The loss in the cities and towns burned or injured by siege and the other operations of war, and the loss caused by the ruin of trade and commerce and the destruction of railroads, farms, plantations, crops, and private property, can not be fully estimated, but it was very great.
The most awful cost was the loss of life. On the Union side more than 360,000 men were killed, or died of wounds or of disease. On the Confederate side the number was nearly if not quite as large, so that some 700,000 men perished in the war. Many were young men with every prospect of a long life before them, and their early death deprived their country of the benefit of their labor.
DISTRESS IN THE SOUTH.—In the North the people suffered little if any real hardship. In the South, after the blockade became effective, the people suffered privations. Not merely luxuries were given up, but the necessaries of life became scarce. Thrown on their own resources, the people resorted to all manner of makeshifts. To get brine from which salt could be obtained by evaporation, the earthen floors of smokehouses, saturated by the dripping of bacon, were dug up and washed, and barrels in which salt pork had been packed were soaked in water. Tea and coffee ceased to be used, and dried blackberry, currant, and raspberry leaves were used instead. Rye, wheat, chicory, chestnuts roasted and ground, did duty for coffee. The spinning wheel came again into use, and homespun clothing, dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark, or with wild indigo, was generally worn. As articles were scarce, prices rose, and then went higher and higher as the Confederate money depreciated, like the old Continental money in Revolutionary times. In 1864 Mrs. Jefferson Davis states that in Richmond a turkey cost $60, a barrel of flour $300, and a pair of shoes $150. No little suffering was caused for want of medicines, [15] woolen goods, blankets, [16] shoes, paper, [17] and in some of the cities even bread became scarce. [18] To get food for the army the Confederate Congress (1863) authorized the seizure of supplies for the troops and payment at fixed prices which were far below the market rates. [19]
Some men made fortunes by blockade running, smuggling from the North, and speculation in stocks. Dwellers on the great plantations, remote from the operations of the contending armies, suffered not from want of food; but the great body of the people had much to endure.
1. The operations of the navy comprised (1) the blockade of the coast of the Confederate States, (2) the capture of seaports, (3) the pursuit and capture of Confederate cruisers, and (4) aiding the army on the western rivers.
2. A notable feature in the naval war was the use of ironclad vessels. These put an end to the wooden naval vessels, and revolutionized the navies of the world.
3. The cost of the war in human life, money, and property destroyed was immense, and can be stated only approximately.
4. In the South, as the war progressed, the hardships endured by the mass of the people caused much suffering.
[Illustration: LOADING A NAVAL CANNON IN THE CIVIL WAR. Contemporary drawing.]
[1] The first Confederate privateer to get to sea was theSavannah. She took one prize and was captured. Another, theBeauregard, was taken after a short cruise. A third, thePetrel, mistook the frigate St. Lawrence for a merchantman and attempted to take her, but was sunk by a broadside. After a year the blockade stopped privateering.
[2] Captain Wilkes was congratulated by the Secretary of the Navy, thanked by the House of Representatives, and given a grand banquet in Boston; and the whole country was jubilant. The British minister at Washington was directed to demand the liberation of the prisoners and "a suitable apology for the aggression," and if not answered in seven days, or if unfavorably answered, was to return to London at once.
[3] Early in the war an agent was sent to Great Britain by the Confederate navy department to procure vessels to be used as commerce destroyers. TheFloridaandAlabamawere built at Liverpool and sent to sea unarmed. Their guns and ammunition were sent in vessels from another British port. TheShenandoahwas purchased at London (her name was then theSea King) and was met at Madeira by a tender from Liverpool with men and guns. On her way to Australia, theShenandoahdestroyed seven of our merchantmen. She then went to Bering Sea and in one week captured twenty- five whalers, most of which she destroyed. This was in June, 1865, after the war was over. In August a British ship captain informed the commander of theShenandoahthat the Confederacy no longer existed. TheShenandoahwas then taken to Liverpool and delivered to the British government, which turned her over to the United States.
[4] ReadBattles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 600-614.
[5] In 1864 a Confederate ironclad ram, theAlbemarle, appeared on the waters of Albemarle Sound. As no Union war ship could harm her, Commander W. B. Gushing planned an expedition to destroy her by a torpedo. On the night of October 27, with fourteen companions in a steam launch, he made his way to the ram, blew her up with the torpedo, and with one other man escaped. His adventures on the way back to the fleet read like fiction, and are told by himself inBattles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 634-640.
[6] The hole made in the Cumberland by the Merrimac was "large enough for a man to enter." Through this the water poured in so rapidly that the sick, wounded, and many who were not disabled were carried down with the ship. After she sank, the flag at the masthead still waved above the water. Read Longfellow's poemThe Cumberland.
[7] TheMonitorwas designed by John Ericsson, who was born in Sweden in 1803. After serving as an engineer in the Swedish army, he went to England; and then came to our country in 1839. He was the inventor of the first practical screw propeller for steamboats, and by his invention of the revolving turret for war vessels he completely changed naval architecture. His name is connected with many great inventions. He died in 1889.
[8] When the Confederates evacuated Norfolk some months later, theMerrimacwas blown up. TheMonitor, in December, 1862, went down in a storm at sea.
[9] As the right of a State to secede was not acknowledged, this direct tax of $20,000,000 was apportioned among the Confederate as well as among the Union states. The Confederate states, of course, did not pay their share.
[10] Deeds, mortgages, bills of lading, bank checks, patent medicines, wines, liquors, tobacco, proprietary articles, and many other things were taxed. Between 1862 and 1865 about $780,000,000 was raised in this way.
[11] Between July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, bonds to the amount of $1,109,000,000 were issued and sold.
[12] The Legal Tender Act, which authorized the issue of greenbacks, was enacted in 1862, and two years later $449,000,000 were in circulation. The greenbacks could not be used to pay duties on imports or interest on the public debt, which were payable in specie.
[13] This paper fractional currency consisted of small paper bills in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. Read the account in Rhodes'sHistory of the U. S., Vol. V, pp. 191-196.
[14] In 1902 changed to one hundred per cent.
[15] When Sherman was in command at Memphis, a funeral procession was allowed to pass beyond the Union lines. The coffin, however, was full of medicines for the Confederate army.
[16] Blankets were sometimes made of cow hair, or long moss from the seaboard, and even carpets were cut up and sent as blankets to the army.
[17] The newspapers of the time give evidence of the scarcity of paper. Some are printed on half sheets, a few on brown paper, and some on note paper.
[18] Riots of women, prompted by the high prices of food, occurred in Atlanta, Mobile, Richmond, and other places.
[19] Read "War Diary of a Union Woman in the South," in the Century Magazine, October, 1889; Rhodes'sHistory of the U. S., Vol. V, pp. 348-384.
