History of the United States Volume V Part 16

"Until such agreement can be obtained, the existing gold standard must be preserved." Senator Teller, of Colorado, moved a subst.i.tute favoring "the free, unrestricted, and independent coinage of gold and silver at our mints at the ratio of 16 parts of silver to 1 of gold." It was at once tabled by a vote of 818-1/2 to 105-1/2. The rest of the platform having been adopted, Senator Cannon, of Utah, read a protest against the money plank, which recited the evils of falling prices as discouraging industry and threatening perpetual servitude of American producers to consumers in creditor nations.

Then occurred a dramatic scene, the first important bolt from a Republican convention since 1872. "Accepting the present fiat of the convention as the present purpose of the party," Teller shook hands with the chairman, and, tears streaming down his face, left the convention, accompanied by Cannon and twenty other delegates, among them two entire State delegations. Senators Mantle, of Montana, and Brown, of Utah, though remaining, protested against the convention's financial utterance.

The Republican platform lauded protection and reciprocity, favored annexing the Hawaiian Islands, and the building, owners.h.i.+p, and operation of the Nicaragua Ca.n.a.l by the United States. It rea.s.serted the Monroe Doctrine "in its full extent," expressed sympathy for Cuban patriots, and bespoke United States influence and good offices to give Cuba peace and independence.

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Garret A. Hobart, Vice-President.

Copyright,1899, by Pack Bros., N. Y.

The first ballot, by a majority of over two-thirds, nominated for the presidency William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio, the nomination being at once made unanimous. Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, was nominated for Vice-President.

William McKinley, Jr., was born at Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843, of Scotch-Irish stock. In 1860 he entered Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., but ill health compelled him to leave. He taught school. For a time he was a postal clerk at Poland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in Company E, 23d Ohio Infantry, the regiment with which William S. Rosecrans, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Stanley Matthews were connected. Successive promotions attended his gallant and exemplary services. He shared every engagement in which his regiment took part, was never absent on sick leave, and had only one short furlough. A month before the a.s.sa.s.sination of President Lincoln McKinley was commissioned a major by brevet.

After the war Major McKinley studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1867, settling in Canton, Ohio. In 1876 he made his debut in Congress, where he served with credit till 1890, when, owing partly to a gerrymander and partly to the unpopular McKinley Bill, he was defeated by the narrow margin of 300 votes. As Governor of Ohio and as a public speaker visiting every part of the country, McKinley was more and more frequently mentioned in connection with the presidency.

The nomination was a happy one. No other could have done so much to unite the party. Not only had Mr. McKinley's political career been honorable, he had the genius of manly affability, drawing people to him instead of antagonizing them. Republicans who could not support the platform, in numbers gave fealty to the candidate as a true man, devoted to their protective tenets, and a "friend of silver."

The Democratic convention sat at Chicago July 7th to 10th. Though Administration and Eastern Democratic leaders had long been working to stem free coinage sentiment, this seemed rather to increase. By July 1st, in thirty-three of the fifty States and Territories, Democratic platforms had declared for free coinage. The first test of strength in the convention overruled the National Committee's choice of David B.

Hill for temporary chairman, electing Senator Daniel, of Virginia, by nearly a two-thirds vote. The silver side was then added to by unseating and seating.

Hot fights took place over planks which the minority thought unjust to the Administration or revolutionary. The income-tax plank drew the heaviest fire, but was nailed to the platform in spite of this. It attacked the Supreme Court for reversing precedents in order to declare that tax unconst.i.tutional, and suggested the possibility of another reversal by the same court "as it may hereafter be const.i.tuted."

The platform a.s.sailed "government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression, by which federal judges in contempt of the laws of the States and the rights of citizens become at once legislators, judges, and executioners."

Attention having been called to the demonetization of silver in 1873 and to the consequent fall of prices and the growing onerousness of debts and fixed charges, gold monometallism was indicted as the cause "which had locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard times" and brought the United States into financial servitude to London. Demand was therefore made for "the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." Practically the entire management of the Treasury under Mr. Cleveland was condemned.

