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Title: History of the United States, Volume 5 (of 6)
Author: Andrews, Elisha Benjamin, 1844-1917
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "History of the United States, Volume 5 (of 6)" ***
[Transcriber's Notes]
Text has been moved to avoid fragmentation of sentences.
Here are the definitions of some uncommon words.
ad valorem
In proportion to the value:
akouphone
Table model hearing aid sold around 1900.
auriferous
Containing gold.
balustrades
Rail and the row of posts that support it.
between Scylla and Charybdis
Between two perilous alternatives, which cannot be passed without
falling victim to one or the other.
biograph
Moving-picture machine.
brevet
Promoting a military officer to a higher rank without an increase of
pay and with limited exercise of the higher rank, often granted as an
honor immediately before retirement.
Caryatids
Sculptured female figure used as a column.
catafalque
Raised structure on which a deceased person lies or is carried in
state. A hearse.
Charybdis
Daughter of Gaea and Poseidon, a monster mentioned in Homer and later
identified with the whirlpool Charybdis, in the Strait of Messina off
the NE coast of Sicily. See: between Scylla and Charybdis.
climacteric
Period of decrease of reproductive capacity; any critical period; a
year of important changes in health and fortune.
cloture
Closing a debate and causing an immediate vote to be taken on the
question.
Cobden Club
A gentlemen's club in West London founded in the 1870s and named after
Richard Cobden. The club offers "art and entertainment for the working
man".
derogation
Detract, as from authority, estimation, etc.; stray in character or
conduct; degenerate; disparage or belittle.
enginery
Machinery consisting of engines collectively.
Ethnology
Branch of anthropology that analyzes cultures, (formerly) a branch of
anthropology dealing with the origin, distribution, and distinguishing
characteristics of the races of humankind.
excogitated
Think out; devise; invent; study intently to comprehend fully.
execrable
Utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent; very bad:
ex proprio vigore
By its own strength; of its own force.
fyke net
Long bag net distended by hoops; fish can pass easily in, without
being able to exit.
gonfalons
Banner suspended from a crosspiece, especially for an ecclesiastical
procession or as the ensign of a medieval Italian republic.
graphophone
Phonograph for recording and reproducing sounds on wax records.
hegira
Journey to a more desirable or congenial place.
hustings
Temporary platform where candidates for the British Parliament stood
when nominated and from which they addressed the electors; any place
where political campaign speeches are made; political campaign trail.
imbroglios
Complicated or bitter misunderstanding; confused heap.
mare clausum
Body of navigable water under the sole jurisdiction of a nation.
memoriter
By heart; by memory.
modus vivendi
Manner of living; way of life; lifestyle. Temporary arrangement
pending a settlement of matters in debate.
mugwumpery
Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine,
in the presidential campaign of 1884. Uncommitted person; a person who
is neutral on a controversial issue.
muniment
Title deed or a charter, defending rights.
mutoscope
Simple form of moving-picture machine; a series of views are printed
on paper and mounted around the periphery of a wheel. The rotation of
the wheel brings them sequentially into view and the blended effect
renders apparent motion.
Nestor
Oldest and wisest of the Greeks in the Trojan War and a king of Pylos.
obloquy
Censure, blame, or abusive language; discredit, disgrace, denunciation.
outre-mer
French: Overseas.
pergolas
Arbor or a passageway of columns supporting a roof or trelliswork of
climbing plants.
Plaisance
Place laid out as a pleasure garden or promenade.
pelagic
Pertaining to the oceans; living near the surface of the ocean, far
from land.
pendency
Pending, undecided, as a lawsuit awaiting settlement.
peristyle
Colonnade surrounding a building or an open space.
porphyry
Purplish-red rock containing small crystals of feldspar.
quadrennium
Four years.
quadriga
Two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses abreast.
rapprochement
Establishment of harmonious relations.
recreant
Coward, craven, unfaithful, disloyal, apostate, traitor, renegade.
recrudescence
Recurrence of symptoms after a period of improvement.
redoubtable
To be feared; formidable; commanding respect, reverence.
reprobated, reprobation
Depraved, unprincipled, wicked; beyond hope of salvation.
Scylla
Female sea monster who lived in a cave opposite Charybdis and devoured
sailors. See: between Scylla and Charybdis.
truckling
Submit tamely; grovel, bow, concede, kowtow.
unwonted
Usual; rare.
[End Transcriber's Notes]
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
[Illustration: Portrait.]
From a photograph copyright, 1899, by Pach Bros., N. Y.
President William McKinley.
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
FROM THE EARLIEST DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PRESENT TIME
BY
E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
With 650 Illustrations and Maps
VOLUME V.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1903 AND 1905, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
[Illustration: Scribner's Logo.]
CONTENTS
PERIOD VI
EXPANSION
1888--1902
CHAPTER I. DRIFT AND DYE IN LAW--MAKING
General Revision and Extension of State Constitutions.
Introduction of Australian Ballot in Various States.
Woman Suffrage in the West.
Negro Suffrage in the South.
Educational Qualification.
"The Mississippi Plan."
South Carolina Registration Act.
The "Grandfather" Clause in Louisiana Constitution.
Alabama Suffrage.
CHAPTER II. THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1888
Tariff Reform Democratic Creed.
Republican Banner, High Protection.
Republican Convention at Chicago.
Nomination of Benjamin Harrison for President.
Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Harrison.
Political Strength in the West.
National Association of Democratic Clubs and Republican League.
Civil Service as an Issue in Campaign.
Democratic Blunders.
The "Murchison" Letter.
Lord Sackville-West Given His Passports.
Use of Money in Campaign by Both Political Parties.
Tariff the Main Issue.
Trusts.
"British Free Trade."
Popular Vote at the Election.
CHAPTER III. MR. HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION
Steamship Subsidies Advocated.
Chinese Immigration and the Geary Law.
Immigration Restriction.
Thomas B. Reed Institutes Parliamentary Innovations
in the House of Representatives.
Counting a Quorum.
The "Force Bill" in Congress.
Resentment of the South.
Defeated in Senate.
The "Billion Dollar Congress" and the Dependent Pensions Act.
Pension Payments.
The McKinley Tariff Act and "Blaine" Reciprocity.
International Copyright Act Becomes a Law.
Mr. Blaine as Secretary of State.
Murder by "Mafia" Italians Causes Riot in New Orleans.
The Itata at San Diego, California.
The "Barrundia" Incident.
U. S. Assumes Sovereignty Over Tutuila, Samoa.
Congressional Campaign, 1890.
CHAPTER IV. NON-POLITICAL EVENTS OF PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TERM
Commemorative Exercises of the Centennial Anniversary
of Washington's Inauguration as President.
Verse Added to Song "America."
Whittier Composes an Ode.
Unveiling of Lee Monument.
Sectional Feeling Allayed.
The Louisiana Lottery Put Down.
The Opening of Oklahoma.
Sum Paid Seminole Indians.
The Messiah Craze of the Indians.
The Johnstown Flood.
The Steel Strike at Homestead, Pa.
Congressional Investigation.
Riot in Tennessee Over Convict Labor in the Mines.
Mormonism.
America Aids Russia in Famine.
CHAPTER V. THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
Preparation for the World's Fair.
Columbus Day in Chicago.
In New York.
Presidential Election of 1892.
The Campaign.
Cleveland and Harrison Nominated by the Respective Parties.
Populism.
Gen. Weaver Populistic Candidate.
Reciprocity in the Campaign of 1892.
Result of the Election.
Opening Exercises of the World's Fair.
The Buildings and Grounds.
The Spanish Caravals.
The Court of Honor.
Burning of the Cold Storage Building.
Government Exhibits.
Midway Plaisance.
The Ferris Wheel.
Buildings Burned.
Fair Not a Financial Success.
The Attendance.
CHAPTER VI. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Growth of Population in Cities and States.
Centre of Population.
The Railroads.
Industrial Progress.
Development of Use of Electricity in Telegraph, Telephone,
Lighting, and Manufacturing.
Niagara Falls Harnessed.
Thomas A. Edison.
Nikola Tesla.
The Use of the Bicycle.
Growth of Agriculture and Improvement of Implements.
Position of Women.
The Salvation Army Established in America.
Its Growth and Work.
CHAPTER VII. MR. CLEVELAND AGAIN PRESIDENT
Democratic Congress.
President Extends Merit System.
Anti-Lottery Bill.
President Calls a Special Session of Congress.
Sale of Bonds to Maintain Reserve of Gold.
The Wilson Tariff Law Passed.
Income Tax Unconstitutional.
Bond Issues.
Foreign Affairs.
Coup d'etat of Provisional Government of Hawaii.
Special Commissioner.
Queen Liliuokalani.
Queen Renounces Throne.
President Cleveland's
Venezuelan Message.
Measures to Preserve National Credit.
Venezuelan Boundary Commission.
Lexow Committee Investigation in New York City.
Reform Ticket Elected.
Greater New York.
American Protective Association.
CHAPTER VIII. LABOR AND THE RAILWAYS
The March of the Coxey Army.
Arrest of Leaders.
The American Railway Union
Strike.
Refusal of Pullman Company to Arbitrate.
Association of General Managers.
Federal Injunction.
Federal Riot Proclamation and Troops Detailed.
Governor Altgeld's Protest.
Debs.
"Government by Injunction."
Commission of Investigation.
General Allotment of Indian Lands Under the Dawes Act.
CHAPTER IX. NEWEST DIXIE
Harmony Between North and South.
Consecration of Chickamauga-Chattanooga Military Park.
Agricultural Development in the South.
Manufactures.
Natural Products.
Southern Characteristics.
The "Black Belt."
Montgomery Conference on the Negro Question.
Lynching.
Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute.
Negro Population.
CHAPTER X. THE MEN AND THE ISSUE IN 1896
Free Silver Coinage Issue in the Campaign.
Republican Convention in St. Louis.
The Money Plank in the Platform.
Withdrawal of Senator Teller and Free Silver Delegates.
William McKinley and Garret A. Hobart Nominated for
President and Vice-President.
Sketch of Life of William McKinley.
Democratic Convention Held in Chicago.
Demand for Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver.
William J. Bryan Makes "Cross of Gold" Speech.
Delegates Refuse to Vote.
W. J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall Nominated.
Sketch of William J. Bryan.
Thomas Watson Nominated for Vice-President by Populist Convention.
National or Gold Democratic Ticket.
Speeches Made by Candidates.
Result of the Election.
CHAPTER XI. MR. MCKINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION
John Sherman, William R. Day, and John Hay as Secretary of State.
Other Members of Cabinet.
Revival of Business in 1897.
Gold Discovery in Yukon, Klondike, and Cape Nome.
Alaskan Boundary Controversy Between United States and Great Britain.
Joint High Commission Canvasses Boundary and Sealing Question.
Estimate of Loss to Seal Herd.
Sealskins Ordered Confiscated and Destroyed at United States Ports.
Hawaiian Islands Annexed.
Special Envoys to the Powers Appointed
to Consider International Bi-Metallism.
President Withdraws Positions from the Classified Service.
Extra Session of Congress.
Passes Dingley Tariff Act.
Reciprocity Clauses.
Grant Mausoleum Completed.
Presentation Ceremonies at New York.
CHAPTER XII. THE WAR WITH SPAIN
Cuban Discontent with Spanish Rule.
United States' Neutral Attitude Toward Spain and Cuba.
Red Cross Society Aids Reconcentrados.
Spanish Minister Writes Letter that Leads to Resignation.
United States Battleship Maine Sunk in Havana Harbor.
Congress Declares the People of Cuba Free and Independent.
Minister Woodford Receives his Passports at Madrid.
Increase of the Regular Army.
Spain Prepares for War.
Army Equipment Insufficient.
Strength of Navy.
The Oregon Makes Unprecedented Run.
Admiral Cervera's Fleet in Santiago Harbor.
Navy at Santiago Harbor Entrance.
Army Lands near Santiago.
The Darkest Day of the War.
Sinking of the Collier Merrimac to Block Harbor Entrance.
Spanish Ships Leave.
General Toral Surrenders.
Expedition of General Miles to Porto Rico.
Commodore George Dewey Enters Manila Bay.
Destroys Spanish Fleet.
Manila Capitulates.
Treaty of Paris Signed.
CHAPTER XIII. "CUBA LIBRE"
Admiral Sampson and Admiral Schley in Santiago Naval Battle.
Court of Inquiry Appointed.
Paris Treaty of Peace Ratified.
Foreign Criticism.
The Samoan Islands.
Civil Government Established in Porto Rico.
Foreign Commerce of Porto Rico.
Congressional Pledge about Cuba.
Census of Cuba.
General Leonard Wood, Governor of Cuba.
Cuban Constitutional Convention.
"Platt Amendment."
Cuban Constitution Adopted.
First President of Cuba.
Reciprocity with Cuba.
CHAPTER XIV. THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT--PHILIPPINES AND FILIPINOS.
Area of the Philippines.
The Native Tribes.
Population.
Education Under Spanish Rule.
Filipinos.
Iocoros.
Igorrotes.
Ilocoans.
Moros.
Spain as a Colonist.
Religious Orders.
Secret Leagues.
Spain and the Filipinos.
Emilio Aguinaldo.
The Philippines in the Treaty of Paris.
Senate Resolution.
CHAPTER XV. THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT.--
WAR.--CONTROVERSY.--PEACE.
Filipinos' Foothold in Philippines.
Attitude Toward Filipinos.
President Orders Government Extended Over Archipelago.
American Rule Awakens Hostility.
First Philippine Commission.
Philippine Congress Votes for Peace.
Revolution.
Treachery of Filipinos.
General Frederick Funston Captures Aguinaldo.
Aguinaldo Swears Allegiance to the United States.
The Constitution and the Philippines.
United States Supreme Court Decisions.
Tariff.
Anti-Imperialism.
Second Commission.
Civil Government Inaugurated.
Educational Reforms.
CHAPTER XVI. POLITICS AT THE TURNING OF THE CENTURY.
Candidates for President in 1900.
McKinley Renominated.
Bryan Nominated.
Gold Democrats.
Fusion.
Populists.
Silver Republicans.
Anti-Imperialism.
Tariff for Colonies.
Porto Rico Tariff.
President McKinley's Opposition to Bill.
Campaign Issues.
Boer War.
Trusts.
Democratic Defeat.
Coal Strike.
Reasons for Democratic Defeat.
Mr. Bryan Insists on Silver Issue.
Monetary System on a Gold Basis.
Result of Election.
CHAPTER XVII. THE TWELFTH CENSUS
Permanent Census Bureau.
Alaska Census.
Method of Taking Census.
Two Thousand Employees.
Population of United States.
Nevada Loses in Population.
Urban Increase.
Greater New York.
Cities of More than a Million Inhabitants.
Loss in Rural Population.
Centre of Population.
Proportion of Males to Females.
Foreign Born Population.
Character of Immigration.
Chinese.
Congressional Apportionment.
Farms.
Crops.
Manufacturing Capital Invested.
Foreign Commerce.
Revenues.
War Taxes Repealed.
National Debt.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901
The Opening.
Triumphal Bridge.
Electric Tower.
Temple of Music.
Architecture.
Coloring of the "Rainbow City."
Symbolism of Coloring.
Sculpture.
Electrical Illumination.
The Chaining of Niagara.
The Midway.
The Athletic Congress.
Conservatory.
The Spanish-American Countries Represented.
United States Government Building.
CHAPTER XIX. MR. McKINLEY'S END
President McKinley's Address at the Pan-American Exposition.
The President Shot.
His Illness and Death.
The Funeral Ceremony.
In Washington.
At Canton.
Commemorative Services.
Mr. McKinley's Career.
Political Insight.
Americanism.
His Administration as President.
Leon Czolgosz, the Murderer of President McKinley.
Anarchists.
Anti-Anarchist Law.
Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt Succeeds to the
Presidency.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
(From a copyright photograph, 1899, by Pach Bros., New York).
A NEW YORK POLLING PLACE, SHOWING BOOTHS ON THE LEFT.
BENJAMIN R. TILLMAN.
GROVER CLEVELAND. (Photograph copyrighted by C. M. Bell).
W. Q. GRESHAM.
LEVI P. MORTON.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
LORD L. S. SACKVILLE-WEST.
JOSEPH B. FORAKER.
"THE CHINESE MUST GO!" DENIS KEARNEY ADDRESSING THE WORKINGMEN ON THE
NIGHT OF OCTOBER 29, ON NOB HILL, SAN FRANCISCO.
THOMAS B. REED.
DAVID C. HENNESSY.
AN EPISODE OF THE LYNCHING OF THE ITALIANS IN NEW ORLEANS.
THE CITIZENS BREAKING DOWN THE DOOR OF THE PARISH PRISON WITH THE BEAM
BROUGHT THERE THE NIGHT BEFORE FOR THAT PURPOSE.
OLD PARISH JAIL, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
A. G. THURMAN.
CHILIAN STEAMER ITATA IN SAN DIEGO HARBOR.
PRESIDENT HARRISON BEING ROWED ASHORE AT FOOT OF WALL STEEET, NEW YORK,
APRIL 29, 1889.
WASHINGTON INAUGURAL CELEBRATION, 1889, NEW YORK.
PARADE PASSING UNION SQUARE ON BROADWAY.
UNVEILING OF THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF ROBERT E. LEE, MAY 29, 1890.
HENRY W. GRADY.
FRANCIS T. NICHOLLS.
THE BUILDING OF A WESTERN TOWN, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA: A GENERAL VIEW OF THE
TOWN ON APRIL 24, 1889, THE SECOND DAY AFTER THE OPENING. A VIEW ALONG
OKLAHOMA A VENUE ON MAY 10, 1889. OKLAHOMA AVENUE AS IT APPEARED ON MAY
10, 1893, DURING GOVERNOR NOBLE'S VISIT.
MAIN STREET, JOHNSTOWN, AFTER THE FLOOD.
BURNING OF BARGES DURING HOMESTEAD STRIKE.
THE CARNEGIE STEEL WORKS. SHOWING THE SHIELD USED BY THE STRIKERS WHEN
FIRING THE CANNON AND WATCHING THE PINKERTON MEN--HOMESTEAD STRIKE.
INCITING MINERS TO ATTACK FORT ANDERSON.
THE GROVE BETWEEN BRICEVILLE AND COAL CREEK.
STATE TROOPS AND MINERS AT BRICEVILLE, TENN.
THE MORMON TEMPLE AT SALT LAKE CITY.
COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION, NEW YORK, APRIL 28, 1893.
PARADE PASSING FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL.
PINTA, SANTA MARIA, NINA--LYING IN THE NORTH RIVER, NEW YORK--THE
CARAVELS WHICH CROSSED FROM SPAIN TO BE PRESENT AT THE WORLD'S FAIR AT
CHICAGO.
THE MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING, SEEN FROM THE SOUTHWEST.
HORTICULTURAL BUILDING, WITH ILLINOIS BUILDING IN THE BACKGROUND.
A VIEW TOWARD THE PERISTYLE FROM MACHINERY HALL.
THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, SEEN FROM THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.
MIDWAY PLAISANCE, WORLD'S FAIR, CHICAGO.
THE BURNING OF THE WHITE CITY: ELECTRICITY BUILDING--MINES AND MINING
BUILDING.
THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE BUILDING IN CHICAGO.
(Showing the construction of outer walls).
INTERIOR OF THE POWER HOUSE AT NIAGARA FALLS.
THOMAS ALVA EDISON. (Copyright-photograph by W. A. Dickson).
NIKOLA TESLA.
BICYCLE PARADE, NEW YORK, FANCY COSTUME DIVISION.
HATCHERY ROOM OF THE FISH COMMISSION BUILDING AT WASHINGTON, D. C.,
SHOWING THE HATCHERY JARS IN OPERATION.
WILLIAM BOOTH. (From a photograph by Rockwood, New York).
GROVER CLEVELAND. (From a photograph by Alexander Black).
WILLIAM L. WILSON.
PRINCESS (AFTERWARDS QUEEN) LILIUOKALANI.
JAMES H. BLOUNT.
ALBERT S. WILLIS.
RICHARD OLNEY.
THE LEXOW INVESTIGATION. THE SCENE IN THE COURT ROOM
AFTER CREEDEN'S CONFESSION, DECEMBER 15, 1894.
CHARLES H. PARKHURST. (Copyright photograph by C. C. Langill).
WILLIAM L. STRONG.
COXEY'S ARMY ON THE MARCH TO THE CAPITOL STEPS AT WASHINGTON.
THE TOWN OF PULLMAN.
GEORGE M. PULLMAN.
CAMP OF THE U. S. TROOPS ON THE LAKE FRONT, CHICAGO.
BURNED CARS IN THE C., B. & Q. YARDS AT HAWTHORNE, CHICAGO.
OVERTURNED BOX CARS AT CROSSING OF RAILROAD TRACKS AT 39TH STREET,
CHICAGO.
HAZEN S. PINGREE.
GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
EUGENE V. DEBS.
THE CHICKAMAUGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK. GROUP OF MONUMENTS ON KNOLL
SOUTHWEST OF SNODGRASS HILL.
A GROVE OF ORANGES AND PALMETTOES NEAR ORMOND, FLORIDA.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION. ENTRANCE TO THE ART BUILDING.
SENATOR TELLER, OF COLORADO.
SENATOR CANNON.
GARRET A. HOBART. VICE-PRESIDENT.
(Copyright photograph, 1899, by Pach Bros., New York).
THE McKINLEY-HOBART PARADE PASSING
THE REVIEWING STAND, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 31, 1896.
BRYAN SPEAKING FROM THE REAR END OF A TRAIN.
ARTHUR SEWALL.
EX-SENATOR PALMER.
SIMON E. BUCKNER.
JOHN SHERMAN.
LYMAN J. GAGE, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
JOHN D. LONG, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
CORNELIUS N. BLISS, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.
RUSSELL A. ALGER, SECRETARY OF WAR.
JAMES WILSON, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.
POSTMASTER-GENERAL GARY. (Copyright photograph by Clinedinst).
RUSH OF MINERS TO THE YUKON. THE CITY OF CACHES AT THE SUMMIT OF
CHILCOOT PASS.
NELSON DINGLEY.
WARSHIPS IN THE HUDSON RIVER CELEBRATING THE DEDICATION OF GRANT'S TOMB,
APRIL 27, 1897.
GRANT'S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK. (Copyright photograph, 1901, by
Detroit Photographic Co.).
GOVERNOR-GENERAL WEYLER.
U. S. BATTLESHIP MAINE ENTERING THE HARBOR OF HAVANA,
JANUARY, 1898. (Copyright photograph, 1898, by J. C. Hemment).
WRECK OF U. S. BATTLESHIP MAINE. (Photograph by J. C. Hernment).
BOW OF THE SPANISH CRUISER ALMIRANTE OQUENDO.
(Photograph by J. C. Hemment--copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst).
THE LANDING AT DAIQUIRI. TRANSPORTS IN THE OFFING.
CAPTAIN CHARLES E. CLARK.
AFTERDECK ON THE OREGON, SHOWING TWO 13-INCH, FOUR 8-INCH, AND Two
6-INCH GUNS. (Copyright photograph, 1899, by Strohmeyer & Wyman).
BLOCKHOUSE ON SAN JUAN HILL.
ADMIRAL CERVERA, COMMANDER OF THE SPANISH SQUADRON.
MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM R. SHAFTER.
TROOPS IN THE TRENCHES, FACING SANTIAGO.
GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER.
VIEW OF SAN JUAN HILL AND BLOCKHOUSE, SHOWING THE CAMP OF THE UNITED
STATES FORCES.
THE COLLIER MERRIMAC SUNK BY HOBSON AT THE MOUTH OF SANTIAGO HARBOR.
THE SPANISH CRUISER CRISTOBAL COLON. (From a photograph by J. C.
Hemment-copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst).
THE U. S. S. BROOKLYN. (Copyright photograph, 1898, by C, C. Langill,
New York).
GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.
ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY.
PROTECTED CRUISER OLYMPIA.
GENERAL A. R. CHAFFEE.
GENERAL MERRITT AND GENERAL GREENE TAKING A LOOK AT A SPANISH FIELD-GUN
ON THE MALATE FORT.
ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON.
ADMIRAL W. S. SCHLEY.
THE NEW CUBAN POLICE AS ORGANIZED BY EX-CHIEF OF NEW YORK POLICE
McCULLAGH.
SHOWING CONDITION OF STREETS IN SANTIAGO BEFORE STREET CLEANING
DEPARTMENT WAS ORGANIZED.
SANTIAGO STREET CLEANING DEPARTMENT.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL LEONARD A. WOOD IN THE UNIFORM OF COLONEL OF ROUGH
RIDERS.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL LEONARD A. WOOD TRANSFERRING THE ISLAND OF CUBA TO
PRESIDENT TOMASO ESTRADA PALMA, AS A CUBAN REPUBLIC, MAY, 1902.
(Copyright stereoscopic photograph, by Underwood & Underwood, New York).
THE JOLO TREATY COMMISSION.
THREE HUNDRED BOYS IN THE PARADE OF JULY 4, 1902, YIGAN, ILOCOS.
GIRL'S NORMAL INSTITUTE, YIGAN, ILOCOS, APRIL, 1902.
IGORROTE RELIGIOUS DANCE, LEPONTO.
IGORROTE HEAD HUNTERS, WITH HEAD AXES AND SPEARS.
NATIVE MOROS--INTERIOR OF JOLO.
EMILIO AGUINALDO.
GENERAL FREDERICK FUNSTON--GENERAL A. McARTHUR.
A COMPANY OF INSURRECTOS, NEAR BONGUED, ABIA PROVINCE, JUST PREVIOUS TO
SURRENDERING EARLY IN 1901.
ELEVENTH CAVALRY LANDING AT VIGAN, ILOCOS, APRIL, 1902.
JULES CAMBON, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR, ACTING FOR SPAIN, RECEIVING FROM
THE HONORABLE JOHN HAY, THE U. S. SECRETARY OF STATE, DRAFTS TO THE
AMOUNT OF $20,000,000, IN PAYMENT FOR THE PHILIPPINES. (Copyright
photograph, 1899, by Frances B. Johnston).
NATIVE TAGALS AT ANGELES, FIFTY-ONE MILES FROM MANILA.
BRINGING AMMUNITION TO THE FRONT FOR GENERAL OTIS'S BRIGADE, NORTH OF
MANILA.
FORT MALATE, CAVlTE.
THE PASIG RIVER, MANILA.
THE INAUGURATION OF GOVERNOR TAFT, MANILA, JULY 4, 1901.
GROUP OF AMERICAN TEACHERS ON THE STEPS OF THE ESCUELA MUNICIPAL,
MANILA.
W. J. BRYAN ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT AT A JUBILEE MEETING
HELD AT INDIANAPOLlS, AUGUST 8, 1900.
THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1900.
PARADE OF THE SOUND MONEY LEAGUE, NEW YORK, 1900
PASSING THE REVIEWING STAND.
MR. MERRIAM, DIRECTOR OF THE CENSUS.
CENSUS EXAMINATION.
THE CENSUS OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
A CENSUS-TAKER AT WORK.
ELECTRIC TOWER AND FOUNTAINS [BUFFALO].