THREE ISSUES.—After the collapse of the Confederacy, our countrymen were called on to meet three issues arising directly from the war:—
1. The first was, What shall be done to destroy the institution of slavery? [1]
2. The second was, What shall be done with the late Confederate states? [2]
3. The third had to do with the national debt and the currency.
THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.—When the war ended, slavery had been abolished in Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia, by gradual or immediate abolition acts, and in Tennessee by a special emancipation act. In order that it might be done away with everywhere Congress (in January, 1865) sent out to the states a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declaring slavery abolished throughout the United States. In December, 1865, three fourths of the states having ratified, it became part of the Constitution, and slavery was no more.
RECONSTRUCTION.—After the death of Lincoln, the work of reconstruction was taken up by his successor, Johnson. [3] He recognized the governments established by loyal persons in Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, and Louisiana. For the other states he appointed provisional governors and authorized conventions to be called. These conventions repudiated the Confederate debt, repealed the ordinances of secession, and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment.
This done, Johnson considered these states as reconstructed and entitled to send senators and representatives to Congress. But Congress thought otherwise and would not admit their senators and representatives. Johnson then denied the right of Congress to legislate for the states not represented in Congress. He vetoed many bills which chiefly affected the South, and in the summer of 1866 made speeches denouncing Congress for its action.
THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.—One measure which President Johnson would have vetoed if he could, was a Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which Congress proposed in 1866. Ten of the former Confederate states rejected it, as did also four of the Union states. Congress, therefore, in March, 1867, passed over the veto a Reconstruction Act setting forth what the states would have to do to get back into the Union. One condition was that they must ratify the Fourteenth Amendment; when they had done so, andwhen the amendment had become a part of the Constitution, they were to be readmitted.
SOUTHERN STATES READMITTED.—Six states—North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas—submitted, and the amendment having become a part of the Constitution, they were (1868) declared again in the Union. Tennessee had been readmitted in 1866. Virginia, Mississippi and Texas were not readmitted till 1870, and Georgia not till 1871.
THE DEBT AND THE CURRENCY.—The financial question to be settled included two parts: What shall be done with the bonds (p. 381)? and What shall be done with the paper money? As to the first, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, [4] and by 1873 some $500,000,000 were paid. As to the second, it was at first decided to cancel (instead of reissuing) the greenbacks as they came into the treasury in payment of taxes and other debts to the government. But after the greenbacks in circulation had been thus reduced (from $449,000,000) to $356,000,000, Congress ordered that their cancellation should stop.
JOHNSON IMPEACHED.—The President meantime had been impeached. In March, 1867, Congress passed (over Johnson's veto) the Tenure of Office Act, depriving him of power to remove certain officials. He might suspend them till the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the officer was removed. If it disapproved, he was reinstated. [5]
Johnson soon disobeyed the law. In August, 1867, he asked Secretary-of-War Stanton to resign, and when Stanton refused, suspended him. The Senate disapproved and reinstated Stanton. But Johnson then removed him and appointed another man in his place. For this act, and for his speeches against Congress, the House impeached the President, and the Senate tried him, for "high crimes and misdemeanors." He was not found guilty. [6]
[Illustration: REPUBLICAN CARTOON OF 1868. "Blood will tell: The great race for the presidential sweepstakes, between the Western War Horse U. S. Grant and the Manhattan Donkey."]
GRANT ELECTED PRESIDENT, 1868.—In the midst of Johnson's quarrel with Congress the time came to elect his successor. The Democratic party nominated Horatio Seymour. The Republicans chose Ulysses S. Grant and elected him.
Grant's first term is memorable because of the adoption of the FifteenthAmendment; the restoration to the Union of the last four of the formerConfederate states, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas; thedisorder in the South; and the character of our foreign relations.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.—Encouraged by their success at the polls, the Republicans went on with the work of reconstruction, and (in February, 1869) Congress sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
By the Fourteenth Amendment the states were left (as before) to settle for themselves who should and who should not vote. But if any state denied or in any way abridged the right of any portion of its male citizens over twenty-one years old to vote, Congress was to reduce the number of representatives from that state in Congress in the same proportion. But now by the Fifteenth Amendment each state was forbidden to deprive any man of the right to vote because of his "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." In March, 1870, the amendment went into force, having been ratified by a sufficient number of states.
CARPETBAG RULE.—President Grant began his administration in troubled times. The Reconstruction Act had secured the negro the right to vote. Many Southern states were thereby given over to negro rule. Seeing this, a swarm of Northern politicians called "carpetbaggers" went south, made themselves political leaders of the ignorant freedmen, and plundered and misgoverned the states. In this they were aided by a few Southerners who supported the negro cause and were called "scalawags." But most of the Southern whites were determined to stop the misgovernment; and, banded together in secret societies, called by such names as Knights of the White Camelia, and the Ku-Klux-Klan, they terrorized the negroes and kept them from voting. [7]
FORCE ACT.—Such intimidation was in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. Congress therefore enacted the "Ku-Klux Act," or Force Act (1871), which prescribed fine and imprisonment for any one convicted of hindering or attempting to hinder a negro from voting, or his vote when cast from being counted.
RISE OF THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS.—The troubles which followed the enforcement of this act led many to think that the government had gone too far, and a more liberal treatment of the South was demanded. Many complained that the civil service of the government was used to reward party workers, and that fitness for office was not duly considered. There was opposition to the high tariff. These and other causes now split the Republican party in the West and led to the formation of the Liberal Republican party.
[Illustration: CARTOON OF 1862. "Say, Missus [Mexico], me and these other gents 'ave come to nurse you a bit." [8]]
FOREIGN RELATIONS.—Our foreign relations since the close of the Civil War present many matters of importance. In 1867 Alaska [9] was purchased from Russia for $7,200,000. At the opening of the war France sent troops to Mexico, overthrew the government, and set up an empire with Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, as emperor. This was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine (p. 282). When the war was over, therefore, troops were sent to the Rio Grande, and a demand was made on France to recall her troops. The French army was withdrawn, and Maximilian was captured by the Mexicans and shot. These things happened while Johnson was President.
SANTO DOMINGO.—In 1869 Grant negotiated a treaty for the annexation of the negro republic of Santo Domingo, and urged the Senate to ratify it. When the Senate failed to do so, he made a second appeal, with a like result.
ALABAMA CLAIMS.—In 1871 the treaty of Washington was signed, by which several outstanding subjects of dispute with Great Britain were submitted to arbitration. (1) Chief of these were the Alabama claims for damage to the property of our citizens by the Confederate cruisers built or purchased in Great Britain. [10] The five [11] arbitrators met at Geneva in 1872 and awarded us $15,500,000 in gold as indemnity. (2) A dispute over the northeastern fisheries [12] was referred to a commission which met at Halifax and awarded Great Britain $5,500,000. (3) The same treaty provided that a dispute over a part of the northwest boundary should be submitted to the emperor of Germany as arbitrator. He decided in favor of our claim, thus confirming our possession of the small San Juan group of islands, in the channel between Vancouver and the mainland.
