CHAPTER XXXV. first administration of cleveland, 1885 - 1889. IMPORTANT MEASURES AND REFORMS.
620. Character of the Administration.—Ever since Grant’s administrations the strength of the two great political parties had been tending more and more to an equality. When Cleveland entered upon his duties as President, the Democrats had a small majority in the House of Representatives, the Republicans still had a majority in the Senate. Legislation, therefore, was for the most part confined to non-partisan measures. Cleveland surrounded himself with a good group of Cabinet advisers, in which the South was allowed proportionate representation.[286] The latter fact, together with his policy of vetoing private pension bills, rendered the President unpopular with many Union veterans; but his general firmness and honesty as an executive were admitted by impartial observers. He was placed, however, in the unfortunate situation of having to offend either the Democrats, who demanded that all offices should be taken away from Republican incumbents and given to Democrats, or the Independents, who thought that removals from office should be made only in the case of unworthy incumbents. Cleveland extended Civil Service reform, but at the same time made some removals from office apparently on partisan grounds. Thus he offended both Democratic politicians and Independent reformers; and his administration, while on the whole successful, was not characterized by thorough harmony.
621. The Australian Ballot.—Cleveland’s first administration was not only marked by the improvement in the Civil Service consequent upon the President’s extending the number of offices to be filled by persons who had passed competitive examinations, but was also distinguished by a reform which helped greatly to purify elections. In order to secure the secret voting necessary to lessen intimidation and bribery of voters, the Australian ballot was adopted in several of the states. The essential principle of this ballot is that all the candidates’ names shall be printed upon a single sheet of paper, and that the voter, taking this official paper from the supervisor of the election, shall, in a booth by himself, secretly mark the name of the person or persons for whom he votes, and then, after folding the ballot, return it to the officer to be inserted in the ballot box. The method met with popular approval and was adopted, in the course of a few years, in nearly all the states.
622. The Presidential Succession Act, and the Electoral Count Act.—Two measures intended to obviate possible complications in Presidential elections were adopted during this administration. Before 1886 there was no law to determine how the Presidency should be filled in case of the death or disability of the President, the Vice President, and the Acting President of the Senate.[287] It was now determined by statute that the succession should pass from the Vice President to the members of the Cabinet, eligible in the order in which the several departments were created, beginning with the Secretary of State. The following year (1887) the Electoral Count Act determined that disputes relating to the validity of electoral votes should be settled by state tribunals.
623. Interstate Commerce Act.—The rapid growth of individual and corporate wealth in the country led to an impression on the part of very many people that the profits of industry were not fairly distributed. This feeling was greatly increased by the multiplication of corporations and trusts. Railways were everywhere tending to combine into great lines and to enter into agreements that were supposed to endanger competition and sometimes even to prevent it. It was also in their power to make such discriminating rates for freight between different manufacturing corporations and between different towns and cities as to favor some and injure others. This condition led to strikes and riots at various points, and it became evident to the leaders of both parties that remedial legislation was called for. The result was the passing of an act for the better regulation of Interstate Commerce. Railroads exclusively within an individual state could not, under the Constitution of the United States, be interfered with; but the act forbade discriminating rates and the pooling of earnings and rates on roads running partly in one state and partly in another. It also created an Interstate Commerce Commission of five members, with authority to decide such questions under the act as might arise between the railroads and their patrons, and to make an annual report on actual conditions. The Commission, however, was not given power to enforce its decisions, and, consequently, it failed to accomplish all the good that had been anticipated; but many abuses were corrected. Individual states, also, in many cases enacted laws limiting the rates for carrying freight and passengers.
INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL DISTURBANCES.
624. Anti-Chinese Laws.—The strikes and other disorders prevalent during this period in many parts of the country were generally attributed to ignorant foreigners, who had not yet become accustomed to American laws. Immigration brought in a large number of discontented, disheartened, and reckless people from Europe. Efforts were now made to reduce the number of such persons; but little was done except to take still harsher measures against a more or less inoffensive people from Asia (§ 603). In 1885 twenty-seven Chinamen were murdered by miners in Wyoming because they refused to join in a strike. As the Chinese could not vote, nobody seemed afraid to favor a measure for their exclusion. In 1888, therefore, a more stringent law was passed prohibiting their immigration into the country. It was not very perfectly drawn, however, and was easily evaded by immigration through Canada and in other ways.[288]
625. The Chicago Anarchists.—Unmistakable evidences of discontent among the laboring classes continued to alarm the country. Various organizations of workmen were formed, the most conspicuous of which was the “Knights of Labor,” with upwards of a million members. A great strike took place in St. Louis in the Spring of 1886, but the most violent outbreak occurred in Chicago, May 4, 1886. A riot of anarchists, mostly foreigners, resulted in the killing of a number of policemen by bombs thrown in Haymarket Square. Four leading rioters were executed. Others were imprisoned, but were pardoned in 1893 by Governor Altgeld of Illinois. Though a reaction immediately took place against violence of an anarchistic kind, discontent throughout the country went on increasing. Perhaps the lessons taught by the Chicago tragedy were best taken to heart by those philanthropists who began establishing “settlements” among the poor of the great cities and in other ways labored to improve their condition.
626. Pension Vetoes.—Both political parties had been inclined to pursue a liberal policy in regard to military pensions. The debt of gratitude to the old soldiers and sailors was so generally felt that whenever a proposition to extend the pension list was made, very few politicians seemed willing to oppose it. The consequence was, that the liberality of Congress seemed to many persons, including the President, to be running into folly and extravagance. The pension list was costing the Treasury about one hundred million dollars a year, and Cleveland determined to resist its increase. He vetoed so large a number of pension bills, including a specially liberal one known as the Dependent Pension Bill (1887), that efforts to extend the lists were discouraged.
627. Accumulation in the Treasury.—In the course of Cleveland’s administration the silver coined under the Bland-Allison law (§ 604) was but slightly circulated, and the income of the government from tariff and internal revenue largely exceeded the expenses. All the bonds that were due had been paid, and the interest on the national debt had been greatly reduced. In consequence there was an accumulation of a very large sum of money in the Treasury. The President was strongly of the opinion that financial distress would result from continuance of a tariff producing a surplus that kept so much money from circulation and tempted congressmen to make large appropriations for pensions and for less worthy objects. Accordingly, in a special message of December, 1887, he recommended a policy of tariff reform in the interests of freer trade. As the Senate was still Republican, he could not have hoped that Congress would at once pass such a measure as he recommended and as the House agreed to when it passed a reduced tariff act, known as the “Mills Bill,” from its chief framer, Roger Q. Mills of Texas. Cleveland’s message was designed to place the matter before the country in such a way that it would become the main issue at the next Presidential election. In this purpose he was successful, although the “Mills Bill” failed in the Senate.
628. Election of Harrison and Morton.—The Republicans at their convention held at Chicago in 1888, nominated, for President, Benjamin Harrison[289] of Indiana, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, and for Vice President, Levi P. Morton of New York. The Democrats met at St. Louis and renominated Cleveland, who was strong with the masses of the party, although unpopular with the politicians. Allen G. Thurman, formerly senator from Ohio, was nominated for Vice President. At the end of a vigorous campaign, conducted almost exclusively on the tariff issue, but marked by the circulation of misleading statements and the corrupt use of money,[290] Harrison had two hundred and thirty-three electoral votes, and Cleveland one hundred and sixty-eight. As in 1884, the election was decided by the thirty-five electoral votes of the state of New York.
References.—See bibliographical note to Chapter XXXIV. Add: Appleton’s Annual CyclopÆdia for the years under consideration.
