed before it could be ratified. Queen Liliuokalani had forfeited her right to the throne by attempting to overthrow the constitution and decree a new one. A just revolution had set up a Provisional Govern- ment, with Sanford B. Dole at its head. Following Harrison, Cleveland violated his constitutional rights by sending a special commissioner with paramount power to the Islands in disregard of our Minister there. This commissioner bore to President Dole the famous letter, beginning, "My Great and Good Friend." Designs being to subvert Dole and put the Queen on the throne, great criticism followed. Cleve- land appointed a new minister, who requested Dole to relinquish authority to the Queen. Whether the Provincial Government would relinquish, or continue its own government, was wholly its business. It re- fused the request, and Cleveland asked Congress to take action. The Democratic Congress flunked com- pletely, and the Republic of Hawaii had to be recog- nized. Hawaii was so friendly at the time of the Spanish War as to violate neutrality. She allowed our ships to coal there, and even use a port as a naval base. After the war, Hawaii requested annexation. 172 EEPUBLICAN PAKTY and, upon recommendation of McKinley, resolutions were passed, in pursuance of which a union was ef- fected. In 1900, an Act of Congress organized the Territory of Hawaii, declared its Citizens to be citi- zens of the United States, and extended the general provisions of our Constitution and laws to it. Presi- dent Dole was made the first governor. The congressional elections in McKinley 's term returned Republicans, for the most part, and thereby the country ratified the Republican policies. It should have appeared as decided that free-silver and kin- dred financial propoganda were relegated to the past. But that was not yet. Prosperity under the Dingley Tariff and the re- bound from the Spanish War were unprecedented. Imports increased and exports grew enormously. Ex- panding trade in the Orient was marked. Fortunate- ly, depression and fall of prices, to be anticipated from the contraction of the currency by the practical adoption of the gold standard and demonitization of silver, was minimized by gold discoveries in the Klon- dike and at Nome and by increased production in South Africa. Business and agriculture were active and prices rose. Capitalists combined their resources and trusts were formed, — ^matters incident to activity, and not to stagnation. The Republican convention of 1900 met at Philadel- phia in June. The platform heartily approved of the administration, and declared adherence to the gold standard, protection and reciprocity. It raised its voice against wrongful trusts, by denouncing con- spiracies and combinations to restrict business, and declared for a liberal pension policy and for subsidies PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 173 to the merchant marine. It was a foregone conclusion that McKinley would be nominated for a second term, and the interesting question was whether Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, would accept a nomina- tion for the vice-presidency. Roosevelt had previous- ly expressed his desire to continue in his service as governor, and stuck to it. It is probable that some of the machine politicians and corporate interests, antagonized by him in New York, desired relief by getting him out of their way. However, decisive votes set all matters at rest. McKinley received the entire vote of the convention, — 930, and Roosevelt 925, — the five votes lacking being his own vote and those of four delegates absent at the time the vote on the vice-presi- dential nominee was taken. The convention had passed through its three days' session without excite- ment save for a few outbursts of enthusiasm, and no- tably upon the nomination of Roosevelt; but it ad- journed under full conviction of renewed success at the polls. The Democrats met at Kansas City on July 4th, and in celebration heard the Declaration of Indepen- dence read, and entered upon a line of enthusiasm in proportion as they lacked vital issues. As a most hopeless step, they reiterated their demands of four years before on 16 to 1, but as to such free coinage added the phrase, "vidthout waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. ' ' Their supreme joy lay in their attack upon the colonial policy or "imperial- ism" of the Republican administration. Imperialisan was by them declared to be the burning issue, and both the platform and the orators in the campaign called it !' militarism, " whatever that term may have 174 REPUBLICAN PARTY meant. Mr. Bryan could have the nomination for President if he desired, so it was given him by ac- clamation. Adlai B. Stevenson, who had been Vice- President in Cleveland's second administration, was again nominated. Other parties and nominees, and the votes they re- ceived at the election were: Prohibitionists, John G. Woolley and Henry B. Metcalf, 199,055; Socialist- Labor, Joseph F. MaUoney and Valentine Rennel, 32,511; Social Democracy, Eugene V. Debs and Job Harriman, 83,010; Populist, Wharton Barker and Ignatius Donnielly, 52,233. Too small parties, but without any national character, Union Reform and United Christian, together received but 6,757 votes. The campaign began moderately, and was much in- terfered with by attention given to the Boxer Rebellion and Eastern diplomacy. Bryan made a thorough canvass, but the silver question ajid dangers from a "licentious soldiery" under "militarism" failed to put the election in doubt. After some stir and great parades towards the end of the campaign, McKinley and Roosevelt received 292 electoral votes and Bryan and Stevenson 155. The popular Republican vote was 7,215,696, and Democratic (including People's party) 6,351,008. The Republicans had 864,688 plur- ality over the Democrats, and nearly 500,000 over all opponents. John Hay was made Secretary of State at the open- ing of the new term, and was continued by Roosevelt. Elihu Root was continued as Secretary of War by McKinley and re-appointed by Roosevelt, until Taft's appointment in 1904. Only six months after the inauguration of McKin- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 175 ley and Roosevelt, the President was shot by an anarchist, September 6, and died eight days later. He had just delivered at the Exposition at Buffalo his most memorable address, in which he had expressed his gratification in the progress and unification of the country, and had happily prophesied commercial peace and expansion in our world relations. He was powerful as a politician, but had grown broad in statesmanship, and his death was mourned by all. Mr. Roosevelt was promptly sworn into the office of President, and entered upon his aggressive admini- stration. THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1858- President, 1901-1909 XV Boosevelt's administration (1901-5) — Venezuela and Monroe Doctrine — anthracite coal strike — trusts — Isthmian canal — navy — army — Japanese troubles — China and "open door" — "old guard" — thirteenth Eepublican convention, 1904 — Roosevelt and Fairbanks (1905-9) — third term — legisla- tion — ^voyage of fleet — conservation — forest reserves — irri- gation — industrial and social unrest The course taken by; Germany in enforcing claims of her citizens against Venezuela, arising out of fi- nancial investments in aid of a railway built by the Venezuelan government, was significant in its tacit, almost explicit, recognition of the Monroe Doctrine. Germany, before taking forcible measures in con- junction with Great Britain and Italy against Vene- zuela, made known, through her Embassy at "Wash- ington, that her sole purpose was to secure relief to those of her citizens who had suffered damages, and that under no circumstances did she in her proceed- ings consider the acquisition or the permanent oc- cupation of Venezuelan territory. President Roose- velt gave sharp attention, and was able in his first message to Congress to draw attention to the courtesy of Germany, and mentioned the observance of the Monroe Doctrine. The complicated questions involved in the claims and steps taken to enforce them were at length satisfactorily settled. The anthracite coal miners' strike (May, 1902) was a Pennsylvania affair, but of national importance. The progress of the strike multiplied the price of 177 178 EEPUBLICAN PARTY coal, threatened a coal famine on the Atlantic sea- board and brought intense suffering to the mine work- ers. John Mitchell, who began a poor mine-working boy, had educated himself and was a man of strict integrity, was at the head of the United Mine Work- ers of America, which he had organized. The presi- dents of railways, which owned or controlled the mines, would not treat with Mitchell or recognize his Union. The President was stirred, but his efforts to bring about a settlement seemed precluded, as the troubles were looked upon as a State matter. Mit- chell was willing, but the mine-owners stood firm, hoping for intervention of State, if not Federal, troops. At length Secretary of War Root inter- viewed J. Pierpont Morgan on his yacht, to secure the financier's influence to end the strike. It was blunt refusal at first, but the two men parted at last with an impression on the Secretary's mind that some- thing might happen. Immediately the owners made an offer to the President to submit to a commission of arbitration to be appointed by him. Mitchell accepted for the miners, and the long strike was over. The com- mission was appointed, organized, heard the evidence, and made its decision and award (Mar., 1903), to the gain of the workers. The prosperity of the country was continuous. Far enough away from questions growing out of the Span- ish War and the start on the Canal to afford a mo- ment's breath, other matters commanded attention. The worship of wealth was considerable, and trust combinations and railway discriminations were loom- ing up. The Department of Commerce and Labor, a New Executive branch, was established, with a Secre- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 179 tary, and with a Commissioner of Corporations em- powered to inquire into interstate corporations and all that they do. Attorney-General Philander C. Knox, an experienced and powerful lawyer, secured an in- junction against the Beef Trust, restricting it from collusive raising and lowering of prices and from engaging in certain other wrong practices. Action was brought in the Federal Court against the North- ern Securities Company to dissolve the merger made by the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railr ways, which had purchased a third railway and estab- lished a monopoly of northwestern railroad transpor- tation. The merger was dissolved by decree (1903). These matters fell under the Interstate Commerce and Sherman Anti-Trust Acts and public policy thereby indicated. Further legislation was secured in aid of procedure under the former act, and also in strength- ening the Interstate Commerce Commission in gath- ering evidence and imposing penalties. The subtile trusts, and large corporations engaged in interstate business and copying the methods of trusts, had all along played a kind of shuttlecock and battledore game in defenses. They slipped out from effective prosecutions in State proceedings by showing no juris- diction because the matters involved belonged to in- terstate commerce, and when prosecuted for Federal offenses they had claimed to be engaged only in intra- state business. But finally real progress was made by the Government, not only in large cases, as mentioned, but in many smaller ones, until this class of wealth began to feel hurt by the onset of the Commonwealth, and raised the cry that "big business" was being hit by a "big stick." Part of the public press, being 180 REPUBLICAN PARTY in the pay or control of lawless money-getters, began to join in the cry. It was more prudently put, that legitimate business enterprises would suffer a crush. The President and his supporters and a part of the public press, by oft repeated information, set these things in right light. The President declared: "We do not wish to destroy corporations, but we do wish to make them subserve the public good. All in- dividuals, 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 cor- poration, like the humblest private citizen, must be held to strict compliance with the will of the people as expressed in the fundamental law." After the thunder-bolts, the sky cleared, and everybody could see where we were, and would be more and more thenceforth. Isthmian Canal questions of importance engaged diplomatic action towards the end of McKinley's first term. By the old Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850), we were bound up with England to joint action as re- garded any canal from the Gulf to the Pacific. Pro- posals were made for a Hay-Pauncefote treaty, where- by the United States could build and cantrol, but not fortify. This was not satisfactory to the Senate, which insisted that a treaty should embody the right of securing by its own forces the defense of the United States and the maintenance of public order. England held back. The Boer war and our own troubles with Aguinaldo had diverted attention. Further consider- ation came up in McKinley's new term. The United States insisted that we were entering into a possible entangling alliance should we agree to unite with PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 181 Great Britain in guranteeing neutrality of the Isth- mus, and declared the American people demanded that if the United States built the canal it should be solely responsible for defending it in times of war. A new Hay-Pauneefote Treaty to the effect that the Canal should be neutralized, open to all vessels and not blockaded, should be immune from attack and no right of war should be exercised or hostile act be committed within it, was negotiated and was concluded under Roosevelt (1901), ratified and proclaimed (Feb., 1902). About the time the treaty was being effected, the State of Panama se- ceded from Colombia, and President Roosevelt within three days acknowledged the independence of the Republic of Panama (Nov., 1903). Secretary Hay afterwards secured a treaty with the New Re- public (in force, February, 1904), pursuant to which the United States was to construct the canal, and was granted control of a belt ten miles in width across the Isthmus, called the Canal Zone. Roosevelt's recognition of the new Panama was so sudden that it gave quite a shock to many of our leading people. Some criticism followed, that what was done would not have been done if Colombia had been a strong state. But England and France helped by immediately giving their recognition to the new Republic. The President was complaisant, and by this time in his aggressive career he announced that in such policies it was better to speak softly ' ' but to carry a big stick." The Republican Party enacted legislation for appointment of an Isthmian Canal Commission to construct the Canal, authorized issue of bonds therefor, and appropriated $40,000,000 for 182 REPUBLICAN PARTY purchase of the interests of the French Panama Com- pany. It proved that the actual construction was unexpectedly difficult, expensive and to drag along for many years, but Roosevelt pushed vigorously at the time to start things and "make the dirt fly." In 1910-1911, discussion was enjoyed between the United States and Europe as to our right to fortify the Canal, and an act approved by President Taft (1911) appropriated $3,000,000 to begin fortifica- tions against naval attack. The United States had now received from Panama full sovereignty of the Canal Zone, and its right to fortify seemed unques- tionable. Further discussion in Congress awoke, spread over the country, and brought an informal protest from Great Britain, when an act for mainte- nance, protection and operation of the Canal was presented, containing a clause exempting from tolls American vessels engaged in our coast- wise trade. The act was approved by President Taft in August, 1912. By proclamation (Nov., 1912) the President fixed the tolls to be paid by foreign shipping using the canal. Pursuant to the recommendation of the General Navy Board (recently established), the administra- tion adopted (1903) a program of 34 battle-ships to be constructed , by 1920. In 1907 President Roose- velt urged speed in the execution of the program. The Republicans had determined upon building two ships a year, but they were seriously interfered with by the Democratic opposition, and the construction fell at times to one battleship, and instead of 34 dreadnaughts in 17 years materializing we dropped sadly behind, until our navy has fallen to fourth PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 183 class. Finally the instructive lessons of the Euro- pean War were emphatic, even to Democrats, who, however, are accustomed to disagree among them- selves. With our extensive and exposed coasts, to say