CUBA.—In 1868 the people of Cuba rebelled against Spain, proclaimed a republic, and began a war which lasted nearly ten years. American ships were seized, our citizens arrested; American property in Cuba was destroyed or confiscated; and our ports were used to fit out filibusters to aid the Cubans. Because of these things and the sympathy felt in our country for the Cubans, Grant made offers of mediation, which Spain declined. As the war continued, the question of giving the Cubans rights of belligerents, and recognizing their independence, was urged on Congress.
While these issues were undecided, a vessel called the Virginius, flying our flag, was seized by Spain as a filibuster, and fifty-three of her passengers and crew were put to death (1873). War seemed likely to follow; but Spain released the ship and survivors, and later paid $80,000 to the families of the murdered men.
1. The end of the Civil War brought up several issues for settlement.
2. Out of the negro problem came the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution.
3. Out of the issue of readmitting the Confederate states into the Union grew a serious quarrel with President Johnson.
4. Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto (1867), and by 1868 seven states were back in the Union.
5. Johnson's intemperate speeches and his violation of an act of Congress led to his impeachment and trial. He was not convicted.
6. Johnson was succeeded by Grant, in whose administration the remaining Southern states were readmitted to the Union; but the condition of the South, under carpetbag government, became worse than ever, and led to the passage of the Force Act.
7. Our foreign relations after the end of the war are memorable for the purchase of Alaska, the withdrawal of the French from Mexico, the treaty with Great Britain for the settlement of several old issues, the attempt of Grant to purchase Santo Domingo, and the Virginius affair with Spain.
[1] A closely related question was, What shall be done for the negroes set free by the Emancipation Proclamation? During the war, as the Union armies occupied more and more of Confederate territory, the number of freedmen within the lines grew to hundreds of thousands. Many were enlisted as soldiers, others were settled on abandoned or confiscated lands, and societies were organized to aid them. In 1865, however, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to care for them. Tracts of confiscated land were set apart to be granted in forty-acre plots, and the bureau was to find the negroes work, establish schools for them, and protect them from injustice.
[2] When the eleven Southern states passed their ordinances of secession, they claimed to be out of the Union. As to this there were in the North three different views. (1) Lincoln held that no state could secede; that the people of the seceding states were insurgents or persons engaged in rebellion; that when the rebellion was crushed in any state, loyal persons could again elect senators and representatives, and thus resume their old relations to the Union. (2) Others held that these states had ceased to exist; that nothing but their territory remained, and that Congress could do what it pleased with this territory. (3) Between these extremes were most of the Republican leaders, who held that these states had lost their rights under the Constitution, and that only Congress could restore them to the Union.
[3] Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina in 1808. He never went to school, and when ten years old was apprenticed to a tailor. When eighteen, he went to Tennessee, where he married and was taught to read and write by his wife. He was a man of ability, was three years alderman and three years mayor of Greenville, was three times elected a member of the legislature, six times a member of Congress, and twice governor of Tennessee. When the war opened, he was a Democratic senator from Tennessee, and stoutly opposed secession. In 1862 Lincoln made him military governor of Tennessee. In 1875 he was again elected United States senator, but died the same year.
[4] Some of these bonds (issued after March, 1863) contained the provision that they should be paid "in coin." But others (issued in 1862) merely provided that the interest should be paid in coin. Now, greenbacks were legal tender for all debts except duties on imports and interest on the bonds. A demand was therefore made that the early bonds should be paid in greenbacks; also that all government bonds (which had been exempted from taxation) should be taxed like other property. This idea was so popular in Ohio that it was called the "Ohio idea," and its supporters were nicknamed "Greenbackers." To put an end to this question Congress (1869) provided that all bonds should be paid in coin.
[5] This Tenure of Office Act was afterward repealed (partly in 1869, and partly in 1887).
[6] There have been eight cases of impeachment of officers of the United States. The House begins by sending a committee to the Senate to impeach, or accuse, the officer in question. The Senate then organizes itself as a court with the Vice President as the presiding officer, and fixes the time for trial. The House presents articles of impeachment, or specific charges of misconduct, and appoints a committee to take charge of its side of the case. The accused is represented by lawyers, witnesses are examined, arguments made, and the decision rendered by vote of the senators. When a President is impeached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides in place of the Vice President.
[7] ReadA Fool's Errand, by A. W. Tourgée, andRed Rock, by Thomas Nelson Page—two interesting novels describing life in the South during this period.
[8] When France first interfered in Mexican affairs, it was in conjunction with Great Britain and Spain, on the pretext of aiding Mexico to provide for her debts to these powers. But when France proceeded to overthrow the Mexican government, Great Britain and Spain withdrew.
[9] Soon after the purchase a few small Alaskan islands were leased to a fur company for twenty years, and during that time nearly $7,000,000 was paid into the United States treasury as rental and royalty. Besides seals and fish, much gold has been obtained in Alaska.
[10] The cruisers were theAlabama,Sumter,Shenandoah,Florida, and others (p. 378). We claimed that Great Britain had not done her duty as a neutral; that she ought to have prevented their building, arming, or equipping in her ports and sailing to destroy the commerce of a friendly nation, and that, not having done so, she was responsible for the damage they did. We claimed damages for (1) private losses by destruction of ships and cargoes; (2) high rates of insurance paid by citizens; (3) cost of pursuing the cruisers; (4) transfer of American merchant ships to the British flag; (5) prolongation of the war because of recognition of the Confederate States as belligerents, and the resulting cost to us. Great Britain denied that 2, 3, 4, and 5 were subject to arbitration, and it looked for a while as if the arbitration would come to naught. The tribunal decided against 2, 4, and 5 on principles of international law, and made no award for 3.
[11] One was appointed by the President, one by Great Britain, one by the King of Italy, one by the President of the Swiss Confederation, and one by the Emperor of Brazil. In 1794-1904 there were fifty-seven cases submitted to arbitration, of which twenty were with Great Britain.
[12] The question was, whether the privilege granted citizens of the United States to catch fish in the harbors, bays, creeks, and shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island was more valuable than the privilege granted British subjects to catch fish in harbors, bays, creeks, and off the coast of the United States north of 39°. The commission decided that it was.
THE WEST.—In 1860 the great West bore little resemblance to its present appearance. The only states wholly or partly west of the Mississippi River were Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas. Louisiana, Texas, California, and Oregon. Kansas territory extended from Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. Nebraska territory included the region from Kansas to the British possessions, and from Minnesota and Iowa to the Rocky Mountains. New Mexico territory stretched from Texas to California, Utah territory from the Rocky Mountains to California, and Washington territory from the mountains to the Pacific.
[Illustration: SCENE IN A MINING TOWN. Deadwood, Dakota, in the '70's.]