ETHNOLOGY BUILDING AND UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING.
TEMPLE OF MUSIC BY ELECTRIC LIGHT.
GROUP OF BUFFALOS--PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION.
ELECTRIC TOWER AT NIGHT.
TRIUMPHAL BRIDGE AND ENTRANCE TO THE EXPOSITION, SHOWING ELECTRIC
DISPLAY AT NIGHT.
THE ELECTRICITY BUILDING.
PRESIDENT McKINLEY AT NIAGARA--ASCENDING THE STAIRS FROM LUNA ISLAND TO
GOAT ISLAND. (Copyright photograph, 1901, by C. E. Dunlap).
THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE LATE PRESIDENT McKINLEY--TAKEN AS HE WAS
ASCENDING THE STEPS OF THE TEMPLE OF MUSIC, SEPTEMBER 6, 1901.
THE MILBURN RESIDENCE, WHERE PRESIDENT McKINLEY DIED--BUFFALO, N. Y.
(Copyright photograph, 1902, by Underwood & Underwood).
ASCENDING THE CAPITOL STEPS AT WASHINGTON, D. C., WHERE THE CASKET LAY
IN STATE IN THE ROTUNDA.
PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S REMAINS PASSING THE UNITED STATES TREASURY,
WASHINGTON, D. C. (Copyright photograph, 1901, by Underwood &
Underwood).
THE HOME OF WILLIAM McKINLEY AT CANTON, OHIO. (Copyright photograph,
1901, by Underwood & Underwood).
INTERIOR OF ROOM IN WILCOX HOUSE WHERE THEODORE ROOSEVELT TOOK THE OATH
OF PRESIDENCY.
PERIOD VI.
EXPANSION
1888-1902
CHAPTER I.
DRIFT AND DYE IN LAW-MAKING
[1890]
Race war at the South following the abolition of slavery, new social
conditions everywhere, and the archaic nature of many provisions in the
old laws, induced, as the century drew to a close, a pretty general
revision of State constitutions. New England clung to instruments
adopted before the civil war, though in most cases considerably amended.
New Jersey was equally conservative, as were also Ohio, Indiana,
Michigan, and Wisconsin. New York adopted in 1894 a new constitution
which became operative January 1, 1895. Of the old States beyond the
Mississippi only Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon remained content
with ante-bellum instruments. Between 1864 and 1866 ten of the southern
States inaugurated governments which were not recognized by Congress and
had to be reconstructed. Ten of the eleven reconstruction constitutions
were in turn overthrown by 1896. In a little over a generation,
beginning with Minnesota, 1858, fourteen new States entered the Union,
of which all but West Virginia and Nebraska retained at the end of the
century their first bases of government. In some of these cases,
however, copious amendments had rendered the constitutions in effect
new.
As a rule the new constitutions reserved to the people large powers
formerly granted to one or more among the three departments of
government. Most of them placed legislatures under more minute
restrictions than formerly prevailed. The modern documents were much
longer than earlier ones, dealing with many subjects previously left to
statutes. Distrust of legislatures was further shown by shortening the
length of sessions, making sessions biennial, forbidding the pledging of
the public credit, inhibiting all private or special legislation, and
fixing a maximum for the rate of taxation, for State debts, and for
State expenditures.
South Dakota, the first State to do so, applied the initiative and
referendum, each to be set in motion by five per cent. of the voters, to
general statutory legislation. Wisconsin provided for registering the
names of legislative lobbyists, with various particulars touching their
employment. The names of their employers had also to be put down. Many
new points were ordered observed in the passing of laws, such as
printing all bills, reading each one thrice, taking the yeas and nays on
each, requiring an absolute majority to vote yea, the inhibition of
"log-rolling" or the joining of two or more subjects under one title,
and enactments against legislative bribery, lobbying, and "riders."
While the legislature was snubbed there appeared a quite positive
tendency to concentrate responsibility in the executive, causing the
powers of governors considerably to increase. The governor now enjoyed a
longer term, was oftener re-eligible, and could veto items or sections
of bills. By the later constitutions most of the important executive
officers were elected directly by the people, and made directly
responsible neither to governors nor to legislatures.
The newer constitutions and amendments paid great attention to the
regulation of corporations, providing for commissions to deal with
railroads, insurance, agriculture, dairy and food products, lands,
prisons, and charities. They restricted trusts, monopolies, and
lotteries. Modifications of the old jury system were introduced. Juries
were made optional in civil cases, and not always obligatory in criminal
cases. Juries of less than twelve were sometimes allowed, and a
unanimous vote by a jury was not always required. Growing wealth and the
consequent multiplication of litigants necessitated an increase in the
number of judges in most courts. Efforts were made, with some success,
by combining common law with equity procedure, and in other ways, to
render lawsuits more simple, expeditious, and inexpensive.
Restrictions were enacted on the hours of labor, the management of
factories, the alien ownership of land. The old latitude of giving and
receiving by inheritance was trenched upon by inheritance taxes. The
curbing of legislatures, the popular election of executives, civil
service reform, and the creation of a body of administrative
functionaries with clearly defined duties, betrayed movement toward an
administrative system.
A stronghold of political corruption was assaulted from 1888 to 1894 by
a hopeful measure known as the "Australian" ballot. It took various
forms in different States yet its essence everywhere was the provision
enabling every voter to prepare and fold his ballot in a stall by
himself, with no one to dictate, molest, or observe. Massachusetts, also
the city of Louisville, Ky., employed this system of voting so early as
1888. Next year ten States enacted similar laws. In 1890 four more
followed, and in 1891 fourteen more. By 1898 thirty-nine States, all the
members of the Union but six, had taken up "kangaroo voting," as its
foes dubbed it. Of these six States five were southern.
[Illustration: About twenty men in a room with tables, some voters, and
others officials.]
A New York Polling Place, showing booths on the left.
An official ballot replaced the privately--often dishonestly--prepared
party ballots formerly hawked about each polling place by political
workers. The new ballot was a "blanket," bearing a list of all the
candidates for each office to be filled. The arrangement of candidates'
names varied in different States. By one style of ticket it was easy for
the illiterate or the straight-out party man to mark party candidates.
Another made voting difficult for the ignorant, but a delight to the
discriminating.
The new ballot, though certainly an improvement, failed to produce the
full results expected of it. The connivance of election officials and
corrupt voters often annulled its virtue by devices growing in variety
and ingenuity as politicians became acquainted with the reform. Statutes
and sometimes constitutions therefore went further, making the count of
ballots public, ordering it carried out near the polling place, and
allowing municipalities to insure a still more secret vote and an
instantaneous, unerring tally by the use of voting machines.
In the North and West the tendency of the new fundamental laws was to
widen the suffrage, rendering it, for males over twenty-one years of
age, practically universal. Woman suffrage, especially on local and
educational matters, spread more and more, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and
Utah women voted upon exactly the same terms as men, In Idaho women sat
in the legislature. There was much agitation for minority
representation. Illinois set an example by the experiment of cumulative
voting in the election of lower house members of the legislature.
Nearly everywhere at the South constitutional reform involved negro
disfranchisement. The blacks were numerous, but their rule meant ruin.
It was easy for the whites to keep them in check, as had been done for
years, by bribery and threats, supplemented, when necessary, by flogging
and the shotgun, But this gave to the rising generation of white men the
worst possible sort of a political education. The system was too
barbarous to continue. What meaning could free institutions have for
young voters who had never in all their lives seen an election carried
save by these vicious means! New constitutions which should legally
eliminate most of the negro vote were the alternative.
In Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Georgia, North and South Carolina, proof of having paid taxes or
poll-taxes was (as in some northern and western States) made an
indispensable prerequisite to voting, either alone or as an alternative
for an educational qualification. Virginia used this policy until 1882
and resumed it again in 1902, cutting off such as had not paid or had
failed to preserve or bring to the polls their receipts. Many States
surrounded registration and voting with complex enactments. An
educational qualification, often very elastic, sometimes the voter's
alternative for a tax-receipt, was resorted to by Alabama, Arkansas,
Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Georgia in 1898 rejected
such a device. Alabama hesitated, jealous lest illiterate whites should
lose their votes. But, after the failure of one resolution for a
convention, this State, too, upon the stipulation that the new
constitution should disfranchise no white voter and that it should be
submitted to the people for ratification, not promulgated directly by
its authors as was done in South Carolina, Louisiana, and later in
Virginia and Delaware, consented to a revision, which was ratified at
the polls November, 1901, not escaping censure for its drastic
thoroughness. Its distinctive feature was the "good character clause,"
whereby an appointment board in each county registers "all voters under
the present [previous] law" who are veterans or the lawful descendants
of such, and "all who are of good character and understand the duties
and obligations of citizenship."
In the above line of constitution-framing, whose problem was to steer
between the Scylla of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Charybdis of negro
domination, viz., legally abridge the negro vote so as to insure
Caucasian supremacy at the polls, Mississippi led. The "Mississippi
plan," originating, it is believed, in the brain of Senator James Z.
George, had for its main features a registry tax and an educational
qualification, all adjustable to practical exigencies. Each voter must
pay a poll-tax of at least $2.00 and never to exceed $3.00, producing to
the election overseers satisfactory evidence of having paid such poll
and all other legal taxes. He must be registered "as provided by law"
and "be able to read any section of the constitution of the State, to
understand the same when read to him, or to give a reasonable
interpretation thereof." In municipal elections electors were required
to have "such additional qualifications as might be prescribed by law."
This constitution was attacked as not having been submitted to the
people for ratification and as violating the Act of Congress readmitting
Mississippi; but the State Supreme Court sustained it, and was confirmed
in this by the United States Supreme Court in dealing with the similar
Louisiana constitution.
As a spur to negro education the Mississippi constitution worked well.
The Mississippi negroes who got their names on the voting list rose from
9,036 in 1892 to 16,965 in 1895. This result of the "plan" did not deter
South Carolina from adopting it. Dread of negro domination haunted the
Palmetto State the more in proportion as her white population, led by
the enterprising Benjamin R. Tillman, who became governor and then
senator, got control and set aside the "Bourbons."
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Benjamin R. Tillman.
So early as 1882 South Carolina passed a registration act which, amended
in 1893 and 1894, compelled registration some four months before
ordinary elections and required registry certificates to be produced at
the polls. Other laws made the road to the ballot-box a labyrinth
wherein not only most negroes but some whites were lost. The multiple
ballot-boxes alone were a Chinese puzzle. This act was attacked as
repugnant to the State and to the federal constitution. On May 8, 1895,
Judge Goff of the United States Circuit Court declared it
unconstitutional and enjoined the State from taking further action under
it. But in June the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Goff and
dissolved the injunction, leaving the way open for a convention.
The convention met on September 10th and adjourned on December 4, 1895.
By the new constitution the Mississippi plan was to be followed until
January 1, 1898. Any male citizen could be registered who was able to
read a section of the constitution or to satisfy the election officers
that he understood it when read to him. Those thus registered were to
remain voters for life. After the date named applicants for registry
must be able both to read and to write any section of the constitution
or to show tax-receipts for poll-tax and for taxes on at least $300
worth of property. The property and the intelligence qualification each
met with strenuous opposition, but it was thought that neither alone
would serve the purpose.
The Louisiana constitution of 1898, in place of the Mississippi
"understanding" clause or the Alabama "good character" clause, enacted
the celebrated "grandfather" clause. The would-be voter must be able to
read and write English or his native tongue, or own property assessed at
$300 or more; but any citizen who was a voter on January I, 1867, or his
son or his grandson, or any person naturalized prior to January 1, 1898,
if applying for registration before September 1, 1898, might vote,
notwithstanding both illiteracy and poverty. Separate registration lists
were provided for whites and blacks, and a longer term of residence
required in State, county, parish, and precinct before voting than by
the constitution of 1879.
North Carolina adopted her suffrage amendment in 1900. It lengthened the
term of residence before registration and enacted both educational
qualification and prepayment of poll-tax, only exempting from this tax
those entitled to vote January 1, 1867. In 1902 Virginia adopted an
instrument with the "understanding" cause for use until 1904, hedging the
suffrage after that date by a poll-tax. Application for registration
must be in the applicant's handwriting, written in the presence of the
registrar.
White solidarity yielding with time, there were heard in the Carolinas,
Alabama, and Louisiana, loud allegations, not always unfounded, that
this side or that had availed itself of negro votes to make up a deficit
or turned the enginery of vote suppression against its opponents' white
supporters.
Most States which overthrew negro suffrage seemed glad to think of the
new regime as involving no perjury, fraud, violence, or
lese-constitution. Some of Alabama's spokesmen were of a different
temper, paying scant heed to the federal questions involved. "The
constitution of '75," they said, "recognized the Fifteenth Amendment,
which Alabama never adopted, and guaranteed the negro all the rights of
suffrage the white man enjoys. The new constitution omits that section.
Under its suffrage provisions the white man will rule for all time in
Alabama."
The North, once ablaze with zeal for the civil and political rights of
the southern negro, heard the march of this exultant southern crusade
with equanimity, with indifference, almost with sympathy. Perfunctory
efforts were made in Congress to secure investigation of negro
disfranchisement, but they evoked feeble response.
CHAPTER II.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1888
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Grover Cleveland.
Photograph copyrighted by C. M. Bell.
[1888]
It looking forward to the presidential campaign of 1888 the Democracy
had no difficulty in selecting its leader or its slogan. The custom,
almost like law, of renominating a presidential incumbent at the end of
his first term, pointed to Mr. Cleveland's candidacy, as did the
considerable success of his administration in quelling factions and in
silencing enemies. At the same time reform for a lower tariff, with
which cause he had boldly identified himself, was marked anew as a main
article of the Democratic creed. The nomination of Allen G. Thurman for
Vice-President brought to the ticket what its head seemed to
lack--popularity among the people of the West--and did much to hearten
all such Democrats as insisted upon voting a ticket free from all taint
of mugwumpery.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
W. Q. Gresham.
The attitude of the Democratic party being favorable to tariff
reduction, the Republicans must perforce raise the banner of high
protection; but public opinion did not forestall the convention in
naming the Republican standard-bearer. The convention met in Chicago. At
first John Sherman of Ohio received 229 votes; Walter Q. Gresham of
Indiana, 111; Chauncey M. Depew of New York, 99; and Russell A. Alger of
Michigan, 84. Harrison began with 80; Blaine had but 35. After the third
ballot Depew withdrew his name. On the fourth, New York and Wisconsin
joined the Harrison forces. A stampede of the convention for Blaine was
expected, but did not come, being hindered in part by the halting tenor
of despatches received from the Plumed Knight, then beyond sea. After
the fifth ballot two cablegrams were received from Blaine, requesting
his friends to discontinue voting for him. Two ballots more having been
taken, Allison, who had been receiving a considerable vote, withdrew.
The eighth ballot nominated Harrison, and the name of Levi P. Morton,
of New York, was at once placed beneath his on the ticket.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Levi P. Morton.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Benjamin Harrison.
Mr. Harrison was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, great
grandson, therefore, of Governor Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, the
ardent revolutionary patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
An older scion of the family had served as major-general in Cromwell's
army and been executed for signing the death-warrant of King Charles I.
The Republican candidate was born on a farm at North Bend, Ohio, August
20, 1883. The boy's earliest education was acquired in a log
schoolhouse. He afterward attended Miami University, in Ohio, where he
graduated at the age of nineteen. The next year he was admitted to the
bar. In 1854 he married, and opened a law office in Indianapolis. In
1860 he became Reporter of Decisions to the Indiana Supreme Court. When
the civil war broke out, obeying the spirit that in his grandfather had
won at Tippecanoe and the Thames, young Harrison recruited a regiment,
of which he was soon commissioned colonel. Gallant services under
Sherman at Resaca and Peach Tree Creek brought him the brevet of
brigadier. After his return from war, owing to his high character, his
lineage, his fine war record, his power as a speaker and his popularity
in a pivotal State, he was a prominent figure in politics, not only in
Indiana, but more and more nationally. In 1876 he ran for the Indiana
Governership, but was defeated by a small margin. In 1880 he was
chairman of the Indiana delegation to the Republican National
Convention. In 1881 he was elected United States Senator, declining an
offer of a seat in Garfield's Cabinet. From 1880, when Indiana presented
his name to the Republican National Convention, General Harrison was, in
the West, constantly thought of as a presidential possibility. Eclipsed
by Blaine in 1884, he came forward again in 1888, this time to win.
In the East General Harrison was much underrated. Papers opposing his
election fondly cartooned him wearing "Grandfather's hat," as if family
connection alone recommended him. It was a great mistake. The grandson
had all the grandsire's strong qualities and many besides. He was a
student and a thinker. His character was absolutely irreproachable. His
information was exact, large, and always ready for use. His speeches had
ease, order, correctness, and point. With the West he was particularly
strong, an element of availability which Cleveland lacked. In the Senate
he had won renown both as a debater and as a sane adviser. As a
consistent protectionist he favored restriction upon Chinese immigration
and prohibition against the importation of contract labor. He upheld all
efforts for reform in the civil service and for strengthening the navy.
In the presidential campaign of 1888 personalities had little place.
Instead, there was active discussion of party principles and policies.
The tariff issue was of course prominent. A characteristic piece of
enginery in the contest was the political club, which now, for the first
time in our history, became a recognized force. The National Association
of Democratic Clubs comprised some 3,000 units, numerous auxiliary
reform and tariff reform clubs being active on the same side. The
Republican League, corresponding to the Democratic Association, boasted,
by August, 1887, 6,500 clubs, with a million voters on their rolls.
Before election day Indiana alone had 1,100 Republican clubs and New
York 1,400.
During most of the campaign Democratic success was freely predicted and
seemed assured. Yet from the first forces were in exercise which
threatened a contrary result. Federal patronage helped the
administration less than was expected, while it nerved the opposition.
The Republicans had a force of earnest and harmonious workers. Of the
multitude, on the other hand, who in 1884 had aided to achieve victory
for the Democracy, few, of course, had received the rewards which they
deemed due them. In vain did officeholders contribute toil and money
while that disappointed majority were so slow and spiritless in rallying
to the party's summons, and so many of them even hostile. The zeal of
honest Democrats was stricken by what Gail Hamilton wittily called "the
upas bloom" of civil service reform, which the President still displayed
upon his lapel. To a large number of ardent civil service reformers who
had originally voted for Cleveland this decoration now seemed so wilted
that, more in indignation than in hope, they went over to Harrison.
The public at large resented the loss which the service had suffered
through changes in the civil list. Harrison without much of a record
either to belie or to confirm his words, at least commended and espoused
the reform.
Democratic blunders thrust the sectional issue needlessly to the fore.
Mr. Cleveland's willingness to return to their respective States the
Confederate flags captured by Union regiments in the civil war; his
fishing trip on Memorial Day; the choice of Mr. Mills, a Texan, to lead
the tariff fight in Congress; and the prominence of southerners among
the Democratic campaign orators at the North, were themes of countless
diatribes.
A clever Republican device, known as "the Murchison letter," did a great
deal to impress thoughtless voters that Mr. Cleveland was "un-American."
The incident was dramatic and farcical to a degree. The Murchison
letter, which interested the entire country for two or three weeks,
purported to come from a perplexed Englishman, addressing the British
Minister at Washington, Lord Sackville-West. It sought counsel of Her
Majesty's representative, as the "fountainhead of knowledge," upon "the
mysterious subject" how best to serve England in voting at the
approaching American election. The seeker after light recounted
President Cleveland's kindness to England in not enforcing the
retaliatory act then recently passed by Congress as its ultimatum in the
fisheries dispute, his soundness on the free trade question, and his
hostility to the "dynamite schools of Ireland." The writer set Mr.
Harrison down as a painful contrast to the President. He was "a
high-tariff man, a believer on the American side of all questions, and
undoubtedly, an enemy to British interests generally." But the inquirer
professes alarm at Cleveland's message on the fishery question which had
just been sent to Congress, and wound up with the query "whether Mr.
Cleveland's policy is temporary only, and whether he will, as soon as he
secures another term of four years in the presidency, suspend it for one
of friendship and free trade."
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Lord L. S. Sackville-West.
The Minister replied:
"Sir:--I am in receipt of your letter of the 4th inst., and beg to say
that I fully appreciate the difficulty in which you find yourself in
casting your vote. You are probably aware that any political party which
openly favored the mother country at the present moment would lose
popularity, and that the party in power is fully aware of the fact. The
party, however, is, I believe, still desirous of maintaining friendly
relations with Great Britain and still desirous of settling questions
with Canada which have been, unfortunately, reopened since the
retraction of the treaty by the Republican majority in the Senate and by
the President's message to which you allude. All allowances must
therefore be made for the political situation as regards the
Presidential election thus created. It is, however, impossible to
predict the course which President Cleveland may pursue in the matter of
retaliation should he be elected; but there is every reason to believe
that, while upholding the position he has taken, he will manifest a
spirit of conciliation in dealing with the question involved in his
message. I enclose an article from the New York 'Times' of August 22d,
and remain, yours faithfully,
"L. S. SACKVILLE-WEST."
This correspondence, published on October 24th, took instant and
universal effect. The President at first inclined to ignore the
incident, but soon yielded to the urgency of his managers, and, to keep
"the Irish vote" from slipping away, asked for the minister's recall.
Great Britain refusing this, the minister's passports were delivered
him. The act was vain and worse. Without availing to parry the enemy's
thrust, it incurred not only the resentment of the English Government,
but the disapproval of the Administration's soberest friends at home.
Influences with which practical politicians were familiar had their
bearing upon the outcome. In New York State, where occurred the worst
tug of war, Governor Hill and his friends, while boasting their
democracy, were widely believed to connive at the trading of Democratic
votes for Harrison in return for Republican votes for Hill. At any rate,
New York State was carried for both.
It is unfortunately necessary to add that the 1888 election was most
corrupt. The campaign was estimated to have cost the two parties
$6,000,000. Assessments on office-holders, as well as other subsidies,
replenished the Democrats' campaign treasury; while the manufacturers of
the country, who had been pretty close four years before, now regarding
their interest and even their honor as assailed, generously contributed
often as the Republican hat went around.
In Indiana, Mr. Harrison's home State, no resource was left untried. The
National Republican Committee wrote the party managers in that State:
"Divide the floaters into blocks of five, and put a trusted man with
necessary funds in charge of these five, and make him responsible that
none get away, and that all vote our ticket." This mandate the workers
faithfully obeyed.
So far as argument had weight the election turned mainly upon the tariff
issue. The Republicans held that protection was on trial for its life.
Many Democrats cherished the very same view, only they denounced the
prisoner at the bar as a culprit, not a martyr. They inveighed against
protection as pure robbery. They accused the tariff of causing Trusts,
against which several bills had recently been introduced in Congress.
Democratic extremists proclaimed that Republicans slavishly served the
rich and fiendishly ground the faces of the poor. Even moderate
Democrats, who simply urged that protective rates should be reduced,
more often than otherwise supported their proposals with out and out
free trade arguments. As to President Cleveland himself no one could
tell whether or not he was a free trader, but his discussions of the
tariff read like Cobden Club tracts. The Mills bill, which passed the
House in the Fiftieth Congress, would have been more a tariff for
revenue than in any sense protective. Republican orators and organs
therefore pictured "British free trade" as the dire, certain sequel of
the Cleveland policy if carried out, and, whether convinced by the
argument or startled by the ado of Harrison's supporters, people, to be
on the safe side, voted to uphold the "American System."
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Joseph B. Foraker.
More than eleven million ballots were cast at the election, yet so
closely balanced were the parties that a change of 10,000 votes in
Indiana and New York, both of which went for Harrison would have
reelected Cleveland. As it was, his popular vote of 5,540,000 exceeded
by 140,000 that of Harrison, which numbered 5,400,000. Besides bolding
the Senate the Republicans won a face majority of ten in the House,
subsequently increased by unseating and seating. They were thus in
control of all branches of the general government.
CHAPTER III.
MR. HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION.
[1888]
The new President, of course, renounced his predecessor's policy upon
the tariff, but continued it touching the navy. He advocated steamship
subsidies, reform in electoral laws, and such amendment to the
immigration laws as would effectively exclude undesirable foreigners.
A chief effect of the Kearney movement in California, culminating in the
California constitution of 1879, was intense opposition throughout the
Pacific States to any further admission of the Chinese. The constitution
named forbade the employment of Chinese by the State or by any
corporation doing business therein. This hostility spread eastward, and,
in spite of interested capitalists and disinterested philanthropists,
shaped all Subsequent Chinese legislation in Congress. The pacific
spirit of the Burlingame treaty in 1868, shown also by President Hayes
in vetoing the Anti-Chinese bill of 1878, died out more and more.
[Illustration: Speaker exhorting a crowd.]
"The Chinese must go!"
Denis Kearney addressing the working-men on the night of October 29, on
Nob Hill, San Francisco.
A law passed in 1881 provided that Chinese immigration might be
regulated, limited, or suspended by the United States. A bill
prohibiting such immigration for twenty years was vetoed by President
Arthur, but another reducing the period to ten years became law in 1882.
In 1888 this was amended to prohibit the return of Chinese laborers who
had been in the United States but had left. In 1892 was passed the Geary
law re-enacting for ten years more the prohibitions then in force, only
making them more rigid. Substantially the same enactments were renewed
in 1902.
Mr. Harrison wished this policy of a closed state put in force against
Europe as well as against Asia. An act of Congress passed August 2,
1882, prohibited the landing from any country of any would-be immigrant
who was a convict, lunatic, idiot, or unable to take care of himself.
This law, like the supplementary one of March 3, 1887, proved
inadequate. In 1888 American consuls represented that transatlantic
steamship companies were employing unscrupulous brokers to procure
emigrants for America, the brokerage being from three to five dollars
per head, and that most emigrants were of a class utterly unfitted for
citizenship.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Thomas B. Reed.
The President's urgency in this matter had little effect, the attention
of Congress being early diverted to other subjects. Three great measures
mainly embodied the Republican policy--the Federal Elections Bill, the
McKinley Tariff Bill, and the Dependent Pensions Bill.
As Speaker of the House, Hon. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, put through
certain parliamentary innovations necessary to enact the party's will.
He declined to entertain dilatory motions. More important, he ordered
the clerk to register as "present and not voting," those whom he saw
endeavoring by stubborn silence to break a quorum. A majority being the
constitutional quorum, theretofore, unless a majority answered to their
names upon roll-call, no majority appeared of record, although the
sergeant-at-arms was empowered to compel the presence of every member.
As the traditional safeguard of minorities and as a compressed airbrake
on majority action, silence became more powerful than words. Under the
Reed theory, since adopted, that the House may, through its Speaker,
determine in its own way the presence of a quorum, the Speaker's or the
clerk's eye was substituted for the voice of any member in demonstrating
such member's presence.
Many, not all Democrats, opposed the Reed policy as arbitrary. Mr.
Evarts is said to have remarked, "Reed, you seem to think a deliberative
body like a woman; if it deliberates, it is lost." On the "yeas and
nays" or at any roll-call some would dodge out of sight, others break
for the doors only to find them closed. A Texas member kicked down a
door to make good his escape. Yet, having calculated the scope of his
authority, Mr. Reed coolly continued to count and declare quorums
whenever such were present. The Democratic majority of 1893 transferred
this newly discovered prerogative of the Speaker, where possible, to
tellers. Now and then they employed it as artillery to fire at Mr. Reed
himself, but he each time received the shot with smiles.