nothing of our distant island possessions, the necessity of advancement and preparedness upon the sea is strenuous. The Republicans have justly criticised the Democratic administration and the Secretary of the Navy as wanting in their plans for naval defense, the course adoped by them not being comprehensive or efficient. The Navy Board has been lately too much disregarded and subordinated. Efforts were made towards the end of President Taft's administration to improve and increase the personnel of the navy, but the Democratic House blocked all attempts in that direction as unneces- sary; but finally, in 1916, stirred by the lessons of Europe, the Democratic administration partially awakens to the fact that ships need trained men. A general staff for the army was established through the efforts of Secretary of War Root, to co-ordinate and improve the military defense, shown to have been weak when the Spanish War came on. Though preparedness is shown by the European con- flicts to be of first and vital importance, and a uni- form and exhaustive policy is demanded, the delays and the methods and policy pursued by the present Democratic administration have been the subject of gravest disappointment. Republicans have urged a consistent program, rising to . our international responsibilities, — a council of national defense, di- vorced from partisan political influence or interfer- ence, as necessary to co-ordinate legislative and ex- 184 EEPUBLICAN PARTY ecutive action in all elements of defense and expendi- ture. Particularly from late 1904, direct movement arose in -California looking to the exclusion of Japanese residents. The American Federation of Labor, in annual meeting at San Francisco, resolved that the terms of the Chinese Exclusion Act should be ex- tended to all classes of Japanese and Coreans, other than those specially exempted; and in the following year and later the press of the 'Coast, the State legis- lature by repeated resolutions, and the San Fran- cisco Board of Education and other organizations continued agitation. The Board of Education ex- cluded Japanese children from the public schools, chiefly on the stated ground that Japanese adults also attended, of whom, it is understood, there were at least three. The Japanese government made vigorous protest that treaty rights of its citizens had been violated. The trouble took on a modified form after the San Francisco fire in a provision for separate schools for the Japanese, but the segrega- tion manifestly stung the Japanese spirit. The Sec- retary of Commerce and Labor visited the scene of conflict and made full report. The President em- bodied the substance of it in his message to Congress (Dec, 1906), discussed the situation, and was prompted to say that not only must we treat all nations fairly but we must treat with justice and good will all immigrants who come here under the law, and that the attitude of hostility here and there assumed toward the Japanese in this country might be fraught with the gravest consequences to the Nation. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 185 An American-Japanese Agreement was negotiated, and made public (Dec. 1, 1908), in reference to com- merce on the Pacific. "While the agreement was directed to a preservation of the status quo in the "region mentioned," it was concerned specifically with the preservation of the "open door" in China. But California's legislature, after being several times dissuaded, directly and indirectly by the Fed- eral authorities, passed a bill, which was signed by the governor. Upon aliens eligible to citizenship it makes, as to acquiring, holding or transferring real property, such restrictions as may be provided by the laws of the State, and provides that other aliens may acquire, hold or transfer such property or any interest therein only as may then be provided by any existing treaty. Japan protested that this was in violation of treaty, and a discrimination against a friendly nation. Diplomatic correspondence ensued. Japanese immigration fell off from 31,000 in 1907 to 2,800 in 1910, but the departures from the country may be of even more significance. Though formerly there was occasional intelligent protest by China over immigration matters with us, friendly relations have been maintained with her. But with respect to Japan the case is different, of more recent portent, and the end is not yet. The agitation for exclusion of Japanese laborers beginning in 1907, aroused in- dignation in Japan and fixed attention on the 1894 treaty, reserving mutual right to regulate immigra- tion of laborers, — a clause deemed humiliating to the Japanese nation, made sensitive through her extra- territorial experiences. A crisis was averted by the agent of Japan in 1908 with respect to passports 186 EEPUBLICAN PARTY restricting within narrow limits emigration of labor- ers to the United States. A new treaty (1911) sup- planted that of 1894 and omitted the objectionable clause, a "gentleman's agreement" providing that Japan would maintain the limitations of the "past three years in regulation of the emigration of labor- ers to the United States" being effected. More pa- cific was a convention, to which Great Britain and Russia were also parties, made in 1911, regulating the sealing industry. The "open door" policy, by which is meant the equal opportunity in a particular nation of all citi- zens of other nations in their commercial and other enterprises, arose as to China in 1899. In her mili- tary weakness, China was in danger of losing terri- tory to other powers. Secretary Hay asked the powers to accept the open door principles, and as no power was ready to admit any annexation designs, the request was agreed to. This principle has been adhered to in the Far East by the United States with consequent gain to its trade and influence. The position taken cannot be considered as weakened by discriminations made by us in the Philippines, for there our Government is in full possession and its will controls. In the midst of the European- War upset of the world, Japan, by her demands upon China (1914), appears to have disregarded the Pacific understandings. As far back as the opening of Roosevelt's adminis- tration, Secretary Hay had done what he could through Edwin M. Conger, Minister to China, to see that Russia's intolerable grip upon Manchuria was loosened and that the open door could be seen there. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 187 The United States secured a treaty with China (1903) whereby two ports were opened with en- larged rights and privileges. But Russia 's continued course in that section led to the opening of the Rus- so-Japanese war the following year. The Russian armada having been met by the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo in the battle of the Sea of Japan (May, 1905) and destroyed in part of half a day, President Roosevelt saw it was time to act. Accordingly, pursuant to an article of The Hague Convention, he caused the Acting Secretary of State, Francis B. Loomis (in the illness of Hay) to communicate identical notes through our am- bassadors at Tokyo and St. Petersburg (now Petro- grad) to the two governments urging peace negotia- tions directly between the belligerents (June). There were some hitches, but with further inter- vening suggestions and persuasions by the President, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in early Sep- tember, and was soon duly ratified. Japan, by her crowding, had seriously interfered with the open door, and by her extreme demands upon China, while Europe is busy with wars, is persisting in an Eastern Monroe Doctrine of her own, but carrying it rather far. And recent movements between Japan and Russia affecting mutual interests in the Far East may become better known to us upon the close of the war. Japan has been called the "Britain of the East," with significance. The pendulum, which had swung towards con- servatism in the first election of McKinley, was now beginning to swing towards radicalism, with regard to new subjects, however, or to old subjects in fresh 188 REPUBLICAN PARTY dress. The motion was not yet marked. Under the leadership of Roosevelt, it must be said that the achievements effected carried out his announcements made upon his becoming Chief Executive. The achievements redound to the credit of the Repub- lican Party, w^hich was fully in power. As the next presidential canvass drew near, friction which had occurred between Roosevelt and party leaders in Congress and party chiefs outside, began to show up in declarations that he was "unsafe," and the like. What was designated as the ' ' old guard ' ' could not see its way to yield too much, and it professed some fear. Senator Hanna, the matchless manager of campaigns, Avho applied to them the principles employed by him in building successful business — studying the whole situation and caring for every detail — ^held, if anybody did, the key to control. He suddenly died. Any political plans adverse to Roose- velt also soon died. The President's approved and popular successes rapidly crystallized in his favor until there was no shadow of a doubt who the nominee would be. In the 50th year after Republican organization and the adoption of its name in several States, the Re- publican Party met in its 13th national convention at the Coliseum in Chicago in June, 1904. Every- thing was in hand but the formalities. Had a "steam roller" been necessary, it was ready. Hanna, chair- man of the national committee, having died, the convention was called to order by the vice-chairman, Henry C. Payne (Wis.). Elihu Root was made temporary chairman, and Joseph G. Cannon perma- nent chairman, of the convention. Cannon was, and PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 189 probably remains, one of the ' * old guard. ' ' He was a worthy representative of the party, and it had for many years been honored by him in many a political battle, he having been a conspicuous member of the House from 1873, except one term. He had been a member of the Committee on Appropriations 22 years and 10 years its chairman, when he was elected Speaker of the House in 1903. He put up to the assembled delegates a speech of wit and poignancy for which he is noted. Henry Cabot Lodge reported the platform. The platform was sound. It indorsed the administration, adhered to the gold standard, and in stating the doctrine of protection said it should measure the difference in the cost of produc- tion at home and abroad; that rates of duty should be re-adjusted only when conditions have so changed that the public interest demands their alteration, and that whether, as in 1892, the Democratic Party de- clares the protective tariff unconstitutional or whether it demands reform or revision of the tariff, the object of that party is ever the destruction of the protective system, and that the question of the tariff can be entrusted only to the Republican Party. The platform insisted upon safe-guarding the standard of the condition and living of American workmen. The Commission, which had been appointed to investigate and report upon American shipping, was approved and legislation urged to encourage and build up the American merchant marine. Declarations were made that our navy should be made powerful enough to defend the United States against any attack, and that to maintain such a navy was the fixed policy of the party; that the Monroe Doctrine should be 190 EEPUBLICAN PARTY upheld, and our comnierce developed as essential to the safety and welfare of the American people. Reference was made to the fact that combinations of capital and of labor are results of the economic movement of the age, but it was declared that neither must be permitted to infringe upon the rights and interests of the people; that lawful combinations for legitimate purposes are entitled to the protection of the laws, but are alike subject to, and cannot be permitted to break, the laws. Little enthusiasm, as such conventions generally arouse, was manifested, unless it was when ex-Gov- ernor Black (N. T.) made his eloquent speech placing Roosevelt in nomination. Governor Black said, in part : "There is no regret so keen in man or country as that which follows an opportunity un- embraced. Fortune soars with high and rapid wing, and whosoever brings it down must shoot with ac- curacy and speed. Only the man with steady eye and nerve and the courage to pull the trigger, brings the largest opportunities to the ground. He does not always listen while all the sages speak, but every nightfall beholds some record which, if not com- pleted, has been at least pursued with conscience and intrepid resolution. ' ' The nomination was made unanimous by acclamation. Senator Charles W. Fair- banks (Ind.) was the nominee for Vice-President. The Democratic Party held its convention at St. Louis, in July. Being sick of soft-money, it chose Judge Alton B. Parker (N. T.) and Henry G. Davis (W. Va.) for its standard-bearers, on a gold plat- form, with planks in denunciation of protection and imperialism. The Prohibition Party convened at PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 191 Indianapolis in June, and named Silas C. Swallow (Pa.) and George W. Carroll (Tex.). The Socialist Party, at Chicago, in May, nominated Eugene V. Debs (Ind.) and Benjamin Hanford (N. T.). The People's or Populist Party met at Springfield, 111., and nominated Thomas E. Watson (Ga.) and Thomas H. Tibbies (Neb.). Several other parties held con- ventions and made nominations, including the So- cialist Labor. In the campaign there was nothing between the two great parties to discuss, so far as the money question was concerned; and little excitement could be aroused, as to the "trusts" and the tariff. As to imperialism, discussion and difference of opinion appeared to the length of time which would be re- quired to develop the Philippines to a point when they could be let looSe. Probably the personality of the two candidates, Roosevelt and Parker, was of more force, in determining the result of the election than the diverse policies of the two parties under the circumstances of the time. The vigor and popu- larity of Roosevelt and the success of his administra- tion drew the voters to him. The Republicans won with 336 electoral votes to 140 for the Democrats. Their popular majority was by far the largest ever cast for any party, being in excess of 2,500,000" and a majority of 1,740,000 over all. The popular Re- publican vote was 7,621,407; the Democratic 5,079,- 704; the Prohibition 258,847; the Socialist 402,321; Populist 113,259 ; Socialist Labor 23,460. The President entered upon his new term in March, 1905, with the Republican Party in control of Congress. The auspices were in every way favor- 192 REPUBLICAN PARTY able for a great term. The statesman, John Hay, Secretary of State, died (July), and the President made a fitting proclamation of his death and of public honors to be observed in recognition of his pre-eminent services. The important ends sought by the Hague Con- ference, dealing with disarmament, mediation, arbi- tration, regulations in warfare, including the throw- ing of projectiles and explosives from aircraft, the use of projectiles solely for diffusing deleterious and asphyxiating gases, and the use of soft expansive bullets, may come up afresh, in view of experiences of the present European War, and the "first Great Parliament of Man" be followed by a second, with acceptable means devised for effective enforcement. After Hay, Elihu Root, who had been Secretary of "War, became Secretary of State, and was followed by Robert Bacon (Jan., 1909) ; Leslie M. Shaw (la.), Sec- retary of the Treasury, resigned (1907), and George B. Cortelyou, who had been Postmaster-General, was appointed. William H. Taft continued as Secretary of War until his nomination for the presidency, and thereupon Luke E. Wright (Tenn.) succeeded him. Charles J. Bonapart (Md.) was made Secretary of the Navy, and so continued until made Attorney- General (1906) to succeed William H. Moody, who was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; George von L. Meyer (Mass.) became Post- master-General, and Victor H. Metcalf (Cal.), Sec- retary of the Navy. In the Department of the In- terior, Ethan A. Hitchcock (Mo.), who had been the Secretary from the middle of McKinley's first administration, resigned (1907), and James A. Gar- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 193 field (0.), previously Commissioner of Corporations, took his place. Oscar S. Straus (N. Y.) succeeded Cortelyou as Secretary of Commerce and Labor. James Wilson was Secretary of Agriculture. Presi- dent Roosevelt held Root in the highest esteem, and said of him, upon his retirement as Secretary of War, that he was "the greatest man who has ap- peared in our times in the public life of any country, either in the New World or the Old." Differences between the President and certain leaders of the party, in Congress, became more pro- nounced, resulting in almost