GOLD AND SILVER MINING.—One decade, however, completely changed the West. In 1858 gold was discovered on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near Pikes Peak; gold hunters rushed thither, Denver was founded, and in 1861 Colorado was made a territory. Kansas, reduced to its present limits, was admitted as a state the same year, and the northern part of Nebraska territory was cut off and called Dakota territory (map, p. 352).
In 1859 silver was discovered on Mount Davidson (then in western Utah), and population poured thither. Virginia City sprang into existence, and in 1861 Nevada was made a territory and in 1864, with enlarged boundaries, was admitted into the Union as a state.
[Illustration: THE WEST.]
Precious metals were found in 1862 in what was then eastern Washington; the old Fort Boise of the Hudson's Bay Company became a thriving town, other settlements were made, and in 1863 the territory of Idaho was organized. In the same year Arizona was cut off from New Mexico.
Hardly had this been done when gold was found on the Jefferson fork of the Missouri River. Bannack City, Virginia City, and Helena were founded, and in 1864 Montana was made a territory. [1]
In 1867 Nebraska became a state, and the next year Wyoming territory was formed.
OVERLAND TRAILS.—When Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, no railroad crossed the plains. The horse, the stagecoach, the pack train, the prairie schooner, [2] were the means of transportation, and but few routes of travel were well defined. The Great Salt Lake and California trail, starting in Kansas, followed the north branch of the Platte River to the mountains, crossed the South Pass, and went on by way of Salt Lake City to Sacramento. Over this line, once each week, a four-horse Concord coach [3] started from each end of the route.
From Independence in Missouri another line of coaches carried the mail over the old Santa Fe trail to New Mexico.
The great Western mail route began at St. Louis, went across Missouri andArkansas, curved southward to El Paso in Texas, and then by way of theGila River to Los Angeles and San Francisco; the distance of 2729 mileswas covered in twenty-four days. [4]
[Illustration: OVERLAND MAIL COACH STARTING FROM SAN FRANCISCO FOR THEEAST IN 1858. Contemporary drawing.]
PONY EXPRESS.—This was too slow for business men, and in 1860 the stage company started the Pony Express to carry letters on horseback from St. Joseph to San Francisco. Mounted on a swift pony, the rider, a brave, cool-headed, picked man, would gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay station, jump on the back of another pony and speed away to the second, mount a fresh horse and be off for a third. At the third station he would find a fresh rider mounted, who, the moment the mail bags had been fastened to his horse, would ride off to cover his three stations in as short a time as possible. The riders left each end of the route twice a week or oftener. The total distance, about two thousand miles, was passed over in ten days. [5]
In the large cities of the East free delivery of letters by carriers was introduced (1863), the postal money order system was adopted (1864), and trials were made with postal cars in which the mail was sorted whileen route.
THE TELEGRAPH.—Meanwhile Congress (in June, 1860) incorporated the Pacific Telegraph Company to build a line across the continent. By November the line reached Fort Kearny, where an operator was installed in a little sod hut. By October, 1861, the two lines, one building eastward from California, and the other westward from Omaha, reached Salt Lake City. The charge for a ten-word message from New York to Salt Lake City was 87.50.
When the telegraph line was finished, the work of the Pony Express ended, and all letters went by the overland stage line, whose coaches entered every large mining center, carrying passengers, express matter, and the mail. [6]
OVERLAND FREIGHT.—The discovery of gold in western Kansas, in 1858, and the founding of Denver, led to a great freight business across the plains. Flour, bacon, sugar, coffee, dry goods, hardware, furniture, clothing, came in immense quantities to Omaha, St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth, there to be hauled to the "diggings." Atchison became a trade center. There, in the spring of 1860, might have been seen hundreds of wagons, and tons of goods piled on the levee, and warehouses full of provisions, boots, shoes, and clothing. From it, day after day, went a score of prairie schooners drawn by horses, mules, or oxen. [7]
THE RAILROAD.—The idea of a railroad over the plains was, as we have seen, an old one; but at last, in 1862, Congress chartered two railroad companies to build across the public domain from the Missouri River to California. One, the Union Pacific, was to start at Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to start in California and build eastward till the two met. Work was begun in November, 1865, and in May, 1869, the two lines were joined at Promontory Point, near Salt Lake City.
As the railroad progressed, the overland coaches plied between the ends of the two sections, their runs growing shorter and shorter till, when the road was finished, the overland stagecoach was discontinued.
THE HOMESTEAD LAW.—When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were chartered, they were given immense land grants; [8] but in the same year (1862) the Homestead Law was enacted. Under the provisions of this law a farm of 80 or 160 acres in the public domain might be secured by any head of a family or person twenty-one years old who was a citizen of our country or had declared an intention to become such, provided he or she would live on the farm and cultivate it for five years. [9] Between 1863 and 1870, 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres were made. This showed that the people desired the land, and was one reason why no more should be given to corporations.
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.—In 1864 Congress had chartered a railroad for the new Northwest, and had given the company an immense land grant. But building did not begin till 1870. All went well till 1873, when a great panic swept over the country and the road became bankrupt. It then extended from Duluth to Bismarck. Two years later the company was reorganized, and the road was finished in 1883. [10]
WHEAT FIELDS OF DAKOTA.—During the panic certain of the directors of the road bought great tracts of land from the company, paying for them with the railroad bonds. On some of these lands in the valley of the Red River of the North an attempt was made to raise wheat in 1876. It proved successful, and the next year a wave of emigration set strongly toward Dakota. In 1860 there were not 5000 people in Dakota; in 1870 there were but 14,000, mostly miners; in 1880 there were 135,000.
PRAIRIE HOMES.—These newcomers—homesteaders, as they were often called— broke up the prairie, planted wheat, raised sheep and cattle, and lived at first in a dugout, or hole dug in the side of a depression in the prairie. This was roofed (about the level of the prairie) with thick boards covered with sods. After a year or two in such a home the settler would build a sod house. The walls, two feet thick, were made of sods cut like great bricks from the prairie. The roof would be of boards covered with shingles or oftener with sods, and the walls inside would sometimes be whitewashed. Near watercourses a few settlers found enough trees to make log cabins.
[Illustration: LOG CABIN WITH SOD ROOF.]
THE RANCHES.—Stretching across the country from Montana and Dakota to Arizona lay the grass region, the great ranch country, where herds of cattle grazed and were driven to the railroads to be taken to market. In later years this became also the greatest sheep-raising and wool-producing region in the Union.
BUFFALOES AND INDIANS.—With the building of the railroads and the coming of the settlers the reckless slaughter of the buffalo and the crowding of the Indians began. [11] To-day the buffalo is as rare an animal in the West as in the East; and after many wars and treaties with the Indians, they now hold less than one hundredth of the land west of the Mississippi.
[Illustration: CUSTER'S FIGHT.]