The cause for which the counting of quorums was invoked made it doubly
odious to Democratic members. To restore the suffrage to southern
negroes the Republicans proposed federal supervision of federal
elections. This suggestion of a "Force Bill" rekindled sectional
bitterness. One State refused to be represented at the World's Columbian
Exposition of 1893, a United States marshal was murdered in Florida, a
Grand Army Post was mobbed at Whitesville, Ky. Parts of the South
proposed a boycott on northern goods. Many at the North favored white
domination in the South rather than a return of the carpet-bag regime,
regarding the situation a just retribution for Republicans' highhanded
procedure in enfranchising black ignorance. Sober Republicans foresaw
that a force law would not break up the solid South, but perpetuate it.
The House, however, passed the bill. In the Senate it was killed only by
"filibuster" tactics, free silver Republican members joining members
from the South to prevent the adoption of cloture.
A Treasury surplus of about $97,000,000 (in October, 1888) tempted the
Fifty-first Congress to expenditures then deemed vast, though often
surpassed since. The Fifty-first became known as the "Billion Dollar
Congress." What drew most heavily upon the national strong-box was the
Dependent Pensions Act. In this culminated a course of legislation
repeating with similar results that which began early in the history of
our country, occasioning the adage that "The Revolutionary claimant
never dies." By 1820 the experiment entailed an expenditure of a little
over twenty-five cents per capita of our population.
In 1880 Congress was induced to endow each pensioner with a back pension
equal to what his pension would have been had he applied on the date of
receiving his injury. Under the old law pension outlay had been at high
tide in 1871, standing then at $34,443,894. Seven years later it shrank
to $27,137,019. In 1883 it exceeded $66,000,000; in 1889 it approached
$88,000,000. But the act of 1890, similar to one vetoed by President
Cleveland three years before, carried the pension figure to $106,493,000
in 1890, to $118,584,000 in 1891, and to about $159,000,000 in 1893. It
offered pensions to all soldiers and sailors incapacitated for manual
labor who had served the Union ninety days, or, if they were dead, to
their widows, children, or dependent parents. 311,567 pension
certificates were issued during the fiscal year 1891-1892.
While thus increasing outgo, the Fifty-first Congress planned to
diminish income, not by lowering tariff rates, as the last
Administration had recommended, but by pushing them up to or toward the
prohibitive point. The McKinley Act, passed October 1, 1890, made sugar,
a lucrative revenue article, free, and gave a bounty to sugar producers
in this country, together with a discriminating duty of one-tenth of a
cent per pound on sugar imported hither from countries which paid an
export bounty thereon.
The "Blaine" reciprocity feature of this act proved its most popular
grace. In 1891 we entered into reciprocity agreements with Brazil, with
the Dominican Republic, and with Spain for Cuba and Porto Rico. In 1892
we covenanted similarly with the United Kingdom on behalf of the British
West Indies and British Guiana, and with Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras,
Guatemala and Austria-Hungary. How far our trade was thus benefited is
matter of controversy. Imports from these countries were certainly much
enlarged. Our exportation of flour to these lands increased a result
commonly ascribed to reciprocity, though the simultaneous increase in
the amounts of flour we sent to other countries was a third more rapid.
The international copyright law, meeting favor with the literary, was
among the most conspicuous enactments of the Fifty-first Congress. An
international copyright treaty had been entered into in 1886, but it did
not include the United States. Two years later a bill to the same end
failed in Congress. At last, on March 3, 1891, President Harrison signed
an act which provided for United States copyright for any foreign
author, designer, artist, or dramatist, albeit the two copies of a book,
photograph, chromo, or lithograph required to be deposited with the
Librarian of Congress must be printed from type set within the limits of
the United States or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives or
drawings on stone made within the limits of the United States or from
transfers therefrom. Foreign authors, like native or naturalized, could
renew their United States copyrights, and penalties were prescribed to
protect these rights from infringement.
[1891]
Mr. Blaine, the most eminent Republican statesman surviving, was now
less conspicuous than McKinley, Lodge, and Reed, with whom, by his
opposition to extreme protection and to the Force Bill, he stood at
sharp variance. As Secretary of State, however, to which post President
Harrison had perforce assigned him, he still drew public attention,
having to deal with several awkward international complications.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
David C. Hennessy.
The city of New Orleans, often tempted to appeal from bad law to
anarchy, was in the spring of 1891 swept off its feet by such a
temptation. Chief of Police David C. Hennessy was one night ambushed and
shot to death near his home by members of the Sicilian "Mafia," a
secret, oath-bound body of murderous blackmailers whom he was hunting to
earth. When at the trial of the culprits the jury, in face of cogent
evidence, acquitted six and disagreed as to the rest, red fury succeeded
white amazement. A huge mob encircled the jail, crushed in its
barricaded doors, and shot or hung the trembling Italians within.
[Illustration: Mob breaking into a prison.]
An episode of the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans. The citizens
breaking down the door of the parish prison with the beam brought there
the night before for that purpose.
[Illustration: Three story building.]
Old Parish Jail, New Orleans, La.
[Illustration: Downtown street, three and fours story buildings,
streetcars.]
Canal Street. New Orleans La.
Italy forthwith sent her protest to Mr. Blaine, who expressed his horror
at the deed, and urged Governor Nicholls to see the guilty brought to
justice. The Italian consul at New Orleans averred that, while the
victims included bad men, many of the charges against them were without
foundation; that the violence was foreseen and avoidable; that he had in
vain besought military protection for the prisoners, and had himself,
with his secretary, been assaulted and mobbed.
The Marquis di Rudini insisted on indemnity for the murdered men's
families and on the instant punishment of the assassins. Secretary
Blaine, not refusing indemnity in this instance, denied the right to
demand the same, still more the propriety of insisting upon the instant
punishment of the offenders, since the utmost that could be done at once
was to institute judicial proceedings, which was the exclusive function
of the State of Louisiana. The Italian public thought this equivocation,
mean truckling to the American prejudice against Italians. Baron Fava,
Italian Minister at Washington, was ordered to "affirm the inutility of
his presence near a government that had no power to guarantee such
justice as in Italy is administered equally in favor of citizens of all
nationalities." "I do not," replied Mr. Blaine, "recognize the right of
any government to tell the United States what it shall do; we have never
received orders from any foreign power and shall not begin now. It is to
me," he said, "a matter of indifference what persons in Italy think of
our institutions. I cannot change them, still less violate them."
[Illustration: Portrait.]
A. G. Thurman.
Such judicial proceedings as could be had against the lynchers broke
down completely. The Italian Minister withdrew, but his government
finally accepted $25,000 indemnity for the murdered men's families.
Friction with Chile arose from the "Itata incident." Chile was torn by
civil war between adherents of President Balmaceda and the
"congressional party." Mr. Egan, American Minister at Santiago, rendered
himself widely unpopular among Chilians by his espousal of the
President's cause. The Itata, a cruiser in the congressionalist service,
was on May 6, 1891, at Egan's request, seized at San Diego, Cal., by the
federal authorities, on the ground that she was about to carry a cargo
of arms to the revolutionists. Escaping, she surrendered at her will to
the United States squadron at Iquique. The congressionalists resented
our interference; the Balmaceda party were angry that we interfered to
so little effect. A Valparaiso mob killed two American sailors and hurt
eighteen more. Chile, however, tendered a satisfactory indemnity.
[Illustration: Ship with two masts and one smokestack.]
Chilian steamer Itata in San Diego Harbor.
[1890]
In the so-called "Barrundia incident" occurring in 1890 Americanism
overshot itself. The Gautemalan refugee, General Barrundia, boarded the
Pacific Mail steamer Acapulco for Salvador upon assurance that he would
not be delivered to the authorities of his native land. At San Jose de
Gautemala the Gautemala authorities sought to arrest him, and United
States Minister Mizner, Consul-General Hosmer, and Commander Reiter of
the United States Ship of War Ranger, concurred in advising Captain
Pitts of the Acapulco that Gautemala had a right to do this. Barrundia
resisted arrest and was killed. Both Mizner and Reiter were reprimanded
and removed, Reiter being, however, placed in another command.
Our government's attitude in this matter was untenable. The two
officials were in fact punished for having acted with admirable judgment
and done each his exact duty.
One of President Harrison's earliest diplomatic acts was the treaty of
1889 with Great Britain and Germany, by which, in conjunction with those
nations, the United States established a joint protectorate over the
Samoan Islands. On December 2, 1899, the three powers named agreed to a
new treaty, by which the United States assumed full sovereignty over
Tutuila and all the other Samoan islands east of longitude 171 degrees
west from Greenwich, renouncing in favor of the other signatories all
rights and claims over the remainder of the group.
In the congressional campaign of 1890 issue was squarely joined upon the
neo-Republican policy. The billion dollars gone, the Force Bill, and,
to a less extent, the McKinley tariff, especially its sugar bounty, had
aroused popular resentment. The election, an unprecedented "landslide,"
precipitated a huge Democratic majority into the House of
Representatives. Every community east of the Pacific slope felt the
movement. Pennsylvania elected a Democratic governor.
[Illustration: Rowboat with sixteen men leaving a ship.]
President Harrison being rowed ashore at foot of Wall Street,
New York, April 29, 1889.
CHAPTER IV.
NON-POLITICAL EVENTS OF PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TERM
[1889]
President Harrison's quadrennium was a milestone between two
generations. Memorials on every hand to the heroes of the Civil War
shocked one with the sense that they and the events they molded were
already of the past. Logan, Arthur, Sheridan, and Hancock had died. In
1891 General Sherman and Admiral Porter fell within a day of each other.
General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been a pall-bearer at the funeral of
each, rejoined them in a month.
This presidential term was pivotal in another way. The centennial
anniversary of Washington's inauguration as President fell on April 30,
1889. In observance of the occasion President Harrison followed the
itinerary of one hundred years before, from the Governor's mansion in
New Jersey to the foot of Wall Street, in New York City, to old St.
Paul's Church, on Broadway, and to the site where the first Chief
Magistrate first took the oath of office. Three days devoted to the
commemorative exercises were a round of naval, military, and industrial
parades, with music, oratory, pageantry, and festivities. For this
Centennial Whittier composed an ode. The venerable Rev. S. F. Smith, who
had written "America" fifty-seven years before, was also inspired by the
occasion to pen a Century Hymn, and to add to "America" the stanza:
"Our joyful hearts to-day,
Their grateful tribute pay,
Happy and free,
After our toils and fears,
After our blood and tears,
Strong with our hundred years,
O God, to Thee."
[Illustration: Parade.]
Washington Inaugural Celebration, 1889, New York.
Parade passing Union Square on Broadway.
[1890]
At the opening of this its second century of existence the nation was
confronted by entirely new issues. Bitterness between North and South,
spite of its brief recrudescence during the pendency of the Force Bill,
was fast dying out. At the unveiling of the noble monument to Robert E.
Lee at Richmond, in May, 1890, while, of course, Confederate leaders
were warmly cheered and the Confederate flag was displayed, various
circumstances made it clear that this zeal was not in derogation of the
restored Union.
The last outbreaks of sectional animosity related to Jefferson Davis, in
whom, both to the North and to the South, the ghost of the Lost Cause
had become curiously personified. The question whether or not he was a
traitor was for years zealously debated in Congress and outside. The
general amnesty after the war had excepted Davis. When a bill was before
Congress giving suitable pensions to Mexican War soldiers and sailors,
an amendment was carried, amid much bitterness, excluding the
ex-president of the Confederacy from the benefits thereof. Northerners
naturally glorified their triumph in the war as a victory for the
Constitution, nor could they wholly withstand the inclination to
question the motives of the secession leaders. Southerners, however
loyal now to the Union, were equally bold in asserting that, since in
1861 the question of the nature of the Union had not been settled, Mr.
Davis and the rest might attempt secession, not as foes of the
Constitution, but as, in their own thought, its most loyal friends and
defenders.
[Illustration: Statue about three times life size on a 30 foot pedestal.]
Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Robert E. Lee, May 29. 1890.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Henry W. Grady.
By 1890 the days were passed when denunciation of Davis or of the South
electrified the North, nor did the South on its part longer waste time
in impotent resentments or regrets. The brilliant and fervid utterances
on "The New South" by editor Henry W. Grady, of the Atlanta
Constitution, went home to the hearts of Northerners, doing much to
allay sectional feeling. Grady died, untimely, in 1889, lamented nowhere
more sincerely than at the North.
When Federal intervention occurred to put down the notorious Louisiana
Lottery, the South in its gratitude almost forgot that there had been a
war. This lottery had been incorporated in 1868 for twenty-five years.
In 1890 it was estimated to receive a full third of the mail matter
coming to New Orleans, with a business of $30,000 a day in postal notes
and money orders. As the monster in 1890, approaching its charter-term,
bestirred itself for a new lease of life, it found itself barred from
the mails by Congress.
And this was, in effect, its banishment from the State and country. It
could still ply its business through the express companies, provided
Louisiana would abrogate the constitutional prohibition of lotteries it
had enacted to take effect in 1893. For a twenty-five year
re-enfranchisement the impoverished State was offered the princely sum
of a million and a quarter dollars a year. This tempting bait was
supplemented by influences brought to bear upon the venal section of the
press and of the legislature. A proposal for the necessary
constitutional change was vetoed by Governor Nicholls. Having pushed
their bill once more through the House, the lottery lobby contended that
a proposal for a constitutional amendment did not require the governor's
signature, but only to be submitted to the people, a position which was
affirmed by the State Supreme Court. A fierce battle followed in the
State, the "anti" Democrats of the country parishes, in fusion with
Farmers' Alliance men, fighting the "pro" Democrats of New Orleans. The
"Antis" and the Alliance triumphed. Effort for a constitutional
amendment was given up, and Governor Foster was permitted to sign an act
prohibiting, after December 31, 1893, all sale of lottery tickets and
all lottery drawings or schemes throughout the State of Louisiana. In
January, 1894, the Lottery Company betook itself to exile on the island
of Cuanaja, in the Bay of Honduras, a seat which the Honduras Government
had granted it, together with a monopoly of the lottery business for
fifty years.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Francis T. Nicholls.
Matters in the West drew attention. The pressure of white population,
rude and resistless as a glacier, everywhere forcing the barriers of
Indian reservations, now concentrated upon the part of Indian territory
known as Oklahoma. This large tract the Seminole Indians had sold to the
Government, to be exclusively colonized by Indians and freedmen. In
1888-89, as it had become clearly impossible to shut out white settlers,
Congress appropriated $4,000,000 to extinguish the trust upon which the
land was held. By December the newly opened territory boasted 60,000
denizens, eleven schools, nine churches, and three daily and five weekly
newspapers. In a few years it was vying for statehood with Arizona and
New Mexico.
[Illustration: About twenty-five tents.]
A general view of the town on April 24, 1889,
the second day after the opening.
[Illustration: About 25 one-story buildings.]
A view along Oklahoma Avenue on May 10, 1889.
[Illustration: Several two story buildings on a crowded street.]
Oklahoma Avenue as it appeared on May 10, 1893,
during Governor Noble's visit.
THE BUILDING OF A WESTERN TOWN, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA.
In addition to the prospect of thus losing all their lands, the Indians
were, in the winter of 1890, famine-stricken through failure of
Government rations. With little hope of justice or revenge in their own
strength, the aggrieved savages sought supernatural solace. The
so-called "Messiah Craze" seized upon Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes,
Osages, Missouris, and Seminoles. Ordinarily at feud with one another,
these tribes all now united in ghost dances, looking for the Great
Spirit or his Representative to appear with a high hand and an
outstretched arm to bury the white and their works deep underground,
when the prairie should once more thunder with the gallop of buffalo and
wild horses. Southern negroes caught the infection. Even the scattered
Aztecs of Mexico gathered around the ruins of their ancient temple at
Cholula and waited a Messiah who should pour floods of lava from
Popocatapetl, inundating all mortals not of Aztec race.
[1892]
While frontiersmen trembled lest massacres should follow these Indian
orgies, people in the East were shuddering over the particulars of a
real catastrophe indescribably awful in nature. On a level some two
hundred and seventy-five feet lower than a certain massive reservoir,
lay the city of Johnstown, Pa. The last of May, 1889, heavy rains having
fallen, the reservoir dam burst, letting a veritable mountain of water
rush down upon the town, destroying houses, factories, bridges, and
thousands of lives. Relief work, begun at once and liberally supplied
with money from nearly every city in the Union and from many foreign
contributors, repaired as far as might be the immediate consequences of
the disaster.
Along with the Johnstown Flood will be remembered in the annals of
Pennsylvania the Homestead strike, in 1892, against the Carnegie Steel
Company, occasioned by a cut in wages. The Amalgamated Steel and Iron
Workers sought to intercede against the reduction, but were refused
recognition. Preparing to supplant the disaffected workmen with
non-union men, a force of Pinkerton detectives was brought up the river
in armored barges. Fierce fighting ensued. Bullets and cannon-balls
rained upon the barges, and receptacles full of burning oil were floated
down stream. The assailants wished to withdraw, repeatedly raising the
white flag, but it was each time shot down. Eleven strikers were killed;
of the attacking party from thirty to forty fell, seven dead. When at
last the Pinkertons were forced to give up their arms and ammunition and
retire, a bodyguard of strikers sought to shield them, but so violent
was the rage which they had provoked that, spite of their escort, the
mob brutally attacked them. Order was restored only when the militia
appeared.
[Illustration: City street piled with debris several feet thick.]
Main Street, Johnstown, after the flood.
[Illustration: River front, factories in the background, fires in the
foreground.]
Burning of Barges during Homestead Strike.
[Illustration: Man standing behind a large curved steel plate.]
The Carnegie Steel Works. Showing the shield used by the strikers when
firing the cannon and watching the Pinkerton men. Homestead strike.
This bloodshed was not wholly in vain. Congress made the private militia
system, the evil consequences of which were so manifest in these
tragedies, a subject of investigation, while public sentiment more
strongly than ever reprobated, on the one hand, violence by strikers or
strike sympathizers, and, on the other, the employment of armed men, not
officers of the law, to defend property.
That, however, other causes than these might endanger the peace was
shown about the same time at certain Tennessee mines where prevailed the
bad system of farming out convicts to compete with citizen-miners.
Business being slack, deserving workmen were put on short time.
Resenting this, miners at Tracy City, Inman, and Oliver Springs
summarily removed convicts from the mines, several of these escaping. At
Coal Creek the rioters were resisted by Colonel Anderson and a small
force. They raised a flag of truce, answering which in person, Colonel
Anderson was commanded, on threat of death, to order a surrender. He
refused. A larger force soon arrived, routed the rioters, and rescued
the colonel.
[Illustration: Several hundred men.]
Inciting miners to attack Fort Anderson.
The grove between Briceville and Coal Creek.
[Illustration: Train.]
State troops and miners at Briceville, Tenn.
[1891]
The year 1891 formed a crisis in the history of Mormonism in America.
For a long time after their settlement in the "Great American Desert,"
as it was then called, Mormons repudiated United States authority.
Gentile pioneers and recreant saints they dealt with summarily, witness
the Mountain Meadow massacre of 1857, where 120 victims were murdered in
cold blood after surrendering their arms.
[Illustration]
The Mormon Temple at Salt Lake City.
Anti-polygamy bills were introduced in Congress in 1855 and 1859. In
1862 such a bill was made law. Seven years later the enforcement of it
became possible by the building of a trans-continental railroad and the
influx of gentiles drawn by the discovery of precious metals in Utah. In
1874 the Poland Act, and in 1882 the Edmunds Act, introduced reforms.
Criminal law was now much more efficiently executed against Mormons. In
1891 the Mormon officials pledged their church's obedience to the laws
against plural marriages and unlawful cohabitation.
America was quick and generous in her response to the famine cry that in
1891 rose from 30,000,000 people in Russia. Over a domain of nearly a
half million square miles in that land there was no cow or goat for
milk, nor a horse left strong enough to draw a hearse. Old grain stores
were exhausted, crops a failure, and land a waste. Typhus, scurvy, and
smallpox were awfully prevalent. To relieve this misery, our people,
besides individual gifts, despatched four ship-loads of supplies
gathered from twenty-five States. In values given New York led,
Minnesota was a close second, and Nebraska third. America became a
household word among the Russians even to the remotest interior.
CHAPTER V.
THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
[Illustration: Large parade.]
Columbian Celebration, New York, April 28, 1893.
Parade passing Fifth Avenue Hotel.
[1892-1893]
The thought of celebrating by a world's fair the third centennial of
Columbus's immortal deed anticipated the anniversary by several years.
Congress organized the exposition so early as 1890, fixing Chicago as
its seat. That city was commodious, central, typically American. A
National Commission was appointed; also an Executive Committee, a Board
of Reference and Control, a Chicago Local Board, and a Board of Lady
Managers.
The task of preparation was herculean. Jackson Park had to be changed
from a dreary lakeside swamp into a lovely city, with roads, lawns,
groves and flowers, canals, lagoons and bridges, a dozen palaces, and
ten score other edifices. An army of workmen, also fire, police,
ambulance, hospital, and miscellaneous service was organized.
Wednesday, October 21 (Old Style, October 12), 1892, was observed as
Columbus Day, marking the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's
discovery. A reception was held in the Chicago Auditorium, followed by
dedication of the buildings and grounds at Jackson Park and an award of
medals to artists and architects. Many cities held corresponding
observances. New York chose October 12th for the anniversary. On April
26-28, 1893, again, the eastern metropolis was enlivened by grand
parades honoring Columbus. In the naval display, April 22d, thirty-five
war ships and more than 10,000 men of divers flags, took part.
[Illustration: Three small ships.]
Pinta, Santa Maria, Nina,
Lying in the North River, New York.
The caravels which crossed from Spain
to be present at the World's Fair at Chicago.
Between Columbus Day and the opening of the Exposition came the
presidential election of 1892. Ex-President Cleveland had been nominated
on the first ballot, in spite of the Hill delegation sent from his home
State to oppose. Harrison, too, had overcome Platt, Hill's Republican
counterpart in New York, and in Pennsylvania had preferred John
Wanamaker to Quay. But Harrison was not "magnetic" like Blaine. With
what politicians call the "boy" element of a party, he was especially
weak. Stalwarts complained that he was ready to profit by their
services, but abandoned them under fire. The circumstances connected
with the civil service that so told against Cleveland four years before,
now hurt Harrison equally. Though no doubt sincerely favoring reform, he
had, like his predecessor, succumbed to the machine in more than one
instance.
The campaign was conducted in good humor and without personalities.
Owing to Australian voting and to a more sensitive public opinion, the
election was much purer than that of 1888. The Republicans defended
McKinley protection, boasting of it as sure, among other things, to
transfer the tin industry from Wales to America. Free sugar was also
made prominent. Some cleavage was now manifest between East and West
upon the tariff issue. In the West "reciprocity" was the Republican
slogan; in the East, "protection." Near the Atlantic, Democrats
contented themselves with advocacy of "freer raw materials "; those by
the Mississippi denounced "Republican protection" as fraud and robbery.
If the platform gave color to the charge that Democrats wished "British
free trade," Mr. Cleveland's letter of acceptance was certainly
conservative.
Populism, emphasizing State aid to industry, particularly in behalf of
the agricultural class, made great gains in the election. General Weaver
was its presidential nominee. In Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, and Wyoming
most Democrats voted for him. Partial fusion of the sort prevailed also
in North Dakota, Nevada, Minnesota, and Oregon. Weaver carried all these
States save the two last named. In Louisiana and Alabama Republicans
fused with Populists. The Tillman movement in South Carolina, nominally
Democratic, was akin to Populism, but was complicated with the color
question, and later with novel liquor legislation. It was a revolt of
the ordinary whites from the traditional dominance of the aristocracy.
In Alabama a similar movement, led by Reuben F. Kolb, was defeated, as
he thought, by vicious manipulation of votes in the Black Belt.
Of the total four hundred and forty-four electoral votes Cleveland
received two hundred and seventy-seven, a plurality of one hundred and
thirty-two. The Senate now held forty-four Democrats, thirty-seven
Republicans, and four Populists; the House two hundred and sixteen
Democrats, one hundred and twenty-five Republicans, and eleven
Populists.
[Illustration: Tall, ornate building about 300 feet square.]
The Manufactures and liberal Arts Building, seen from the southwest.
Early on the opening day of the Exposition, May 1, 1893, the Chief
Magistrate of the nation sat beside Columbus's descendant, the Duke of
Veragua. Patient multitudes were waiting for the gates of Jackson Park
to swing. "It only remains for you, Mr. President," said the
Director-General, concluding his address, "if in your opinion the
Exposition here presented is commensurate in dignity with what the world
should expect of our great country, to direct that it shall be opened to
the public. When you touch this magic key the ponderous machinery will
start in its revolutions and the activity of the Exposition will begin."
After a brief response Mr. Cleveland laid his finger on the key. A
tumult of applause mingled with the jubilant melody of Handel's
"Hallelujah Chorus." Myriad wheels revolved, waters gushed and sparkled,
bells pealed and artillery thundered, while flags and gonfalons
fluttered forth.
The Exposition formed a huge quadrilateral upon the westerly shore of
Lake Michigan, from whose waters one passed by the North Inlet into the
North Pond, or by the South Inlet into the South Pond. These united with
the central Grand Basin in the peerless Court of Honor. The grounds and
buildings were of surpassing magnitude and splendor. Interesting but
simple features were the village of States, the Nations' tabernacles,
lying almost under the guns of the facsimile battleship Illinois, and
the pigmy caravels, Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, named and modelled
after those that bore Columbus to the New World. These, like their
originals, had fared from Spain across the Atlantic, and then had come
by the St, Lawrence and the Lakes, without portage, to their moorings at
Chicago.
[Illustration: Several domed buildings reflected in a pool.]
Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background.
Near the centre of the ground stood the Government Building, with a
ready-made look out of keeping with the other architecture. Critics
declared it the only discordant note in the symphony, Looking from the
Illinois Building across the North pond, one saw the Art Palace, of pure
Ionic style, perfectly proportioned, restful to view, contesting with
the Administration Building for the architectural laurels of the Fair.
South of the Illinois Building rose the Woman's Building, and next
Horticultural Hall, with dome high enough to shelter the tallest palms.
The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, of magnificent proportions,
did not tyrannize over its neighbors, though thrice the size of St.
Peter's at Rome, and able easily to have sheltered the Vendome Column.
It was severely classical, with a long perspective of arches, broken
only at the corners and in the centre by portals fit to immortalize
Alexander's triumphs.
The artistic jewel of the Exposition was the "Court of Honor." Down the
Grand Basin you saw the noble statue of the Republic, in dazzling gold,
with the peristyle beyond, a forest of columns surmounted by the
Columbus quadriga. On the right hand stood the Agricultural Building,
upon whose summit the "Diana" of Augustus St. Gaudens had alighted. To
the left stood the enormous Hall of Manufactures. Looking from the
peristyle the eye met the Administration Building, a rare
exemplification of the French school, the dome resembling that of the
Hotel des lnvalides in Paris.