open war at times. However, Roosevelt's policies became defined and were pushed with vigor. The ends sought were most just, and the radicalism, so-called, was moderate, as now seen as a part of history. There was, without doubt, much difference in views and policies, but personal traits of the Executive and his leaders on the one hand, and of the opposition leaders on the other, were the source of much of the friction and division. The "exalted servant" of the people cer- tainly made use of the "big stick," in forceful mes- sages, in arousing public opinion and in varied per- sonal aggressive action, to the accomplishment of a large amount of "Progressive" as well ordinary legislation, and a fearless and impartial enforcement of existing laws was carried out. Notwithstanding the friction with Republican Sen- ators and much filibustering by the House Demo- crats in the latter part of his term, the President saw important measures passed. The mass of the party and general public sentiment supported these measures. An Employers' Liability Law, applicable 194 REPUBLICAN PARTY to common carriers in interstate commerce and in the territories and other possessions, was enacted, and also a Compensation Act for injuries of em- ployes engaged in public works. A Child Labor Law was provided, and widows' pensions were increased. An extensive amendment was made to the national banking laws. In the financial panic of 1907, the New York Clearing House issued certificates based on the credit of associated banks, protected by se- curities in the bank vaults. Though beneficial in the crisis, this issue was irregular and extra-legal. This amendment was to provide for bank associa- tions with lawful powers to issue protected notes for emergency circulation in times of financial stress. The work accomplished by the Republicans in the line of the Roosevelt policies was conspicuous. The President's onslaught against corporate abuses and "big business," so-called, was strenuous, but it was explained that there was no intention of destroying business, whatever the size, but that it must be brought under law, and the just rights of labor and the public must be cared for. The legislation ac- complished aimed at equality in industrial oppor- tunities, the extension of government regulation to railroads, the advancement of conservation and irri- gation, development of waterways, and the building of a strong navy; and, with all, the energetic and successful foreign policy commanded the respect of the world. The Republican colonial policy instituted, and carried on by the next administration, was new, in that it was for the benefit of the colonial people, under the control, but not for the profit, of the home Government. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 195 As indicative of the improved navy and its morale, Roosevelt sent the American fleet in a successful and renowned voyage around the world. The President had a thorough belief in centralized authority in the government and wrought along that line in his ad- • ministrations, and for a wider application of govern- mental control. The conservation of natural resources comprehends the general effort to prevent the resources of the country from passing into the control of a few per- sons. The natural resources are for the benefit of all and not for the profit of a few. They are to be de- veloped and used in ways consistent with both the present and future welfare of the commonwealth. From the beginning of the National Government pub- lic sentiment was inclined to be against government- al administration in these matters. The Federalists, some Democrats for a time, and the Whigs, from their loose construction ideas, were the ones who would naturally espouse this cause. But relief came late, and it remained for the Republican Party to come to the rescue. Long ago, by sales at low prices to sundry pur- chasers, by grants as military bounties and to states for school and State purposes, and to States or rail- roads for the construction of canals and railroads, vast areas were disposed of. And the Republican Party had instituted and developed the disposition of public lands under the Homestead provisions, and wise as these were they disposed of numberless acres. So inexhaustible seemed the public domain and min- eral lands, that little or no attention was paid to pre- servation. In the youth of many men still living, it 196 REPUBLICAN PARTY was estimated that the coal of Pennsylvania alone was sufficient to supply the needs, as then existing, of the world for 1,000 years. By 1890 most of the arable government land was gone into private ownership, except nearly all of Alaska and only vast mountain and desert areas with- in our original domain. By an Act of 1878, in Hayes ' term, steps were taken to preserve timber lands by making increased and special prices and to restrict unlawful cutting of timber for private use, and in 1891 (Harrison's term) a system of forest reserves was instituted, under which vast tracts had by 1909 been reserved, some considerable parts however being without timber. As lands became more valu- able, various frauds were perpetrated by which pos- session of large quantities of land, especially of tim- ber tracts, was obtained from the Government, to the detriment of the public. In 1907 much discussion arose as to whether the Government should hold large forest areas for in- definite periods. The eastern part of the country was in favor of such a course and the western against it, or divided upon the question. In the "West tim- ber-users complained that their supply was curtailed, many people crticized a policy that prevented oppor- tunities for proper private gain which had earlier been enjoyed by residents of the eastern States, and farmers desired to have the forests cleared for culti- vation ; and many citizens urged that the public good was not conserved by what they termed a too severe investigation and uprooting of irregular or possible fraudulent, titles after lapse of many years. The general policy established by Roosevelt was against PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 197 these objectors, and Taft (1910 and after) taking a firm stand, continued the land and forestry policy thus begun, and procured new enactments for fur- ther carrying out the policy. In 1910 an appropria- tion of $20,000,000 was made to enable the Secre- tary of the Interior to complete irrigation and re- clamation projects already authorized; also an act was passed authorizing the President to make fur- ther withdrawal of public lands of the United States, including Alaska, subject, however, to operation of the mining laws as to minerals other than coal, oil, ^as and phosphates. But as some concessions to ob- jectors, it was provided that no forest reserve should be created or any additions made to those then exist- ing in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Col- orado or Wyoming, except by act of Congress. Irrigation in aid of public desert lands was early taken up in Roosevelt 's first term, and the Newlands Act (1902) provided for the building of irrigation systems, recompense to be derived from proceeds of lands benefitted. Thereby the Government was com- mitted to the permanent retention of the sources of supply, and the propriety carried to the policy of purchasing of areas for purposes of supply and pro- tection of public lands and streams. Congress enacted a measure (1911) for the purchase in the southern Appalachians and in the White Moun- tains, of forest tracts located on the headwaters of navigable streams, thereby to preserve the navigabil- ity of the rivers below. To say nothing with regard to the work that had been done toward conservation by the Republicans prior to 1901, from the note sounded by Roosevelt 198 REPUBLICAN PARTY in his first message to Congress calling to a wise course for forest reserves, irrigation, water sources and minerals, through to the close of the Republican administration in 1913, conservation work was ac- complished of vital and lasting value to the Nation. The South as a whole did not appear alarmed at the so-called imperial tendencies consequent upon our possessions in the Pacific. It had become much satisfied with its material prosperity, and its political relations to the Nation have given signs of moving away from sectionalism. In approaching national unity, however, other problems, arising out of causes apart from interests which were involved in the Spanish "Wa,r and soon after, were beginning to con- front the Nation, as well as the several States. These pertain to wealth and its distribution among the peo- ple. It was becoming clear that too much wealth was accumulating in the hands of a few to the de- privation of the many; that corporations had been over-capitalized and enormous profits had gone into the pockets of the promoters ; that corporations were managed, dishonestly if necessary, so as to pay large salaries to officers and large dividends to stock-hold- ers ; that trusts or large combinations evaded the anti- trust laws, and the matter of buying, selling and manipulating stocks was fraudulently conducted in the interests of "money trusts" and to the fleecing of the general stockholders; in short, that "big busi- ness" by fraudulent or unconscionable use of power made the rich richer and the poor poorer. But there is no denying the facts of industrial and social unrest due to a growing inequality of oppor- tunity to gain a competence of wealth for reasonable PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 199 satisfaction of employes, let alone the want of oppor- tunity for employes and workmen to gain even a de- cent subsistence. These classes see a failure of a proper distribution of what is produced; and not only that, but they realize that a better distribution is to be secured through public ownership and oper- ation of what are termed public utilities. Some go further and would extend public ownership and oper- ation to all means of production, such as factories, farms, mines, railroads, ships, shops and stores, to the end, as they conceive it, that not only the capable laborer may have a competence but the poor not be with us. Aside from what can be done by law, to right wrongs under existing conditions, there are many ramifications of the doctrine, running from that of individualism to full socialism. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 1857- President, 1909-1913; Renominated, 1912 XVI Fourteenth Bepubliean national convention, 1908 — Taft and Sherman nominated — elected — Taft's administration (1909- 13) — ^policies — social and political unrest — Payne-Aldrich Tariff — corporation tax — maximum and minimum tariff clauses — reciprocity with Canada defeated — Insurgents and Progressives — census bill — ^XVIth Amendment — Anti- trust laws enforced — Commerce Court — postal savings banks — Mexican troubles — vetoes of tariff-for-revenue bills — Democratic Congress — legislation — XVIIth Amend- ment — arbitration treaties-^Latin America and China — Executive budget proposed — foreign policy — "new na- tionalism" — ^fifteenth Republican convention Delegates to the number of 980 gathered at the Coliseum in Chicago in mid-June for the fourteenth Republican national convention. Senator Julius Caesar Burrows (Mich.) was temporary chairman. Some old-time Republicans were present: Ex- At- torney General George H. Williams, then sole sur- viving member of Grant's cabinet; Henry Baker (Minn.) and Judge James D. Connor (Ind.), dele- gates to the convention of 1856 ; Hon. A. G. Proctor (Mich.) and W. H. Tripp (Wis.), delegates to the convention of 1860, and John Ade (Ind.), who had voted for all Republican presidential candidates from Fremont on, were honored with seats upon the platform at times during the convention. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (Mass.) was made permanent chairman. Great applause and tumult broke forth in long interruption of the proceedings when Chairman Lodge, in his address, referring to 201 202 REPUBLICAN PARTY President Roosevelt, said that "he had enforced the laws as he found them on the statute book. For this performance of his sworn duty he had been bitterly attacked. It was to be expected. Vested abuses and profitable wrongs cry out loudly when their entrenchments are carried, and some one is sure to be hurt when the bayonets of the law are pushed home. . . . The result is that the Presi- dent is the best abused and the most popular man in the United States today." Senator Albert J. Hopkins (111.), chairman of the committee on resolutions, presented the platform, in which due reference was made to the great history of the party that had destroyed slavery, preserved the Union, developed the industries and resources of the country, restored credit and established a sound currency, expanded the national domain and set the Nation in honor in the councils of the world. The administration of Roosevelt was held of great accomplishment. The party declared that the pro- tective tariff is to be maintained by duties to equalize the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad, together with a reasonable profit to American industries, and favored the establish- ment of minimum and maximum rates, to be admin- istered by the President, to meet foreign discrimina- tions. It declared for a revision of the tariff, a postal savings bank system, measures against panics, a statutory definition of court procedure in injunc- tion cases, legislation for the new merchant marine, the protection and maintenance of American wage- earners and the welfare of the American farmer, the conservation of natural resources, and such amend- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 203 ments to the law as will give more effective control of interstate-commerce corporations having power and opportunity to effect monopolies. The speech placing "William H. Taft in nomina- tion before the convention was delivered Iby Senator Theodore E. Burton (0.). Other candidates pre- sented were Joseph G. Cannon (111.), Charles "W. Fairbanks (Ind.), Joseph B. Poraker (0.), Philander C. Knox (Pa.), and Robert M. LaFollette ("Wis.). Taft was nominated on the first ballot, the vote standing: Taft 702, Gov. Charles E. Hughes (N. Y.) 67, Cannon 58, Fairbanks 40, Knox 68, LaFollette 25, Roosevelt 3. The nomination was made unani- mous by acclamation. The ballot for Vice-President stood: James S. Sherman (N. Y.) 816, Franklin Murphy (N. J.) 77, Curtis Guild (Mass.) 75, George L. Sheldon (Neb.) 10, and Charles "W. Fairbanks 1. The nomination of Sherman was then made unani- mous. The Democratic national convention was held at Denver in July, and its nominees were "William Jen- nings Bryan and John "W. Kern (Ind.). The Peo- ple's or Populist Party at St. Louis, in April, nomi- nated Thomas E. "Watson and Samuel W. "Williams (Ind.), and the Socialists at Chicago, in May, re- nominated Eugene Y. Debs and named Benjamin Hanford (N. Y.) for Vice-President. The Socialist- Labor Party at New York, in July, chose Martin R. Preston and Donald L. Munroe (Va.). Preston re- signed, and August Gillhaus (N. Y.) was substituted. The Prohibitionists at Columbus, 0., in July, nomi- nated Eugene "W. Chafin (111.) and Aaron S. Wat- kins (0.). The Independence Party, sometimes 204 REPUBLICAN PARTY called the Hearst Party, an outgrowth of the Inde- pendence League founded by William R. Hearst, held a convention at Chicago in July, to nominate candidates "absolutely independent of all other political parties," in a "determination to wrest the conduct of public affairs from the hands of selfish interests, political tricksters and corrupt bosses." The nominees were Thomas L. Hisgen (Mass.) and John Temple Graves (Ga.). The United Christian Party met at Rock Island in May and nominated Daniel B. Turney (111.) and L. S. Coffin (la.). The campaign waxed warm, especially by October. Bryan toured the east, then extended his able ora- tory over the west and southwest, and freshened up the east again at the close. Taft delivered clear and effective addresses throughout the west and south and closed in the east. The audiences were large and enthusiastic. He came out fully and squarely on the chief issues of the trusts, tariff, currency and railroad rate laws. As a jurist, know- ing the foundations of law and its administration as well as the importance to the whole public of maintaining the just powers of the courts, he did not hesitate, in the face of prejudice liable to be awakened in a large element of the people and sought to be aroused by opponents, to stand abso- lutely for established court procedure in the matter of injunction. He was in favor of notice where it could be given, but would yield to no attack upon the integrity and authority of the courts. The gen- eral campaign of the Republicans was carefully pre- pared under the direction of Frank H. Hitchcock (Mass.), chairman of the national committee, and PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 205 launched in September