MECHANICAL PROGRESS.—The period 1860 to 1880 was one of great mechanical and industrial progress. During this time dynamite and the barbed-wire fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, the Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable car, the trolley systems, the electric light, the search light, electric motors, the Bell telephone, the phonograph, the gas engine, and a host of other inventions and mechanical devices were invented. To satisfy the demands of trade and commerce, great works of engineering were undertaken, such as twenty years before could not have been attempted. The jetties constructed by James B. Eads in the South Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi, to force that river to keep open its own channel; the steel-arch railroad bridge built by Eads across the Mississippi at St. Louis; the Roebling suspension bridges over the Ohio at Cincinnati and over the East River at New York; and the successful laying of the Atlantic cable (1866) by Cyrus W. Field, are a few of the great mechanical triumphs of this period.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.—Industries once carried on in the household or in small factories were conducted on a large scale by great corporations. The machine for making tin cans made possible the canning industry. The self- binding harvester and reaper made possible the immense grain fields of the West. The production and refining of petroleum became an industry of great importance. The great flour mills of Minneapolis, the iron and steel mills of Pennsylvania, the packing houses of Chicago and Kansas City, and many other enterprises were the direct result of the use of machinery.
[Illustration: STEEL MILL.]
RISE OF GREAT CORPORATIONS.—Trades and occupations, industries of all sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and large corporations took the place of individuals and small companies. In place of many little railroads there were now trunk lines. [12] In place of many little telegraph companies, express companies, and oil companies there were now a few large ones.
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1880.]
IMMIGRATION.—This industrial development, in spite of machinery, could not have been so great were it not for the increase in population, wealth, the facilities of transportation, and the great number of workingmen. These were largely immigrants, who came by hundreds of thousands year after year. From about 90,000 in 1862, the number who came each year rose to more than 450,000 in 1873; and then fell to less than 150,000 in 1878. The population of the whole country in 1880 was 50,000,000, of whom more than 6,500,000 were of foreign birth.
1. The discovery of gold and silver near the Rocky Mountains in 1858 and later brought to that region many thousand miners.
2. Their presence in that wild region made local government necessary, and by 1868 seven new territories were formed (Colorado, Dakota, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming), and one of them (Nevada, 1864) was admitted into the Union as a state.
3. Means of communication with California and the far West were improved. First came the Pony Express, then the telegraph, and finally the railroad.
4. The construction of the railroad across the middle of the country was followed by the building of another near the northern border.
5. Railroad building, the Homestead Law, and the success of the Dakota wheat farms, led to the rapid development of the new Northwest.
6. Quite as noticeable is the mechanical and industrial progress of the country, the rise of great corporations, and the flood of immigrants that came to our shores each year.
[1] For descriptions of the wild life in the new Northwest in the pioneer days read Langford's Vigilante Days and Ways.
[2] A large wagon with a white canvas top.
[3] A kind of heavy coach, so called because first manufactured at Concord, New Hampshire.
[4] When the war opened and Texas seceded, this route was abandoned, and after April, 1861, letters and passengers went from St. Joseph by way of Salt Lake City to California.
[5] All letters had to be written on the thinnest paper, and no more than twenty pounds' weight was allowed in each of the two pouches. The trail was infested with "road agents" (robbers), and roving bands of Indians were ever ready to murder and scalp; but in summer and winter, by day and night, over the plains and over the mountains, these brave men made their dangerous rides, carrying no arms save a revolver and a knife. Each letter had to be inclosed in a ten-cent stamped envelope and have on it in addition for each half ounce five one-dollar stamps of the Pony Express Company. The story of the Pony Express is told in HenryInman's Great Salt Lake Trail, Chap. viii.
[6] As the government had no post offices in the mining camps, the stage company became the postmasters, delivered the letters, and charged twenty- five cents for each. Sometimes the owner of a little store in a remote mountain camp would act as postmaster, and charge a high price for sending letters to or bringing them from the nearest stage station. One such used a barrel for the letter box, and sent the mail once a month. A hole was cut in the head of the barrel, and beside it was posted a notice which read: "This is a Post Office. Shove a quarter through the hole with your letter. We have no use for stamps as I carry the mail."
[7] The lighter articles went in wagons drawn by four or six horses or mules, the heavier in great wagons drawn by six and eight yoke of oxen, which made the trip to Denver in five weeks. The cost of provisions brought in this way was very great. Thus in 1865, in Helena, Montana, flour sold for $85 a sack of one hundred pounds. Potatoes cost fifty cents in gold a pound, and coal oil, at Virginia City, $10 in gold a gallon. Board and lodgings rose in proportion, and it was not uncommon to see posted in the boarding houses such notices as this: "Board with bread at meals, $32; board without bread, $22." Read Hough'sThe Way to the West, pp. 200-221.
[8] Every other section in a strip of land twenty miles wide along the entire length of the railroad. The government had always been liberal in granting land to aid in the construction of roads, canals, and railroads, and between 1827 and 1860 had given away for such purposes 215,000,000 acres. Had these acres been in one great tract it would have been seven times as large as Pennsylvania. In 1862 Congress also added to its grants for educational purposes (p. 301) by giving to each state from 90,000 to 990,000 acres of public land in aid of a college for teaching agriculture and the mechanical arts.
[9] For conditions on which land could be secured before this, see p. 302.
[10] The history of the railroads across the continent is told in Cy. Warman'sStory of the Railroad; for the Northern Pacific, read pp. 179-196.
[11] White men eager for land invaded the Indian reservations; acts of violence were frequent, and shameful frauds were perpetrated by the agents of the government. The Indians, in retaliation, killed settlers and ran off horses, mules, and cattle. There were uprisings of the Sioux in Minnesota (1862) and in Montana (1866); but the worst offenders were the Apaches of Arizona, and against them General Crook waged war in 1872. Toward the close of 1872 the Modocs left their reservation in Oregon, took refuge in the Lava Beds in northern California, and defied the troops sent to drive them back. General Canby and several others were treacherously murdered at a conference (1873), and a war of several months' duration followed before the Modocs were forced to surrender. In 1874 the Cheyennes (she-enz'), enraged at the slaughter of the buffaloes by the whites, made cattle raids, and more fighting ensued. An attempt to remove the Sioux to a new reservation led to yet another war in 1876, in which Lieutenant- Colonel Custer and his force of 262 men were massacred in Montana. Read Longfellow's poemThe Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face.
[12] Thus (1869) the New York Central (from Albany to Buffalo) and the Hudson River (from New York to Albany) were combined and formed one railroad under one management from New York to Buffalo.
THE NATIONAL LABOR PARTY.—The changed industrial conditions of the period 1860-80 affected politics, and after 1868 the questions which divided parties became more and more industrial and financial. The rise of the national labor party and its demands shows this very strongly. Ever since 1829 the workingman had been in politics in some of the states, and had secured many reforms. But no national labor congress was held till 1865, after which like congresses were held each year till 1870, when a national convention was called to form a "National Labor-Reform Party."
