* Under Section IV of the Anti-Trust Law of 1890.
Public approval of the energy and decision which President Cleveland displayed in handling the situation was so strong and general that it momentarily quelled the factional spirit in Congress. Judge Thomas M. Cooley, then, probably the most eminent authority on constitutional law, wrote a letter expressing "unqualified satisfaction with every step" taken by the President "in vindication of the national authority." Both the Senate and the House adopted resolutions endorsing the prompt and vigorous measures of the Administration. The newspapers, too, joined in the chorus of approval. A newspaper ditty which was widely circulated and was read by the President with pleasure and amusement ended a string of verses with the lines:
The railroad strike played merry hob, The land was set aflame; Could Grover order out the troops To block the striker's game? One Altgeld yelled excitedly, "Such tactics I forbid; You can't trot out those soldiers," yet That's just what Grover did.
In after years when people talk Of present stirring times, And of the action needful to Sit down on public crimes, They'll all of them acknowledge then (The fact cannot be hid) That whatever was the best to do Is just what Grover did.
This brief period of acclamation was, however, only a gleam of sunshine through the clouds before the night set in with utter darkness. Relations between President Cleveland and his party in the Senate had long been disturbed by his refusal to submit to the Senate rule that nominations to office should be subject to the approval of the Senators from the State to which the nominees belonged. On January 15, 1894, eleven Democrats voted with Senator David B. Hill to defeat a New York nominee for justice of the Supreme Court. President Cleveland then nominated another New York jurist against whom no objection could be urged regarding reputation or experience; but as this candidate was not Senator Hill's choice, the nomination was rejected, fourteen Democrats voting with him against it. President Cleveland now availed himself of a common Senate practice to discomfit Senator Hill. He nominated Senator White of Louisiana, who was immediately confirmed as is the custom of the Senate when one of its own members is nominated to office. Senator Hill was thus left with the doubtful credit of having prevented the appointment of a New Yorker to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court. But this incident did not seriously affect his control of the Democratic party organization in New York. His adherents extolled him as a New York candidate for the Presidency who would restore and maintain the regular party system without which, it was contended, no administration could be successful in framing and carrying out a definite policy. Hill's action, in again presenting himself as a candidate for Governor in the fall of 1894, is intelligible only in the light of this ambition. He had already served two terms as Governor and was now only midway in his senatorial term; but if he again showed that he could carry New York he would have demonstrated, so it was thought, that he was the most eligible Democratic candidate for the Presidency. But he was defeated by a plurality of about 156,000.
The fall elections of 1894, indeed, made havoc in the Democratic party. In twenty-four States, the Democrats failed to return a single member, and in each of six others, only a single district failed to elect a Republican. The Republican majority in the House was 140, and the Republican party also gained control of the Senate. The Democrats who had swept the country two years before were now completely routed.
Under the peculiar American system which allows a defeated party to carry on its work for another session of Congress as if nothing had happened, the Democratic party remained in actual possession of Congress for some months but could do nothing to better its record. The leading occupation of its members now seemed to be the advocacy of free silver and the denunciation of President Cleveland. William J. Bryan of Nebraska was then displaying in the House the oratorical accomplishments and dauntless energy of character which soon thereafter gained him the party leadership. With prolific rhetoric, he likened President Cleveland to a guardian who had squandered the estate of a confiding ward and to a trainman who opened a switch and caused a wreck, and he declared that the President in trying to inoculate the Democratic party with Republican virus had poisoned its blood.
Shortly after the last Democratic Congress—the last for many years—the Supreme Court undid one of the few successful achievements of this party when it was in power. The Tariff Bill contained a section imposing a tax of two per cent on incomes in excess of $4000. A case was framed attacking the constitutionality of the tax,* the parties on both sides aiming to defeat the law and framing the issues with that purpose in view. On April 8, 1895, the Supreme Court rendered a judgment which showed that the Court was evenly divided on some points. A rehearing was ordered and a final decision was rendered on the 20th of May. By a vote of five to four it was held that the income tax was a direct tax, that as such it could be imposed only by apportionment among the States according to population, and that as the law made no such provision the tax was therefore invalid. This reversed the previous position of the Court** that an income tax was not a direct tax within the meaning of the Constitution, but that it was an excise. This decision was the subject of much bitter comment which, however, scarcely exceeded in severity the expressions used by members of the Supreme Court who filed dissenting opinions. Justice White was of the opinion that the effect of this judgment was "to overthrow a long and consistent line of decisions and to deny to the legislative department of the Government the possession of a power conceded to it by universal consensus for one hundred years." Justice Harlan declared that it struck "at the very foundation of national authority" and that it gave "to certain kinds of property a position of favoritism and advantage inconsistent with the fundamental principles of our social organization." Justice Brown hoped that "it may not prove the first step towards the submergence of the liberties of the people in a sordid despotism of wealth." Justice Jackson said it was "such as no free and enlightened people can ever possibly sanction or approve." The comments of law journals were also severe, and on the whole, the criticism of legal experts was more outspoken than that of the politicians.