and made thorough and effective. Taft and Sherman received 321 electoral votes; Bryan and Kern 162. The popular vote for the former was 7,677,544 and for the latter 6,405,707. The Prohibitionist ticket received 251,660; Socialist, 420,464; Independence, 83,628; Populist, 29,108; Socialist-Labor, 14,021 ; United Christian, 461. The total vote was 14,882,593. Taft's plurality was 1,271,837, and majority over all 472,495. Upon taking the oath of office, March 4, 1909, President Taft delivered his inaugural address, out- lining the main policies for the new administration in accordance with the platform of the party. He named as an important feature his determination to maintain and enforce the reforms initiated by his predecessor. He declared that the Government could afford a suitable army and a suitable navy in a condition to secure peace, and that such army and navy could be maintained without danger to the Republic or our free institutions, and that fear of taxation to cover the expense should not deter us. Legislation was desired to restrict interstate com- merce railroads from excessive issues of stocks and bonds ; conservation laws should be enforced, includ- ing the work of saving and restoring forests; the construction of the Panama Canal should be pushed with energy, and he would stand behind the men who were doing faithful work in that greatest con- structive enterprise of modern times. The Cabinet consisted of Philander C. Knox (Pa.), Secretary of State; Franklin MacVeagh (111.), Sec- retary of the Treasury; Jacob M. Dickinson (Tenn.), 206 EEPUBLICAN PARTY and Henry L, Stimson (N. Y;), from May, 1911, Sec- retary of War; George W. "Wickersham (N. Y.), Attorney-General; Frank H. Hitchcock, Postmaster- General; George von L. Meyer (Mass., Postmaster- General under Roosevelt), Secretary of the Navy; Richard A. Ballinger (Wash., Commissioner of Gen- eral Land Ofi&ee under Roosevelt), and "Walter L. Fisher (111.), from March, 1911, Secretary of the Interior; James Wilson (la., who had been Secre- tary from 1897), Secretary of Agriculture; Charles Nagel (Mo.), Secretary of Commerce and Labor. When Mr. Taft came to the presidential chair he was nearing a period of great public vacillation. So- cial and economic unrest had been moving for a time, but appeared to have been cared for and allayed in reasonable degree by laws enacted and being en- forced, and was to be cared for by action along like lines in the immediate future. Any insurgency within the party in Congress was quieted and the way was open for securing legislation in the usual course. Taft's long public life and wide experience were such as had called forth the unqualified com- mendation of his predecessor as to his fitness and equipment for the high ofiice, and, moreover, the public knew him and looked forward to a successful and popular administration. What started off under happy auspices was not to last, not only in personal relations within the party but in the securing of achievements the President desired. He was quick to scent the difSculties, but what, if anything, could have been done to meet them with better results for the public than those attained under the circum- stances is not apparent. Iil the preceding adminis- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 207 tration the dominancy of the President was marked, and the Executive had been the promoter of legisla- tion to some overbalancing of the Legislative Branch. But there had been popular approval of the Exec- utive in his personality and aggressiveness. Yet it is one thing to secure legislation and another to carry it on in execution. Often, public ardor cools, or a class deems itself oppressed, and a certain reaction sets in ; or, if the reliefs desired are not experienced to the full extent expectd, the cry is that new and more strenuous laws must be discovered and enacted. That unrest was to grow to a renewed agitation, not to be remedied for years ; that views regarding large corporate business, the "interests," and the rights of the masses must come up for revision and some new solution, if possible ; that representative govern- ment should be attacked as a failure, and direct action by the people be urged as the remedy; that the courts should be assailed and the recall advo- cated, breaking in upon the judicial branch of our governmental system, and that all these things were to gain a large attention from the people calling for answers that could neither be given nor accepted within a day, were certainly not within the view of men. Whether mistakes were made in the Payne- Aldrich tariff, and, if made, were secured by legis- lators in favoritism, or, if made, were substan- tially immaterial, may remain the subjects of dis- cussion and be undetermined. Certain it is, the Act was made the ground of endless criticism and scornful reference. But for all that, the real ground for the defection or split in the party in 1912 arose 208 EBPUBLICAN PARTY from a belief, whether justified or not, that there was a conservatism which would not support meas- ures of social reform conceived by radicals to be necessary — an antagonism of beliefs, which only time could reconcile. Congress convened in extra session (March, 1909) for important legislation. Joseph G. Cannon was elected Speaker of the House. A tariff revision was the chief concern of the President in calling the ses- sion, and was the subject of his message submitted to it. The Payne- Aldrich Tariff Bill, the work upon which had been largely done since November by the House Committee of the preceding Congress, was promptly presented and, after thorough considera- tion, was enacted and went into force August 6. The Dingley Act had been in operation since 1897, and revision was needed. At the same time, the growing expenses of the Government were now causing a deficit of nearly $60,000,000 per annum. Revenue must be provided and the deficit turned into a sur- plus. When the bill was in conference, chiefly through the influence of the President, duties on coal, iron ore, lumber, wood pulp, print paper, gloves, cotton cloths, and some other articles, were reduced, and hides and petroleum added to the free list. The President signed the bill, though he stated that he was not altogether satisfied, but believed it to be the result of a sincere effort to carry out the pledges for a fair revision. A tariff bill involving many schedules and thousands of articles could not be expected to be free from all criticism. The chief increases were upon what might be treated as lux- uries — ^whiskies, wines, liquors, silks and high grade PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 209 cottons. There was a very great number of real reductions. The President, by a special message, urged a corporation tax, and that important measure was added to the Tariff Bill. New and important provisions were contained in the act. Besides the maximum and minimum clause, there was authority for the creation of a Board of General Appraisers, a Customs Court of Appeals, and a Tariff Board or Commission for the collection of facts and information to enable the Executive to per- form his duties under the act, and, as the President said, to afford a basis for further revisions of any rate, if duties were found excessive under the prin- ciples of protection. He soon appointed the Tariff Board of capable members, headed by Prof. Henry C. Emery, of Tale University, and it began its work, but in time its progress was destroyed through Democrats and Insurgents defeating appropriations to sustain it. The maximum and minimum clause was to the effect that from and after March 31, 1910, the rates provided in the act, plus 25 per cent, ad valorum, constituting the maximum tariff, should be levied where the goods were imported from a foreign coun- try that imposed undue discrimination upon exports from the United States. The President was author- ized to declare the minimum rates of the act, after said date, when satisfied there was no undue dis- crimination. Undue discrimination might consist in tariff rates against us or in bounties paid by the foreign country upon exports therefrom to us, and in other acts. The present incumbent of the "White House, Woodrow Wilson, said he regarded this 210 REPUBLICAN PARTY clause in the Act as a huge joke, a threat, and that self-respecting countries do not yield to threats or to impertinent efforts of others to affect their tariff legislation. This clause, of course, answered for the old provisions for reciprocity and the like, and as reciprocity worked well the Democratic Party was hostile to it. Such provisions in force deprived that party of much of its fire against the principle of protection and srioked up its doctrines as to free trade. Taft conceived that by the maximum and mini- mum clause power was reposed in the Executive with the hope that the maximum duties would never be applied, but that the Executive and State Depart- ment would be enabled, through friendly negotia- tion under this power, to secure the elimination of undue discriminations by foreign countries and the application of the minimum rates. His hopes were justified. By February, 1910, seven countries — Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Tur- key and Germany — became entitled' to the minimum rates, and a reciprocity tariff was made with Prance in the same year. The President made a powerful campaign for reciprocity with Canada. In his mes- sage to Congress he made it clear that his purpose was to obtain an agreement, not only mutually ad- vantageous to both countries, but truly national in its scope as applied to our own country and of benefit to all sections. Though the House was Demo- cratic, the opposition came chiefly from Insurgent Republicans, whose bombast was offensive to Can- ada. However, the measure passed (1911), but PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 211 failed of mutual agreement by the overthrow of the liberal Laurier party in Canada. Arizona and New Mexico desired admission and, under an enabling Act of Congress, formed consti- tutions. That of Arizona contained a provision for the recall of all elective officers, including County and State judges, to which Taft was strenuously opposed. In a veto message, he approved the New Mexican constitution as modified so as to make it more easily amendable, but attacked the recall meas- ure as proposed in the constitution (1910). Amend- ments were made to comply with the suggestions of the message. State elections were held, and a procla- mation in 1912 declared statehood. From an expression used by Mark Hanna in 1900, counseling the party leaders to stand firm on the protective tariff, the terms "stand pat" and "stand- patter" came into use. These leaders stood for business interests and prosperity established, as they contended, under the tariff, and were not for letting down or changing too fast. "Standpatters" now came to be applied to those Eepublicans who were conservative in departing or declining to depart from what they claimed were the tried measures and policies of the party, and in these claims they were substantially correct. Gradually, and especially in the term of President Taft and the campaign of 1912, the use of the term "standpatters," in contrast with "insurgents" and "Progressive Republicans" and "Progressives," implied a kind of reproach, that those designated under the name were opposed to progress. In fact, by this time they were "reaction- 212 REPUBLICAN PARTY aries. ' ' That is, progress, in the minds of some, and it seemed in many minds more or less matured, was so rapid, or was thought to be, that these standpat- ters in comparison went backwards. The legitimate application of the word is to those Republicans who adhered strongly to the policies of existing legisla- tion on the tariff, railroads, trusts, taxation and conservation. A certain line of Republicans, more especially from the northwest, had begun to protest against some of the high or discriminating features of the McKinley and Dingley tariffs, and as to the Payne-Aldrich tariff became more numerous, more insistent, and were designated "Insurgents." Their activities as Insurgents extended also to matters of railroads and some other important subjects. In 1909, with the aid of the Democrats, they curtailed the Speaker's powers materially. In fact, the early spleen of the Insurgents appears to have been directed against the "one-man power" represented by the Speaker in favor, as they conceived it, of "big business." "While the Democrats, with criti- cism of such power, joined to break the rule of the Speaker and the Republican steering-committee, it is interesting to recall that the Democrats when in power at once take to the equivalent methods of "Cannonism." The Insurgents were also much known as Pro- gressive Republicans, particularly in and after the Congressional campaign of 1910. However, the Pro- gressives proper were more radical, and stood for a wider range in government in many respects, and from 1909, or soon after, increased in numbers rap- idly. The Insurgents appear to have been those PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 213 Republicans who continued within the party ranks, while the Progressives, for the most part, were those who finally went out into the Progressive Party in 1912. A Census Bill for the 1910 census had been vetoed by Roosevelt, because it failed to provide for com- petitive examinations in respect to employes in the census service, and did not come up to some civil service ideas of the day. No attempt was made to include the objectionable features in any unreason- able degree in an amended bill presented to Taft, and he signed. This amended bill was nearly satis- factory, even to reform leagues. After some efforts to enact an Income Tax, and to avoid constitutional objections, a Joint Resolution was adopted (July), unanimously by the Senate and with only fourteen dissenting votes in the House, for the XVIth Amendment to the Constitution. This empowered Congress to levy and collect taxes on incomes without apportionment among the States. The Amendment was slowly ratified by the States and was, by Secretary Knox, proclaimed as having become a valid part of the Constitution on February 25, 1913. Probably no tariff bill has ever been more misrep- resented and consequently more criticised than the Payne-Aldrich Bill. The Democratic victories in State and Congressional elections (1910) were largely due to these criticisms, together with some local State fights, the growing insurgency in Con- gress and consequent distrust of the administration spreading therefrom. Some individual revolt was manifested in the elections similar to that which 214 REPUBLICAN PARTY followed upon the enactment of the McKinley Bill of 1890 and contributed to the election of Cleveland (1892), and such as is likely to result from a decided change in tariff measures. There had been financial stress in 1907, and there was still uneasiness in both business and labor circles. Also an increase in the cost of living, which was world-wide and had been in progress for years, was distinct and added to the dissatisfaction. All these things were referred to the tariff and blamed upon it. The President vigorously enforced the laws, and was the subject of some criticism but of more misrep- resentation, especially by 1911. In the earlier eases under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law some question had arisen as to the efficiency of the law. Finally the Democrats were insistent that it should be amended. The Republicans upheld the law in their platform, but suggested that its effectiveness could be strengthened by such amendments as would af- ford the Government greater supervision, and secure greater publicity in the management, of corporations that were liable to effect monopolies. Such had been Taft's view long prior to the national convention. These suggestions on the part of Republicans arose upon the outcry that legitimate big business would be crushed by prosecutions. But, as the expansive power of the Anti-Trust Law to meet the tests re- quired of it developed, the law appeared quite satis- factory. He called attention to the noise that had been made demanding enforcement of the law and now when it was enforced the equal noise about inter- fering with business. The administration saw it was wise policy not to attempt amendments, save as PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 215 to defining criminal features more accurately. Sup- posed defects had been cured by great decisions of the courts, and it was safer for business interests, for employers and employes, to await the further moulding which the courts were likely to give the law. The period of uncertainty under the Anti-Trust Law was fast passing, especially after the decisions in the Tobacco and Standard Oil eases were ren- dered. The Supreme Court had announced the "rule of reason," which was at first misunderstood, or, rather, misrepresented in sundry comments here and there as suited respective speakers or writers. Some said the Court read the word "reasonable" into the law so as to make it permit reasonable restraint of trade. This, the President pointed out, would imply that the Court believed there was monopoly in re- straint -of trade that could be recognized as reason- able, but that such was not the decision, and he explained the decision in practical effect, as well as in theory, as a proper attempt to read and under- stand the law in the light of reason. Attorney- General Wickersham said that there were two argu- ments that had been presented — one, that the words of the statute should be given literal construction, holding that every contract which affected competi- tion was a contract in restraint of trade; but the other, that the law must be given a reasonable construction, so as not to interfere with the normal contracts of business life but should reach only those that operated to the prejudice of the public by unduly obstructing the course of interstate trade and commerce. 