The demands of the party thus formed (1872) were for taxation of government bonds (p. 387); repeal of the national banking system (p. 382); an eight-hour working day; exclusion of the Chinese; [1] and no land grants to corporations (p. 398). At every presidential election since this time, nominations have been made by one or more labor parties.
THE PROHIBITION PARTY.—Another party which first nominated presidential candidates in 1872 was that of the Prohibitionists. After much agitation of temperance reform, [2] efforts were made to prohibit the sale of liquor entirely, and between 1851 and 1855 eight states adopted prohibitory laws. Then the movement subsided for a while, but in 1869 it began again and in that year the National Prohibition Reform party was founded. In 1872 its platform called for the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquor, and for a long series of other reforms. Every four years since that time the Prohibition party has named its candidates.
GRANT REFLECTED.—In 1872 no great importance was attached to either of these parties (the Labor and the Prohibition). The contest lay between General Grant, the Republican candidate for President, and Horace Greeley, [3] the Liberal Republican nominee (p. 390), who was supported also by most of the Democrats. Grant was elected by a large majority.
THE PANIC OF 1873.—Scarcely had Grant been reinaugurated when a serious panic swept over the country. The period since the war had been one of great prosperity, wild speculation, and extraordinary industrial development. Since 1869 some 24,000 miles of railroad had been built. But in the midst of all this prosperity, the city of Chicago was almost destroyed by fire (1871), [4] and the next year a large part of the city of Boston was burned. This led to a demand for money to rebuild them. Many speculative enterprises failed. The railroads that were being built ahead of population, in order to open up new lands, could not sell their bonds, and when a banker who was backing one of the railroads failed, the panic started. Thousands of business men failed, and the wages of workingmen were cut down.
THE SPECIE PAYMENT ACT.—The cry was then raised for more money, and (in 1874) Congress attempted to increase, or "inflate," the amount of greenbacks in circulation from $356,000,000 to $400,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill. What shall be done with the currency? then became the question of the hour. Paper money was still circulating at less than its face value as measured in coin. To make it worth face value, Congress (1875) decided to resume specie payment; that is, the fractional currency was to be called in and redeemed in 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces; and after January 1, 1879, all greenbacks were to be redeemed in specie.
POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1876. [5]—This policy of resumption of specie payment did not please everybody. A Greenback party was formed, which called for the repeal of the Specie Payment Act and for the issue of more greenbacks. That the presidential election would be close was certain, and this certainty did much to lead the Democratic and Republican parties to take up some of the demands of the Prohibition, Liberal Republican, and Labor parties. Thus both the Democratic and Republican parties called for no more land grants to corporations, and for the exclusion of the Chinese.
[Illustration: MEMORIAL HALL, PHILADELPHIA.]
THE ELECTION OF 1876.—The Republican candidate for President was Rutherford B. Hayes; [6] the Democratic candidate was Samuel J. Tilden. The admission of Colorado in August, 1876, made thirty-eight states, casting 369 electoral votes. A candidate to be elected therefore needed at least 185 electoral votes. So close was the contest that the election of Hayes was claimed by exactly 185 votes. This number included the votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, in each of which a dispute was raging as to whether Republican or Democratic electors were chosen. Both sets claimed to have been elected, and both met and voted.
ELECTORAL COMMISSION.—The electoral votes of the states are counted in the presence of the House and Senate. The question then became, Which of these duplicate sets shall Congress count? To determine the question an electoral commission of fifteen members was created. [7] It decided that the votes of the Republican electors In the four states should be counted, and Hayes was therefore declared elected. [8]
END OF CARPETBAG GOVERNMENTS.—The inauguration of Hayes was followed by the recall of United States troops from the South, and the downfall of carpetbag governments in South Carolina and Louisiana. During the first half of Hayes's term the. Democrats had control of the House of Representatives, and during the second half, of the Senate as well. As a result, proposed partisan measures either failed to pass Congress, or were vetoed by the President.
THE YEAR 1877 was one of great business depression. A strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of 1877 spread to other railroads and became almost an industrial insurrection. Traffic was stopped, millions of dollars' worth of freight cars, machine shops, and other property was destroyed, and in the battles fought around Pittsburg many lives were lost. [9] Failures were numerous; in 1878 more business men failed than in the panic year 1873.
SILVER COINAGE.—For much of this business depression the financial policy of the government was blamed, and when Congress assembled in 1877, this policy was at once attacked. An attempt to repeal the act for resuming specie payment (p. 408) was made, but failed. [10] Another measure, however, concerning silver coinage, was more successful.
Congress had dropped (1873) the silver dollar from the list of coins to be made at the mint. [11] Soon afterward the silver mines of Nevada began to yield astonishingly, and the price of silver fell. This led to a demand (by inflationists and silver-producers) that the silver dollar should again be coined; and in 1878 Congress passed (over Hayes's veto) the Bland-Allison Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month and coin it into dollars. [12]
"THE CHINESE MUST GO."—Another act vetoed by Hayes was intended to stop the coming of Chinese to our country. In 1877 an anti-Chinese movement was begun in San Francisco by the workingmen led by Dennis Kearney. Open-air meetings were held, and the demand for Chinese exclusion was urged so vigorously that Congress (1879) passed an act restricting Chinese immigration. Hayes vetoed this as violating our treaty with China, but (1880) negotiated a new treaty which provided that Congress might regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers.
THE ELECTION OF 1880; DEATH OF GARFIELD.—In 1880 there were again severalparties, but the contest was between the Republicans with James A.Garfield [13] and Chester A. Arthur as candidates for President and VicePresident, and the Democrats with Winfield S. Hancock and William H.English as leaders.
Garfield and Arthur were elected, and on March 4, 1881, were duly inaugurated. Four months later, as the President stood in a railway station in Washington, a disappointed office seeker shot him in the back. After his death (September 19, 1881) Chester A. Arthur became President. [14]
IMPORTANT LAWS, 1881-85.—All parties had called for anti-Chinese legislation. The long-desired act was accordingly passed by Congress, excluding the Chinese from our country for a period of twenty years. Arthur vetoed it as contrary to our treaty with China. An act "suspending" the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years was then passed and became law; similar acts have been passed from time to time since then.
The Republicans (and Prohibitionists) had demanded the suppression of polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. Another law (the Edmunds Act, 1882) was therefore enacted for this end. [15]
The murder of Garfield aroused a general demand for civil service reform. The Pendleton Act (1883) was therefore enacted to secure appointment to office on the ground of fitness, not party service. [16]
[Illustration: THE CRUISER BOSTON.]