[Illustration: Several people walking on a promenade, surrounded by tall
buildings.]
A view toward the Peristyle from Machinery Hall.
A most unique conception was the Cold Storage Building, where a hundred
tons at ice were made daily. Save for the entrance, flanked by windows,
and the fifth floor, designed for an ice skating rink, its walls were
blank. Four corner towers set off the fifth, which rose from the centre
sheer to a height of 225 feet.
The cheering coolness of this building was destined not to last. Early
in the afternoon of July 10th flames burst out from the top of the
central tower. Delaying his departure until he had provided against
explosion, the brave engineer barely saved his life. Firemen were soon
on hand. Sixteen of them forthwith made their way to the balcony near
the blazing summit. Suddenly their retreat was cut off by a burst of
fire from the base of the tower. The rope and hose parted and
precipitated a number who were sliding back to the roof. Others leaped
from the colossal torch. In an instant, it seemed, the whole pyre was
swathed in flames. As it toppled, the last wretched form was seen to
poise and plunge with it into the glowing abyss.
The Fisheries Building received much attention. Its pillars were twined
with processions of aquatic creatures and surmounted by capitals
quaintly resembling lobster-pots. Its balustrades were supported by
small fishy caryatids.
If wonder fatigued the visitor, he reached sequestered shade and quiet
upon the Wooded Island, where nearly every variety of American tree and
shrub might be seen.
The Government's displays were of extreme interest. The War Department
exhibits showed our superiority in heavy ordnance, likewise that of
Europe in small arms. A first-class post-office was operated on the
grounds. A combination postal car, manned by the most expert sorters and
operators, interested vast crowds. Close by was an ancient mail coach
once actually captured by the Indians, with effigies of the pony express
formerly so familiar on the Western plains, of a mail sledge drawn by
dogs, and of a mail carrier mounted on a bicycle. Models of a quaint
little Mississippi mail steamer and of the ocean steamer Paris stood
side by side.
[Illustration: Two large domed building with several hundred people
walking about.]
The Administration Building,
seen from the Agricultural Building.
Swarms visited the Midway Plaisance, a long avenue out from the fair
grounds proper, lined with shows. Here were villages transported from
the ends of the earth, animal shows, theatres, and bazaars. Cairo Street
boasted 2,250,000 visitors, and the Hagenbeck Circus over 2,000,000. The
chief feature was the Ferris Wheel, described in engineering terms as a
cantilever bridge wrought around two enormous bicycle wheels. The axle,
supported upon steel pyramids, alone weighed more than a locomotive. In
cars strung upon its periphery passengers were swung from the ground far
above the highest buildings.
[Illustration: Several ornate buildings surrounding a busy street.]
Midway Plaisance, World's Fair, Chicago.
Facilitating passenger transportation to and from the Fair remarkable
railway achievements were made. One train from New York to Chicago
covered over 48 miles an hour, including stops. In preparation for the
event the Illinois Central raised its tracks for two and a half miles
over thirteen city streets, built 300 special cars, and erected many new
stations. These improvements cost over $2,000,000. The Fair increased
Illinois Central traffic over 200 per cent.
Save the Art Building, the structures at the Fair were designed to be
temporary, and they were superfluous when the occasion which called them
into being had passed. The question of disposing of them was summarily
solved. One day some boys playing near the Terminal Station saw a
sinister leer of flame inside. A high wind soon blew a conflagration,
which enveloped the structures, leaving next day naught but ashes,
tortured iron work, and here and there an arch, to tell of the regal
White City that had been.
[Illustration: Several people watching a fire.]
Electricity Building. Mines and Mining Building.
The Burning of the White City.
The financial backers of the Fair showed no mercenary temper. The
architects, too, worked with public spirit and zeal which money never
could have elicited. Notwithstanding the World's Fair was not
financially a "success," this was rather to the credit of its unstinted
magnificence than to the want of public appreciation. The paid
admissions were over 21,000,000, a daily average of 120,000. The gross
attendance exceeded by nearly a million the number at the Paris
Exposition of 1889 for the corresponding period, though rather more than
half a million below the total at the French capital. The monthly
average at Chicago increased from 1,000,000 at first to 7,000,000 in
October. The crowd was typical of the best side of American life;
orderly, good-natured, intelligent, sober. The grounds were clean, and
there was no ruffianism. Of the $32,988 worth of property reported
stolen, $31,875 was recovered and restored.
CHAPTER VI.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT
[1890-1893]
The century from 1790 to 1890 saw our people multiplied sixteen times,
from 3,929,214 at its beginning, to 62,622,250 at its end. The low
percentage of increase for the last decade, about 20 per cent.,
disappointed even conservative estimates. The cities not only absorbed
this increase, but, except in the West, made heavy draughts upon the
country population. Of each 1,000 people in 1880, 225 were urban; in
1890, 290. Chicago's million and a tenth was second only to New York's
million and a half. Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and St. Louis appeared
respectively as the third, fourth, and fifth in the list of great
cities. St. Paul, Omaha, and Denver domiciled three or four times as
many as ten years before. Among Western States only Nevada lagged. The
State of Washington had quintupled its numbers. The centre of population
had travelled fifty miles west and nine miles north, being caught by the
census about twenty miles east of Columbus, Indiana.
[Illustration: Frame of twelve story building.]
The New York Life Insurance Building in Chicago.
(Showing the construction of outer walls.)
The railroads of the country spanned an aggregate of 163,000 miles,
twice the mileage of 1880. The national wealth was appraised at
$65,037,091,197, an increase for the decade of $21,395,091,197 in the
gross. Our per capita wealth was now $1,039, a per capita increase of
$169. Production in the mining industry had gone up more than half. The
improved acreage, on the other hand, had increased less than a third,
the number of farms a little over an eighth.
School enrollment had advanced from 12 per cent. in 1840 to 23 per cent.
in 1890. Not far from a third of the people were communicants of the
various religious bodies. About a tenth were Roman Catholics.
Improvement in iron and steel manufacture revolutionized the
construction of bridges, vessels, and buildings. The suspension bridge,
instanced by the stupendous East River bridge between New York and
Brooklyn, was supplanted by the cantilever type, consisting of trusswork
beams poised upon piers and meeting each other mid-stream. Iron and
steel construction also made elevated railways possible. In 1890 the
elevated roads of New York City alone carried over 500,000 passengers
daily. Steel lent to the framework of buildings lightness, strength, and
fire-proof quality, at the same time permitting swift construction.
Walls came to serve merely as covering, not sustaining the floors, the
weight of which lay upon iron posts and girders.
At the time of the Centennial, electricity was used almost exclusively
for telegraphic communication. By 1893 new inventions, as wonderful as
Morse's own, had overlaid even that invention. A single wire now
sufficed to carry several messages at once and in different directions.
Rapidity of transmission was another miracle. During the electrical
exposition in New York City, May, 1896, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew dictated
a message which was sent round the world and back in fifty minutes. It
read:
"God creates, nature treasures, science utilizes electrical power for
the grandeur of nations and the peace of the world." These words
travelled from London to Lisbon, thence to Suez, Aden, Bombay, Madras,
Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Nagasaki, and Tokio, returning by the
same route to New York, a total distance of over 27,500 miles.
[Illustration: Three vertical generators about thirty feet in diameter.]
Interior of the Power House at Niagara Falls.
Self-winding and self-regulating clocks came into vogue, being
automatically adjusted through the Western Union telegraph lines, so
that at noon each day the correct time was instantly communicated to
their hands from the national observatory. Another invaluable use of the
telegraph was its service to the Weather Bureau, established in 1870. By
means of simultaneous reports from a tract of territory 3,000 miles long
by 1,500 wide, this bureau was enabled to make its forecasts
indispensable to every prudent farmer, traveller, or mariner.
The three great latter-day applications of electrical force were the
telephone, the electric light, and the electric motor. In 1876, almost
simultaneously with its discovery by other investigators, Alexander
Graham Bell exhibited an electric transmitter of the human voice. By the
addition of the Edison carbon transmitter the same year the novelty was
assured swift success. In 1893 the Bell Telephone Company owned 307,748
miles of wire, an amount increased by rival companies' property to
444,750. Estimates gave for that year nearly 14,000 "exchanges," 250,000
subscribers, and 2,000,000 daily conversations. New York and Chicago
were placed on speaking terms only three or four days before "Columbus
Day." All the chief cities were soon connected by telephone.
At the Philadelphia Exposition arc electric lamps were the latest
wonder, and not till two years later did Edison render the incandescent
lamp available.
The use of electricity for the development of power as well as of light,
unknown in the Centennial year, was in the Columbian year neither a
scientific nor a practical novelty. On the contrary, it was fast
supplanting horses upon street railways, and making city systems nuclei
for far-stretching suburban and interurban lines. Street railways
mounted steep hills inaccessible before save by the clumsy system of
cables. Even steam locomotives upon great railways gave place in some
instances to motors. Horseless carriages and pedalless bicycles were
clearly in prospect.
It was found that by the use of copper wiring electric power could be
carried great distances. A line twenty-five miles long bore from the
American River Falls, at Folsom, California, to Sacramento, a current
which the city found ample for traction, light, and power. Niagara Falls
was harnessed to colossal generators, whose product was transmitted to
neighboring cities and manufactories. Loss en route was at first
considerable, but cunning devices lessened it each year.
Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla were conspicuously identified with
these astonishing applications of electric energy. Edison, first a
newsboy, then (like Andrew Carnegie) a telegraph operator, without
school or book training in physics, rose step by step to the repute of
working miracles on notification. Tesla, a native of Servia, who
happened, upon migrating to the United States, to find employment with
Edison, was totally unlike his master. He was a highly educated
scientist, herein at a great advantage. He was, in opposition to Edison,
peculiarly the champion of high tension alternating current
distribution. He aimed to dispense so far as possible with the
generation of heat, pressing the ether waves directly into the service
of man.
[Illustration: Edison working in his laboratory.]
Thomas Alva Edison.
Copyright by W. A. Dickson.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Nikola Tesla.
The bicycle developed incredible popularity in the '90's. Through all
the panic of 1893 bicycle makers prospered. It was estimated in 1896
that no less than $100,000,000 had been spent in the United States upon
cycling. A clumsy prototype of the "wheel" was known in 1868, but the
first bicycle proper, a wheel breast-high, with cranks and pedals
connected with a small trailing wheel by a curved backbone and
surmounted by a saddle, was exhibited at the Centennial. Two years later
this kind of wheel began to be manufactured in America, and soon, in
spite of its perils, or perhaps in part because of them, bicycle riding
was a favorite sport among experts. In 1889 a new type was introduced,
known as the "safety." Its two wheels were of the same size, with saddle
between them, upon a suitable frame, the pedals propelling the rear
wheel through a chain and sprocket gearing. An old invention, that of
inflated or pneumatic tires of rubber, coupled with more hygienic
saddles, gave great impetus to cycling sport. The fad dwindled, but the
bicycle remained in general use as a convenience and even as a
necessity.
[Illustration: Several people riding bicycles.]
Bicycle Parade, New York.
Fancy Costume Division.
[Illustration: Hundreds of jars with hoses attached.]
Hatchery Room of the Fish Commission Building at Washington, D. C.,
showing the hatchery jars in operation.
The Fish Commission, created by the Government in 1870, proved an
important agency in promoting the great industries of fishing and fish
culture. At the World's Fair it appeared that the fishing business had
made progress greater than many others which were much more obtrusively
displayed, though the fishtrap, the fyke net, and the fishing steamer
had all been introduced within a generation.
In no realm did invention and the application of science mean more for
the country's weal than in agriculture. Each State had its agricultural
college and experiment station, mainly supported by United States funds
provided under the Morrill Acts. Soils, crops, animal breeds, methods of
tillage, dairying, and breeding were scientifically examined. Forestry
became a great interest. Intensive agriculture spread. By early
ploughing and incessant use of cultivators keeping the surface soil a
mulch, arid tracts were rendered to a great extent independent of both
rainfall and irrigation. Improved machinery made possible the farming of
vast areas with few hands. The gig horse hoe rendered weeding work
almost a pleasure. A good reaper with binder attachment, changing horses
once, harvested twenty acres a day. The best threshers bagged from 1,000
to 2,500 bushels daily. One farmer sowed and reaped 200 acres of wheat
one season without hiring a day's work.
Woman's position at the Fair was prominent and gratifying. How her touch
lent refinement and taste was observed both in the Woman's Building, the
first of its kind, and in other departments of the Exposition. Power of
organization was noticeably exemplified in the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union. This body originated in the temperance crusade of 1873
and the following year, when a State Temperance Association was formed
in Ohio, leading shortly to the rise of a national union.
Related to this movement in elevated moral aims, as well as in the
prominent part it assigned to women, was the Salvation Army. In 1861
William Booth, an English Methodist preacher, resigned his charge and
devoted himself to the redemption of London's grossest proletariat.
Deeming themselves not wanted in the churches, his converts set up a
separate and more militant organization. In 1879 the Army invaded
America, landing at Philadelphia, where, as in the Old Country and in
other American cities, pitiable sin and wretchedness grovelled in
obscurity. In 1894 there were in the United States 539 corps and 1,953
officers, and in the whole world 3,200 corps and 10,788 officers.
Without proposing any programme of social or political reform, and
without announcing any manifesto of human rights, the Salvationists
uplifted hordes of the fallen, while drawing to the lowliest the notice,
sympathy, and help of the middle classes and the rich. Army discipline
was rigidly maintained. The soldiers were sworn to wear the uniform, to
obey their officers, to abstain from drink, tobacco, and worldly
amusements, to live in simplicity and economy, to earn their living, and
of their earnings always to give something to advance the Kingdom. The
officers could not marry or become engaged without the consent of the
Army authorities, for their spouses must be capable of cooperating with
them. They could receive no presents, not even food, except in cases of
necessity. An officer must have experienced "full salvation"--that is,
must endeavor to be living free from every known sin. Except as to pay,
the Army placed women on an absolute equality with men, a policy which
greatly furthered its usefulness.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
William Booth.
From a photograph by Rockwood, New York.
The peculiar uniform worn by the Salvation soldiers, always sufficing to
identify them, called attention to a fact never obvious till about
1890--the relative uniformity in the costumes of all fairly dressed
Americans whether men or women. The wide circulation of fashion plates
and pictorial papers accounted for this. About this time cuts came to be
a feature even of newspapers, a custom on which the more conservative
sheets at first frowned, though soon adopting it themselves.
CHAPTER VII.
MR. CLEVELAND AGAIN PRESIDENT
[1893-1895]
In the special session beginning August 7, 1893, a Democratic Congress
met under a Democratic President for the first time since 1859. The
results were disappointing. Divided, leaderless, in large part at bitter
variance with the Administration, the Democrats trooped to their
overthrow two years later.
During his second Administration Mr. Cleveland considerably extended the
merit system in the civil service. Candidates for consulships were
subjected to (non-competitive) examination. Public opinion commended
these moves, as it did the President's prompt signing of the
Anti-Lottery Bill, introduced in Congress when it was learned that the
expatriated Louisiana Lottery from its seat under Honduras jurisdiction
was operating in the United States through the express companies. The
bill prohibiting this abuse was passed at three in the morning on the
last day of the Congressional session, and received the President's
signature barely five minutes before the Congress expired.
[Illustration: Cleveland seated at a cluttered desk.]
Grover Cleveland.
From a photograph by Alexander Black.
At the opening of the Special Session, in August, 1893, the President
demanded the repeal of that clause in the Sherman law of 1890 requiring
the Government to make heavy monthly purchases of silver. The suspension
in India of the free coinage of silver the preceding June had
precipitated a disastrous monetary panic in the United States. Gold was
hoarded and exported, vast sums being drained from the Treasury. Credits
were refused, values shrivelled, business was palsied, labor idle. It
was this situation which led the President to convoke Congress in
special session.
Though achieving the repeal on November 1st, after Congressional
wrangles especially long and bitter in the Senate, President Cleveland,
pursuing the policy of paying gold for all greenbacks presented at the
Treasury, was unable, even by the sale of $50,000,000 in bonds, to keep
the Treasury gold reserve up to the $100,000,000 figure. Both old
greenbacks and Sherman law greenbacks, being redeemed in gold, reissued
and again redeemed, were used by exchangers like an endless chain pump
to pump the Treasury dry. In February, 1895, the reserve stood at the
low figure of $41,340,181. None knew when the country might be forced to
a silver basis. In consequence, business revived but slightly, if at
all, after the repeal.
In its first regular session the same Congress enacted the Wilson
Tariff. As it passed the House the bill provided for free sugar, wool,
coal, lumber, and iron ore, besides reducing duties on many other
articles.
It also taxed incomes exceeding $4,000 per annum. The Senate, except in
the case of wool and lumber, abandoned the proposal of free raw
materials, stiffened the rates named by the House, and preferred
specific to ad valorem duties. Many believed, without proof, that
improper influences had helped the Senate to shape its sugar schedule
favorably to the great refiners. The President pronounced sugar a
legitimate subject for taxation in spite of the "fear, quite likely
exaggerated," that carrying out this principle might "indirectly and
inordinately encourage a combination of sugar refining interests." In a
letter read in the House, however, he upbraided as guilty of "party
perfidy and dishonor" Democratic Senators who would abandon the
principle of free raw materials. But nothing shook the senatorial will.
What was in substance the Senate bill passed Congress, and the President
permitted it to become a law without his signature.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
William L. Wilson.
The Wilson law pleased no one. It violated the Democrats' plighted word
apparently at the dictation of parties selfishly interested. The Supreme
Court declared its income tax unconstitutional. The revenue from it was
inadequate, and had to be eked out with new bond issues. These were
alleged to be necessary to meet the greenback debt, but this need not
have embarrassed the Government had it followed the French policy of
occasionally paying in silver a small percentage of the demand notes
presented. Borrowing gold abroad, moreover, tended to inflate prices
here, stimulating imports, discouraging exports, increasing the
exportation of gold to settle the unfavorable balance of trade, and so
on in ceaseless round.
The Democratic management of foreign affairs was severely criticised.
Our extradition treaty with Russia, a country supposed to pay little or
no regard to personal rights, and our delay in demanding reparation from
Spain for firing upon the Allianca, a United States passenger steamer,
were quite generally condemned. There were those who thought that Cuban
insurgents against the sovereignty of Spain might have received some
manifestation of sympathy from our Government, and that we should not
have permitted Great Britain to endanger the Monroe Doctrine by
occupying Corinto in Nicaragua to enforce the payment of an indemnity.
The President offended many in dealing as he did with the Hawaiian
Islands' problem. Most did not consider it the duty of this country to
champion the cause of the native dynasty there, a course likely to
subserve no enlightened interest. Whites, chiefly Americans, had come to
own most of the land in the islands, while imported Asiatics and
Portuguese competed sharply with the natives as laborers. Political
power, even, was largely exercised by the whites, through whose
influence the monarchy had been reduced to a constitutional form.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Princess (afterwards Queen) Liliuokalani.
In January, 1893, Queen Liliuokalani sought by a coup d'etat to reinvest
her royal authority with its old absoluteness and to disfranchise
non-naturalized whites. The American man-of-war Boston, lying in
Honolulu harbor, at the request of American residents, landed marines
for their protection. The American colony now initiated a counter
revolution, declaring the monarchy abrogated and a provisional
government established. Minister Stevens at once recognized the
Provisional Government as de facto sovereign. Under protest the Queen
yielded.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
James H. Blount.
The new government formally placed itself under the protectorate of the
United States, and the Stars and Stripes were hoisted over the
Government Building. President Harrison disavowed the protectorate,
though he did not withdraw the troops from Honolulu, regarding them as
necessary to assure the lives and property of American citizens. Nor did
he lower the flag. A treaty for the annexation of the islands was soon
negotiated and submitted to the Senate.
The Cleveland Administration reversed this whole policy with a jolt. The
treaty withdrawn, Mr. Cleveland despatched to Honolulu Hon. James H.
Blount as a special commissioner, with "paramount authority," which he
exercised by formally ending the protectorate, hauling down the flag,
and embarking the garrison of marines. Mr. Blount soon superseded Mr.
Stevens as minister. Meantime the Provisional Government had organized a
force of twelve hundred soldiers, got control of the arms and ammunition
in the islands, enacted drastic sedition laws, and suppressed disloyal
newspapers.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Albert S. Willis.
So complete was its sway, and so relentless did the dethroned Queen
threaten to be toward her enemies in case she recovered power, that
Minister Albert S. Willis, on succeeding Mr. Blount, lost heart in the
contemplated enterprise of restoring the monarchy. He found the
Provisional Government and its supporters men of "high character and
large commercial interests," while those of the Queen were quite out of
sympathy with American interests or with good government for the
islands. A large and influential section of Hawaiian public opinion was
unanimous for annexation, even Prince Kunniakea, the last of the royal
line, avowing himself an annexationist with heart, soul, and, if
necessary, with rifle.
A farcical attempt at insurrection was followed by the arrest of the
conspirators and of the ex-Queen, who thereupon, for herself and heirs,
forever renounced the throne, gave allegiance to the Republic,
counselled her former subjects to do likewise, and besought clemency.
Her chief confederates were sentenced to death, but this was commuted to
a heavy fine and long imprisonment. After the retirement of the
Democracy from power in 1896 the annexation of the islands was promptly
consummated.
Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State in the early part of Cleveland's
second term, died in May, 1895, being succeeded by Richard Olney,
transferred from the portfolio of Attorney General. In a day,
Cleveland's foreign policy, hitherto so inert, became vigorous to the
verge of rashness. Deeming the Monroe Doctrine endangered by Great
Britain's apparently arbitrary encroachments on Venezuela in fixing the
boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, he insisted that the
boundary dispute should be settled by arbitration.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Richard Olney.
The message in which the President took this ground shook the country
like a declaration of war against Great Britain. American securities
fell, the gold reserve dwindled. The President was, however, supported.
Congress was found ready to aid the Administration by passing any
measures necessary to preserve the national credit. In December, 1895,
it unanimously authorized the appointment of a commission to decide upon
the true boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana, with the
purpose of giving its report the full sanction and support of the United
States. The dispute was finally submitted to a distinguished tribunal at
Paris, ex-President Harrison, among others, appearing on behalf of the
Venezuelan Republic. While Great Britain's claim was, in a measure,
vindicated, this proceeding established a new and potent precedent in
support both of the Monroe Doctrine and of international arbitration.
In 1894 a ten months' session of the famous Lexow legislative committee
in New York City uncovered voluminous evidence of corrupt municipal
government there. The police force habitually levied tribute for
protection not only upon legitimate trade and industry, but upon illicit
liquor-selling, gambling, prostitution, and crime. The chief credit for
the exposures was due to Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, President of the New
York City Society for the Prevention of Crime. A fusion of anti-Tammany
elements carried the autumn elections of 1894 for a reform ticket
nominated by a committee of seventy citizens and headed by William L.
Strong as candidate for mayor. At the next election, however, the
Tammany candidate, Van Wyck, became the first mayor of the new
municipality known as Greater New York, in which had been merged as
boroughs the metropolis itself, Brooklyn, and other near cities. As was
revealed by the Mazet Committee, little change had occurred in Tammany's
predatory spirit. In 1901, therefore, through an alliance similar to
that which elected Mayor Strong, Greater New York chose as its mayor to
succeed Van Wyck, Seth Low, who resigned the Presidency of Columbia
University to become Fusion candidate for the position.
[Illustration: About fifty men standing in a Court room.]
The Lexow Investigation. The scene in the Court Room after
Creeden's confession, December 15, 1894.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Charles H. Parkhurst.
Copyright by C. C. Langill.
A recrudescence of the old Know-Nothing spirit in a party known as the
"A. P. A.," or "American Protective Association," marked these years. So
early as 1875 politicians had noticed the existence of a secret
anti-Catholic organization, the United American Mechanics, but it had a
brief career. The A. P. A., organized soon after 1885, drew inspiration
partly from the hostility of extreme Protestants to the Roman Catholic
Church, and partly from the aversion felt by many toward the Irish. In
1894 the A. P. A., though its actual membership was never large,
pretended to control 2,000,000 votes. Its subterranean methods estranged
fair-minded people. Still more turned against it when its secret oath
was exposed. The A. P. A. member promised (1) never to favor or aid the
nomination, election, or appointment of a Roman Catholic to any
political office, and (2) never to employ a Roman Catholic in any
capacity if the services of a Protestant could be obtained. A. P. A.
public utterances garbled history and disseminated clumsy falsehoods
touching Catholics, which reacted against the order. The Association
declined as swiftly as it rose. Chiefly affiliating with the
Republicans, it received no substantial countenance from any political
party.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
William L. Strong.
CHAPTER VIII.
LABOR AND THE RAILWAYS
[1887-1902]
In March, 1894, bands of the unemployed in various parts of the West,
styling themselves "Commonweal," or "Industrial Armies," started for
Washington to demand government relief for "labor." "General" Coxey, of
Ohio, led the van. "General" Kelly followed from Trans-Mississippi with
a force at one time numbering 1,250. Smaller itinerant groups joined the
above as they marched. For supplies the tattered pilgrims taxed the
sympathies or the fears of people along their routes. Most of them were
well-meaning, but their destitution prompted some small thefts. Even
violence occasionally occurred, as in California, where a town marshal
killed a Commonweal "general," and in the State of Washington, where two
deputy marshals were wounded. The Commonwealers captured a few freight
trains and forced them into service.
[Illustration: Hundreds of men marching.]
Coxey's army on the march to the Capitol steps at Washington.
Only Coxey's band reached Washington. On May Day, attempting to present
their "petition-in-boots" on the steps of the Capitol, the leaders were
jailed under local laws against treading on the grass and against
displaying banners on the Capitol Grounds. On June 10th Coxey was
released, having meantime been nominated for Congress, and in little
over a month the remnant of his forces was shipped back toward the
setting sun.
The same year, 1894, marked a far more widespread and formidable
disorder, the A. R. U. Railway Strike. The American Railway Union
claimed a membership of 100,000, and aspired to include all the 850,000
railroad workmen in North America. It had just emerged with prestige
from a successful grapple with the Great Northern Railway, settled by
arbitration.
The union's catholic ambitions led it to admit many employees of the
Pullman Palace Car Company, between whom and their employers acute
differences were arising. The company's landlordism of the town of
Pullman and petty shop abuses stirred up irritation, and when Pullman
workers were laid off or put upon short time and cut wages, the feeling
deepened. They pointed out that rents for the houses they lived in were
not reduced, that the company's dividends the preceding year had been
fat, and that the accumulation of its undivided surplus was enormous.
The company, on the other hand, was sensible of a slack demand for cars
after the brisk business done in connection with World's Fair travel.
[Illustration: Town in background, lake in foreground.]
The town of Pullman.
The Pullman management refused the men's demand for the restoration of
the wages schedule of June, 1893, but promised to investigate the abuses
complained of, and engaged that no one serving on the laborer's
committee of complaint should be prejudiced thereby. Immediately after
this, however, three of the committee were laid off, and five-sixths of
the other employees, apparently against the advice of A. R. U. leaders,
determined upon a strike.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
George M. Pullman.