216 REPUBLICAN PARTY By new enactments, increased powers were con- ferred upon the Attorney-General in prosecuting trusts, railroads were required to introduce modern appliances for safety of employes ; increased freight- rate cases came before the Commerce Commission, and it was established that upon the railroad rested the burden of proof tha,t a proposed increase in rates is reasonable and necessary. Withal, there was a deal of legal work going on in railroad and interstate matters during this administration. As to trusts, old cases were decided, new ones instituted and prosecuted with vigor — ^Night Rider eases, the Cot- ton Corner, "Window Glass, Electrical, Bath Tub, Beef, Tobacco, and other trust cases. The Mann-Elkins Act (1910) was amendatory of the Interstate Commerce Law, and made provisions as to railroad, telegraph and telephone rates, for a Commerce Court, a Railroad Securities Commission, and for regulating notice to be given in procurement of interloetory injunctions. The objects of the Com- merce Court were to secure uniform interpretation and application of pertinent laws, expeditious hear- ings, and the Court had certain appellate jurisdiction from, and power to enforce orders of, the Interstate Commerce Commission. There were five judges. In time some opposition developed as to the necessity and advantages of the court, particularly manifested by Democrats and Progressives, and this sentiment was increased by the impeachment of Robert W. Archbald, one of the judges. The Court was in effect abolished in 1912, and fully so in December, 1913. Except Archbald, the judges continued as Federal judges. The Railroad Securities Commis- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 217 sion, of which Arthur T. Hadley, president of Yale University, was chairman, investigated the propriety of federal regulation of railway stock and bond issues and made an extended report (Dec, 1911). The report recommended, that interstate railways should make detailed reports of the issue of stocks and bonds to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that the Commerce Commission should have full right to make public all information so gained. A Postal Savings Bank system was established (1910). The balance of deposits at the end of 1911 was $15,000,000, and at the end of June, 1913, had grown to nearly $34,000,000. Disorders and revolution in Mexico were the source of continuous anxiety and activity on the part of the administration. Taft succeeded in avoiding intervention, which then appeared uncalled for, and protected the border and our interests in Mexico. His policy of armed neutrality was universally com- mended. In March, 1911, troops to the number of 20,000 were mobilized on the frontier, 5 cruisers were sent to Galveston and 2,000 marines were at hand at Guantanamo, not only to protect American interests in Mexico but to see that no foreign power should gain advantage. In contrast, the present Democratic administration ever talked peace but made no. adequate preparation for either war or pro- tection. This course was no effectual way of accom- plishing either end. We may escape war, though the seeds of war have been sown with a wanton hand. Taft bore in mind the tariff platform of the party — ^that of equalizing the cost of production with an 218 REPUBLICAN PARTY American standard of living. Not only by use of the maximum and minimum clause was he securing advantageous rates, but he was planning for proper reductions or revisions by schedules through the aid of the Tariff Board. In 1910 he openly declared for such revision as proper, but not in bulk. What- ever was done should be based upon thorough in- vestigation of the cost of manufacture at home and abroad. In 1911 he firmly vetoed "Wool, Cotton and Free List Bills, stating as his grounds that intelli- gent tariff revision must await the report of the Tariff Board, which had not yet been able to prepare its reports. By his messages he criticised the bills as not having been prepared with due consideration and as hostile to the principles of protection. He was convinced that the enactment of the measures would seriously affect and depress the industries involved. He expressed himself clearly as desiring proper reductions to be made, but was not to be coerced into agreeing to what he conceived to be for-revenue-only bills, which professed some protec- tion when none was there. These measures were, as were similar ones the following year, supported by the Democrats unanimously or nearly so, and in some cases were fathered by Democrats. He vetoed "Wool and Metal tariffs in 1912, on similar grounds. The situation was such in all cases, of course, that it was represented and made to appear before the country that the Republican administration was opposing legislation sought for the public. It required great courage to take this course, in view of personal and party interests at stake in the approaching presi- dential conventions and elections. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 219 A mass of other important legislation was enacted ; Railroads were forbidden to grant passes and to transport commodities owned by themselves; the Mann Act aims to suppress the White Slave traffic; increased home rule was given the Philippines; a territorial government was provided for Hawaii and a legislature for Alaska; a Bureau of Mines for the protection of miners was added to the Depart- ment of the Interior, and a Child Bureau for pro- tection of children to the Department of Commerce and Labor; Labor was severed from the Depart- ment of Commerce and Labor, and made a distinct Department with a Secretary, its jurisdiction and powers defined, in the interests of labor, immigra- tion, naturalization, and the Child Bureau was trans- ferred to it; laws for the protection of fur seals were made, giving effect to the convention with Great Britain, Japan and Russia ; an eight-hour day for letter-carriers in city delivery service and clerks in first and second class post-offices, and a like law for laborers and mechanics employed upon public works of the United States, and the same for like employes under contractors and sub-contractors upon such works; a commission on industrial rela- tions, to inquire into the conditions of labor, includ- ing agriculture, the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and powers to deal therewith, the methods which have been tried in this or any foreign countries for maintaining mutually satisfactory rela- tions between employes and employers, and to seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation; a parcels post law; an act requiring apparatus for radio-communication on 220 REPUBLICAN PARTY certain ocean and lake steamers, and an act for radio regulations; an amendatory act as to regulation of commerce, requiring valuation of all physical prop- erty of common carriers engaged in interstate com- merce, and investigation thereof by the Interstate Commerce Conmiission; and an amendment to the employer's liability act — these were some of the acts and measures of the busy administration. The XVIIth Amendment, for direct election of Senators, was proposed by Congress May 13, 1912, was ratified by the States, and declared in force May 31, 1913. In continuation of the efforts under Roosevelt resulting in arbitration treaties for the settlement of international disputes and problems arising in the future, Taft secured eleven treaties within the first Congress of his term. This line of work was a most important feature of the administration. The President sought to enlarge the scope of this class of treaties beyond limitations that the Senate had theretofore interposed, and he succeeded in a com- mendable degree. The treaties should, he maintained, include all justiciable causes, and no lasting peace can be obtained until all nations agree to arbitrate all questions of this nature, in a world court. The position he took has been justly regarded as the most advanced step taken by a ruler or the head of a world power towards securing world peace. The world war underscores his words on this subject. Continued friendly relations with the Central and South American Republics, including an increase in our trade and commerce and in opportunities for investments, were thoroughly maintained by able Secretary Knox, and the policy of the open door PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 221 in China was pursued. The final settlement of the Newfoundland fisheries questions, of eternal dispute, by the Hague Tribunal was reached in this term. The President was justified also in vetoing appro- priation bills for salaries of legislators, because of riders for the abolition of the Commerce Court and a seven-years tenure of office for employes in certain departments. These riders were properly the sub- jects of independent bills. The administration op- posed piecemeal methods of appropriations for river and harbor improvements, and the President threat- ened to vote the measure if not an amendment upon those usually presented. He realized that it is diffi- cult for constituents to perceive the higher interests of the whole country, but declared that the days of log-rolling and pork barrels should be numbered. In this, Senator Burton attacked the unscientific methods of river and harbor improvements and maintained that the appropriations should be framed solely for benefits to commerce, and from public necessity, and not for political advantages to legis- lators; in substance, that we should not consider rivers merely as weapons with which to hold rail- roads in subjection. In Taft's administration, effort was made towards a budget system on expenditures. Under the laws as they were, an executive budget was proposed, but no progress could be made to carry out such a meas- ure with a Democratic Congress, which ignored and then defeated all action. The present Republican platform (1916) demands a business-like, responsible budget. A consistent policy in regard to our relations with 222 REPUBLICAN PARTY foreign powers has been carried out by the Repub- lican Party, and this has been its continuous course and success because of its intelligent grasp of the world as it is at any time of action, with apprecia- tion of the possibilities of the future. The course has been non-partisan, in the interests of the entire Nation, and not from any motives of expediency. With regard to tariff arrangements, under the maxi- mum and minimum provisions, it might have been expected that we would be actuated by materialistic aims alone; yet under the Republicans the Govern- ment, by fair treatment of foreign nations in the treaty relations, simply secured support for Amer- ican enterprise abroad, as was evidenced by the immediate and enormous increase in our export trade following upon these arrangements. Over-criticism, — especially that which hinged upon blind attacks upon the tariff, — prevented for the time, and until after the Democrats were actually in power and developing their doctrines in 1913 and later, any just acknowledgment of all that was ac- complished in Taft's administration. But at length the substantial approval and respect of the country came to be bestowed upon it. There was just effort to preserve the value of the courts in the violent social upheaval. Reforms in procedure were at- tained, and the Supreme Court was strengthened by non-partisan appointments of first order. Ex-President Roosevelt proclaimed the "New Na- tionalism" in 1910. It was made up of seventeen planks, which with some dressing up were intro- duced into the Progressive platform of 1912. Some of these were, of course. Republican doctrine, and PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 223 some were embodied in Republican enactments be- fore the close of the administration. President Taft was an acknowledged candidate for renomination, a necessarily logical position from both his own point of view and that of the majority- leaders of the party. He declared that the Republi- cans should be returned to power, because the ad- ministration had done reasonably well and deserved a vote of confidence, and was progressive; but he did not approve of wrong theories of government and was unalterably opposed to the principle of the recall of judges. Either under State laws or by tacit permission of the National Committee, preferential presidential primaries were inaugurated in a number of States, and in others delegates were chosen by conventions after the old custom. Bitter contests in many dis- tricts and States promised trouble for the conven- tion. Contests over delegates have not been in- frequent, and sometimes have caused much soreness, but have usually been determined without disrup- tion. Two weeks before the Republican national con- vention was to assemble in 1912, the national com- mittee, appointed in 1908, met at Chicago to prepare, under the powers vested in it, the temporary roll of delegates and the temporary officers for the con- vention'. Delegates, alternates and visitors began to gather early. June 15 Roosevelt arrived, "his hat in the ring," and he declared he "felt like a bull moose." The convention opened at the Coliseum at noon, June 18. The national committee had given full 224 REPUBLICAN PARTY attention to the roll of delegates, but as now assem- bled the Progressives and Insurgents leaped to the contest at the first moment. Gov. Herbert S. Hadley (Mo.) moved to substitute for the temporary roll one prepared by the Roosevelt forces, but this was out of order until the convention could be organ- ized. The opposition then placed Gov. Francis E. McGovern (Wis.) before the convention for tempor- ary chairman, and on a roll call Elihu Root was elected by a vote of 558 to 502. Root then delivered his "key-note" speech. Adjournments were taken from time to time, and much discussion was had. The object of the contests was to compel concessions to the Progressives, whereby they might gain control. The contests wei'e heard with great patience, and were determined in the usual way by the constituted tribu- nal, and were sustained in the convention, as such contests had been theretofore, and in substance must continue to be, carried on and decided. There were 1078 delegates in the convention. The platform was presented by the appropriate commit- tee and adopted by a vote of 666 to 53, some 340 Roosevelt delegates not voting, and about 20 dele- gates being absent. It was now Saturday night of the 5th day of the convention. Warren G. Harding (0.) presented the name of President Taft for renomination, and sec- onding speeches were made by John Wanamaker (Pa.) and Nicholas Murray Butler (N. Y.). The name of La FoUette was put before the convention, and thereupon the vote was taken. It resulted: Taft 561, Roosevelt 107, LaFollette 41, Albert B. Cummins (la.) 17, Gov. Charles E. Hughes (N. Y.) PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 225 2, and 344 not voting. For nominee for the second place, Vice-President Sherman received 597 votes. There were 14 votes for Iladley, 21 for "William E. Borah (Ida.), 20 for Charles E. Merriam (111.), 2 for Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.) and 1 for Howard T. Gillette (111.), while 352 refrained from voting. The Republican platform declared for a govern- ment of laws, not of men, and belief in our self- controlled representative democracy, and that the principles of constitutional Government, which af- ford orderly and effective expression of the popular will for the protection of liberty and for the inter- pretation of law by an untrammeled and independent judiciary, have proved themselves capable of sus- taining the Government for more than a century, and that the Government will meet the problems of the future as it has solved those of the past. It expressed the party's position upon the tariff, con- servation, reclamation, and familiar subjects; fav- ored legislation to prevent long delays in court actions, regarded the recall of judges as unneces- sary