THE NEW NAVY.—After the close of the Civil War our navy was suffered to fall into neglect and decay. The thirty-seven cruisers, all but four of which were of wood; the fourteen single-turreted monitors built during the war; the muzzle-loading guns, belonged to a past age. By 1881 this was fully realized and the foundation of a new and splendid navy was begun by the construction of three unarmored cruisers—theAtlanta,Boston, andChicago. Once started, the new navy grew rapidly, and in the course of twelve years forty-seven vessels were afloat or on the stocks. [17]
NEW REFORMS DEMANDED.—Meantime the wonderful development of our country caused a demand for further reforms. The chief employers of labor were corporations and capitalists, many of whom abused the power their wealth gave them. They were accused of importing laborers under contract and thereby keeping wages down, of getting special privileges from legislatures, and of combining to fix prices to suit themselves. In the campaign of 1884, therefore, these issues came to the front, and demands were made for (1) legislation against the importation of contract labor, (2) regulation of interstate commerce, especially as carried on by railways, (3) government ownership of telegraphs and railways, (4) reduction of the hours of labor, (5) bureaus to collect and spread information as to labor.
[Illustration: GROVER CLEVELAND.]
THE ELECTION OF 1884.—The Republicans nominated James G. Blaine for President; the Democrats, Grover Cleveland. [18] The nomination of Blaine gave offense to many Republicans; they took the name of Independents and supported Cleveland, who was elected.
IMPORTANT LAWS, 1885-89. [19]—As the two great parties, Democratic and Republican, had each favored the passage of certain laws demanded by the labor parties, these reforms were now obtained.
1. An Anti-Contract-Labor Law (1885) forbade any person, company, or corporation to bring aliens into the United States under contract to perform labor or service.
2. An Interstate Commerce Act (1887) provided for a commission whose duty it is to see that all charges for the carriage of passengers or freight are reasonable and just, and that no unfair special rates are made for favored shippers.
3. A Bureau of Labor was established and put in charge of a commissioner whose duty it is to "diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor." Such bureaus or departments already existed in many of the states.
THE SURPLUS.—These old issues disposed of, the continued growth and prosperity of our country brought up new ones. For some time past the revenue of the government had so exceeded its expenses that on December 1, 1887, there was a surplus of $50,000,000 in the treasury. Six months later this had risen to $103,000,000.
[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.]
Three plans were suggested for disposing of the surplus. Some thought it should be distributed among the states as in 1837. Some were for buying government bonds and so reducing the national debt. Others urged a reduction of the annual revenue by cutting down the tariff rates. The President in his message in 1887 asked for such a reduction, and in 1888 the House passed a new tariff bill which the Senate rejected.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1888.—In the campaign of 1888, therefore, the tariff issue came to the front. The Democrats renominated Grover Cleveland for President, and called for a tariff for revenue only, and for no more revenue than was needed to pay the cost of economical government. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison [20] on a platform favoring a protective tariff, and elected him.
NEW STATES.—Both the great parties had called for the admission of new states. Just before the end of Cleveland's term, therefore, an enabling act was passed for North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana, which were accordingly admitted to the Union a few months later (1889). Idaho and Wyoming were admitted the following year (1890), and Utah in 1896.
NEW LAWS OF 1890.—The administration of affairs having again passed to the Republican party, it enacted the McKinley Tariff Law, which slightly raised the average rate of duties; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, forbidding combinations to restrain trade; and a new financial measure which also bore the name of Senator Sherman. The law (p. 409) requiring the purchase and coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month did not satisfy the silver men. They wanted a free-coinage law, giving any man the privilege of having his silver coined into dollars (p. 224). As they had a majority of the Senate, they passed a free-coinage bill, but the House rejected it. A conference followed, and the so-called Sherman Act was passed, increasing the amount of silver to be bought each month by the government. [21]
THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OF 1890.—The effect of the increased tariff rates, the Sherman Act, and large expenditures by Congress was at once apparent, and in the congressional election of 1890 the Republicans were beaten. The Democratic minority in the House of Representatives was turned into a great majority, and in both House and Senate appeared members of a new party called the Farmers' Alliance. [22]
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1892.—The success of the Alliance men in the election of 1890, and the conviction that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans would further all their demands, led to a meeting of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 1891, and the formation of "the People's Party of the United States of America." In 1892 this People's Party, or the Populists, as they were called, nominated James B. Weaver for President, cast a million votes, and secured the election of four senators and eleven representatives in Congress. The Republicans renominated Harrison for President. But the Democrats secured majorities in the House and the Senate, and elected Cleveland. [23]
THE PANIC OF 1893.—When Cleveland's second inauguration took place, March 4, 1893, our country had already entered a period of panic and business depression. Trade had fallen off. Money was hard to borrow. Foreigners who held our stocks and bonds sought to sell them, and a great amount of gold was drawn to Europe. So bad did business conditions become that the President called Congress to meet in special session in August to remedy matters.
The silver dollars coined by the government were issued and accepted by the government at their face value, and circulated on a par with gold, although the price of silver bullion had fallen so low that the metal in a silver dollar was worth less than seventy cents. Many people believed the business panic was due to fears that the government could not much longer keep the increasing volume of silver currency at par with gold. Therefore Congress repealed part of the Sherman Act of 1890, so as to stop the purchase of more silver.
THE WILSON TARIFF.—The business revival which the majority of Congress now expected, did not come. Failures continued; mills remained closed, gold continued to leave the country, and government receipts were $34,000,000 less than expenditures when the year ended. By the close of the autumn of 1893, hundreds of thousands of people were out of employment and many in want. In this condition of affairs Congress met in regular session (December, 1893). The Democrats were in control of both branches, and were pledged to revise the tariff. A bill was therefore passed, cutting down some of the tariff rates (the Wilson Act). [24]
Nobody expected that the revised tariff would yield enough money to meet the expenses of the government. One section of the law therefore provided that all yearly incomes above $4000 should be taxed two per cent. Though Congress had levied an income tax thirty years before, its right to do so was now denied by many, and the Supreme Court decided (1895) that the income tax was unconstitutional. [25]
AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.—One great reform which must not go unnoticed was the introduction of the Australian or secret ballot. The purpose of this system of voting, first used in Australia, is to enable the voter to prepare his ballot in a booth by himself and deposit it without any one knowing for whom he votes. The system was first used in our country in Massachusetts and in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1888. So successful was it that ten states adopted it the next year, and by 1894 it was in use in all but seven of the forty-four states.
NEGROES DISFRANCHISED.—Six of the seven were Southern states where negroes were numerous. After the fall of the carpetbag governments, illegal means were often used to keep negroes from the polls and prevent "negro domination" in these states. Later legal methods were tried instead: the payment of taxes, and sometimes such an educational qualification as the ability to read, were required of voters; but the laws were so framed as to exclude many negroes and few whites. Mississippi was the first state to amend her constitution for this purpose (1890), and nearly all the Southern states have followed her example. [26]
THE FREE COINAGE ISSUE.—Now that the treasury had ceased to buy silver, the demand for the free coinage of silver was renewed. The Republicans in their national platform, in 1896, declared against it, whereupon thirty- four delegates from the silver states (Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada) left the convention. The Democratic party declared for free coinage, [27] but many Democrats ("gold Democrats") thereupon formed a new party, called the National Democratic, and nominated candidates on a gold-standard platform. Both the great parties were thus split on the issue of free coinage of silver.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896.—The Republican party nominated William McKinley [28] for President. The Democrats named William J. Bryan, and he was indorsed by the People's party and the National Silver party. [29] The campaign was most exciting. The country was flooded with books, pamphlets, handbills, setting forth both sides of the silver issue; Bryan and McKinley addressed immense crowds, and on election day 13,900,000 votes were cast. McKinley was elected.