* Pollock vs. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, 157 U.S. 429.
* * Springer vs. United States, 102 U.S. 586.
Public distrust of legislative procedure in the United States is so great that powers of judicial interference are valued to a degree not usual in any other country. The Democratic platform of 1896 did not venture to go farther in the way of censure than to declare that "it is the duty of Congress to use all the constitutional power which remains after that decision, or which may come from its reversal by the court as it may hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due proportion of the expenses of the government." Even this suggestion of possible future interference with the court turned out to be a heavy party load in the campaign.
With the elimination of the income tax, the revenues of the country became insufficient to meet the demands upon the Treasury, and Carlisle was obliged to report a deficit of $42,805,223 for 1895. The change of party control in Congress brought no relief. The House, under the able direction of Speaker Reed, passed a bill to augment the revenue by increasing customs duties and also a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to sell bonds or issue certificates of indebtedness bearing interest at three per cent. Both measures, however, were held up in the Senate, in which the silver faction held the balance of power.* On February 1, 1896, a free silver substitute for the House bond bill passed the Senate by a vote of forty-two to thirty-five, but the minority represented over eight million more people than the majority. The House refused, by 215 to 90, to concur in the Senate's amendment, and the whole subject was then dropped.
* The distribution of party strength in the Senate was:Republicans, 43; Democrats, 39; Populists, 6. Republicans madeconcessions to the Populists which caused them to refrain from votingwhen the question of organisation was pending, and the Republicans werethus able to elect the officers and rearrange the committees, whichthey did in such a way as to put the free silver men in control of thecommittee on finance. The bills passed by the house were referred tothis committee, which thereupon substituted bills providing for freecoinage of silver.
President Cleveland had to carry on the battle to maintain the gold standard and to sustain the public credit without any aid from Congress. The one thing he did accomplish by his efforts, and it was at that moment the thing of chief importance, was to put an end to party duplicity on the silver question. On that point, at least, national party platforms abandoned their customary practice of trickery and deceit. Compelled to choose between the support of the commercial centers and that of the mining camps, the Republican convention came out squarely for the gold standard and nominated William McKinley for President. Thirty-four members of the convention, including four United States Senators and two Representatives, bolted. It was a year of bolts, the only party convention that escaped being that of the Socialist Labor party, which ignored the monetary issue save for a vague declaration that "the United States have the exclusive right to issue money." The silver men swept the Democratic convention, which then nominated William Jennings Bryan for President. Later on, the Gold Democrats held a convention and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois. The Populists and the National Silver party also nominated Bryan for President, but each made its own separate nomination for Vice-President. Even the Prohibitionists split on the issue, and a seceding faction organized the National party and inserted a free silver plank in their platform.
In the canvass which followed, calumny and misrepresentation were for once discarded in favor of genuine discussion. This new attitude was largely due to organizations for spreading information quite apart from regular party management. In this way, many able pamphlets were issued and widely circulated. The Republicans had ample campaign funds; but though the Democrats were poorly supplied, this deficiency did not abate the energy of Bryan's campaign. He traveled over eighteen thousand miles, speaking at nearly every stopping place to great assemblages. McKinley, on the contrary, stayed at home, although he delivered an effective series of speeches to visiting delegations. The outcome seemed doubtful, but the intense anxiety which was prevalent was promptly dispelled when the election returns began to arrive. By going over to free silver, the Democrats wrested from the Republicans all the mining States, except California, together with Kansas and Nebraska, but the electoral votes which they thus secured were a poor compensation for losses elsewhere. Such old Democratic strongholds as Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia gave McKinley substantial majorities, and Kentucky gave him twelve of her thirteen electoral votes. McKinley's popular plurality was over six hundred thousand, and he had a majority of ninety-five in the electoral college.
The nation approved the position which Cleveland had maintained, but the Republican party reaped the benefit by going over to that position while the Democratic party was ruined by forsaking it. Party experience during the Cleveland era contained many lessons, but none clearer than that presidential leadership is essential both to legislative achievement and to party success.