and unwise, and favored amended laws by which any judge who is found to be derelict in duty may be removed ; re-affirmed its intention to uphold the authority and integrity of the courts, and as- serted that the party is a party of advanced and constructive statesmanship, prepared to solve the new questions which social, economic and political developments have brought forward, and would in all possible ways endeavor to satisfy the people in the study and solution of the problems of social welfare. On Saturday night, before the Republican con- 226 REPUBLICAN PARTY vention adjourned, Roosevelt followers and many delegates, including some contested delegates from the Republican ranks, and Progressives, held a meet- ing in Orchestra Hall. Gov. Hiram W. Johnson (Cal.) presided, and to resolutions adopted for a party and the nomination of Roosevelt the latter appeared and accepted. Early in July a convention was called, which met at Chicago August 5th as the Progressive National Party and nominated Roose- velt and Johnson for President and Vice-President respectively. The platform embodied many of the principles of the Rejiublican platform, called for direct primaries for nomination of State and national officers, preferential primaries for candidates for the presidency, and urged on the States the policy of the short ballot, with responsibility secured to the people by the initiative, referendum and recall. Many other matters relating to State legislation and alleged reforms were set forth. The Socialist Labor Party at New York in April nominated Arthur Riemer (Mass.) and August Gill- haus (N. Y.). The Socialist Party at Indianapolis, in May, nominated its quadrennial candidate, Eu- gene V. Debs, and for Vice-President named Emil Seidel (Wis.). The Socialists presented a program which, if made practicable, as they saw it, would introduce the millenium forthwith. They asserted that plutocracy had continued to grow in power and insolence alike under the administrations of Cleve- land, McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, and they de- manded a revision of the Constitution of the United States. The Populist Party was represeted at St. Louis in August by eight delegates. It made no PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 227 nominations and indorsed none, but drew up a plat- form and advised its party members that they were at liberty to vote for whom they pleased. Thus that party, formerly called the People's Party and preceded by the Greenbaekers, disappeared. The Democratic convention was held at Baltimore the last of June and first of July. Gov. Woodrow Wilson (N. J.) was nominated for President on the 46th bg,llot, and Gov. Thomas R. Marshall (Ind.) for Vice-President on the first ballot. The platform declared for a tariff "for revenue only" and asserted there was no constitutional right to impose or collect tariff duties except for revenue ; rights of the States should be preserved, and powers of the federal gov- ernment should not be enlarged by indirection; in effect, congratulated the Republican Party upon the Amendments for income tax and popular election of Senators; favored a single presidential term, and an amendment to that effect, and pledged the candi- date of the party to the principle; would foster a merchant marine by "constitutional regulation of commerce," but without bounties or subsidies; de- plored "imperialism" and colonial "exploitation" in the Philippines or elsewhere. The election campaign was secondary to the cam- paign before the conventions, so far as the Republi- cans and Democrats were concerned. The Pro- gressives, led by Roosevelt, carried on a vigorous campaign to the four corners of the country. The Democrats necessarily and easily carried off the prize, "Wilson obtaining 435 electoral votes, Roosevelt 88, and Taft 8. The popular vote was 15,034,542, of which "Wilson received 6,293,019, Roosevelt 4,119,- 228 REPUBLICAN PARTY 507, and Taft 3,484,956. Debs had 901,873, Chafin 207,928, and Riemer 27,259. Wilson was decidedly a minority president, the combined vote of Roosevelt and Taft being 1,311,444 in excess of Wilson's vote, while the total plurality over Wilson was 2,448,504. The combined popular vote of Taft and Roosevelt surpassed the Wilson vote in 37 States, — ^in all States except the 11 southern. As the Socialist vote more than doubled its vote in prior elections, and the Democratic vote fell short of its vote of 1908 for Bryan by over 112,000, many Democrats — perhaps nearly half a million — ^voted the Socialist ticket, and at the same time it appears that quite a large number of Republicans voted for Wilson for fear Roosevelt would be elected. To Roosevelt's votes, due to his popularity, were added the protest votes of those Republicans who conceived that cer- tain leaders, the "old guard" or somebody, dom- inated the Republican Party, in the tariff or what not, contrary to their liking, and who were inclined to do away with representative government for as much direct democracy as could be devised; though as those leaders themselves were elected here and there by the people, there was some strain upon the workings of direct democracy. To say the least, in this instance, popular infallibility failed to speak with any distinctness. The worst was a divided party, and the country has been deprived of the wise counsel and administration of the Republican Party in a period of sorest need and gravest danger. XVII Sixteenth Bepublican national convention, 1916 — ^Democratic Underwood tariff — ^Hughes and Fairbanks nominated — Progressives — Republicans present issues — ^party record To the Democratic Party, one distinction must be conceded, and that is, it has been on all sides of every question at some time, — ^unless an exception is to be made with regard to the tariff. The party has been no Ethiopian or leopard in inability to change its skin or its spots. This characteristic for change naturally belongs to a party brought up to opposition and trained for expediency. But in its capacity to make mistakes the party is a master. With regard to revemie measures and the tariff, the party 's declarations and course have been nearly consistent throughout its history for a free-trade tariff, — since the time when the party made its start, after Calhoun and Jackson gave over protection in view of the slave interests. But even as to the tariff some uncertain qualifications arise occasionally. The party's Mills Bill was defeated by protectionists within the party in Cleveland's first administration, and the party tariff platform in 1884 declared for protection of labor against foreign labor, and in 1892 for a revision downward, but for some protection; and now that problems, such as we have never before experienced, arise and are likely to be presented further upon the close of the European War, even the Democrats being to think, as per their platform, that it may be necessary to employ the tariff or 229 CHARLES EVANS HUGHES 1862- Nominee for President, 1916 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 231 equivalent means to prevent "dumping" of foreign commodities to escape destruction of our home mar- kets. Such course is an acknowledgement of the pro- tective principle, which is in no wise dependent upon the speed with which importers may bring in com- modities, whether fast or slow. The effects of reduction downward, without a prudent consideration of business in the action taken, came to the Democratic Party in its enact- ment of the Underwood Act, which went into opera- tion Oct. 1, 1913. The Democrats had no sooner come to power in that year than they fell for their old tricks of free trade or a tariff for revenue only. The arch-criticisms of the Payne-Aldrich Act had been such that the Democratic Party now thought it had a free rein to tinker with the tariff as it pleased. It went farther than it would go again, if it should at any time exercise discretion. The aver- age rate under the Republican law was 17.36 per cent, and under the Underwood law 10.6 per cent., a reduction of more than one-third. The conse- quence of this sweep was that the necessary revenue was cut and the Treasury ran fast to a deficit. In 10 months after the Act went into effect, the Euro- pean War suddenly opened, and the time soon ar- rived when the administration was obliged to pass emergency laws for recovery of depleted Treasury receipts, and an income-tax law. This was called a "war tax," by way of excuse for the deficiencies of the Underwood law, which had proved to be a Democratic war upon American industry. The war was given as the cause for the appalling deficit and commercial depression throughout the country, but CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS 1852- Vice-President, 1905-1909 Nominee for Vice-President, 1916 PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 233 the real cause was the exercise of ordinary stupidity in framing the provisions of the act. The war com- ing on itself hid complete exposure from many eyes for a time. Because of the foreign demands for munitions, one billion dollars of exports from us before the war more than doubled afterwards, and the unprecedented condition alone should have pre- served prosperity or should revive it. However, the evil effects of the "revenue" tariff were grad- ually revealed. In the 10-months period after the war began, the Government lost $33,000,000 in revenue as com- pared with the previous 10 months under the Payne Act, and it is to be remembered that im- ports under the old act were held back in large amount towards the last in order that importers might secure the advantages of the large reduc- tions under the new law, or the comparison would be still more marked. By way of explanation, it was claimed that the war reduced imports and therefore the revenue fell off. But the imports under the Republican tariff for the 10 months mentioned were $1,481,480,575, from which the revenue was $261,918,306; while in the first 10-months period under the Democratic law, up to the outbreak of the war, the imports were $1,605,804,786, but the revenue therefrom was only $228,861,960. Thus the free-trade law, or tariff for deficiency, gave over our markets and labor to the foreigner, and we paid for the privilege given the foreigner to compete with us. There was some falling off of imports after the war began, but it was the decreased tariff rate that did the mischief. The imports for the 5 months 234 REPUBLICAN I»AllTY under the Payne law, October, 1912, to February, 1913, were $798,155,648 and produced ia revenue $137,070,578; tEe imports for the corresponding months, October, 1915, to February, 1916, under the Underwood Law, when the war was in full blast, were $854,638,176, which produced in revenue but $84,854,257, a difference downward, as compared with the former period, of $52,216,321. But, had the Payne rates been in force in 1915, the revenue upon the same amount of imports in the 5 months of 1915-16 would have been larger. The loss under the Democratic revenue act was at the rate of $10,000,000 per month. The balance of trade had long been in our favor before the Underwood tariff. Under it, imports steadily increased and exports decreased, until April, 1914, when the balance of trade in our favor was wiped out. The Democrats were worried and finan- cial panic threatened, when suddenly the European War broke forth. The warring world bought more and sold less, and by September our exports sur- passed our imports, and on account of the war the favorable balance has increased enormously. This saved financial wreck. The importance of establishing by a protective tariff, against the day of war and exclusion .of im- ports, certain industries having important products has often been urged by Republicans. The remark- able voyage of the undersea Deutschland, bringing 750 tons of dyestuffs from the Rhine, supplies good color to this principle. In 1916 the Democrats held their national conven- tion at St. Louis in mid-June and renominated Wil- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 235 son and Marshall. In their platform they adhered to the ' ' doctrine of a tariff for the purpose of pro- viding sufficient revenue, ' ' and indorsed the Under- wood tariff as a true example of the doctrine. The "sufficient revenue" is declared to be "for the opera- tion of the Government economically administered, ' ' and as the Underwood tariff furnished revenue, which was not sufficient, the inference may be that the Democrats did not administer the Government economically. The Socialist Party held no convention, but took a referendum vote of its members, whereby Allan L. Benson (N. Y.) and George E. Kirkpatrick (N. J.) became nominees. The Prohibitionist convention, at St. Paul, in July, nominated J. Frank Hanly (Ind.) and Ira J. Landrith (Tenn.) as candidates, and included in its platform declarations upon prepared- ness and Americanism, with an eye to catching some Progressive votes. As one delegate expressed him- self, in reference to the new planks, "We have enough morality in this party; what we need is votes. ' ' The Progressives having fixed upon the same time and place for its nominating convention of 1916 as that selected by the Republicans, early speculation was awakened as to whether the two parties would agree upon candidates and coalesce. Interest did not abate zs June 7th, the opening date, drew near. The Progressives met in the Auditorium at Chicago and manifested tumultuous enthusiasm for Colonel Roosevelt as the one person who could answer the requirements of a presidential Candidate. The Re- publicans, at the Coliseum, moved on with the tread 236 REPUBLICAN PARTY of firmness and sagacity. The nominating speeches, with the enthusiastic processions and demonstrations of zeal following the presentation of the names of Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the "favorite sons" and Roosevelt, with two ballots taken in the even- ing, occupied a day's strenuous time. The term "favorite son" is not to be taken in a too restricted sense, as indicating that the candidate to which it is applied has not genuine qualifications beyond those which his home friends would give him by way of compliment. There were statesmen before the convention whose ability, fitness and na- tion-wide reputation made them available as candi- dates for the first position. Senator Warren G. Harding (0.) was the tem- porary chairman. He delivered the "keynote" speech and became also the permanent chairman. The first ballot for presidential nominee gave Hughes 253y2; John W. "Weeks (Mass.) 105; Elihu Root, 104; Albert B. Cummins, 84; Theodore B. Burton, 76%; Charles W. Fairbanks, 731/2; Lawrence Y. Sherman, GGYz; Colonel Roosevelt, 65; Philander C. Knox, 36; Henry Ford (Mich.), 82; Gov. Martin G. Brumbaugh (Pa.), 29; Robert M. LaFollette, 25; William H. Taft, 14; I. Coleman DuPont (Del.), 12; Gov. Frank B. Willis (0.), 4; William E. Borah, 2; and Samuel W. MeCall, 1. On the second ballot, Hughes received 328 votes, a gain of 75. Fairbanks gained 14 and Roosevelt 15. The increases came chiefly from Brumbaugh, Ford, Knox and Taft, whose votes passed to others on this ballot. Also, John Wannamaker received 5, General Leonard Wood 1 and Harding 1. The other candidates stood PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 237 nearly as on the first ballot. This was the third day of the convention, and adjournment was taken to the next day, Saturday, which afforded the con- ferees between the two parties opportunity to put in another night in renewed efforts for an agree- ment on candidates. Prominent leaders appointed by the Republican and Progressive camps had conferred in such ef- forts. With the Progressives, the irrepressible cries of "We want Teddy" subsided in the Auditorium only when it appeared that no agreement was to materialize, and that, with Hughes nominated by the Republicans, the situation would be such that Roosevelt and the Progressives could not stand for a third ticket. Before the adjournment of the Re- publicans on Friday, it was evident that they must go on and nominate Hughes as the right candidate to lead the party to triumph in November. The conferences came to nothing concrete, and Colonel Roosevelt's proffer of Lodge as a compromise candi- date could not be acted upon under the circumstances. When the Republicans reconvened, Hughes was chosen as the nominee for President upon the one ballot there- upon taken. It seemed like a stampede or a landslide, but it was more serious and thoughtful, with mor6 of deliberate purpose and conviction for great accom- plishment, than a mere stampede can imply. In all the ebb and flow of enthusiasm, hopes and desires, the tide had set in earnest towards Hughes, who had in his exalted position as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court maintained silence. The ballot stood. Hughes, 949%; Weeks, 3; Roosevelt, 18%. Notification was wired to Washington, and the Justice immediately 238 REPUBLICAN PARTY resigned his high office