Unmoved by solicitations from employees, from the Chicago Civic
Federation, from Mayor Pingree of Detroit, indorsed by the mayors of
over fifty other cities, the Pullman Company steadfastly refused to
arbitrate or to entertain any communication from the union. "We have
nothing to arbitrate" was the company's response to each appeal. A
national convention of the A. R. U. unanimously voted that unless the
Pullman Company sooner consented to arbitration the union should, on
June 26th, everywhere cease handling Pullman cars.
[Illustration: About one hundred tents in background, several hundred
people in the foreground.]
Camp of the U. S. troops on the lake front, Chicago.
[Illustration: Hundreds of railroad cars, some burning.]
Burned cars in the C., B. & Q. yards at Hawthorne, Chicago.
[Illustration: Railroad crossing, houses in the background.]
Overturned box cars at crossing of railroad tracks at 39th street, Chicago.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Hazen S. Pingree.
At this turn of affairs the A. R. U. found itself confronted with a new
antagonist, the Association of General Managers of the twenty-four
railroads centering in Chicago, controlling an aggregate mileage of over
40,000, a capitalization of considerably over $2,000,000,000, and a
total workingmen force of 220,000 or more. The last-named workers had
their own grievances arising from wage cuts and black-listing by the
Managers' Association. Such of them as were union men were the objects
of peculiar hostility, which they reciprocated. Thus the Pullman
boycott, sympathetic in its incipience, swiftly became a gigantic trial
of issues between the associated railroad corporations and the union.
For a week law and order were preserved. On July 2d the Federal Court in
Chicago issued an injunction forbidding A. R. U. men, among other
things, to "induce" employees to strike. Next day federal troops
appeared upon the scene. Thereupon, in contempt of the injunction,
railroad laborers continued by fair means and foul to be persuaded from
their work.
Disregarding the union leaders' appeal and defying regular soldiers,
State troops, deputy marshals, and police, rabble mobs fell to
destroying cars and tracks, burning and looting. The mobs were in large
part composed of Chicago's semi-criminal proletariat, a mass quite
distinct from the body of strikers.
The A. R. U. strike approached its climax about the 10th of July.
Chicago and the Northwest were paralyzed. President Cleveland deemed it
necessary to issue a riot proclamation. A week later Debs and his
fellow-leaders were jailed for contempt of court, and soon after their
following collapsed.
Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, protested against the presence of federal
troops, denying federal authority to send force except upon his
gubernatorial request, inasmuch as maintaining order was a purely State
province, and declaring his official ignorance of disorder warranting
federal intervention.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Gov. John P. Altgeld.
Mr. Cleveland answered, appealing to the Constitution, federal laws, and
the grave nature of the situation. United States power, he said, may and
must whenever necessary, with or without request from State authorities,
remove obstruction of the mails, execute process of the federal courts,
and put down conspiracies against commerce between the States.
During the Pullman troubles, the judicial department of the United
States Government, no less prompt or bold than the Executive, extended
the equity power of injunction a step farther than precedents went.
After 1887 United States tribunals construed the Interstate Commerce Law
as authorizing injunctions against abandonment of trains by engineers.
Early in 1894 a United States Circuit judge inhibited Northern Pacific
workmen from striking in a body. For contempt of his injunctions during
the Pullman strike Judge Woods sentenced Debs to six months'
imprisonment and other arch-strikers to three months each under the
so-called Anti-Trust Law.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Eugene V. Debs.
As infringing the right of trial by jury this course of adjudication
aroused protest even in conservative quarters. Later, opposition to
"government by injunction" became a tenet of the more radical Democracy.
A bill providing for jury trials in instances of contempt not committed
in the presence of the court commanded support from members of both
parties in the Fifty-eighth Congress. Federal decisions upheld
workingmen's right, in the absence of an express contract, to strike at
will, although emphatically affirming the legitimacy of enjoining
violent interference with railroads, and of enforcing the injunction by
punishing for contempt.
Federal injunctions subsequently went farther still, as in the miners'
strike of 1902 during which Judge Jackson of the United States District
Court for Northern West Virginia, enjoined miners' meetings, ordering
the miners, in effect, to cease agitating or promoting the strike by any
means whatever, no matter how peaceful. Speech intended to produce
strikes the judge characterized as the abuse of free speech, properly
restrainable by courts. Refusing to heed the injunction, several strike
leaders were sentenced to jail for contempt, periods varying from sixty
to ninety days.
Late in July, 1894, the President appointed a commission to investigate
the Pullman strike. The report of this body, alluding to the Managers'
Association as a usurpation of powers not obtainable directly by the
corporations concerned, recommended governmental control over
quasi-public corporations, and even hinted at ultimate government
ownership. They counselled some measure of compulsory arbitration, urged
that labor unions should become incorporated, so as to be responsible
bodies, and suggested the licensing of railway employees. The
Massachusetts State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration was favorably
mentioned in this report, and became the model for several like boards
in various States.
The labor question and other problems excluded from public thought a
change in our dealings with our Indian wards that should not be
overlooked. Up to 1887 the Indian village communities could, under the
law, hold land only in common. Individual Indians could not, without
abandoning their tribes, become citizens of the United States. Such a
legal status could not but discourage Indians' emergence from barbarism.
A better method was hinted at in an old Act of the Massachusetts General
Court, passed so early as October, 1652.
"It is therefore ordered and enacted by this Court and the authority
thereof, that what landes any of the Indians, within this jurisdiction,
have by possession or improvement, by subdueing of the same, they have
just right thereunto accordinge to that Gen: 1: 28, Chap. 9:1, Psa: 115,
16." This old legislation further provided that any Indians who became
civilized might acquire land by allotment in the white settlements on
the same terms as the English.
In 1887, the so-called "General Allotment" or "Dawes" Act, empowered
the President to allot in severalty a quarter section to each head of an
Indian family and to each other adult Indian one eighth of a section, as
well as to provide for orphaned children and minors, the land to be held
in trust by the United States for twenty-five years. The act further
constituted any allottee or civilized Indian a citizen of the United
States, subject to the civil and criminal laws of the place of his
residence.
The Dawes Act was later so amended as to allot one-eighth of a section
or more, if the reservation were large enough, to each member of a
tribe. The amended law also regulated the descent of Indian lands, and
provided for leases thereof with the approval of the Indian Department.
This last provision was in instances twisted by white men to their
advantage and to the Indians' loss; but on the whole the new system gave
eminent satisfaction and promise.
CHAPTER IX.
NEWEST DIXIE
[1895]
The reader of this history is already aware how forces and events after
the Civil War gradually evolved a New South, unlike the contemporary
North, and differing still more, if possible, from ante-bellum Dixie. By
1900 this interesting situation had become quite pronounced. The picture
here given is but an enlargement of that presented earlier--few features
new, but many of them more salient, and the whole effect more
impressive.
Harmony and good feeling between the capital sections of our country
continued to manifest itself in striking ways, as by the dedication of a
Confederate monument at Chicago, the gathering of the Grand Army of the
Republic at Louisville, Ky., and the cordial fraternizing of Gray and
Blue at the consecration of the Chickamauga-Chat-tanooga Military Park,
on the spot where had occurred, perhaps, the fiercest fighting which
ever shook United States ground.
[Illustration: Several stone monuments.]
The Chickamauga National Military Park.
Group of monuments on knoll southwest of Snodgrass Hill.
The Atlanta Exposition, opening on September 18, 1895, epitomized the
Newest South. The touch of an electric button by President Cleveland's
little daughter, Marian, at his home on Buzzard's Bay, Mass., opened the
gates and set the machinery awhirl. Atlanta was a city of but 100,000,
hardly more than 60,000 of them whites, yet her Fair not only excelled
the Atlanta Exposition of 1881, that at Louisville in 1883, and the New
Orleans World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884-5,
all which were highly successful, but in many features outdid even the
Centennial at Philadelphia. The Tennessee Centennial and International
Exposition at Nashville, in 1897, was another revelation. Its total
expenditures, fully covered by receipts, were $1,087,227.85; its total
admissions 1,886,714. On J. W. Thomas Day the attendance was within a
few of 100,000. The exhibits were ample, and many of them strikingly
unique. Few, even at the South, believed that the Southern States could
set forth such displays. The fact that this was possible so soon after a
devastating war, which had left the section in abject poverty, was a
speaking compliment to the land and to the energy of those developing
it.
The progress of most Southern communities was extraordinary.
Agriculture, still too backward in methods and variety, gradually
improved, gaining marked impetus and direction from the agricultural
colleges planted in the several States by the aid of United States funds
conveyed under the "Morrill" acts. The abominable system of store credit
kept the majority of farmers, black and white, in servitude, but was
giving way, partly to regular bank credit--a great improvement--and
partly to cash transactions.
[Illustration: Men tending trees.]
A grove of oranges and palmettoes near Ormond, Florida.
Florida came to the front as a lavish producer of tropical fruits.
Winter was rarely known there. If it paid a visit now and then the
State's sugar industry made up for the losses which frost inflicted upon
her orange crop. The rich South Carolina rice plantations bade fair to
be left behind by the new rice belt in Louisiana and Texas, a strip
averaging thirty miles in width and extending from the Mississippi to
beyond the Brazos, 400 miles. Improved methods of rice farming had
transformed this region, earlier almost a waste, into one of the most
productive areas in the country, attracting to it settlers from various
parts of the North and West, and even from Scandinavia. Dairying, fruit
and cattle-raising and market-gardening for northern markets, other new
lines of enterprise, created wealth for multitudes. King Cotton was not
dethroned to make way for these rivals, but increased his domain each
decade.
In 1880 the value of farm products at the South exceeded by more than
$200,000,000 that of the manufactured products there. In 1900 the case
was nearly reversed: manufactures outvaluing farm products by over
$190,000,000. During this decade the persons engaged in agriculture at
the South increased in number 36 per cent., but the wage-earners in
manufacturing multiplied more than four times as much, viz., 157 per
cent. Each of these rates at the South was larger than the corresponding
rate for the country. The same decade the capital which the South had
invested in manufacturing increased 348 per cent., that of the whole
United States only 252 per cent. The increase in manufactured products
value was for the South 220 per cent., for the whole country only 142
per cent. The increase in farm property value was for the South 92 per
cent., for the country only 67 per cent. The increase in farm products
value was for the South 92 per cent.; for the whole United States it was
greater, viz., 133 per cent.
Land at the South was boundlessly rich in unexploited resources. More
than half the country's standing timber grew there, much of it hard wood
and yellow pine. Quantities of phosphate rock, limestone, and gypsum
were to be dug, also salt, aluminum, mica, topaz, and gold. Especially
in Texas, petroleum sought release from vast underground reservoirs. The
farmer did not lack for rain, the manufacturer for water-power, or the
merchant for water transportation to keep down railroad rates.
The white Southerner, of purest Saxon-Norman blood, had the vigorous and
comely physique of that race. Nowhere else in the land were the
generality of white men and women so fine-looking. Easy circumstances
had enabled them to become gracious as well, with the dignified and
pleasing manners characterizing Southern society before the Civil War.
High intelligence was another racial trait. The administration of the
various Industrial Expositions named in this chapter required and
evinced business ability of the highest order. During the quarter
century succeeding reconstruction popular education developed even more
astonishingly at the South than in the North or the West. Nothing could
surpass the avidity with which young Southern men and women sought and
utilized intellectual opportunities.
With few exceptions Southerners had become intensely loyal to the
national ideal, faithfully abiding the arbitrament of the war, which
alone, to their mind--but at any rate, finally and forever--overthrew
the old doctrine that the Union was a compact among States, with liberty
to each to secede at will.
Straightforwardness and intensity of purpose marked the Southern temper.
If a county or a city voted "dry," practically all the whites aided to
see the mandate enforced. The liquor traffic was thus regulated more
stringently and prohibited more widely and effectively at the South than
in any other part of the country. Even the lynchings occurring from time
to time in some quarters, while atrocious and frowned upon by the best
people, seemed due in most cases less to disregard for the spirit of the
law than to distrust of legal methods and machinery. Indications
multiplied, moreover, that this damning blot on Southern civilization
would ere long disappear.
The most aggravating and insoluble perplexity which tormented the
Southern people lay in dealing with the colored race. Sections of the
so-called black belts still weltered in unthrift and decay, as in the
darkest reconstruction days. These belts were three in number. The
first, about a hundred miles wide, reached from Virginia and the
Carolinas through the Gulf States to the watershed of the State of
Mississippi. The second bordered the Mississippi from Tennessee to just
above New Orleans, and extended up the Red River into Arkansas and
Texas. A third region of negro preponderance covered fifteen counties of
southern Texas.
In these tracts and elsewhere white political supremacy was maintained,
as it had been regained, by the forms of law when possible; if not, then
in some other way. The wisest negro leaders dismissed, as for the
present a dream, all thought of political as of social equality between
whites and blacks. Swarms of the colored, resigned to political
impotence, were prolific of defective, pauper, and criminal population.
Education, book-education at least, did not seem to improve them; many
believed that it positively injured them, producing cunning and vanity
rather than seriousness. This was perhaps the rule, though there were
many noble exceptions. In 1892, while the proportion of vicious negroes
seemed to be increasing in cities and large towns, it was almost to a
certainty decreasing in rural districts--improvement due in good part
to enforced temperance.
A conference on the negro and the South opened at Montgomery May 8,
1900. Many able and fair-minded men participated, representing various
attitudes, parties, and sections of the country. Limitation of the
colored franchise, the proper sort of education for negroes, the evils
of "social equality" agitation, and the causes and frequency of lynching
were the main subjects discussed. The consensus of opinion seemed to be
that for "the negro, on account of his inherent mental and emotional
instability," acquirement of the franchise should be less easy than for
whites. It was maintained that the industrially trained colored men
became leaders among their people, commanding the respect of both races
and acquiring much property, yet that ex-slaves, rather than the
younger, educated set, formed the bulk of colored property-holders.
Figures revealed among the colored population a frightful increase of
illegitimacy and of flagrant crimes. It seemed that crimes against
women, almost unknown before the war but now increasing at an alarming
rate, proceeded not from ex-slaves, but from the smart new generation.
Lynching for these offences was by some excused in that negroes would
not assist in bringing colored perpetrators to justice, and in that a
spectacular mode of punishment affected negroes more deeply than the
slow process of law, even when this issued in conviction. The severer
utterances at this conference may have been more or less biased; still,
if, allowing for this, one considered the data available for forming a
judgment, one was forced to feel that calm Southerners had apprehended
the case better than Northern enthusiasts. Colored people as a class
lacked devotion to principle, also initiative and endurance, whether
mental or physical. Colored deputies, of whom there were many in various
parts of the South, so long as they acted under white chiefs, were, like
most colored soldiers, marvels of bravery, defying revolvers, bowie
knives, and wounds, and fighting to the last gasp with no sign of
flinching; but the black men who could be trusted as sheriffs-in-chief
were extremely rare.
Whether the faults named were strictly hereditary or resulted rather
from the long-continued ill education and environment of the race, none
could certainly tell. As a matter of fact, however, few even among
friendly critics longer regarded these faults as entirely eliminable. A
well qualified and wholly unbiased judge of negro character gave it as
emphatically his opinion that any autonomous community of colored
people, no matter how highly educated or civilized, would relapse into
barbarism in the course of two generations. This view was not rendered
absurd by the existence of fairly well administered municipalities here
and there with negro mayors. Many negroes were extremely bright and apt
in imitation, also in all memoriter and linguistic work. The New
Orleans Cotton Centennial and the Nashville Exposition each had its
negro department. But it was distinctive of the Atlanta Fair that one of
its buildings was entirely devoted to exhibits of negro handicraft. At
once in range and in the quality of the objects which it embraced, the
display was creditable to the race. Here and there, moreover, the race
had produced a grand character. The most notable of the opening
addresses at the Atlanta Fair was made by the colored educator, Booker
T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
for negro youth.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Booker T. Washington.
His oration on this occasion directed attention to Mr. Washington not
only as a remarkable negro, but as a remarkable man. Born poor as could
be and fighting his way to an education against every conceivable
obstacle, he had at the age of forty distinguished himself as a business
organizer, as an educator, as a writer, and as, a public speaker. His
modesty, discretion, and industry were phenomenal, at once constituting
him a leader of his race and rendering his leadership valuable. He
eschewed politics, avoided in everything the demagogue's ways, and never
spoke ill of the whites, not even of Southern whites.
But, unfortunately, a great negro such as Washington stood like a
mountain in a marsh, sporadic and solitary.
[Illustration: People walking in front of a large columned building.]
The Atlanta Exposition.
Entrance to the Art Building.
Save in West Virginia, Florida, and the black belts the whites at the
South increased more swiftly than the blacks. Certain of what Malthus
called the "positive checks" upon population--viz., diseases, mainly
syphilis, typhoid, and consumption--decimated the negroes everywhere.
Colored population drifted from the country to cities, which probably
accounted for the fact that in 1890 more negroes lived in the North than
ever before. In the South itself, on the other hand, the movement of
colored population was southward and westward, from the highlands to the
lowlands, so that Kentucky, along with western Virginia, northeastern
Mississippi, and rural parts of Maryland, North Alabama, and eastern
Virginia, had, in 1890, fewer colored inhabitants than ten years
previous.
These confusing data explain why few were rash enough to prophesy the
fate of the American negro. Such predictions as were heard, were, in the
main, little hopeful. Colonization abroad was no resource. In 1895 the
International Immigration Society shipped 300 negroes to Liberia, and in
1897 the Central Labor Union of New York 311 more, but no movement of
the kind could be set going. In fact, the one certainty touching the
American negroes' future was that they would remain in the United
States.
From 1870 to 1880 the percentage of negroes to the total population had
increased, but a century had reduced this ratio from 19.3 per cent. to
12 per cent. The climatic area where black men had any advantage over
white in the struggle for life was less than eight per cent. of the
country. White laborers competed more and more sharply. The paternal
affection of the old slave-holding generation toward negroes was not
inherited by the makers of the New South.
There was one hopeful force at work--Booker Washington at Tuskegee, in
the very heart of the Alabama black belt. His personality, his example,
his ideas were inspiring. He bade his race to expect improvement in its
condition not from any political party nor from Northern benevolence,
but from its own advance in industry and character. His great and
successful college at Tuskegee, with an enrolment of 1,231 students in
1889, gave much impetus to industrial education among the blacks,
turning in that direction educational interest and energy which had
previously found vent to too great an extent, relatively, in providing
negro students with mere literary training. The Slater-Armstrong
Memorial Trades' Building, dedicated January 10, 1890, was erected and
finished by the students practically alone. At least three-fourths of
those receiving instruction at this school pursued, after leaving, the
industries learned there.
The color line had ceased to be sectional. In 1900 mobs in New York City
and Akron, Ohio, baited black citizens with barbarity little less than
that of the worst Southern lynchings. Texas courts the same year
affirmed negroes' right to serve as jurymen. After 1900 one noticed in
several Southern States a tendency to oust negroes from official
connection even with the Republican party, each State organization
affecting to be "Lily-White." The Administration seemed to favor this
movement by appointing liberal Democrats at the South to federal
offices, allying such, in a way, with the Republican cause. This helped
make President Roosevelt popular at the South, spite of the criticism
with which the press there greeted his entertainment of Booker T.
Washington at the White House. When he visited the Exposition at
Charleston, December, 1901-May, 1902, he was enthusiastically received.
CHAPTER X.
THE MEN AND THE ISSUE IN 1896
[1890-1896]
Early in 1896 it became clear that the dominant issue of the
presidential campaign would be the resumption by the United States of
silver-dollar free coinage. Agitation for this, hushed only for a moment
by the passage of the Bland Act, had been going on ever since
demonetization in 1873. The fall in prices, which the new output of gold
had not yet begun to arrest; the money stringency since 1893; the
insecure, bond-supplied gold reserve, and the repeal of the
silver-purchase clause in the Sherman Act combined to produce a wish for
increase in the nation's hard-money supply. Had the climax of fervor
synchronized with an election day, a free-coinage President might have
been elected.
Only the Populists were a unit in favoring free coinage. Recent
Republican and Democratic platforms had been phrased with Delphic genius
to suit the East and West at once. The best known statesmen of both
parties had "wobbled" upon the question. The Republican party contained
a large element favorable to silver, while the Democratic President, at
least, had boldly and steadfastly exerted himself to establish the gold
standard.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Senator Teller of Colorado.
Realignment of forces begot queer alliances between party foes, lasting
bitterness between party fellows. Even the Prohibitionists, who held the
first convention, were riven into "narrow-gauge" and "broad-gauge," the
latter in a rump convention incorporating a free-coinage plank into
their creed. If the Republicans kept their ranks closed better than the
Democrats, this was largely due to the prominence they gave to
protection, attacked by the Wilson-Gorman Act.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Senator Cannon.
Their convention sat at St. Louis, June 16th. It was an eminently
business-like body, even its enthusiasm and applause wearing the air of
discipline. In making the platform, powerful efforts for a
catch-as-catch-could declaration upon the silver question succumbed to
New England's and New York's demand for an unequivocal statement. The
party "opposed the free coinage of silver except by international
agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world." . . .
"Until such agreement can be obtained, the existing gold standard must
be preserved." Senator Teller, of Colorado, moved a substitute 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, ownership, and
operation of the Nicaragua Canal by the United States. It reasserted 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.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
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 assassination 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 unconstitutional, and suggested the possibility of another
reversal by the same court "as it may hereafter be constituted."
The platform assailed "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.
[Illustration: Parade.]
The McKinley-Hobart Parade Passing the Reviewing Stand,
New York, October 31, 1896.
The platform being read, Hill, of New York, Vilas, of Wisconsin, and
ex-Governor Russell, of Massachusetts, 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 lashing the lonely shores 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!'"
[Illustration]
Bryan Speaking from the Rear End of a Train.
Sixteen members of the Resolutions Committee presented a minority report
criticising majority declarations. As a substitute for the silver plank
they offered a declaration similar to that of the Republican convention.
In a further plank they commended the Administration. The substitute
money plank was lost 301 to 628, and the resolution of endorsement 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 passed 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.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
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.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
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 assailed
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.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Simon E. Buckner.
The campaign was fierce beyond parallel. Neither candidate's character
could be assailed, 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 assumed 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
classing 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 passionate 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 attitude which repelled multitudes 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 Secretaryship of State. Upon the
outbreak of the Spanish War he was succeeded by William R. Day, who had
been Assistant Secretary. In 1898 Day in turn resigned, when Ambassador
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 Massachusetts; that
of the Interior to Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York; that of Agriculture
to James Wilson, of Iowa. In December, 1898, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of
Missouri, succeeded Bliss.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
John Sherman.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
Cornelius N. Bliss,
Secretary of the Interior.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
Russell A. Alger,
Secretary of War.
Fortunately for the new Chief Magistrate, who had been announced as the
"advance agent of prosperity," the year 1897 brought a revival of
business. This was due in part to the end, at least for the time, of
political suspense and agitation, in part to the confidence which
capitalists felt in the new Administration.
The money stringency, too, now began to abate. The annual output of the
world's gold mines, which had for some years been increasing, appeared
to have terminated the fall of general prices, prevalent almost
incessantly since 1873. Moreover, continued increase seemed assured, not
only by the invention of new processes, which made it lucrative to work
tailings and worn-out mines, but also by the discovery of several rich
auriferous tracts hitherto unknown.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
James Wilson,
Secretary of Agriculture.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
Postmaster-General Gary.
From a copyrighted photo by Clinedinst.
The valley of the Yukon, in Alaska and the adjacent British territory,
had long been known to contain gold, but none suspected there a bonanza
like the South African Rand. In the six months' night of 1896-1897 an
old squaw-man made an unprecedented strike upon the Klondike
(Thron-Duick or Tondak) River, 2,000 miles up the Yukon. By spring all
his neighbors had staked rich claims. Next July $2,000,000 worth of gold
came south by one shipment, precipitating a rush to the inhospitable
mining regions hardly second to the California migration of 1849.
Latter-day Argonauts, not dismayed by the untold dangers and hardships
in store, toiled up the Yukon, or, swarming over the precipitous
Chilcoot Pass, braved, too often at cost of life, the boiling rapids to
be passed in descending the Upper Yukon to the gold fields. Later the
easier and well-wooded White Pass was found, traversed, at length, by a
railroad. In October, 1898, the Cape Nome coast, north of the Yukon
mouth, uncovered its riches, whereupon treasure-seekers turned thither
their attention, even from the Yukon.
Little lawlessness pestered the gold settlements. The Dominion promptly
despatched to Dawson a body of her famous mounted police. Our
Government, more tardily, made its authority felt from St. Michaels,
near the Yukon mouth, all the way to the Canadian border. On June 6,
1900, Alaska was constituted a civil and judicial district, with a
governor, whose functions were those of a territorial governor. When
necessary the miners themselves formed tribunals and meted out a
rough-and-ready justice.
[Illustration: Men with huge piles of supplies.]
Rush of Miners to the Yukon.
The City of Caches at the Summit of Chilcoot Pass.
The rush of miners to the middle Yukon gold region, which, together with
certain ports and waters on the way thither, were claimed by both the
United States and Great Britain, made acute the question of the true
boundary between Alaskan and British territory.
In 1825 Great Britain and Russia, the latter then owning Alaska, agreed
by treaty to separate their respective possessions by a line commencing
at the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island and running along
Portland Channel to the continental coast at 56 degrees north latitude.
North of that degree the boundary was to run along mountain summits
parallel to the coast until it intersected the 141st meridian west
longitude, which was then to be followed to the frozen ocean. In case
any of the summits mentioned should be more than ten marine leagues from
the ocean, the line was to parallel the coast, and be never more than
ten marine leagues therefrom.
When it became important to determine and mark the boundary in a more
exact manner, Great Britain advanced two new claims; first, that the
"Portland Channel" mentioned in the Russo-British treaty was not the
channel now known by that name, but rather Behm Channel, next west, or
Clarence Straits; and, secondly, that the ten-league limit should be
measured from the outer rim of the archipelago skirting Alaska, and not
from the mainland coast. If conceded, these claims would add to the
Canadian Dominion about 29,000 square miles, including 100 miles of
sea-coast, with harbors like Lynn Channel and Tahko Inlet, several
islands, vast mining, fishery, and timber resources, as well as Juneau
City, Revilla, and Fort Tongass, theretofore undisputably American.
In September, 1898, a joint high commission sat at Quebec and canvassed
all moot matters between the two countries, among them that of the
Alaska boundary. It adjourned, however, without settling the question,
though a temporary and provisional understanding was reached and signed
October 20, 1899.
The commissioners gave earnest attention to the sealing question, which
had been plaguing the United States ever since the Paris arbitration
tribunal upset Secretary Blaine's contention that Bering Sea was mare
clausum. Upon that tribunal's decision the modus vivendi touching seals
lapsed, and Canadians, with renewed and ruthless zeal, plied
seal-killing upon the high seas. Dr. David S. Jordan, American delegate
to the 1896-1897 Conference of Fur-Seal Experts, estimated that the
American seal herd had shrunken 15 per cent. in 1896, and that a full
third of that year's pups, orphaned by pelagic sealing, had starved.