Among general histories dealing with this period, the leading authority is D. R. Dewey, "National Problems," 1885-97 (1907) in "The American Nation"; but suggestive accounts may be found in E. B. Andrews, "History of the Last Quarter of a Century in the United States" (1896); in H. T. Peck, "Twenty Years of the Republic" (1913); and in C. A. Beard, "Contemporary American History" (1914).
The following works dealing especially with party management and congressional procedure will be found serviceable: E. Stanwood, "History of the Presidency" (1898); M. P. Follett, "The Speaker of the House of Representatives" (1896); H. J. Ford, "The Rise and Growth of American Politics" (1898); H. J. Ford, "The Cost of our National Government" (1910); S. W. McCall, "The Business of Congress" (1911); D. S. Alexander, "History and Procedure of the House of Representatives" (1916); C. R. Atkinson, "The Committee on Rules and the Overthrow of Speaker" Cannon (1911). The debate of 1885-86 on revision of the rules is contained in the "Congressional Record," 49th Congress, 1st session, vol. 17, part I, pp. 39, 71, 87, 102 129, 182, 9,16, 216, 239, 304.
Of special importance from the light they throw upon the springs of action are the following works: Grover Cleveland, "Presidential Problems" (1904); F. E. Goodrich, "The Life and Public Services of Grover Cleveland" (1884); G. F. Parker, "The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland" (1890); J. L. Whittle, "Grover Cleveland" (1896); J. G. Blaine, "Political Discussions" (1887); E. Stanwood, "James Gillespie Blaine" (1905); A. R. Conkling, "Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling" (1889); John Sherman, "Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate, and Cabinet" (1895); G. F. Hoar, "Autobiography of Seventy Years" (1903); S. M. Cullom, "Fifty Years of Public Service" (1911); L. A. Coolidge, "An Old-fashioned Senator: Orville H. Platt of Connecticut" (1910); S. W. McCall, "The Life of Thomas Brackett Reed" (1914); A. E. Stevenson, "Something of Men I Have Known" (1909).
For the financial history of the period, see J. L. Laughlin, "The History of Bimetallism in the United States" (1897); A. D. Noyes, "Forty Years of American Finance" (1909); Horace White, "Money and Banking, Illustrated by American History" (1904).
The history of tariff legislation is recorded by F. W. Taussig, "The Tariff History of the United States" (1914), and E. Stanwood, "American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century" (1903).
On the trust problem there is much valuable information in W. Z. Ripley, "Trusts, Pools, and Corporations" (1905); K. Coman, "Industrial History of the United States" (1905); J. W. Jenks, "The Trust Problem" (1905).
The conditions which prompted the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission are exhibited in the report of the Senate Select Committee on Interstate Commerce, "Senate Reports," No. 46, 49th Congress, 1st session.
Useful special treatises on the railroad problem are E. R. Johnson, "American Railway Transportation" (1903); B. H. Meyer, "Railway Legislation in the United States" (1903); and W. Z. Ripley, "Railway Problems" (1907).
The history of labor movements may be followed in J. R. Commons, "History of Labor in the United States" (1918); M. Hillquit, "History of Socialism in the United States" (1903); "Report of the Industrial Commission," vol. XVII (1901); and in the Annual Reports of the United States Commissioner of Labor. Congressional investigations of particular disturbances produced the House Reports No. 4174, 49th Congress, 2d session, 1887, on the Southwestern Railway Strike, and No. 2447, 52d Congress, 2d session, 1893, on the Homestead Strike.
On the subject of pensions the most comprehensive study is that by W. H. Glasson, "History of Military Pension Legislation in the United States, Columbia University Studies," vol. XII, No. 3 (1900). Of special interest is the speech by J. H. Gallinger, "Congressional Record," 65th Congress, 2d session, vol. 56, No. 42, p. 1937.
Other public documents of special importance are "Senate Report," No. 606, 53d Congress, concerning the sugar scandal, and "Senate Documents," No. 187, 54th Congress, 2d session, concerning the bond sales. "The Congressional Record" is at all times a mine of information. Valuable historical material is contained in the "New Princeton Review," vols. I-VI (1886-88), the New York "Nation," the "Political Science Quarterly," and other contemporary periodicals.
A vivid picture of political conditions on the personal side is given in Slason Thompson, "Eugene Field" (1901), vol. I, chap. 10; vol. II, chap. 8.