THE DINGLEY TARIFF.—The excitement over silver was such that in the campaign the tariff question was little considered. But the Republicans were pledged to a revision of the tariff, and accordingly (July, 1897) the Dingley Bill passed Congress and was approved by the President. Thus in the course of seven years the change of administration from one party to the other had led to the passage of three tariff acts—the McKinley (1890), the Wilson (1894), and the Dingley (1897).
FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS.—It is now time to review our foreign relations during this period. Twice since 1890 they had brought us apparently to the verge of war.
THE CHILEAN INCIDENT.—In 1891, while the United States shipBaltimorewas in the port of Valparaiso, Chile, some sailors went on shore, were attacked on the streets, and one was killed and several wounded. Chile offered no apology and no reparation to the injured, but instead sent an offensive note about the matter. Harrison, in a message to Congress (1892), plainly suggested war. But the offensive note was withdrawn, a proper apology was made, and the incident ended.
THE SEAL FISHERIES.—Great Britain and our country were long at variance over the question of ownership of seals in Bering Sea. Our purpose was to protect them from extermination by certain restrictions on seal fishing. To settle our rights in the matter, a court of arbitration was appointed and met in Paris in 1893. The decision was against us, but steps were taken to protect the seals from extermination. [30]
[Illustration: HAWAIIAN BOATS WITH OUTRIGGERS.]
HAWAII.—Just before Harrison retired from office a revolution in the Hawaiian Islands drove the queen from the throne. A provisional government was then established, commissioners were dispatched to Washington, and a treaty for the annexation of Hawaii to the United States was drawn up and sent to the Senate. President Cleveland recalled the treaty and sought to have the queen restored. But the Hawaiians in control resisted and in 1894 established a republic.
VENEZUELA.—For many years there was a dispute over the boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and in 1895 it seemed likely to involve Venezuela in a war with Great Britain. Our government had tried to bring about a settlement by arbitration. Great Britain refused to arbitrate, and denied our right to interfere. President Cleveland insisted that under the Monroe Doctrine we had a right, and in December, 1895, asked Congress to authorize a commission to investigate the claims of Great Britain. This was done, and great excitement at once arose at home and in Great Britain. But Great Britain and Venezuela soon submitted the question to arbitration.
1. The wonderful industrial growth of our country between 1860 and 1880 brought up for settlement grave industrial and financial questions.
2. The failure of the two great parties to take up these questions at once, caused the formation of many new parties, such as the National Labor, the Prohibition, the Liberal Republican, and the People's party.
3. Some of their demands were enacted into laws, as the silver coinage act, the exclusion of the Chinese, the anti-contract-labor and interstate commerce acts, the establishment of a national labor bureau, and the antitrust act.
4. In 1890-97 the tariff was three times revised by the McKinley, Wilson, and Dingley acts.
5. In the political world the most notable events were the contested election of 1876-77; the recall of United States troops from the South, and the fall of carpetbag governments; the assassination of Garfield; and the two defeats of the national Republican ticket (1884 and 1892).
6. In the financial world the chief events were the panics of 1873 and 1893, the resumption of specie payment (1879), and the free-silver issue.
7. In the world at large we had trouble with Chile, Hawaii, and Great Britain.
[1] After the discovery of gold in California, Chinamen, called coolies, came to that state in considerable numbers. But they attracted little attention till 1852, when the governor complained that they were sent out by Chinese capitalists under contract, that the gold they dug was sent to China, and that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete with them. Attempts were then made to stop their importation, especially by heavy taxes laid on them. But the courts declared such taxation illegal, and appeals were then made to Congress for relief. No action was taken; but in 1868 an old treaty with China was amended, and to import Chinamen without their free consent was made a penal offense. This did not prevent their coming, so the demand was made for their exclusion by act of Congress.
[2] In the early years of the nineteenth century liquor was a part of the workingman's wages. Every laborer on the farm, in the harvest field, every sailor, and men employed in many of the trades, as carpenters and masons, demanded daily grog at the cost of the employer. About 1810 a temperance movement put an end to much of this. But intemperance remained the curse of the workingman down to the days of Van Buren and Tyler, when a greater temperance movement began.
[3] Horace Greeley was born in New Hampshire in 1811, and while still a lad learned the trade of printer. When he went to New York in 1831, he was so poor that he walked the streets in search of work. During the Harrison campaign in 1840 he edited the Log Cabin, a Whig newspaper, and soon after the election founded the New York Tribune. In 1848 he was elected a member of Congress. He was one of the signers of the bond which released Jefferson Davis from imprisonment after the Civil War. Greeley overexerted himself in the campaign of 1872, and died a few weeks after the election.
[4] The fire is said to have been started by a cow kicking over a lamp in a small barn. Nearly 2200 acres were burned over, some 17,450 buildings consumed, 200 lives were lost, and 98,000 people made homeless.
[5] The close of the first century of our national independence was the occasion of a great exposition in Philadelphia—the first of many that have been held in our country on centennial anniversaries of great events in our history. The Philadelphia exposition was first planned as a mammoth fair for the display of the industries and arts of the United States; but Congress having approved the idea, all foreign nations were invited to take part, and thirty-three did so. The main building covered some twenty acres and was devoted to the display of manufactures. The exposition occupied also four other large buildings devoted to machinery, agriculture, etc., of which Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall are still standing.
[6] Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822, and after graduating from Kenyon College and the Harvard Law School settled at Fremont, Ohio, but soon moved to Cincinnati. At the opening of the war he joined the Union army and by 1865 had risen to the rank of brevet major general. While still in the army, he was elected to Congress, served two terms, and was then twice elected governor of Ohio. In 1875 he was elected for a third term. He died in 1893.
[7] The commission consisted of five senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court; eight were Republicans, and seven Democrats.
[8] By 185 electoral votes against 184 for Tilden. The popular vote at the election of 1876 was (according to the Republican claim): for Hayes, 4,033,768; for Tilden, 4,285,992; for Peter Cooper (Greenback-Labor or "Independent"), 81,737; for Green Clay Smith (Prohibition), 9522.
[9] The strikers' grievances were reduction of wages, irregular employment, irregular payment of wages, and forced patronage of company hotels. There were riots at Baltimore, Chicago, Reading, and other places besides Pittsburg; state militia was called out to quell the disorder; and at the request of the state governors, United States troops were sent to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.