Reckoning from the beginning of the industry and in round numbers, he
estimated that 400,000 breeding females had been slaughtered, that
300,000 pups had perished for want of nourishment, and that 400,000
unborn pups had died with their dams. This estimate disregarded the
multitude of females lost after being speared or shot. Dr. Jordan
predicted the not distant extinction of the fur-seal trade unless
protective measures should be forthwith devised. British experts
questioned some of his conclusions, but admitted the need of restriction
upon pelagic sealing.
The McKinley Administration besought Great Britain for a suspension of
seal-killing during 1897. After a delay of four months the Foreign
Office replied that it was too late to stop the sealers that year. In a
rather undiplomatic note, dated May 10, 1897, Secretary Sherman charged
dilatory and evasive conduct upon this question. The retort was that the
American Government was seeking to embarrass British subjects in
pursuing lawful vocations.
Moved by Canada, Great Britain recanted her offer to join the United
States, Russia, and Japan in a complete system of sealing regulations.
The three countries last named thereupon agreed with each other to
suspend pelagic sealing so long as expert opinion declared it necessary
to the continued existence of the seals. The Canadians declined to
consider suspension save on the condition that the owners of sealing
vessels should receive compensation. In December, the same year (1897),
our Government ordered confiscated and destroyed all sealskins brought
to our ports not accompanied with invoices signed by the United States
Consul at the place of exportation, certifying that they were not taken
at sea. This cut off the Canadians' best market and so far diminished
their activity; but pelagic sealing still continued, under the
inefficient Paris regulations, and the herd went on diminishing.
That these Canadian controversies left so little sting, but were
followed by closer and closer rapprochement between the United States
and Great Britain, was fortunate in view of the failure of the
Anglo-American Arbitration Treaty. This had been negotiated by Mr.
Cleveland's able Secretary of State, Hon. Richard Olney, and represented
the best ethical thought of both nations. President McKinley endorsed
it, but it fell short of a two-thirds Senatorial vote.
On June 16, 1897, a treaty was signed annexing the Hawaiian Republic to
the United States. The Government of Hawaii speedily ratified this, but
it encountered in the United States Senate such buffets that after a
year it was withdrawn, and a resolution to the same end introduced in
both Houses. A majority in each chamber would annex, while the treaty
method would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate. The resolution
provided for the assumption by the United States of the Hawaiian debt up
to $4,000,000. Our Chinese Exclusion Law was extended to the islands,
and Chinese immigration thence to the continental republic prohibited.
The joint resolution passed July 6, 1898, a majority of the Democrats
and several Republicans, among these Speaker Reed, opposing. Shelby M.
Cullom, John T. Morgan, Robert R. Hitt, Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F.
Frear, made commissioners by its authority, drafted a territorial form
of government, which became law April 30, 1900.
Pursuant to the platform pledge of his party President McKinley early in
his term appointed Edward O. Wolcott, Adlai E. Stevenson, and Charles J.
Paine special envoys to the Powers in the interest of international
bi-metallism. The mission was mentioned with smiles by gold men and with
sneers by silver men, yet the cordial cooperation of France made it for
a time seem hopeful. The British Cabinet, too, were not ill-disposed,
pointing out that while Great Britain herself must retain the gold
standard, they earnestly wished a stable ratio between silver and gold
on British India's account. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, had little doubt that if a solid international agreement
could be reached India would reopen her mints to silver. But the Indian
Council unanimously declined to do this. The Bank of England was at
first disposed to accept silver as part of its reserve, a course which
the law permitted; but a storm of protests from the "city banks"
dismayed the directors into withdrawal. Lacking England's cooperation
the mission, like its numerous predecessors, came to naught.
In Civil Service administration Mr. McKinley took one long and
unfortunate step backward. The Republican platform, adopted after Mr.
Cleveland's extension of the merit system, emphatically endorsed this,
as did Mr. McKinley himself. Against extreme pressure, particularly in
the War Department, the President bravely stood out till May 29, 1899.
His order of that date withdrew from the classified service 4,000 or
more positions, removed 3,500 from the class theretofore filled through
competitive examination or an orderly practice of promotion, and placed
6,416 more under a system drafted by the Secretary of War. The order
declared regular a large number of temporary appointments made without
examination, besides rendering eligible, as emergency appointees,
without examination, thousands who had served during the Spanish War.
Republicans pointed to the deficit under the Wilson Law with much the
same concern manifested by President Cleveland in 1888 over the surplus.
A new tariff law must be passed, and, if possible, before a new
Congressional election. An extra session of Congress was therefore
summoned for March 15, 1897. The Ways and Means Committee, which had
been at work for three months, forthwith reported through Chairman
Nelson Dingley the bill which bore his name. With equal promptness the
Committee on Rules brought in a rule, at once adopted by the House,
whereby the new bill, spite of Democratic pleas for time to examine,
discuss, and propose amendments, reached the Senate the last day of
March. More deliberation marked procedure in the Senate. This body
passed the bill after toning up its schedules with some 870 amendments,
most of which pleased the Conference Committee and became law. The Act
was signed by the President July 24, 1897.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Nelson Dingley.
The Dingley Act was estimated by its author to advance the average rate
from the 40 per cent. of the Wilson Bill to approximately 50 per cent.,
or a shade higher than the McKinley rate. As proportioned to consumption
the tax imposed by it was probably heavier than that under either of its
predecessors.
[Illustration]
Warships in the Hudson River Celebrating
the Dedication of Grant's Tomb, April 27, 1897.
Reciprocity, a feature of the McKinley Tariff Act, was suspended by the
Wilson Act. The Republican platform of 1896 declared protection and
reciprocity twin measures of Republican policy. Clauses graced the
Dingley Act allowing reciprocity treaties to be made, "duly ratified" by
the Senate and "approved" by Congress; yet, of the twins, protection
proved stout and lusty, while the weaker sister languished. Under the
third section of the Act some concessions were given and received, but
the treaties negotiated under the fourth section, which involved
lowering of strictly protective duties, met summary defeat when
submitted to the Senate.
[Illustration: Cone shaped dome, atop a cylinder of columns, atop a
rectangular base.]
Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive, New York.
Copyright, 1901, by Detroit Photographic Co.
The granite mausoleum in Riverside Park, New York City, designed to
receive the remains of General Grant, was completed in 1897, and upon
the 27th of April, that year, formally presented to the city. Ten days
previously the body had been removed thither from the brick tomb where
it had reposed since August 8, 1885. Four massive granite piers, with
rows of Doric columns between, supported the roof and the obtuse cone of
the cupola, which rested upon a great circle of Ionic pillars. The
interior was cruciform. In the centre was the crypt, where, upon a
square platform, rested the red porphyry sarcophagus. From the mausoleum
summit, 150 feet above, the eye swept the Hudson for miles up and down.
The presentation day procession was headed by the presidential party.
The Governor of New York State, the Mayor of the city, and the United
States diplomatic corps were prominent. Other distinguished guests
attended, including Union and Confederate Veterans. The entire
procession reached six miles. There were 53,500 participants, military
and civil, and 160 bands of music. At the same time, in majestic column
upon the Hudson, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain joined, with
men-of-war, our North Atlantic squadron, saluting the President as he
passed.
The exercises at the tomb were simple. Bishop Newman offered prayer.
"America" was sung. President McKinley delivered an address of eulogy.
General Horace Porter gave the mausoleum into the city's keeping, a
trust which Mayor Strong in a few words accepted.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WAR WITH SPAIN
[1895-1898]
How early Cuban discontent with Spain's rule became vocal is not known.
An incipient revolt in 1766 was ruthlessly put down. Though the "Ever
Faithful Isle" did not rebel with the South American colonies under
Bolivar, it was never at rest, as attested by the servile revolts of
1794 and 1844, the "Black Eagle" rebellion of 1829, and the ten-years'
insurrection beginning in 1868. In 1894-1895, just as "Home Rule for
Cuba" had become a burning issue in Spain, martial law was proclaimed in
Havana, precipitating the last and successful revolution.
American interest in the island, material and otherwise, was great. The
barbarity and devastation marking the wars made a strong appeal to our
humane instincts; nor could Americans be indifferent to a neighboring
people struggling to be free. The suppression of filibustering
expeditions taxed our Treasury and our patience. Equally embarrassing
were the operations of Cuban juntas from our ports. To solve the complex
difficulty Presidents Polk, Buchanan, and Grant had each in his time
vainly sought to purchase the island. The Virginius outrage during
Grant's incumbency brought us to the very verge of war, prevented only
by the almost desperate resistance of Secretary Hamilton Fish.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Governor-General Weyler.
When the final rebellion was under way the humane Governor-General
Martinez Campos was succeeded by General Weyler, ordered to down the
rebellion at all costs. Numberless buildings were burnt and plantations
destroyed, the insurgents retaliating in kind. Non-combatants were
huddled in concentration camps, where half their number perished.
American citizens were imprisoned without trial. One, Dr. Ruiz, died
under circumstances occasioning strong suspicions of foul play.
President Cleveland, while willing to mediate between Spain and the
Cubans, preserved a neutral attitude, refusing to recognize the
insurgents even as belligerents, though they possessed all rural Cuba
save one province. Only when about to quit office did Mr. Cleveland hint
at intervention.
Soon after McKinley's accession an anarchist shot Premier Canovas,
when Sagasta, his Liberal successor, promised Cuba reform and home rule.
Weyler was succeeded by Blanco, who revoked concentration, proclaimed
amnesty, and set on foot an autonomist government. Americans were loosed
from prison. Clara Barton, of the American Red Cross Society, hastened
with supplies to the relief of the wretched reconcentrados, turned loose
upon a waste. Spain, too, appropriated a large sum for reconcentrado
relief, promising implements, seed, and other means for restoring ruined
homes and plantations.
[Illustration]
Copyright. 1898, by F. C. Hemment.
U. S. Battleship Maine Entering the Harbor of Havana, January, 1898.
But the iron had entered the Cuban's soul. The belligerents rejected
absolutely the offers of autonomy, demanding independence. The
"pacificos" were no better off than before, and relations between the
United States and Spain grew steadily more strained. Two incidents
precipitated a crisis.
A letter by the Spanish Minister at Washington, Senor de Lome, was
intercepted and published, holding President McKinley up as a
time-serving politician. De Lome forestalled recall by resigning; yet
his successor, Polo y Bernabe, could not fail to note on arriving in
Washington a chill diplomatic atmosphere.
[Illustration]
Wreck of U. S. Battleship Maine.
Photograph by F. C. Hemment.
In January, 1898, the United States battleship Maine was on a friendly
visit at Havana, where she was received with the greatest courtesy,
being taken to her harbor berth by the Spanish government pilot. At
9.40 on the evening of February 15th, the harbor air was rent by a
tremendous explosion. Where the Maine had been, only a low shapeless
hump was distinguishable. The splendid vessel, with officers and crew on
board to the number of 355, had sunk, a wreck. Of the 355, 253 never saw
day.
Strong suspicions gained prevalence that this was a deed of Spanish
treachery, or attributable, at the very least, to criminal indifference
on the part of the authorities. Some alleged positive connivance by
Spanish officials. War fever ran high. When, five days later, the
Spanish cruiser Vizcaya visited New York City, it was thought well to
accord her special protection. March, 9th, Congress placed in the
President's hands $50,000,000 to be used for national defence. The 21st,
a naval court of inquiry confirmed the view that the Maine disaster was
due to the explosion of a submarine mine. War fever became a fire.
"Remember the Maine" echoed up and down and across the land, the words
uttered with deep earnestness.
The war spirit welded North and South, permeating the Democracy even
more than the party in power. Democrats would have at once recognized
the Cuban Republic. This was at first the attitude of the Senate, which,
upon deliberation, wisely forbore. It, however, on April 20th, joined
the House in declaring the people of Cuba free and independent, adding
that Spain must forthwith relinquish her authority there. The President
was authorized to use the nation's entire army, navy, and militia to
enforce withdrawal. This was in effect a declaration of war. Minister
Woodford, at Madrid, received his passports; as promptly Bernabe
withdrew to Montreal. April 23d, 125,000 volunteers were called out.
April 26th an increase of the regular army to some 62,000 was
authorized. Soon came a call for 75,000 more volunteers. Responses from
all the States flooded the War Department.
[Illustration]
Bow of the Spanish Cruiser Almirante Oquendo.
From a Photograph by F. C. Hemment.
Copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst.
[Illustration: Hundreds of soldiers on transport and dock.]
The Landing at Daiquiri. Transports in the Offing.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Captain Charles E. Clark.
Spain, ruled by a clique of privileged Catalonians, groaned under all
the oppressiveness of militarism, with none of its power. Plagued by
Carlism and anarchy at home, she was grappling, at tremendous outlay,
with two rebellions abroad. Yet all her many parties cried for war.
Popular subscriptions were taken to aid the impoverished treasury;
reserves were called out; in Cuba, Blanco summoned all able-bodied men.
The navy was supplemented by ships purchased wherever hands could be
laid upon them.
[Illustration]
After Deck on the Oregon, Showing Two 13-inch,
Four 8-inch, and Two 6-inch Guns.
Copyright. 1899. by Strohmeyer & Wyman.
Owing to the parsimony of Congress, our equipment for a large army, or
even for our 25,000 regulars, if they were to go on a tropical campaign,
was totally inadequate. Our artillery had no smokeless powder. Many
infantry regiments came to camp armed with nothing but enthusiasm. No
khaki cloth for uniforms was to be had in the country. Canvas had to be
taken from that provided by the Post-Office Department for repairing
mail bags. While the utmost possible at short notice was done with the
just voted $50,000,000 defence fund, the comprehensive system of
fortifications long before designed had hardly been begun. The navy had
been treated least illiberally; still the construction budget had been
so cut that only a few of the proposed vessels had been transferred from
paper to the sea.
[Illustration]
Blockhouse on San Juan Hill.
The United States navy which did exist was a noble one. Both its ships
and their crews were as fine as any afloat. Had the Spanish navy been
manned like ours the two would have been of about equal strength. Ours
boasted the more battleships, but Spain had several new and first-rate
armored cruisers, besides a flotilla of swift torpedo boats. The
Spaniards were, however, poor gunners, clumsy sailors, awkward and
careless mechanics; while American gunners had a deadly aim, and spared
no skill or pains in the care or handling of their ships.
American superiority in these points was tellingly proved by the
Oregon's unprecedented run from ocean to ocean. Before hostilities she
was ordered from San Francisco, via Cape Horn to join the Atlantic
squadron. The long, hard, swift trip was made without the break of a bar
or the loosening of a bolt, a result which attracted expert notice
abroad as attesting the very highest order of seamanship. Meantime war
had commenced. It was feared that off Brazil Admiral Cervera would
endeavor to intercept and destroy her; yet, with well-grounded
confidence, Captain Clark expected in that event not only to save
himself but to punish his assailants. He met no interference, however,
and at the end of her unparalleled voyage his noble ship was without
overhauling ready to join in the Santiago blockade and in destroying the
Spanish fleet.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Admiral Cervera, Commander of the Spanish Squadron.
Admiral Cervera's departure westward from the Cape Verde Islands, and
the subsequent discovery of his squadron in the harbor of Santiago,
determined the Government to invest that city. The navy acted with
promptitude. Commodore Schley first, then, in conjunction with him, his
superior, Rear-Admiral Sampson, drew a tight line of war-vessels across
the channel entrance.
[Illustration: Working at desk.]
Major-General William R. Shafter.
Unfortunately delayed by inadequate shipping facilities and the
unsystematic consignment of supplies, also by the unfounded rumor of a
Spanish cruiser and destroyer lying in wait, the army of 17,000, under
Major-General William R. Shafter, landed with little opposition a short
distance east of Santiago. The sickly season had begun. Moreover, it was
as good as certain that, spite of all the miserable Cuban army could do,
Santiago's 8,000 defenders would soon be increased from neighboring
Spanish garrisons. So, notwithstanding his inadequate provision for
sound, sick, or wounded and his weakness in artillery, Shafter pushed
forward. His gallant little army brushed the enemy's intercepting
outpost from Las Guasimas, tore him, amid red carnage, from his stubborn
holds at El Caney and San Juan Ridge, and by July 3d had the city
invested, save on the west. From this quarter, however, General Escario,
with 3,600 men, had forced his way past our Cuban allies and joined his
besieged compatriots in Santiago.
[Illustration]
Troops in the Trenches, Facing Santiago.
The third of July opened, for the Americans, the darkest day of the war.
Drenched by night, roasted by day, haversacks which had been cast aside
for battle lost or purloined, supply trains stalled in the rear,
fighting by day, by night digging trenches and rifle-pits--little
wonder that many lost heart and urged withdrawal to some position nearer
the American base. Shafter himself for a moment considered such a step.
But General Wheeler, on the fighting line, set his face against it, as,
upon reflection, did Shafter. A bold demand for surrender was sent to
General Toral, commanding the city, while Admiral Sampson came to confer
with Shafter for a naval assault.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Joseph Wheeler.
The squadron had not been idle. By day their vigilance detected the
smallest movement at the harbor mouth. Upon that point each night two
battleships bent their dazzling search-lights like cyclopean eyes.
[Illustration]
View of San Juan Hill and Blockhouse,
Showing the Camp of the United States Forces.
It was decided to block the narrow channel by sinking the collier
Merrimac across its neck. Just before dawn on June 3d the young naval
constructor, Hobson, with six volunteers chosen from scores of eager
competitors, and one stowaway who joined them against orders, pushed the
hulk between the headland forts into a roaring hell of projectiles.
[Illustration: Only the masts and stack above surface.]
The Collier Merrimac Sunk by Hobson at the Mouth of Santiago Harbor.
An explosion from within rent the Merrimac's hull, and she sank; but,
the rudder being shot away, went down lengthwise of the channel. When
the firing ceased, the little crew, exhausted, but not one of the eight
missing, clustered, only heads out of water, around their raft. A
launch drew near. In charge was the Spanish admiral, who took them
aboard with admiring kindness, and despatched a boat to notify the
American fleet of their safety.
It was well that "Hobson's choice" as to the way his tub should sink
failed. On July 3d, just after Sampson steamed away to see Shafter, the
Maria Teresa was seen poking her nose from the Santiago harbor, followed
by the Almirante Oquendo, the Vizcaya, and the Christobal Colon. Under
peremptory orders from his Government, Admiral Cervera had begun a mad
race to destruction. "It is better," said he, "to die fighting than to
blow up the ships in the harbor." These had become the grim
alternatives.
The Brooklyn gave chase, the other vessels in suit, the Texas and the
Oregon leading. As the admiral predicted, it was "a dreadful holocaust."
One by one his vessels had to head for the beach, silenced, crippled,
flames bursting from decks, portholes, and the rents torn by our
cannonade. Two destroyers, Furor and Pluton, met their fate near the
harbor. Only the Colon remained any time afloat, but her doom was
sealed. Outdoing the other pursuers and her own contract speed the grand
Oregon, pride of the navy, poured explosives upon the Spaniard, until,
within three hours and forty minutes of the enemy's appearance, his last
vessel was reduced to junk. Cervera was captured with 76 officers and
1,600 men. 350 Spaniards were killed, 160 wounded. The American losses
were inconsiderable. The ships' injuries also were hardly more than
trifling.
So closed the third of July, so opened the glorious Fourth! To Shafter
and his men the navy's victory was worth a reenforcement of 100,000.
Bands played, tired soldiers danced, shouted, and hugged each other.
Correspondingly depressed were the Spaniards. They endeavored, as Hobson
had, to choke the harbor throat with the Reina Mercedes; but she, like
the Merrimac, had her steering apparatus shot away and sank lengthwise
of the channel. Still, it was not deemed wise to attempt forcing a way
in, nor did this prove necessary. Toral saw reenforcements extending the
American right to surround him, and out at sea over fifty transports
loaded with fresh soldiers. Spanish honor had been signalized not only
by the devoted heroism of Cervera's men but by the gallantry of his own.
The Americans offered to convey his command back to Spain free of
charge. He therefore sought from Madrid, and after some days obtained,
authority to surrender. He surrendered July 16th. Besides the Santiago
garrison, Toral's entire command in eastern Cuba, about 24,000 men,
became our prisoners of war.
[Illustration: Ship on its side on the beach.]
From a Photograph by F. C. Hemment. Copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst.
The Spanish Cruiser Christobal Colon.
[Illustration: Warship.]
Copyright, 1898. by C C. Langill. N. Y.
The U. S. S. Brooklyn.
The Santiago surrender left the United States free to execute what
proved the last important expedition of the war, that of General Miles
to Porto Rico. It was a complete success. Miles proclaiming the
beneficent purposes of our Government, numbers of volunteers in the
Spanish army deserted, the regulars were swept back by four simultaneous
movements, and our conquest was as good as complete when the peace
protocol put an end to all hostilities.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Nelson A. Miles
Meantime an independent campaign was under way in the far Orient. At
once after war was declared Commodore George Dewey, commanding the
United States naval forces in Asiatic waters, was ordered to capture or
sink the Spanish Philippine fleet. Obliged at once to leave the neutral
port of Hong-Kong, and on April 27th to quit Mirs Bay as well, he
steamed for Manila.
A little before midnight, on April 30th, Dewey's flagship Olympia
entered the Boca Grande channel to Manila Bay, the Baltimore, Petrel,
Raleigh, Concord, and Boston following. By daybreak Cavite stood
disclosed and, ready and waiting, huddled under its batteries, Admiral
Montojo's fleet: Reina Christina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, Don
Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis del
Duero, El Curreo and Velasco--ten vessels to Dewey's six. Counting those
of the batteries, the Spaniards' guns outnumbered and outcalibred
Dewey's. All the Spanish guns, from ships and from batteries alike,
played on our fleet--a thunder of hostile welcome, harmless as a salute.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Admiral George Dewey.
The commodore delayed his fire till every shot would tell, when,
circling around in closer and closer quarters, he concentrated an
annihilating cyclone of shot and shell upon the Spanish craft. Two
torpedo boats ventured from shore. One was sunk, one beached. The Reina
Christina, the Amazon of the fleet, steamed out to duel with the
Olympia, but "overwhelmed with deadly attentions" could barely stagger
back. One hundred and fifty men were killed and ninety wounded on the
Christina alone. In a little less than two hours, having sunk the
Christina, Castilla, and Ulloa and set afire the other warships, the
American ceased firing to assure and arrange his ammunition supply and
to breakfast and rest his brave crews. He reopened at 11.16 A.M. to
finish. By half-past twelve every Spanish warship had been sunk or
burned and the forts silenced. The Spanish reported their loss at 381
killed and wounded. Seven Americans were wounded, not one killed.
[Illustration: Warship.]
Protected Cruiser Olympia.
[Illustration]
General A. R. Chaftee.
As the Filipino insurgents encircled Manila on the land side the
Spaniards could not escape, and, to spare life, Dewey deemed it best to
await the arrival of land forces before completing the reduction.
Waiting tried the admiral's discretion more than the battle had his
valor. It was necessary to encourage the insurgents, at the same time to
prevent excesses on their part, and to avoid recognizing them even as
allies in such manner as to involve our Government. Another
embarrassment, threatening for a time, was the German admiral's
impertinence. One of his warships was about to steam into harbor
contrary to Dewey's instructions, but was halted by a shot across her
bows. Dewey's firmness in this affair was exemplary.
[Illustration]
General Merritt and General Greene taking a
look at a Spanish field-gun on the Malate Fort.
On June 30th the advance portion of General Merritt's troops arrived and
supplanted the insurgents in beleaguering Manila. The war was now
closing. Manila capitulated August 13th. The peace protocol was signed
August 12th. The Treaty of Paris was signed December 10th. Spain
evacuated Cuba and ceded to the United States Porto Rico, at the same
time selling us the Philippine Archipelago for $20,000,000.
CHAPTER XIII.
"CUBA LIBRE"
[1898-1902]
As if Santiago had not afforded "glory enough for all," some disparaged
Admiral Sampson's part in the battle, others Admiral Schley's. As
commander of the fleet, whose routine and emergency procedure he had
sagaciously prescribed, Sampson, though on duty out of sight of the
action at its beginning, was entitled to utmost credit for the brilliant
outcome. The day added his name to the list of history's great sea
captains.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Admiral William T. Sampson.
Schley had the fortune to be senior officer during his chief's temporary
absence. He fought his ship, the Brooklyn, to perfection, and, while it
was not of record that he issued any orders to other commanders, his
prestige and well-known battle frenzy inspired all, contributing much to
the victory. The early accounts deeply impressed the public, and they
made Schley the central figure of the battle. Unfortunately Sampson's
first report did not even mention him. Personal and political partisans
took up the strife, giving each phase the angriest possible look.
Admiral Schley at length sought and obtained a court of inquiry.
[Illustration: Portrait.]
Admiral W. S. Schley
The court found Schley's conduct in the part of the campaign prior to
June 1, 1898 (which our last chapter had not space to detail),
vacillating, dilatory, and lacking enterprise. It maintained, however,
that during the battle itself, despite the Brooklyn's famous "loop,"
which it seemed to condemn, his conduct was self-possessed, and that he
inspired his officers and men to courageous fighting. Admiral Dewey,
president of the court, held in part a dissenting opinion, which carried
great weight with the country. He considered Schley the actual fleet
commander in the battle, thus giving him the main credit for the
victory.
Legally, it turned out, Sampson, not Schley, commanded during the hot
hours. Moreover, the evidence seemed to reveal that the court's
strictures upon Schley, like many criticisms of General Grant at Shiloh
and in his Wilderness campaign, were probably just. In both cases the
public was slow to accept the critics' view.
Both before and after his resignation, July 19, 1899, Secretary of War
Alger was subjected to great obloquy. Shafter's corps undoubtedly
suffered much that proper system and prevision would have prevented. The
delay in embarking at Tampa; the crowding of transports, the use of
heavy uniforms in Cuba and of light clothing afterward at Montauk Point,
the deficiency in tents, transportation, ambulances, medicines, and
surgeons, ought not to have occurred. Indignation swept the country when
it was charged that Commissary-General Eagan had furnished soldiers
quantities of beef treated with chemicals and of canned roast beef unfit
for use. A commission appointed to investigate found that "embalmed
beef" had not been given out to any extent. Canned roast beef had been,
and the commission declared it improper food.
The commission made it clear that the Quartermaster's Department had
been physically and financially unequal to the task of suddenly
equipping and transporting the enlarged army--over ten times the size of
our regular army--for which it had to provide. If wanting at times in
system the department had been zealous and tireless. At the worst it was
far less to blame than recent Congresses, which had stinted both army
and navy to lavish money upon objects far less important to the country.
The army system needed radical reform. There was no general staff, and
the titular head of the army had less real authority than the
adjutant-general with his bureau.
These imbroglios had little significance compared with the problems
connected with our new dependencies. The Senate ratified the peace
treaty February 6, 1899, by the narrow margin of two votes--forty-two
Republicans and fifteen others in favor, twenty-four Democrats and
three others opposing. But for the advocacy of the Democratic leader,
William J. Bryan, who thought that the pending problems could be dealt
with by Congress better than in the way of diplomacy, ratification would
have failed.
The ratification of the Treaty of Paris marked a momentous epoch in our
national life and policy. In a way, the very fact of a war with Spain
did this. A century and a quarter before a Spanish monarch had furnished
money and men to help the American colonies become free from England.