and dispatched to the conven- tion his acceptance, couched in words most compre- hensive and convincing. Only amplification, of de- tails by him in his speech of acceptance to the com- mittee of notification in August could add any force to the perfect message to the convention. The nomi- nation had not been sought by him, and despite the fact that he had desired to remain on the bench he accepted "in a time of national exigency, transcend- ing merely partisan consideration." The conven- tion, he conceived, voiced "the demand of dominant, thorough- going Americanism, with firm, protective upbuilding policies essential to our peace and se- curity, and to that call in this crisis" he could not fail to answer with the pledge of all that was in him to the service of the country. "I stand," he said, in the message, "for the firm and unflinching mainte- nance of all the rights of American citizens on land and sea. I neither impugn motives nor underesti- mate difficulties. But it is more regrettably true that in our foreign relations we have suffered incalculably from the weak and vacillating course which has been taken with regard to Mexico — a course lament- ably wrongs with regard to both our rights and our duties. We interfered without consistency, and while seeking to dictate when we were not concerned we utterly failed to appreciate and discharge our plain duty to our citizens. "At the outset of the administration, the high responsibilities of our diplomatic intercourse with foreign nations were subordinated to a conception of partisan requirements, and we presented to the world a humiliating spectacle of ineptitude. Belated ef- PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 239 forts have not availed to recover the influence and prestige so unfortunately sacrificed, and brave words have been stripped of their force by indecision. I desire to see our diplomacy restored to its best stand- ards, and to have these advance. . . . "I stand for an Americanism which knows no ul- terior purpose ; for a patriotism which is single and complete. "Whether native or naturalized, of what- ever race or creed, we have but one country, and we do not for an instant tolerate any division of allegiance. "I belive in making prompt provision to secure ab- solutely our national security. We are devoted to the ideal of honorable peace. "We wish to promote aU wise and practical measures for the just settle- ment of international disputes. In view of our abid- ing ideals, there is no danger of militarism in this country. "We have no policy of aggressiveness, no lust for territory, no zeal for strife. It is in this spirit that we demand adequate provision for na- tional defense, and we condemn the inexcusable neg- lect that has been shown in this matter of first na- tional importance. "We must have the strength which self-respect demands, the strength of an efficient na- tion ready for every emergency. ""We must make a fair and wiser adjustment of the tariff in accordance with sound principles to in- sure our economic independence and maintain Amer- ican standards of living. "We must conserve the best interests of labor, realizing that in democracy pa- triotism and national strength must be rooted in even-handed justice. In preventing, as we must, un- just discrimination and monopolistic practices, we must still be zealous to assure the foundations of hon- 240 REPUBLICAN PARTY est business. Particularly should we seek the ex- pansion of foreign trade. We must not throttle American enterprise, here or abroad, but rather pro- mote it and take pride in honorable achievement. We must take up the serious problem of transporta- tion, of interstate and foreign commerce, in a sensible and candid manner, and provide an enduring basis for prosperity by the intelligent use of the constitu- tional powers of Congress, so as adequately to pro- tect the public on the one hand, and, on the other, to conserve the essential instrumentalities of progress. "I stand for the principle of our civil service laws. In every department of government the highest effi- ciency must be insisted upon. For all laws and pro- grams are vain without efficiency and impartial administration. ' ' It was all settled for Fairbanks for vice-presi- dential nominee by this time, and he was chosen by a vote of 863, with 11 votes scattering. The nomi- nations were made unanimous. In the meantime the Progressives, though disheartened in their efforts to secure Roosevelt as the standard-bearer for both parties, nominated him. He was notified, and soon a message was received, expressing his gratitude for the honor of the nomination, but stating that he could not accept at that time; that if the convention de- sired immediate decision, he must decline the nomi- nation, but if preferred he suggested that his condi- tional resignation be placed with the Progressive na- tional committee for further action, and that they await Mr. Hughes' statements. Action was taken ac- cordingly by the convention. It chose John M. Par- ker (Miss.) as its nominee for Vice-President. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 241 The way was not open for a third ticket. The ac- tion taken by the Republicans was such that its work was acceptable to the Progressive men and women, who hoped sooner or later to see the national princi- ples of their party emobdied in the national struc- ture. The Progressives, hoyever, had been returning to the Republican ranks, and the movement in that direction had been fast for the past two years, and was now accelerated. Within a few months preceding the conventions, Colonel Roosevelt had made his position plain, that the course to be pursued by the Progressives would depend largely or fully upon that taken by the Republicans. In late June he met the Progressive committee, and, as anticipated, he declined the nomination, and the committee approved for the Pro- gressive Party the selection of Hughes. Roosevelt declared that the present Democratic administration "had been guilty of shortcomings more signal than those of any administration since the days of Buch- anan." His judgment was that the nomination of Hughes met the requirements of the Progressives. The public record of the Republican nominee was a guaranty that "he will not merely stand for a pro- gram of clean-cut, straight-out Americanism before election, but will reasonably and in good faith put it through if elected." Roosevelt appealed to the Progressives, and closed by saying: "We have the alternative of continuing in office an administration which has proved a lamentable failure, or of putting into office an administration which we have every reason to believe will function with efficiency for the interest and honor of our people. I earnestly be- 242 BEPUBLICAN PARTY speak from my fellow Progressives their ungrudging support of Mr. Hughes." Eoosevelt was placed in, and the prominent men of the Progressive Party came into, a position of ex- treme diffteulty, but they appear to have solved it with utmost tact and wisdom. In their decision, not simply the interests of the individuals composing the party, but the welfare of the country was clearly in mind. Above all else it is their aim that the elimina- tion of the untoward influence of the present national administration and its incompetency should be accomplished without fail. For an available man, the Republicans, in the necessities of the times and in accordance with their own desires and plans, have selected a man of deeds as standard-bearer. They have called Hughes from his high office in the Supreme Court to accept upon election the office of Chief Magistrate of the Nation, a position hardly more exalted, and he declares for "America first and America efficient." Mr. Fairbanks, the vice-presidential nominee, was a distinguished United States Senator, and has once served as Vice-President in a most important term, from 1905 to 1909. He was a trained lawyer, and served with great ability in his profession untU he was called to public life, wherein he has long been prominent and successful. The ability and training of Justice Hughes, the presidential nominee, are of the first order. The confidence of the people reposed in him in all publie positions has never suffered abate- ment. What he said he would do, he did. Hughes' prosecutions of insurance frauds, his most PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 243 successful terms as governor of the Imperial State, his progressive judicial course and his present an- nouncements stamp him as an American progressive statesman second to none other. His selection by his party as its standard-bearer was without "parallel in the history of the Republic." He "was not an aspirant, but discouraged all endeavors" in his be- half. Republicans conceive that these nominees typify the party 's purposes and the people 's aspira- tions. The Progressive platform of 1916 had many points in common with the Republican platform. Some of the extreme Progressive views of 1912, as the recall and initiative and referendum — ^which, however, as then used applied to the States and not to the na- tional Government — were omitted. Both parties stood for distinctive Americanism, a tarfif for protec- tion, a Republican tariff commission, improvement of industrial conditions by Child Labor laws, "Work- men's Compensation acts, rural credits, conservation, the prevention of abuses in business, and true reform in the civil service, for failure in which the Demo- cratic administration was condemned. The Repub- licans present their platform as an appeal to every true American, presenting to him what he aspires to and can stand by. Their platform demands a suffi- cient and effective regular army, with reserves drilled and disciplined who can be called to the colors in the hour of danger ; a navy so strong, well-proportioned and equipped, thoroughly ready and prepared, that no enemy can gain command of the sea or effect a landing on either our eastern or western coast. This demands a coherent and continuous policy, which the 244 REPUBLICAN PARTY Democratic Party has ever opposed, and even in the hour of peril has utterly failed to develop, but which the Republican Party, — having done whatever has been effectively done in the past in this respect,— now promises to give the country. The Republican Party announces its determination, upon being returned to power, to unflinchingly maintain the rights of Amer- ican citizens, which the Democratic President and Democratic Congress have failed to do. The Repub- licans resolve that a firm, consistent and courageous foreign policy must be advanced and maintained, as always maintained by Republican Presidents in ac- cordance with American traditions ; and, believing in pacific settlement of international disputes, favors the establishment of a world court for the purpose. The party pledges itself to aid in restoring order and maintaining peace in Mexico, and abhors the dire results hitherto experienced as due t'o failure of the present administration to act promptly and firm- ly, and to its improper recognition of one of the fac- tions responsible for the outrages. The Republican Party believes that women "should be given the full political right of suffrage either by State or Federal action," and its candidate proposes an amendment to the Constitution to cover the point. The party condemns the Democratic administration for its attempt to abandon the Philippines, and it re- affirms the Monroe Doctrine, and declares for closer relations with Latin America. Great economic and political questions and prob- lems will be upon us with the close of the European War ; and, whether foreign countries attempt to dump their commodities upon us or not, the Republicans PEINCIPLES AND POLICIES 245 submit that the tariff will, if we are to be saved, have to be made in accordance with the principles of Re- publican protection, and not those of free trade. The fine-art deceptions of an Underwood tariff principle, Republicans fear, will be played upon the country again, if the legislation is to be controlled by the Democratic Party educated to such deceptive prin- ciples. Some pretense of tariff protection or in other w^ays is covertly presented by the present administra- tion, but Republicans prefer to stand on their own openly avowed and demonstrated principles. Certain measures advanced by the present admin- istration may be supported by Republicans, because of the necessities of the times, though wrong princi- ples are involved, as in cases of the tariff commission or board, and of protection. The Democratic leader, Claude Kitchin, by injecting remarks in the course of a speech in the House by the present governor of the Philippines, said: "Have you ever known a Democratic district convention, a Democratic State convention, or a Democratic national convention that ever declared in favor of a tariff board or a tariff commission of any kind?" To which the governor replied: "Not only that, but I believe it is abso- lutely opposed to all Democratic principles." Such views do not promise a successful handling by the ad- ministration of measures that now profess to include some Republican features of protection and the like. Objections by Republrcans to present measures of raising necessary revenues appear justified, in that the measures impose burdens upon a few, and the policies adhered to seek approval through appeals to common prejudice. The anti-dumping provisions are 246 REPUBLICAN PARTY probably worthless, and will fail to protect home producers and likewise purchasers here of foreign goods, leaving foreign sellers untouched. The tariff commission, as now proposed, contemplates no steps to ascertain the cost of production at home and abroad and no apportionment of duties on the basis of protection. The Republicans submit that, not only has the in- stability of the present administration been griev- ously disappointing to the country, but its weakness for peace and in averting war has been such as to dis- close a preparedness of words and phrases instead of things done by action. They desire the people to be free from disruption in their peace and freed from contempt of their rights before the world, but the Republican Party conceives that for the administra- tion, for years after such dangers were apparent and increasing, to be satisfied with a waiting and vacil- lating policy is but to invite the disrespect (which we now enjoy) of other nations and to provoke wars. The Democratic Party platform professes to consider that the supreme issue is "the indivisibility and co- herent strength of the nation." Perhaps it is; but that indivisibility and coherent strength of the na- tion is precisely what the Federalists set out to create over a century ago and what the Republican Party took up, more than a half-century ago, when the Democratic Party sought to disrupt and destroy it utterly. As regards Mexico, we know neither peace nor war. The rights and lives of Americans have been sacrificed, within and without that country; their vast properties have been destroyed, and bandits PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 247 have been rulers within and have committed their' depredations without, and all has gone uncorrected and unpunished. The present Secretary of State lately declared "that it would be difficult to find in the annals of the history of Mexico conditions more deplorable than those which have existed there dur- ing these recent years of civil war." It was the privilege of the administration to recognize or not to recognize the Huerta government. That govern- ment was disregarded by us, yet at the same moment acknowledged by the demand to "salute the flag." This resulted in a fiasco, and, after making "war" upon that government and destroying it — the only government there at the time, — ^the administration was in a quandary whether to recognize the Villa or the Carranza "leadership" as the de facto govern- ment of the war-riven country, when there was no call to recognize either. The administration con- cluded to recognize the latter, and bandit hordes have ruled and devastated the country since. While all these troubles, so vitally affecting us, have gone on ; while, as the Secretary of State further said, "the Government of the United States views with concern and increasing disappointment the progress of the revolution in Mexico for three years," who. Repub- licans ask, has sat by or intermeddled except the present administration, now so precipitously en- deavoring, with the help of the people, to prepare to save itself? So far as Democratic declarations resemble the Re- publican positions on general policies of defense, rights of citizens, neutrality, diplomacy, and the like, the sharp contrast between the effective administra- 248 REPUBLICAN PARTY tive acts recorded to the credit of the historic Repub- lican Party and what has been done and talked of by the present administration, is a prediction, Repub- licans urge, of what will be done if the Republican Party is returned to