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The McKinley-Hobart Parade Pa.s.sing the Reviewing Stand, New York, October 31, 1896.

The platform being read, Hill, of New York, Vilas, of Wisconsin, and ex-Governor Russell, of Ma.s.sachusetts, spoke. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was called upon to reply. In doing so he made the memorable "cross of gold" speech, which more than aught else determined his nomination. In a musical but penetrating voice, that chained the attention of all listeners, he sketched the growth of the free-silver belief and prophesied its triumph. While, shortly before, the Democratic cause was desperate, now McKinley, famed for his resemblance to Napoleon, and nominated on the anniversary of Waterloo, seemed already to hear the waves las.h.i.+ng the lonely sh.o.r.es of St. Helena. The gold standard, he said, not any "threat" of silver, disturbed business. The wage-worker, the farmer, and the miner were as truly business men as "the few financial magnates who in a dark room corner the money of the world." "We answer the demand for the gold standard by saying, 'You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!'"

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Bryan Speaking from the Rear End of a Train.

Sixteen members of the Resolutions Committee presented a minority report criticising majority declarations. As a subst.i.tute for the silver plank they offered a declaration similar to that of the Republican convention.

In a further plank they commended the Administration. The subst.i.tute money plank was lost 301 to 628, and the resolution of endors.e.m.e.nt 357 to 564. No delegates withdrew, but a more formidable bolt than shook the Republican convention here expressed itself silently. In the subsequent proceedings 162 delegates, including all of New York's 72, 45 of New England's 77, 18 of New Jersey's 20, and 19 of Wisconsin's 24 took no part whatever.

Before Bryan spoke, a majority of the silver delegates probably favored Hon. Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, father of the Bland Act, as the presidential candidate, but the first balloting showed a change. Upon the fifth ballot Bryan received 500 votes, a number which changes before the result was announced increased to the required two-thirds. Arthur Sewall, of Maine, was the nominee for Vice-President.

Mr. Bryan, then barely thirty-six, was the youngest man ever nominated for the presidency. He was born in Salem, Ill., March 19, 1860. His father was a man of note, having served eight years in the Illinois Senate, and afterwards upon the circuit bench. Young Bryan pa.s.sed his youth on his father's farm, near Salem, and at Illinois College, Jacksonville, where he graduated in 1881 with oratorical honors. Having read law in Chicago, and in 1887 been admitted to the bar, he removed to Lincoln, Neb., and began practising law.

Mr. Bryan was inclined to politics, and his singular power on the platform drew attention to him as an available candidate. In 1890 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat. He served two terms, declining a third nomination. In 1894 he became editor of the Omaha World-Herald, but later resumed the practice of law.

In Nebraska, as in some other Western States, Republicans so outnumbered Democrats that Populist aid was indispensable in any State or congressional contest. In 1892 it had been eagerly courted on Cleveland's behalf. Bryan had helped in consummating fusion between Populism and Democracy in Nebraska. This occasioned the unjust charge that he was no Democrat. The allegation gained credence when the Populist national convention at St. Louis placed him at the head of its ticket, refusing at the same time to accept Sewall, choosing instead a typical Southern Populist, Thomas Watson, of Georgia.

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Arthur Sewall.

To Southern Populists Democrats were more execrable than Republicans.

Westerners of that faith were jealous of Sewall as an Eastern man and rich. Too close union with Democracy threatened Populism with extinction. Rightly divining that their leaders wished such a "merger,"

the Populist rank and file insisted on nominating their candidate for the vice-presidency first. Bryan was made head of the ticket next day.

The silver Republicans acclaimed the whole Democratic ticket, Sewall as well as Bryan.

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Ex-Senator Palmer.

The Democratic opponents of the "Chicago Democracy" determined to place in the field a "National" or "Gold" Democratic ticket. A convention for this purpose met in Indianapolis, September 3d. The Indianapolis Democrats lauded the gold standard and a non-governmental currency as historic Democratic doctrines, endorsed the Administration, and a.s.sailed the Chicago income-tax plank. Ex-Senator Palmer, of Illinois, and Simon E. Buckner, of Kentucky, were nominated to run upon this platform, Gold Democrats who could not in conscience vote for a Republican here found their refuge.