"The people of America can never forget the immense benefit they have
received from King Carlos III.," wrote George Washington. At that time a
Spaniard predicted that the American States, born a pigmy, would become
a mighty giant, forgetful of gratitude, and absorbed in selfish
aggression at Spain's expense. Our change to quasi-alliance with Great
Britain against Spain seemed to not a few the fulfilment of that
prophecy. Europe declared that we had hopelessly broken with our ideals.
Cynics there applied to the United States the Scriptures: "Hell from
beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the
dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up
from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak
and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like
one of us? . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning!"
[Illustration: Uniformed officers on parade.]
The New Cuban Police as organized by
ex-Chief of New York Police, McCullagh.
The United States did not heed these sneers. Hawaii had been annexed.
Sale tenure of the Samoan Islands west of 171 degrees west longitude,
including Tutuila and Pago-Pago harbor, the only good haven in the
group, was ours. These measures, which a few years earlier all would
have deemed radical, did not stir perceptible opposition. Nearly all
felt that they were justified, by considerations of national security,
to obtain naval bases or strategic points. Such motives also excused the
acquisition of Guam in the Pacific, ceded by Spain in Article II of the
Paris Treaty, and that of Porto Rico.
Civil government was established in Porto Rico with the happiest
results. The Insular Treasury credit balance trebled in a year,
standing, July 1, 1902, at $314,000. The exports for 1902 increased over
50 per cent., most of the advance being consigned to the United States.
The principal exports were sugar, tobacco, the superior coffee grown in
the island, and straw hats. Of the coffee, the year named, Europe took
$5,000,000 worth, America only $29,000 worth. Porto Rico imported from
Spain over $95,000 worth of rice, $500,000 worth of potatoes. The first
year under our government there were 13,000 fewer deaths than the year
before, improvement due to better sanitation and a higher standard of
living. Mutual respect between natives and Americans grew daily.
Touching Cuba, too, the course of the Administration evoked no serious
opposition. We were in the island simply as trustees for the Cubans. The
fourth congressional resolution of April 20, 1898, gave pledge as
follows: "The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or
intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said
island (Cuba) except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its
determination when that is completed to leave the government and control
of the island to its people." This "self-denying ordinance," than which
few official utterances in all our history ever did more to shape the
nation's behavior, was moved and urged, at first against strong
opposition, by Senator Teller, of Colorado. Senator Spooner thought it
likely that but for the pledge just recited European States would have
formed a league against the United States in favor of Spain.
December 13, 1898, a military government was established for "the
division of Cuba," including Porto Rico. The New Year saw the last
military relic of Spanish dominion trail out of Cuba and Cuban waters.
The Cuban army gradually disbanded. The work of distributing supplies
and medicines was followed by the vigorous prosecution of railroad,
highway and bridge repairing and other public works, upon which many of
the destitute found employment. Courts and schools were resumed.
Hundreds of new schools opened--in Santiago city 60, in Santiago
province over 300. Brigandage was stamped out. Cities were thoroughly
cleaned and sewer systems constructed. The death rate fell steadily to a
lower mark than ever before. In 1896 there were in Havana 1,262 deaths
from yellow fever, and during the eleven years prior to American
occupation an average of 440 annually. In 1901 there were only four.
Under the "pax Americana" industry awoke. New huts and houses hid the
ashes of former ones. Miles of desert smiled again with unwonted
tillage.
[Illustration: Slum with sewage running through the dirt street.]
Showing Condition of Streets in Santiago
before Street Cleaning Department was organized.
[Illustration: Street cleaners working on dry roadway.]
Santiago Street Cleaning Department.
A census of Cuba taken by the War Department, October 16, 1899, showed a
population of 1,572,797, a falling off of nearly 60,000 in the twelve
years since the last Spanish census, indicating the loss due to the
civil war. The average density of population was about that of Iowa,
varying, however, from Havana province, as thickly peopled as
Connecticut, to Puerto Principe, with denizens scattered like those of
Texas. Seventy per cent. of the island's inhabitants were Cuban
citizens, two per cent. were Spanish, eighteen per cent. had not
determined their allegiance, while about ten per cent. were aliens.
Eighty per cent. of the people in the rural districts could neither read
nor write.
In December, 1899, Governor Brooke retired in favor of General Leonard
Wood. A splendid object-lesson in good government having been placed
before the people, they were, in June, 1900, given control of their
municipal governments and the powers of these somewhat enlarged.
In July Governor Wood issued a call for a constitutional convention,
which met in November. The fruit of its deliberations was an instrument
modelled largely upon the United States Constitution. The bill of rights
was more specific, containing a guarantee of freedom in "learning and
teaching" any business or profession, and another calculated to prevent
"reconcentration." The Government was more centralized than ours. The
President, elected by an electoral college, held office four years, and
was not re-eligible twice consecutively. The Senate consisted of six
senators from each of the six departments, the term being six years.
One-third were elected biennially. The House of Representatives
consisted of one representative to every 25,000 people. One-half were
elected biennially. Four years was the term of office. The judicial
power vested in a Supreme Court and such other courts as might be
established by law. Suffrage was universal.
[Illustration]
Governor-General Leonard A Wood
in the Uniform of Colonel of Rough Riders.
In his call for the convention, also in his opening address before it,
Governor Wood mentioned its duty to determine the relations between Cuba
and the United States. Jealous and suspicious, the convention, believing
the United States bound by its pledge to leave the island to the
unconditional control of its inhabitants, slighted these hints.
Meantime, at President McKinley's instance, Congress adopted, March 2,
1901, as a rider to the pending army appropriation bill, what was known
as "the Platt amendment," so called from its author, Senator Platt, of
Connecticut.
This enacted that in fulfilment of the congressional joint resolution of
April 20, 1898, which led to the freeing of Cuba, the President was to
leave the government and Control of the island to its people only when a
Government should be established there under a constitution defining the
future relations of the United States with Cuba. The points to be
safe-guarded were that Cuba should permit no foreign lodgment or
control, contract no excessive debt, ratify the acts of the military
government, and protect rights acquired thereunder, continue to improve
the sanitation of cities, give the United States certain coaling and
naval stations, and allow it to intervene if necessary to preserve Cuban
independence, maintain adequate government, or discharge international
obligations created by the Paris Treaty.
[Illustration: Large group on men.]
Judge Cruz Perez Gov. Gen. Wood.
General Maximo Gomez. T. E. Palma.
Governor-General Leonard A. Wood transferring the Island of Cuba to
President Tomaso Estrada Palma, as a Cuban Republic, May, 1902.
From copyrighted stereoscopic photograph. By Underwood & Underwood. N. Y.
A week before the Platt amendment passed, the Cuban convention adopted a
declaration of relations, "provided the future government of Cuba thinks
them advisable," not mentioning coaling stations or a right of
intervention, but declaring that "the governments of the United States
and Cuba ought to regulate their commercial relations by means of a
treaty based on reciprocity."
When the convention heard that the Platt amendment must be complied
with, a commission was sent to Washington to have this explained. Upon
its return the convention, June 12, 1901, not without much opposition,
adopted the amendment.
The first President of the Cuban Republic was Tomaso Estrada Palma. He
had been years an exile in the United States, and was much in sympathy
with our country. His home-coming was an ovation. In May, 1902, the
Stars and Stripes were hauled down, and the Cuban tricolor raised. The
military governor and all but a few of his soldiers left the island, as
the Spaniards had done less than three years before; yet with a record
of dazzling achievement that had in a few months done much to repair the
mischiefs of Spain's chronic misrule.
Cut off from her former free commercial intercourse with Spain, Cuba
looked to the United States as the main market for her raw sugar.
Advocates of reciprocity urged considerations of honor and fair dealing
with Cuba, where, it was said, ruin stared planters in the face. The
Administration and a majority of the Republicans favored the cause. Not
so senators and representatives from beet-sugar sections. The
"insurgents," as the opponents of reciprocity were called, urged that
raising sugar beets was a distinctively American industry, and that to
sacrifice it was to relinquish the principle of protection altogether.
The so-called "Sugar Trust" favored reciprocity, being accused of
expending large sums in that interest. Against it was pitted the "Sugar
Beet Trust," a new figure among combinations.
During the long session of the Fifty-seventh Congress, a Cuban
reciprocity bill being before the House, the sugar-beet interest
demonstrated its power. The House "insurgents," joining the Democratic
members, overrode the Speaker and the Ways and Means chairman, and
attached to the bill an amendment cutting off the existing differential
duty in favor of refined sugar. A locking of horns thus arose, which
outlasted the session, neither side being able to convince or outvote
the other. Sanguine Democrats thought that they espied here a hopeful
Republican schism like that of 1872.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT
PHILIPPINES AND FILIPINOS
[1899]
The Philippine Archipelago lies between 4 degrees 45 minutes and 21
degrees north latitude and 118 and 127 degrees east longitude. It
consists of nineteen considerable and perhaps fifteen hundred lesser
islands, an area nearly equal that of New Jersey, New York, and New
England combined. The island of Luzon comprises a third of this, that of
Mindanao a fifth or a sixth. The archipelago is rich in natural
resources, but mining and manufactures had not at the American
occupation been developed. Agriculture was the main occupation, though
only a ninth of the land surface was under cultivation. The islands were
believed capable of sustaining a population like Japan's 42,000,000.
Luzon boasted a glorious and varied landscape and a climate salubrious
and inviting, considering the low latitude. Manila hemp, sugar, tobaco,
coffee, and indigo were raised and exported in large amounts.
[Illustration: Sixteen men seated in a small room.]
General Bates. The Sultan.
The Jolo Treaty Commission.
The islands lay in three groups, the Luzon, the Visaya (Negros, Panay,
Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and islets), and the Mindanao, including
Palawan and the Sulu Islands. Some of these islands were in parts
unexplored. The Tagals and the Visayas, Christian and more or less
civilized Malay tribes, dominated respectively the first and the second
group. The Mindanao coasts held here and there a few Christian
Filipinos, but the chief denizens of the southern islands were the
fierce Arab-Malay Mohammedans known as Moros, most important and
dangerous of whose tribes were the Illanos.
In all, there were thirty or more races, with an even greater number of
different dialects. Northern Luzon housed the advanced Ilocoans,
Pampangos, Pangasinanes, and Cagayanes, with their hardy bronze heathen
neighbors, the Igorrotes. The Visayas had many degraded aborigines, the
Negritos among them. Over against the Moros in the Mindanao group one
could not ignore the warlike Visayan variation, or the swarming savages
of the interior, hostile alike to Moro and Visaya.
[Illustration: Parade.]
Three Hundred Boys in the Parade of July 4, 1902, Vigan, Ilocos.
The population of the islands numbered 8,000,000 or 10,000,000, 25,000
being Europeans. Half the islanders were Christians, eight or ten per
cent. Mohammedan, perhaps ten per cent. heathen. One considerable
fraction were Chinese, another of mixed extraction. Probably none of the
races were of pure Malay blood, though Malay blood predominated.
Mercantile pursuits were largely in Chinese hands. The Moros disdained
tillage and commerce alike, living on slave labor and captures in war.
Spain had done in the islands much more educational work than the
Americans at first recognized, though none of an advanced kind. Schools
were numerous but not general. Many Filipinos had studied in Europe.
There was a select class possessing information and manners which would
have admitted them to cultivated circles in Paris or London, and
thousands of Filipinos were intellectually the peers of average
middle-class Europeans. The University of St. Thomas graced Manila. Some
seventy colleges and academies at various centres professed to prepare
pupils for it.
Filipinos of aught like cosmopolitan intelligence numbered less than
100,000. Below them were the half-breeds, perhaps 500,000 strong, white,
yellow, or brown, according to the special blend of blood. They were
"intelligent but uneducated, active but not over industrious. They loved
excitement, military display, and the bustle and pomp of government."
Farther down still were the vast toiling masses neither knowing nor
caring much who governed them. Only in suffering were they experts,
having learned of this under the iron heel of Spain all there was to be
known.
[Illustration: About fifty girls.]
Girls' Normal Institute, Vigan, Ilocos, April, 1902.
In the Philippines one had incessantly before him social and economic
problems in their rudimentary form--populations the debris of centuries,
and the reactions upon them of their first contact with real
civilization. In case of any but the most advanced tribes the immediate
suggestion was despair, a feeling that they could never appropriate the
culture offered them. But the heartiness of the response which even such
communities made to our advances brought hope. Our methods were better
than the Spanish, and our progress correspondingly rapid; yet the task
we undertook bade fair to last centuries. Nor were its initial steps
undefaced by errors.
A Blue Book would not suffice to describe this motley material. We can
only illustrate.
The Iocoros were in a forward state, if not of civilization, of
preparation therefor. On all hands their youth were anxiously waiting to
be taught. Compared with Teutonic races they were superficial and
emotional, but they had great ambition and perseverance.
[Illustration: Several men.]
Igarrote Religious Dance, Lepanto.
A sharp contrast were the Igorrotes. These appeared to be at bottom
Malays, though Mongolian features marked many a face. They had withstood
all attempts to christianize them, and stubbornly clung to their
primitive mode of life as tillers of the soil. Mentally they were near
savagery, entirely without ambition or moral outlook. Nevertheless they
adhered to the American arms and rendered valuable porter service.
Their religion had elements of sun and ancestor worship. The one
tangible feature in it was the "kanyan," a drunken feast held on such
occasions--fifteen in all--as marriage, birth, death, and serious
illness. The feast began with an invocation to Kafunion, the sun god,
and a dance much like that of the American Indians. Then came the
drinking of tapi, a strong beer made from rice, and gorging with
buffalo, horse, or dog meat, the last being the greatest delicacy. Till
the Americans vetoed the practice, the Igorrotes were "head hunters."
The theory was that the brains of the captured head became the captor's.
The Igorrotes had magnificent chests and legs, and were extensively used
as burden-bearers. Sustained by only a few bowlfuls of rice and some
sweet potatoes, a man would carry fifty or even seventy-five pounds on
his head or back all day over the most difficult mountain trails. The
Igorrotes had a mild form of slavery, and, though good-natured and at
times industrious, appeared utterly without spirit of progress. It was
interesting to mark whether or not contact with a superior race would be
a stimulus to them.
[Illustration]
Igarrote Head Hunters with Head Axes and Spears.
A contrast, again, to the Igorrotes was presented by the Ilocoans, an
intelligent, industrious, Christian people, eager for education, yet
promising to cherish independent ideals the more dearly the more
prosperous and advanced they became.
[Illustration: Six men on horseback.]
Native Moros-Interior of Jolo.
Most implacable of all the races were the Moros of the Sulu Islands.
Warlike, and despising labor, their terrible piracies had been curbed
only within fifty years, and their depredations and slave raiding by
land were never wholly prevented. They were suspiciously eager to
"assist" our forces in subduing the insurgents. The American authorities
negotiated a treaty with the Sultan and his dattos, involving their
submission to the United States. A provision of this treaty excited
reprobation, that permitting a slave to buy his freedom, a recognition
of slavery in derogation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. The provision was excused as an absolutely necessary
makeshift to put off hostilities till the United States had a freer
hand.
Spain never governed a colony well. Her whole record outre-mer was of a
piece with the enslavement and extermination of the gentle Caribs, with
which it began. In slavery and the slave trade Anglo-Saxon conquistadors
shared Spain's dishonor, but in sheer ugliness of despotism, in
wholesale, systematic, selfish exploiting, and in corrupt and clumsy
administration the Iberian monarchy surpassed all other powers ever
called to deal with colonies. The truth of this indictment was, if
possible, more manifest in the Philippines than anywhere else in the
Spanish world.
The religious orders, which early achieved the conversion of Tagals,
Visayas, and some other tribes, after generations of evangelical
devotion, ceased to be aggressive religiously, growing opulent and
oppressive instead. They were the pedestal of the civil government.
Their word could, and often did, cause natives to be deported, or even
put to death. One of their victims was that beautiful spirit, Dr. Rizal,
author of Noli me Tangere, the most learned and distinguished Malay ever
known. He had taken no part whatever in rebellion or sedition, yet,
because he was known to abominate clerical misrule, he was, without a
scintilla of evidence that he had broken any law, first expatriated,
then shot. This murder occurring December 30, 1896, did much to further
the rebellion then spreading.
"Once settled in his position, the friar, bishop, or curate usually
remained till superannuated, being therefore a fixed political factor
for a generation, while a Spanish civil or military officer never held
post over four years. The stay of any officer attempting a course at
variance with the order's wishes was invariably shortened by monastic
influence. Every abuse leading to the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 the
people charged to the friars; and the autocratic power which each friar
exercised over the civil officials of his parish gave them a most
plausible ground for belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of
oppression, of narrowing liberty was imposed on them for which the friar
was not entirely responsible. The revolutions against Spain began as
movements against the friars." [footnote: Abridged from Report of Taft
Commission.]
Senator Hoar wrote: "I should as soon give back a redeemed soul to Satan
as give back the people of the Philippine Islands to the cruelty and
tyranny of Spain."
Freemasonry in the Philippines was a redoubtable antagonist to the
orders. There were other secret leagues, like the Liga Filipina, with
the same aim, most of them peaceful. Not so the "Katipunan," which
adopted as its symbol the well-known initials, "K. K. K.,"
"Kataas-Tassan, Kagalang-Galang, Katipunan," "sovereign worshipful
association." If the Ku-Klux Klan did not give the hint for the
society's symbol the programmes of the two organizations were alike. The
Katipunan was probably the most potent factor in the insurrection of
1896. Its cause was felt to be that of the whole Filipino people. In
December, 1897, the conflict, as in Cuba, had degenerated into a
"stalemate." The Spaniard could not be ousted, the Filipino could not be
subdued. Spain ended the trouble for the time by promising reform, and
hiring the insurgent leaders to leave the country. Only a small part,
400,000 Mexican dollars, of the promised sum was ever paid. This was
held in Hong-Kong as a trust fund against a future uprising.
[Illustration]
Emilio Aguinaldo.
Chief among the leaders shipped to Hong-Kong was Emilio Aguinaldo. He
was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, of which town he subsequently became
mayor. His blood probably contained Spanish, Tagal, and Chinese strains.
He had supplemented a limited school education by extensive and eager
contact with books and men. To a surprising wealth of information the
young Filipino added inspiring eloquence and much genius for leadership.
He had the "remarkable gift of surrounding himself with able coadjutors
and administrators." The insurrection of 1896 early revealed him as the
incarnation of Filipino hostility to Spain. Judging by appearances--his
zeal in 1896, bargain with Spain in 1897, fighting again in Luzon in
1898, acquiescence in peace with the United States, reappearance in
arms, capture, and instant allegiance to our flag--he was a shifty
character, little worthy the great honor he received where he was known
and, for a long time, here. But if he lacked in constancy, he excelled
in enterprise. Spaniards never missed their reckoning more completely
than in thinking they had quieted Aguinaldo by sending him to China with
a bag of money.
[Illustration]
Gen. Frederick Funston, Gen. A. McArthur.
It being already obvious that Spain had not redressed, and had no
intention of redressing, abuses in the Philippines, Aguinaldo and his
aides planned to return. The American war was their opportunity.
Conferences were had with Consul Wildman at Hong-Kong and with Commodore
Dewey. Aguinaldo and those about him declared that Wildman, alleging
authority from Washington, promised the Filipinos independence; and
other Hong-Kong consuls and several press representatives received the
impression that this was the case. Wildman absolutely denied having
given any assurance of the kind. Admiral Dewey also denied in the most
positive manner that he had done so.
Whatever the understanding or misunderstanding at Hong-Kong, Aguinaldo
came home with Dewey in the evident belief that the American forces and
his own were to work for Filipino independence. He easily resumed his
leadership and began planning for an independent Filipino State. Dewey
furnished him arms and ammunition. The insurrection was reorganized on a
grander scale than ever, with extraordinary ability, tact, energy, and
success. Nearly every one of the Luzon provinces had its rebel
organization. In each Aguinaldo picked the leader and outlined the plan
of campaign. His scheme had unity; his followers were aggressive and
fearless. Everywhere save in a few strongholds Spain was vanquished. At
last only Manila remained. The insurgents must have captured 10,000
prisoners, though part of those they had at the Spanish evacuation were
from the Americans. They hemmed in Manila by a line reaching from water
to water. We could not have taken Manila as we did, by little more than
a show of force, had it not been for the fact that Spain's soldiers,
thus, hemmed in by Aguinaldo's, could not retreat beyond the range of
our naval guns. January 21, 1899, a Philippine Republic was set up, its
capital being Malolos, which effectively controlled at least the Tagal
provinces of Luzon. Its methods were irregular and arbitrary--natural in
view of the prevalence of war. Aguinaldo, its soul from the first
moment, became president.
[Illustration]
A Company of Insurrectos near Bongued, Abra Province,
just previous to surrendering early in 1901.
[Illustration: About twenty soldier landing on the beach in a small boat.]
11th Cavalry Landing at Vigan, Ilocos, April, 1902.
The Philippine Republic wished and assumed to act for the archipelago,
taking the place of Spain. It, of course, had neither in law nor in fact
the power to do this, nor, under the circumstances, could the
Administration at Washington, however desirable such a course from
certain points of view, consent that it should at present even try. The
Philippine question divided the country, raising numerous problems of
fact, law, policy, and ethics, on which neither Congress nor the people
could know its mind without time for reflection.
[Illustration]
Copyright, 1899, by Frances B. Johnston.
Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, acting for Spain,
receiving from the Honorable John Hay, the U. S. Secretary of State,
drafts to the amount of $20,000,000, in payment for the Philippines.
When our commissioners met at Paris to draft the Treaty of Peace, one
wished our demands in the Orient confined to Manila, with a few harbors
and coaling stations. Two thought it well to take Luzon, or some such
goodly portion of the archipelago. That the treaty at last called for
the entire Philippine domain, allowing $20,000,000 therefor, was
supposed due to insistence from Washington. Only the Vice-President's
casting vote defeated a resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator
Bacon, of Georgia, declaring our intention to treat the Filipinos as we
were pledged to treat the Cubans. After ratification the Senate passed a
resolution, introduced by Senator McEnery, of Louisiana, avowing the
purpose not to make the Filipinos United States citizens or their land
American territory, but to establish for them a government suited to
their needs, in due time disposing of the archipelago according to the
interests of our people and of the inhabitants.
CHAPTER XV.
THE UNITED STATES IN THE ORIENT
WAR, CONTROVERSY, PEACE
[1899-1901]
It was wholly problematical how long Aguinaldo unaided could dominate
Luzon, still more so whether he would rule tolerably, and more uncertain
yet whether centre or south would ever yield to him. The insurgents had
foothold in four or five Visayan islands, but were never admitted to
Negros, which of its own accord raised our flag. In Mindanao, the Sulu
Islands, and Palawan they practically had no influence. Governor Taft
was of opinion that they could never, unaided, have set up their sway in
these southern regions. But should they succeed in establishing good
government over the entire archipelago, clearly they must be for an
indefinite period incompetent to take over the international
responsibilities connected with the islands. To have at once conceded
their sovereignty could have subserved no end that would have been from
any point of view rational or humane.
The American situation was delicate. We were present as friends, but
could be really so only by, for the time, seeming not to be so. At
points we failed in tact. We too little recognized distinctions among
classes of Filipinos, tending to treat all alike as savages. When our
thought ceased to be that of ousting Spain, and attacked the more
serious question what to do next, our manner toward the Filipinos
abruptly changed. Our purposes were left unnecessarily equivocal. Our
troops viewed the Filipinos with ill-concealed contempt. "Filipinos"
and "niggers" were often used as synonyms.
Suspicion and estrangement reached a high pitch after the capture of
Manila, when Aguinaldo, instead of being admitted to the capital, was
required to fall still farther back, the American lines lying between
him and the prize. December 21, 1898, the President ordered our
Government extended with despatch over the archipelago. That the Treaty
of Paris summarily gave not only the islands but their inhabitants to
the United States, entirely ignoring their wishes in the matter, was a
snub. Still worse, it seemed to guarantee perpetuation of the friar
abuses under which the Filipinos had groaned so long. Outside Manila
threat of American rule awakened bitter hostility. In Manila itself
thousands of Tagals, lip-servants of the new masters, were in secret
communion with their kinsmen in arms.
[Illustration]
Native Tagals at Angeles, fifty-one miles from Manila.
No blood flowed till February 4, 1898, when a skirmish, set off by the
shot of a bullyragged American sentry, led to war. February 22, 1899,
the insurgents vainly attempted to fire Manila, but were pushed back
with slaughter, their forces scattered.
March 20, 1899, the first Philippine Commission--Jacob G. Schurman, of
New York; Admiral Dewey; General Otis; Charles Denby, ex-minister to
China; and Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan-began their labors at Manila.
They set to work with great zeal and discretion to win to the cause of
peace not only the Filipinos but the government of the Philippine
Republic itself. In this latter they succeeded. Their proclamation that
United States sway in the archipelago would be made "as free, liberal,
and democratic as the most intelligent Filipino desired," "a firmer and
surer self-government than their own Philippine Republic could ever
guarantee," operated as a powerful agent of pacification.
May 1, 1899, the Philippine Congress almost unanimously voted for peace
with the United States. Aguinaldo consented. Mabini's cabinet, opposing
this, was overturned, and a new one formed, pledged to peace. A
commission of cabinet members was ready to set out for Manila to
effectuate the new order.
A revolution prevented this. General Luna, inspired by Mabini, arrested
the peace delegates and charged them with treason, sentencing some to
prison, some to death. This occurred in May, 1899. After that time not
so much as the skeleton of any Philippine public authority--president,
cabinet, or other official--existed. Later opposition to the American
arms seemed to proceed in the main not from real Filipino patriotism,
but from selfishness, lust of power, and the spirit of robbery.
Everywhere and always Americans had to guard against treachery. In Samar
false guides led an expedition of our Marine Corps into a wilderness and
abandoned the men to die, cruelty which was deemed to justify
retaliation in kind. Eleven prisoners subsequently captured were shot
without trial as implicated in the barbarity. For this Major Waller was
court-martialed, being acquitted in that he acted under superior orders
and military necessity. A sensational feature of his trial was the
production of General Smith's command to Major Waller "to kill and
burn"; "make Samar a howling wilderness"; "kill everything over ten"
(every native over ten years old). General Smith was in turn
court-martialed and reprimanded. President Roosevelt thought this not
severe enough and summarily retired him from active service.
[Illustration: Soldier on a train.]
Bringing ammunition to the front for
Gen. Otis's Brigade, north of Manila.
Despite vigilant censorship by the War Department, rumors of other
cruelties on the part of our troops gained credence. It appeared that in
not a few instances American soldiers had tortured prisoners by the
"water cure," the victim being held open-mouthed under a stream of
water, the process sometimes supplemented by pounding on the abdomen
with rifle-butts.
These disgraces were sporadic, not general, and occurred, when they did
occur, under terrible provocation. Devotion to duty, however trying the
circumstances, was the characteristic behavior of our officers and men.
Deeds of daring occurred daily. On November 14, 1900, Major John A.
Logan, son of the distinguished Civil War general, lost his life in
battle near San Jacinto. December 19th the brave General Lawton was
killed in attacking San Mateo. Systematic opposition to our arms was at
last ended by an enterprise involving both nerve and cleverness in high
degree.