power ; and, united, they present their candidates and their policies, assured that the people of the country realize that the return of the Republican Party to the control of the Government is wholly necessary and must not be postponed. The chief issues the Republicans present in the present campaign comprise a firm foreign policy and the uplift of diplomatic relations ; military and naval defense and preparedness, an adequate council of na- tional defense, and extended army and navy boards or staffs separated from partisan politics ; protection of American life and property abroad; a protective tariff, protective of American industries, of Amer- ican standards of living and of American labor, with- out special privileges; industrial preparedness; ex- tension of foreign trade ; establishment of an Amer- ican merchant marine, by encouraging shipping in- terests in ocean-carrying trade by paying fair com- pensation for services actually rendered in carrying of the mails and by such further legislation as will build up and give American ships which may be requisitioned in times of national emergency, and as opposed to attempted government ownership of a merchant marine; a business-like national budget system, and the cutting out of waste ; the unifying of American citizenship; and the rehabilitation of the civil service. The Republican Party points to its record and ca- reer in constructive and progressive policies and PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 249 statesmanship. From 1861 to the time the present Democratic administration took office, the Republi- can Party was in effect in control of the Government 46 years. The only important piece of party legisla- tion enacted by the Democratic Party in the 52-years period was the Wilson Tariff, which Cleveland per- mitted to become a law without his signature, and that law was repealied in the next Congress. All other important and distinctive legislation for the entire period was the work of the Republican Party, and at the close of the period there was not a single im- portant law upon the statute books, and comparative- ly little remains there today, that was not placed there by the Republican Party. The Republican Party conducted two wars to successful close, the Civil War and the Spanish War; it freed the slaves in the interests of humanity, and preserved the Un- ion, building nationalism as against sectionalism and individualism; it was responsible for five amend- ments to the Constitution, all that have been adopted since 1804 ; it took up and carried on the protective tariff system; it advanced liberal pensions, and pro- vided the Homestead law, and introduced conservation of natural resources and forest reserves ; it stood for national internal improvements, established a sound currency and the National Bank system, and effected the resumption of specie payments ; it added Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Porto Rico and the Philippine archi- peligo to the national domain, and made Cuba inde- pendent; it brought the Nation to an actual world- power ; it brought its foreign diplomacy to the utmost respect of the world and always maintained it there ; it reorganized the army and increased it to efficiency 250 REPUBLICAN PARTY in time of peace ; it built up the navy, in the face of opposition, to first class efficiency and to second, cer- tainly to third, in world rank ; it promoted civil serv- ice to a high degree of observance ; and it secured and built the Isthmian Canal. These are some of the achievements of the Republican National Party. INDEX Abolitionists, 39, 42, 102. Alabama Claims, 98. Alaska, purchase, 95; 197. Alien and Sedition laws, 17. Amendments to Const., not a change, 14; first ten, 12; Xlth, 16; Xllth, 21; Xlllth, 86; XlVth, 92; XVth, 93; XVIth, 213; XVIIth, 220. American, or Know-Nothing, Party, 57, 65, 68, 75. Americanism, 238, 239, 243. Anti-Federalists, 12, 16, 17, 29, 55. Anti-Mason Party, 35. Anti-Poligamy, 121. Anti-Trust cases, 146, 179, 214, 215, 216. Anti-Trust law; see Sherman law. Arbitration treaties, 220. Army, 183, 205, 243; staff or board, 183, 248. Arthur, Chester A., 100, 114; V.-Pres., 121; Pres., 125, 129, 135. Bank, U. S., 14, 15, 24; as- sailed by Jackson, 36. See Nat'l Banks. Bank Ass'n, 194. Bering Sea controversy, 146. Blaine, James G., 45, 98, 112, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 127, 140, 143, 151; sketch of, 130. Bland-Allison Act, 104, 145. Bond issues (Cleveland), 157, 168; (McKinley), 168, 169. Borah, W. E., 150, 143, 225, 236. Broad Construction, see Loose construction. Brown, John, 59, 62. Bryan, Wm. J., 109, 162, 174. Buchanan, Jas., 70, 76. Budget system, 221, 248. Bull Moose Party, and sym- bol, 107. Burton, Theo. E., 143, 203, 221, 236. Cabinet, Lincoln's, 79, 86; Grant's, 98; Garfield's, 124; Arthur's, 125; Harrison's, 140; McKinley's, 164, 174; Eoosevelt's, 178, 181, 182, 192; Taft's, 205. Calhoun, J. C, 23, 29, 32, 35, 42, . 48. Campaigns, see in text, fol- lowing conventions. Canal Zone, 116, 181, 182. "Cannonism," 141, 212. Cannon, Jas. G., 188, 203, 208. Caucus system, 31. Chase, Salmon P., 53, 65, 79, 83, 93. Child Bureau, 219. ChUd labor law, 194, 243. Chinese, exclusion, 112, 117, 121. Civil Bights Bill, 92. Civil Service, 20, 99, 103, 121, 146, 213, 243, 248. Class hostility, 153. Clay, Henry, 22, 24, 30, 41, 44, 47, 48, 78, 141; Gree- ley's tribute, 45. Clajrton-Bulwer treaty, 116, 180. Cleveland, Grover; governor, 124; Pres., 133, 152, 155. Colfax, Schuyler, Viee-Pres., 65, 96, 102. Colored Farmers' Allianee,150. Commerce Court, 216, 221. 251 252 EEPUBLICAN PARTY Compromise of 1850, or of Clay, 47, 49, 51, 56, 78. Confederate States, 77. Conkling, Boscoe, 112, 119, 120, 123, 124. Congress, relation to terri- tory, 26, 42, 46, 69, 167. Conservation, 195-7, 202,205. "Constitution follows the flag," 48, 167, 172. Constitution, adoption, 12; construction — see loose con- struction; see amendments. Constitutional Union Party, 75. Conventions, nominating, prior to 1856; for election of 1832, 35, 36; for 1836, 36, 37; for 1840, 39; for 1844, 41; for 1848, 44; for 1852, 51. Conventions, Republican; of 1856, 65; of 1860, 72; of 1864, 84; of 1868, 95; of 1872, 102; of 1876, 111; of 1880, 119; of 1884, 127; of 1888, 137; of 1892, 151; of 1896, 159; of 1900, 172; of 1904, 188; of 1908, 201; of 1912, 223; of 1916, 235. Other party -conventions, see under names of party. Convention system, 35. Corporation tax, 209. Council of Nat'l defense, 183, 248. Courts, integrity of, 225. Credit Mobilier, 105, 123. "Crime of "73," 105, 121. Cuba, 159, 164, 165, 167. Customs Court, 209. Danish Islands, 116. Democratic Party, divides on slavery, 44; in 1864, de- clares war a failure, 85; denounces Eeconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, 96; coalesces with Liberal Party, 102; for free silver. 105; repudiation, 95; de- nounces Resumption, 112; coalesces with Greenback- ers, 109; tariff for labor protection, 129, 133; for some protection, 1S2; and the tariff, 229; for free ships, 157. For conven- tions and nominees, see in text under conventions. Democratic-Bepublicans, 16, 18 23 Dingley- Tariff, 164, 172, 208, 212 Diplomacy, 105, 137, 157, 194, 202, 220, 222, 244, 246, 247, 248. Donkey, emblem, 108. Douglas Democrats, 69. Douglas, Stephen A., 46, 51, 70, 74, 77. Douglass, Frederick, 49. Dred Scott case, 61, 71. Election, presidential; first, 13; second, 15; of 1796, 17 of 1800, 19; of 1804, 21 of 1808, 23; of 1812, 24 of 1816, 25; of 1820, 25 of 1824, 30; of 1828, 32 of 1832, 36; of 1836, 37 of 1840, 39; of 1844, 41 of 1848, 45; of 1852, 52 of 1856, 69; of 1860, 76 of 1864, 86; of 1868, 97 of 1872, 104; of 1876, 113 of 1880, 123; of 1884, 133 of 1888, 138; of 1892, 155 of 1896, 163; of 1900, 174 of 1904, 191; of 1908, 205 of 1912, 227. Electors, how chosen, 13, 30, 31, 32. Elephant, symbol, 107. Emancipation Proclamation, 81, 82. Embargo Act, 22. Employers' liability law, 193. Expansion, 21, 27; in world- power, 166, 167. PRINCIPLES AND POaiCIES 253 Fairbanks, Charles W., Viee- Pres., 190, 203, 236; nom. for V.-Pres., 1916, 240, 242. Farmers' Alliance, 145, 150. Federalists, 11, 15, 17, 32, 55, 246. Filibustering, 142. Fillmore, Millard, 45, 47, 51. "Force bills," 94, 98, 153. Foreign affairs or policy, see diplomacy. Forest reserves, 196,198,205. France and Mexico, 94. Free Soil Party, 45, 51, 57, 65. Free trade, see protection, tariff. Fremont, John C, nom. for Pres., 67. Fugitive Slave Law, 47, 49, 67. Gallinger, Jacob H., 143. Garfield, James A., 51, 114; Pres., 121; assassinated, 124, 135. Garfield, James A. (Jr.), 192. "Gold Democrats," 163. Gold standard, 159, 172, 189. See silver question. Grant, Ulysses S., 86,93,123; Pres., 96; "let us have peace" acceptance, 97; re- nom., 102; character, 108; and third term, 119, 120; trip around world, 119; administration, 98-108. Greeley, Horace, 45, 52, 65, 73; nom. for Pres. by Lib- eral Party, 101; death, 104. Greenback Party, 113, 123, 129, 227; Labor Party, 123. Greenbacks, 106, 111, 150. Hague Conference, 192. Hamilton, Alexander, 12, 14, 19, 21. Hamlin, Hannibal, V.-Pres., 65, 74, 96. Hanna, Marcus A., 188, 211. Harding, Warren G., 224, 236. Harrison, Benjamin, 114, 117, 171, 196; Pres., 138; sketch, 139; renom., 152; administration, 140-151. Harrison, William H., 39, 135. Hawaii, 159, 171, 172, 219. Hay, John, 174, 181, 186, 192. Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 180, 181. Hayes, R. B., 13, 100, 196; and sound money, 109, 111; for Pres., 112; Tilden elee- tional contest, 113, 114; administration, 113-117. Hobart, Garrett A., 135; V.- Pres., 161; elected, 163. Homestead Law, 73, 195. Hughes, Charles E., 203, 224, 236; nom. for Pres., 237; message to convention, 238-240; 241, 242. Immigration, 96, 146. Imperialism, 166, 170, 173, 190, 191, 198, 227. Income tax, 158, 213. Independence, or Hearst, Party, 203. Industrial unrest, 198, , 206, 219 Injunction, 202, 204. Insular cases, 168. Insurgents, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213. Internal improvements, 22, 31, 73, 99. Interstate Commerce laws, 127, 133, 146, 179, 203. Interstate Commerce Com- mission, 179, 216, 217, 220. Irrigation, 197. Isthmian Canal, 111, 116, 180, 181, 205. Italian trouble, 144. Jackson, Andrew, 29, 30, 32, 33, 76; Pres., 33; democ- racy, 36, 37. Jackson, Mich., meeting, 63. 254 REPUBLICAN PARTY Japan, 148, 184, 185, 187. Jefferson, Thos., 14, 16, 18; Pres., 19-22; demoeraey, 23, 24, 28. Johnson, Andrew, Pres., 92- 100; impeachment, 93, 95, 97; 135. Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 57, 70. Kentucky and Virginia Reso- lutions, 18, 34, 51, 67. Kenyon, Wm. S., 143. Knights of Labor, 126, 150. Know-Nothing, or American, Party; see American Party. Knox, Philander C, 179, 203, 205, 213, 220, 236. Ku Klux Klan, 99. Labor Parties, of 1888, 138. La FoUette, B. M., 203, 224, 236. Langston, John M., 50. Latin America, 148, 149, 220, 244. Liberal Party, 101. Liberty Party, 39, 41, 45, 53, 55, 57. Lincoln, Abraham, 58, 65, 67, 70; nom. for Pres., 74; Douglas debates, 69; inaug- ural, 78; renom., 85; assas- sinated, 87, 135; character, 87; administration, 79-88. Lincoln, Eob't T., 124, 129, 140. Lodge, Henry Cabot, 161, 189, 201, 237. Logan, John A., 96; nom. V.- Pres., 129. "Log-rolling," 134, 151, 221. Loose construction, 14, 17, 21, 29, 55, 127, 195, 199, 246. Louisiana purchase, 21. McKinley Tariff, 144, 147, 148, 151, 187, 212, 214. McKinley, William, 127, 147, 151, 161; for Pres., 161, 163; renom., 173; re- elected, 174; assassinated, 175; administration, 164- 175. Maine, blown up, 165. Mann-Elkins Act, 216. Marshall, Thos. B., 227, 235. Mason and Dixons line, 27, 47, 56. Maximum and minimum tar- iff clause, 202, 207, 210. Merchant marine, 172, 189, 202, 248. Mexican troubles, 148, 217, 244, 246, 247. Militarism, 173. Mills Tariff Bill, 134, 229. Missouri Compromise, 26, 27, 49, 51, 56, 62. Monroe Doctrine, 27, 95, 159, 187, 189, 244. Morrill tariff, 78. Morton, Levi P., Vioe-Pres., 138, 155, 161. Narrow construction; see in text under loose construc- tion. National Banks, 83; see Bank, V. S. National Democratic Party, of 1896, 162. Nationality, 153, 198. National Labor Beform Party, 103. National Eepublican Party, 32, 36, 55. National Silver Party, 162. Navy; Adams and, 19; Jef- ferson and, 23; 127, 164, 182, 183, 189, 194, 195, 205, 243; world trip, 195. Navy Board, 182, 248. Navy personnel, 183. New Nationalism, 222. Northwest boundary, 43. Nullification, 18, 19, 34, 76. "Old guard," 188, 189, 228. Open door, 186, 187, 220. PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES 255 Ordinance, N. W. Ter., 11, 87. Ostend Manifesto, 60, 67. Pacific Railroad, 73, 99. Panama Canal; see Isthmian Canal. Pan-American Congress, 144. Panic of 1837, 36, 37; of '57, 40; of '73, 105; of 1893, 155. Parker, John M., 240. Party government, 6. Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 207, 208, 222, 231, 233. Pensions, 84, 96, 127, 137, 145. Peoples, or Populist, Party, 150, 152, 162, 191, 227. Philippines, 165; policy, 166- 170, 191, 194, 219, 244. • Pierce, Franklin, 51, 58. Platform, first party, 39. Platforms; see in text under conventions. "Plumed Knight," 131. Polk, Jas. K., 41. Populist Party, 162, 174, 226; see Peoples. "Porkbarrels," 142, 143, 221. Porto Eico, 116, 165, 169. Postal Savings,' 202, 217. Preparedness, 248. Presidential succession, 134. Progressive Party, and Pro- gressives, 211, 212, 222, 226, 235, 237, 241-243. Prohibition Party, 113, 123, 130, 138, 152, 163, 174, 190, 203 235 Protection', 14, 21, 24, 83, 103, 121, 123, 126, 127, 129, 140, 146, 159, 161, 172, 189, 202, 204, 217, 225, 229, 230, 233, 243, 245, 248; see TarifC. Eailroad rates, 204, 216. Eailroad securities, 205; Com'n, 216. Eeeall, 207, 211, 225, 243. Eeciproeity, 144, 147, 148, 172; treaties, 148, 149. Reoonstrnetion, 89, 93, 95, 97, 114, 143. Eeed, Thos. B., Speaker, "Czar," 140, 141, 151, 161. Representative, or repub- lican, government, 5, 6, 225, 228. Republicans, or Democratic- Republicans; seeDem.-Eep. Republican National Party, 7, 56; named, 63; formed, 64, 65, 66; present issues in 1916, 248; see Conven- tions, Elections. Summary of record, 248-250. Repudiation, 95, 106. Resumption of Specie Pay- ments, 107, 109, 112, 114. Ripon, Wis., meeting, 58. Roosevelt, Theodore, 107, 116, 117, 135, 164, 165, 170, 202, 213, 222, 223, 224, 236, 241; for Viee-Pres., 173; elected, 174, 175; Pres., 175; renom. forPres. by Progressives, 240; ad- ministration, 177-199. Root, Elihn, 178, 183, 188, 192, 193, 224, 236. "Rule of Reason," 215. Rural credits, 243. San Domingo, 116. Seott, Winfield, 51. Secession, 15, 19, 77. Seward, Wm. H., 53, 65, 73, 79. Sherman Act (silver), 145, 149. Sherman Act (anti-trust), 145, 214. Sherman, James S., Vice- Pres., 203, 205, 225. Sherman, John, 65, 114, 121, 129, 164; quoted on Repub- lican Party, 154. Sherman, Lawrence Y., 236. Silver Question, 104, 145, 149, 150, 151, 153, 161; "16 to 1," 152, 162, 173. 256 REPUBLICAN PARTY Slavery, 22, 25, 41, 42, 45, 57, 62, 65, 66, 84. Slave traffic, 22; ended, 73. Social Democracy Party, 174, 226. Social unrest, 198, 206, 225. Socialist (Labor) Party, 152, 163, 174, 191, 203, 226, 235. Southern Eepublics; see Latin America. Spanish War, 165, 183. Squatter, or Popular, Sov-, ereignty, 46, 70. "Standpatters," 211. Stanton, Edwin M., 77, 79, 93. State bank system, 37. States Eights, State Sover- eignty, 15, 24, 55, 66. Strict construction; see loose construction. Sub-Treasury, 38. Sumner, Charles, 53, 58, 65; assault upon, 61; 92. Taft, William H., 146, 170, 174, 182, 183, 192, 197; elected, 205; nom. for Pres., 203; legislation, 219; re- nom., 225, 236; administra- tion, 205-222. Tammany, 6. Tariff, 15, 112; of 1789, 14; of 1816, 24, 40; of 1824, 29, 32; of 1828, 31, 34; of 1832, 34; 1833 Compromise tariff, 35; of 1846 (Walk- er), 40; of 1861 (Morrill), 78; of 1883, 126; of 1890 (MoKinley), 147, 148; of 1894 (Wilson), 155, 157; of 1897 (Dingley), 164; of 1909 (Payne- Aldrich), 208; of 1913 (Underwood), 231. See Protection, reciprocity, maximum and minimum Tariff board, 209, 218, 245, 246. "Tariff for revenue only,'- expression, 40. Taylor, Zachary, 44, 45, 47, 135. Tenure of Office Act, 93. Third term, 6, 25, 119, 120; single term, 227. Trusts, 137, 172, 190, 191, 194, 198, 203, 204, 205; see Sherman Act, and Anti- Trust law. Tyler, John, 39, 135. Underwood Tariff, 231, 237, 245. Union Nat'l convention, 84. Union Party, 80. Van Buren, Martin, 36, 45. Venezuelan trouble, 139, 177. Walker Tariff, 40. Washington, Booker T., 50. Washington, George., Pres., 13, 15. Wilson Tariff Bill, 155, 157. Webster-Calhoun debate, 48. Webster, Daniel, 34, 44, 47, 48, 49, 51. Webster-Hayne debate, 34, 78. Wheeler, Wm. A., V.-Pres., 112. Whig Party, 36, 39, 41, 44, 48, 51, 53, 55, 57, 64, 65, 75. Whiskey ring, 107. White slave traffic, 219. Wickersham, Geo. W., 206, 215. Wilmot, David, 42, 65, 66, 73. Wilson Tariff, 155, 157. Wilson, Henry, 65; V.-Pres., 112, 135. Wilson, Woodrow, 20, 209, 227, 234. Woman Suffrage, 244, 161. World Court, 220, 244.