Parties were now seriously mixed. Thousands of Western Republicans declared for Bryan; as many or more Eastern Democrats for McKinley.

Party newspapers bolted. In Detroit the Republican Journal supported Bryan, the Democratic Free Press came out against him. Not a few from both sides "took to the woods"; while many, to be "regular," laid inconvenient convictions on the table.

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Simon E. Buckner.

The campaign was fierce beyond parallel. Neither candidate's character could be a.s.sailed, but the motives governing many of their followers were. Catchwords like "gold bug" and "popocrat" flew back and forth. The question-begging phrase "sound money"--both parties professed to wish "sound money"--did effective partisan service. Neither party's deepest principles were much discussed. Many gold people a.s.sumed as beyond controversy that free coinage would drive gold from the country and wreck public credit. Advocates of silver too little heeded the consequences which the mere fear of those evils must entail, impatiently cla.s.sing such as mentioned them among bond-servants to the money power.

So great was the fear of free silver in financial circles, corporations voted money to the huge Republican campaign fund. The opposition could tap no such mine. Never before had a national campaign seen the Democratic party so abandoned by Democrats of wealth, or with so slender a purse.

Nor was this the worst. Had Mr. Bryan been able through the campaign to maintain the pa.s.sionate eloquence of his Chicago speech, or the lucid logic of that with which at Madison Square Garden he opened the campaign, he would still not have succeeded in sustaining "more hard money" ardor at its mid-summer pitch. His eloquence, indeed, in good degree continued, but the level of his argument sank. Instead of championing the cause of producers, whether rich or poor, against mere money-changers, which he might have done with telling effect, he more and more fell to the tone of one speaking simply against all the rich, an att.i.tude which repelled mult.i.tudes who possessed neither wealth nor much sympathy for the wealthy.

Save for one short trip to Cleveland the Republican candidate did not, during the campaign, leave Canton, though from his doorstep he spoke to visiting hordes. His opponent, in the course of the most remarkable campaigning tour ever made by a candidate, preached free coinage to millions. The immense number of his addresses; their effectiveness, notwithstanding the slender preparation possible for most of them severally; the abstract nature of his subject when argued on its merits, as it usually was by him; and the strain of his incessant journeys evinced a power in the man which was the amazement of everyone.

Spite of all this, as election day drew near, the feeling rose that it post-dated by at least two months all possibility of a Democratic victory. Republicans' limitless resources, steady discipline, and ceaseless work told day by day. They polled, of the popular vote, 7,104,244; the combined Bryan forces, 6,506,853; the Gold Democracy, 134,652; the Prohibitionists, 144,606; and the Socialists, 36,416.

CHAPTER XI.

MR. McKINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION

[1897-1899]

The Nestor of the original McKinley Cabinet was John Sherman, who left his Senate seat to the swiftly rising Hanna that he himself might devote his eminent but failing powers to the Secretarys.h.i.+p of State. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish War he was succeeded by William R. Day, who had been a.s.sistant Secretary. In 1898 Day in turn resigned, when Amba.s.sador John Hay was called to the place from the Court of St. James. The Treasury went to Lyman J. Gage, a distinguished Illinois banker. Mr.

Gage was a Democrat, and this appointment was doubtless meant as a recognition of the Gold Democracy's aid in the campaign. General Russell A. Alger, of Michigan, took charge of the War Department, holding it till July 19, 1899, after which Elihu Root was installed.

Postmaster-General James A. Gary, of Maryland, resigned the same month with Sherman, giving place to Charles Emory Smith, of the Philadelphia Press. The Navy portfolio fell to John D. Long, of Ma.s.sachusetts; that of the Interior to Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York; that of Agriculture to James Wilson, of Iowa. In December, 1898, Ethan Allen Hitchc.o.c.k, of Missouri, succeeded Bliss.

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