Our forces captured a message from Aguinaldo asking reenforcements. This
suggested to General Frederick Funston, who had served with Cuban
insurgents, a plan for seizing Aguinaldo. Picking some trustworthy
native troops and scouts, Funston, Captain Hazzard, Captain Newton, and
Lieutenant Mitchell, passed themselves off as prisoners and their forces
as the reenforcements expected. When the party approached Aguinaldo's
headquarters word was forwarded that reenforcements were coming, with
some captured Americans. Aguinaldo sent provisions, and directed that
the prisoners be treated with humanity. March 23, 1901, he received the
officers at his house. After brief conversation they excused themselves.
Next instant a volley was poured into Aguinaldo's body-guard, and the
American officers rushed upon Aguinaldo, seized him, his chief of staff,
and his treasurer. April 2, 1901, Aguinaldo swore allegiance to the
United States, and, in a proclamation, advised his followers to do the
same. Great and daily increasing numbers of them obeyed.
[Illustration: Stone fort with many large shell holes.]
Fort Malate, Cavite.
To the Philippines, though Spain's de facto sovereignty there was hardly
more than nominal, our title, whether or not good as based on conquest,
was unimpeachable considered as a cession by way of war indemnity or
sale. Nor, according to the weight of authority, could the right of the
federal power to acquire these islands be denied. But did "the
Constitution follow the flag" wherever American jurisdiction went? If
not, what were the relations of those outlands and their peoples to the
United States proper? Could inhabitants of the new possessions emigrate
to the United States proper? Did our domestic tariff laws apply there as
well as here? Must free trade exist between the nation and its
dependencies? Were rights such as that of peaceable assemblage and that
to jury trial guaranteed to Filipinos, or could only Americans to the
manner born plead them?
On the fundamental question whether the dependencies formed part of the
United States the Supreme Court passed in certain so-called "insular
cases" which were early brought before it. Four of the justices held
that at all times after the Paris Treaty the islands were part and
parcel of United States soil. Four held that they at no time became
such, but were rather "territories appurtenant" to the country.
[Illustration: River crowded with small boats.]
The Pasig River, Manila.
Mr. Justice Brown gave the "casting" opinion. Though reasoning in a
fashion wholly his own, he sided, on the main issue, with the latter
four of his colleagues, making it the decision of the court that Porto
Rico and the Philippines did not belong to the United States proper,
yet, on the other hand, were not foreign. The revenue clauses of the
Constitution did not, therefore, forbid tariffing goods from or going to
the islands. In the absence of express legislation, the general tariff
did not obtain as against imports from the dependencies. This reasoning,
it was observed, was equally applicable to mainland territories and to
Alaska. The court intimated that, so far as applicable, the
Constitution's provisions in favor of personal rights and human liberty
accompanied the Stars and Stripes beyond sea as well as between our old
shores.
Unsatisfactory to nearly all as was this utterance of a badly divided
court, it sanctioned the Administration policy and opened the way for
necessary legislation. It did nothing, however, to hush the
anti-imperialist's appeal, based more upon the Declaration of
Independence and the spirit of our national ideals.
It was said that having delivered the Filipinos from Spain "we were
bound in all honor to protect their newly acquired liberty against the
ambition and greed of any other nation on earth, and we were equally
bound to protect them against our own. We were bound to stand by them, a
defender and protector, until their new government was established in
freedom and in honor; until they had made treaties with the powers of
the earth and were as secure in their national independence as
Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Santo Domingo, or Venezuela." But we
ought to bind ourselves and promise the world that so soon as these ends
could be realized or assured we would leave the Filipinos to themselves,
Such was the view of eminent and respected Americans like George F.
Hoar, George S. Boutwell, Carl Schurz, and William J. Bryan.
These and others urged that the Filipinos had inalienable right to life
and to liberty; that our policy in the Philippines was in derogation of
those rights; that Japan, left to herself, had stridden farther in a
generation than England's crown colony of India in a century; that the
Filipinos could be trusted to do likewise; that our increments of
territory hitherto had been adapted to complete incorporation in the
American empire while the new were not; and that growth of any other
character would mean weakness, not strength. The mistakes, expense, and
difficulties incident to expansion, and the misbehavior and crimes of
some of our soldiers were exhibited in their worst light.
Rejoinder usually proceeded by denying the capacity of the Filipinos for
self-government without long training. Even waiving this consideration,
men found in international law no such mid-status between sovereignty
and non-sovereignty as anti-imperialists wished to have the United
States assume while the Filipinos were getting upon their feet. Many
made great point of minimizing the abuses of our military government and
of dilating upon native atrocities. The material wealth of the
archipelago was described in glowing terms. Only American capital and
enterprise were needed to develop it into a mine of national riches. The
military and commercial advantages of our position at the doorway of the
East, our duty to protect lives and property imperilled by the
insurgents, and our manifest destiny to lift up the Filipino races, were
dwelt upon. The argument having chief weight with most was that there
seemed no clear avenue by which we could escape the policy of American
occupation save the dishonorable and humiliating one of leaving the
islands to their fate--anarchy and intestine feuds at once, conquest by
Japan, Germany, or Spain herself a little later.
All demanded that abuses in connection with our rule should be punished
and the repetition of such made impossible, and that whatever power we
exercised should be lodged, without regard to party, in the hands of men
of approved fitness and high and humane character. American tutelage, if
it were to exist, must present to our wards the best and not the worst
side of our civilization, and do so with tact and sympathy.
[Illustration]
The Inauguration of Governor Taft, Manila, July 4. 1901.
On April 17, 1900, William H. Taft, of Ohio; Dean C. Worcester, of
Michigan; Luke E. Wright, of Tennessee; Henry C. Ide, of Vermont; and
Bernard Moses, of California, were commissioned to organize civil
government in the archipelago. Three native members were subsequently
added to the commission. Municipal governments were to receive attention
first, then governments over larger units. Local self-government was to
prevail as far as possible. Pending the erection of a central
legislature, the commission was invested with extensive legislative
powers. Civil government was actually inaugurated July 4, 1901. Judge
Taft was the first civil governor, General Adna R. Chaffee military
governor under him.
Educational work in the Philippines was pressed from the very beginning
of American control. Our military authorities reopened the Manila
schools, making attendance compulsory. In a short time the number of
schools in the archipelago doubled. By September, 1901, the commission
had passed a general school law, and had placed the schools throughout
the archipelago under systematic organization and able headship. About
1,000 earnest and capable men and women went out from the States to
teach Filipino youth. Five hundred towns received one or more American
teachers each. Associated with them there were in the islands some 2,500
Filipino teachers, mostly doing primary work.
[Illustration]
Group of American Teachers on the steps
of the Escuela Municipal, Manila.
American teachers advanced into the interior to the neediest tribes.
Nine teachers early settled among the Igorrotes, scattered in towns
along the Agno River, and an industrial and agricultural school was soon
planned for Igorrote boys. Normal schools and manual training schools
were organized. Colonial history, whether ancient or modern, had never
witnessed an educational mission like this.
CHAPTER XVI.
POLITICS AT THE TURNING OF THE CENTURY
[1900]
McKinley and Bryan were presidential candidates again in 1900. It was
certain long beforehand that they would be, even when Admiral Dewey
announced that he was available. The admiral seemed to offer himself
reluctantly, and to be relieved when assured that all were sorry he had
done so.
McKinley was unanimously renominated. Unanimously also, yet against his
will, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, was named with him on
the ticket. The Democratic convention chose Bryan by acclamation; his
mate, ex-Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, by ballot.
The 1900 campaign called out rather more than the usual crop of one-idea
parties. The Prohibitionists, a unit now, took the field on the "army
canteen" issue, making much of the fact that our increased export to the
Philippines consisted largely of beer and liquors to curse our soldiers.
The anti-fusion or "Middle-of-the-road" Populists, the Socialist Labor
Party, the Socialist-Democrats, and the United Christian Party all made
nominations.
The Gold Democratic National Committee, while recommending State
committees to keep up their organizations, regarded it inexpedient to
name a ticket. They reaffirmed the Indianapolis platform of 1896, and
again recorded their antagonism to the Bryan Democracy. Certain
volunteer delegates who met in September found themselves unable to
tolerate either the commercialism which they said actuated the
Philippine war, or "demagogic appeals to factional and class passions."
They nominated Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, and Archibald M. Howe, of
Massachusetts. These gentlemen declined, whereupon it was decided to
have no ticket.
[Illustration]
W. J. Bryan accepting the nomination for President at
a Jubilee Meeting held at Indianapolis, August 8, 1900.
A number of loosely cohering bodies accorded the Democratic ticket their
support while making each its own declaration of doctrine. The Farmers'
Alliance and Industrial Union, through its Supreme Council, gave
anticipatory endorsement to the Democratic candidate so early as
February. May 10th the Fusion Populists nominated Bryan, naming,
however, Charles A. Towne instead of Stevenson for the vice-presidency.
Towne withdrew in Stevenson's favor. The Silver Republicans likewise
nominated Bryan, making no vice-presidential nomination. The
Anti-imperialist League, meeting in Indianapolis after the Democratic
convention, approved its candidates, its view as to the "paramount
issue," and its position thereon.
For a time after his able Indianapolis speech accepting the various
nominations, Mr. Bryan's election seemed rather probable spite of
incessant Republican efforts to break him down. He had personally gained
much strength since 1896. There was not a State in the Union whose
Democratic organization was not to all appearance solid for him, an
astounding change in four years. An organization of Civil War Veterans
was electioneering for him among old soldiers. Powerful Democratic and
independent sheets which had once vilified now extolled him. He was
sincere, straightforward, and fearless. His demand at Kansas City that
the platform read so and so or he would not run, while probably unwise,
showed him no trimmer.
Many Gold Democrats had returned to the party. The gold standard law,
approved March 14, 1900, made it impossible for a President, even if he
desired to do so, to place the country's money on an insecure basis
without the aid of a Congress friendly in both its branches to such a
design. There was, to be sure, effort to make this law appear imperfect;
to show that Mr. Bryan, if elected, could, without aid from Congress,
debauch the monetary system. But these assertions had little basis or
effect. Silver dollars could be legally paid by the Government for a
variety of purposes; but outside holders of silver could not get it
coined, and the Treasury could not buy more.
New issues--imperialism and the trusts--seemed certain to be
vote-winners for the Democracy. The cause of anti-imperialism had taken
deep hold of the public mind, drawing to its support a host of eminent
and respected Republicans. The Democratic platform expressly named this
the "paramount issue" of the campaign. The party in power defended its
Philippine policy in the manner sketched at the end of the last chapter,
ever asserting, of course, that so far as consistent with their welfare
and our duties the Filipinos must be accorded the largest possible
measure of self-government. In this tone was perceived some
sensitiveness to the anti-imperialist cry. Though Republican campaign
writers and speakers affected to ignore this issue, some of them denying
its existence, imperialism was more and more discussed.
After the Spanish War the question whether the United States should, the
inhabitants agreeing, keep any of the territory obtained from Spain,
divided the Democratic as well as the Republican ranks. So long as
expansion meant merely addition to United States territory and
population after the time-honored fashion, and this was at first all
that anyone meant by expansion, no end of prominent Democrats were
expansionists. But for their devotion to the policy of protection and
their determination to continue high protection at all costs, the
Republicans might have kept in existence this Democratic schism over
expansion.
According to the Constitution as almost unanimously interpreted (the
"insular cases" referred to in the last chapter had not yet been
decided), customs duties must be uniform at all United States ports. If
Luzon was part of the United States in the usual sense of the words,
rates of duty on given articles must be the same at Manila as at New
York. If the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico were parts of the United
States in the full sense, tariff rates at their ports could not be low
unless low in New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and elsewhere.
[Illustration]
The Republican National Convention, held in Philadelphia, June 1, 1900.
No considerable or general tariff reduction for the United States proper
was to be thought of by the Republicans. But it would not do to maintain
in the ports of the new possessions the high duties established by law
in the United States proper. Were this done, the United States would in
effect be forcing its colonies to buy and sell in the suzerain country
alone, as was done by George III. through those Navigation Acts which
occasioned the Revolutionary War. Such a system was certain to be
condemned. If the expansion policy was to succeed in pleasing our people
a plan had to be devised by which duties at the new ports could be
reduced to approximate a revenue level while remaining rigidly
protective in the old ports.
Out of this dilemma was gradually excogitated the theory, which had been
rejected by nearly all interpreters of the Constitution, that the United
States can possess "appurtenant" territory, subject to, but not part of
itself, to which the Constitution does not apply save so far as Congress
votes that it shall apply. So construed, the Constitution does not ex
proprio vigore follow the flag. Under that construction, inhabitants of
the acquired islands could not plead a single one of its guaranties
unless Congress voted them such a right. If Congress failed to do this,
then, so far as concerned the newly acquired populations, the
Constitution might as well never have been penned. They were subjects of
the United States, not citizens.
The Republican party's first avowal of this "imperialist" theory and
policy was the Porto Rico tariff bill, approved April 12, 1900,
establishing for Porto Rico a line of customs duties differing from that
of the United States. This bill was at first disapproved by President
McKinley. "It is our plain duty," he said, "to abolish all customs
tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico, and give her products
free access to our markets." Until after its passage the bill was
earnestly opposed both by a number of eminent Republican statesmen
besides the President and by nearly all the leading Republican party
organs. Every possible plea--constitutional, humanitarian, prudential--
was urged against it. The bill passed, nevertheless.
The result was a momentous improvement in Democratic prospects. The
schism on expansion which had divided the Democratic party was closed at
once, while many Republicans who had deemed the taking over of the
Philippines simply a step in the nation's growth similar in nature to
all the preceding ones, and had laughed at imperialism as a Democratic
"bogy," changed their minds and sidled toward the Democratic lines.
In their long and able arguments against the Porto Rico tariff,
Republican editors and members of Congress provided the opposite party
with a great amount of campaign material. Often as a Republican on the
hustings or in the press declared imperialism not an issue, or at any
rate not an important one, he was drowned in a flood of recent
quotations from the most authoritative Republican sources proving that
it was not only an issue, but one of the most important ones which ever
agitated the Republic. As Democrats put it, Balaam prophesied in favor
of Israel.
Several minor matters were much dwelt upon by campaigners, with a net
result favorable to the Democrats. A great many in his own party
believed, no doubt wrongly, that the President's policy had in main
features been influenced by consideration for powerful financial
interests, or that at points these had in effect coerced him to courses
contrary to what he considered best. The commissariat scandal in the
Spanish War incensed many, as did the growth of army, navy, and
"militarism" incident to the new colonial policy.
[Illustration]
Parade of the Sound Money League,
New York, 1900. Passing the Reviewing Stand.
Then there was the awkwardness with which the Administration had treated
the Filipinos. In 1900 it seemed clear that these people could never be
brought under the flag otherwise than by coercion. Anti-imperialists
were not alone in the conviction that Aguinaldo's followers had been
needlessly contemned, harassed, and exasperated, and that had greater
frankness, tact, and forbearance been used toward them they would, of
their own accord, have sought the shelter of the Stars and Stripes.
Moreover, our measures toward the Filipinos had alienated Cuba, so that
the voluntary adhesion of this island to the United States, so desirable
and once so easily within reach, was no longer a possibility; while the
coercion of Cuba, in view of our profession when we took up arms for
her, would be condemned by all mankind as national perfidy.
The sympathy of official Republicanism with the British in the Boer War
tended to solidify the Irish vote as Democratic, but--and it was among
the novelties of the campaign--Republicans no longer feared to alienate
the Irish. The Government's apparent apathy toward the Boers also drove
into the Democratic ranks for the time a great number of Dutch and
German Republicans. Colored voters were in this hegira, believing that
the adoption of the "subject-races" notion into American public law and
policy would be the negro's despair. The championing of this movement by
the Republican party they regarded as a renunciation of all its
friendship for human liberty.
The Republican campaign watchword was "Protection." Press and platform
dilated on the fat years of McKinley's administration as amply
vindicating the Dingley Act. "The full dinner pail," said they, "is the
paramount issue." Trusts and monopolies they denounced, as their
opponents did, but they declared that these "had nothing to do with the
tariff." There was wide and intense hostility toward monopolistic
organizations. They were decried on all hands as depressing wages,
crushing small producers, raising the prices of their own products and
lowering those of what they bought, depriving business officials and
business travellers of positions, and working a world of other mischief
politically, economically, and socially. They had rapidly multiplied
since the Republicans last came into power, and nothing had been done to
check the formation of them or to control them.
Why, then, was not Democracy triumphant in the campaign of 1900? When
the lines were first drawn a majority of the people probably disapproved
the Administration's departure into fields of conquest, colonialism, and
empire. Republicans themselves denied that a "full dinner pail" was the
most fundamental of considerations. Few Republican anti-imperialists
were saved to the party by the venerable Senator Hoar's faith that after
a while it would surely retrieve the one mistake marring its record. Nor
was it that men like Andrew Carnegie could never stomach the Kansas City
and Chicago heresies, or that the Republicans had ample money, or yet
that votes were attracted to the Administration because of its war
record and its martial face. Agriculture had, to be sure, been
remunerative. Also, before election, the strike in the Pennsylvania hard
coal regions had, at the earnest instance of Republican leaders, been
settled favorably to the miners, thus enlisting extensive labor forces
in support of the status quo; but these causes also, whether by
themselves or in conjunction with the others named, were wholly
insufficient to explain why the election went as it did.
A partial cause of Mr. Bryan's defeat in 1900 was the incipient waning
of anti-imperialism, the conviction growing, even among such as had
doubted this long and seriously, that the Administration painfully
faulty as were some of its measures in the new lands, was pursuing there
absolutely the only honorable or benevolent course open to it under the
wholly novel and very peculiar circumstances.
A deeper cause--the decisive one, if any single cause may be pronounced
such--was the fact that Mr. Bryan primarily, and then, mainly owing to
his strong influence, also his party, misjudged the fundamental meaning
of the country's demand for monetary reform. The conjunction of good
times with increase in the volume of hard money made possible by the
world's huge new output of gold, might have been justly taken as
vindicating the quantity theory of money value, prosperity being
precisely the result which the silver people of 1896 prophesied as
certain in case the stock of hard money were amplified. Bimetallists
could solace themselves that if they had, with all other people, erred
touching the geology of the money question, in not believing there would
ever be gold enough to stay the fall of prices, their main and essential
reasonings on the question had proved perfectly correct. Good fortune,
it might have been held, had removed the silver question from politics
and remanded it back to academic political economy.
Probably a majority of the Democrats in 1900 felt this. At any rate the
Kansas City convention would have been quite satisfied with a formal
reaffirmation of the Chicago platform had not Mr. Bryan flatly refused
to run without an explicit platform restatement of the 1896 position.
His hope, no doubt, was to hold Western Democrats, Populists, and Silver
Republicans, his anti-imperialism meanwhile attracting Gold Democrats
and Republicans, especially at the East, who emphatically agreed with
him on that paramount issue. But it appeared as if most of this,
besides much else that was quite as well worth while, could have been
accomplished by frankly acknowledging and carefully explaining that gold
alone had done or bade fair to do substantially the service for which
silver had been supposed necessary; for which, besides, it would really
have been required but for the unexpected and immense increase in the
world's gold crop through a long succession of years.
The Republican leaders gauged the situation better. Mr. McKinley, to a
superficial view inconsistent on the silver question, was on this point
fundamentally consistent throughout. With all the more conservative
monetary reformers he merely wished the fall of prices stopped, and such
increment to the hard money supply as would effect that result. The
metal, the kind of money producing the needed increase was of no
consequence. When it became practically certain that gold alone, at
least for an indefinite time, would answer the end, he was willing to
relinquish silver except for subsidiary coinage.
The law of March 14, 1900, put our paper currency, save the silver
certificates, and also all national bonds, upon a gold basis, providing
an ample gold reserve. Silver certificates were to replace the treasury
notes, and gold certificates to be issued so long as the reserve was not
under the legal minimum. If it ever fell below that the Secretary of the
Treasury had discretion.
Other notable features of this law were its provision for refunding the
national debt in two per cent. gold bonds--a bold, but, as it proved,
safe assumption that the national credit was the best in the world--and
the clause allowing national banks to issue circulating notes to the par
value of their bonds.
Our money volume now expanded as rapidly as in 1896 advocates of free
coinage could have expected even with the aid of free silver. July 1,
1900. the circulation was $2,055,150,998. as against $1,650.223,0400
four years before. Nearly $163,000,000 in gold certificates had been
uttered. The gold coin in circulation had increased twenty per cent. for
the four years; silver about one-eighth; silver certificates one-ninth.
The Treasury held $222,844,953 of gold coin and bullion, besides some
millions of silver, paper, and fractional currency.
The Republican victory was the most sweeping since 1872. The total
popular vote was 13,970,300, out of which President McKinley scored a
clear majority of 443,054, and a plurality over Bryan of 832,280. Of the
Northern States Bryan carried only Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada. He lost
his own State and was shaken even in the traditionally "solid South."
Unnecessarily ample Republican supremacy was maintained in the
legislative branch of the Government.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE TWELFTH CENSUS
[1900-1902]
The plan for a permanent census bureau was not realized in time for the
1900 enumeration, but the act authorizing this provided important
modifications in prior census procedure. Among several great
improvements it made the census director practically supreme in his
methods and over appointments and removals in his force.
Initial inquiries were restricted to (1) population, (2) mortality, (3)
agriculture, and (4) manufactures. Work on these topics was to be
completed not later than July 1, 1902. During the year after, special
reports were to be prepared on defective, criminal and pauper classes,
deaths and births, social data in cities, public indebtedness, taxation
and expenditures, religious bodies, electric light and power, telephone
and telegraph, water transportation, express business, street railways,
mines and mining. A few titles mentioned in the eleventh census were now
omitted.
[Illustration]
Mr. Merriam, Director of the Census.
The enumeration extended to Alaska. Two men had charge of it there.
Enumerators went out afoot, by dog-teams, canoes, steamboats--up rivers,
over mountains, through forests. The Indian Territory was for the first
time canvassed like other portions of the Union, and so was the new
territory of Hawaii.
The United States were divided into 207 supervisor districts and 53,000
enumeration districts. Enumeration began June 1, 1900, continuing two
weeks in cities, elsewhere thirty days. Persons in the navy, army, and
on Indian reservations were numbered. For those in institutions there
were special enumerators. Each enumerator used a "street-book" or daily
record, individual slips for returns of persons absent when the
enumerator called, and an "absent family" schedule.
The returns were tabulated by an electrical device first employed ten
years before. Its work was automatic and so fine that it would even
obviate errors. For instance, age, sex, etc., being denoted by
punch-holes in cards, the machine would refuse to pass a card punched to
indicate that the person was three years old and married.
Nearly 2,000 employees toiled upon the census during the latter part of
1900, and nearly a thousand during the entire year, 1901. From July 14,
1900, piecemeal results were announced almost daily. By October the
population of the principal cities was out. A preliminary statement of
total population was given to the press, October 30, 1900, followed by a
verified one a month later. The first official report on population was
made December 6, 1901, within eighteen months from the completion of the
enumerators' work. Results were first issued in sixty bulletins, all
subsequently included in the first half of the first volume. Two volumes
were devoted to population, three to manufactures, two to agriculture,
and two to vital statistics. One contained an abstract of the whole.
Following these came volumes on special lines of inquiry.
[Illustration: Several people reviewing records.]
Census Examination.
The population of the United States, not including Porto Rico or the
Philippines, was found to be 76,303,387, an increase of not quite 21 per
cent. in the decade, or less than during any previous similar period of
our history. All the States and territories save Nevada were better
peopled than ever before. Nevada lost 10.6 per cent. of her inhabitants,
as against two and a half times that percentage between 1880 and 1890,
occupying in 1900 about the same tracks as in 1870. Oklahoma people
increased 518.2 per cent. Indian Territory, Idaho, and Montana came next
in rapidity of growth. Kansas, with 2.9 per cent. increase, and
Nebraska, with only 0.7 per cent., showed the slowest progress, the
figures resulting in considerable part from padded returns in 1890.
Vermont, Delaware, and Maine crawled on at a snail's pace. In numerical
advance New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois led. Texas marched close to
them, overhauling Massachusetts. In percentage of increase the southern,
central, and western divisions were in the van.
Almost a third of our people were now urban, ten times the proportion of
1790. The rate of urban increase (36.8 per cent.) was, however, smaller
than during any preceding decade, except 1810-1820, and was notably less
than the 61.4 per cent. urban increase from 1880 to 1890. Numerically
also city growth was less than at the preceding census.
There were 545 places of 8,000 or more inhabitants, with an average
population of 45,857. Of the larger cities fully half adjoined the
Atlantic. Greater New York, a monster composite of nearly three and a
half millions, ranked first among American cities, and second only to
London among those of the world. Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis,
Boston, and Baltimore followed in the same order as a decade before. The
enterprising lake rivals, Cleveland and Buffalo, had raced past San
Francisco and Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, instead of New Orleans, now came
next after the ten just named.
There were, as in 1890, three cities of more than a million inhabitants
each. There were six of more than 500,000, as against four in 1890. Of
cities having between 400,000 and 500,000 people none appeared in 1900;
three in 1890. Five cities now had over 300,000 and less than 400,000, a
class not represented at all in 1890. Thirty-eight cities used in
numbering their people six figures or more each, a privilege enjoyed in
1890 by only twenty-eight. The cities of the Pacific coast showed
noteworthy increase.
Ohio, Indiana, Delaware, Kansas, and Nebraska and all the North Atlantic
States except Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, lost in rural
population. Rhode Island, with 407 inhabitants to the square mile, was
the most densely peopled State. Massachusetts came next. Idaho, Montana,
New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Nevada could not show two souls to the
square mile. Alaska, doubled in population, had one in about ten square
miles. No western State had ten to the mile.
The Twelfth Census revealed slight change in the centre of population.
This now stood six miles southeast of Columbus, Ind., having moved west
only fourteen miles since 1890. In computing its position neither Hawaii
nor Alaska were considered. Never before had its occidental shunt been
less than thirty-six miles in a decade. For three score years it had not
fallen under forty per decade. What sent it southward two and a half
miles was the doubling of population in the Indian Territory and the
filling of Oklahoma. The trifling shift of fourteen miles westward
pointed significantly to the exhaustion of free land in the West and to
the immense growth of manufactures, mining, and commerce in eastern and
central States, retaining there the bulk of our immigrants and even
recalling people from the newer States and territories.
Males still bore about the same proportion to females as in 1890,
although females had increased at a rate 0.2 per cent. greater than
males. In the North Atlantic and South Atlantic groups the sexes were
equal in numbers.
At the South alone did the negro continue a considerable element.
Eighty-nine per cent. of the negroes lived there. At the North only
Pennsylvania had any large numbers. The country held 8,840,789, an
increase of 18.1 per cent. in ten years, the percentage of white
increase being 21.4 per cent. In West Virginia and Florida, also in the
black belts, especially that of Alabama, blacks multiplied faster than
whites. In Delaware and Georgia the pace was even. In Alabama as a
whole, however, the negro element had not relatively increased since
1850. Blacks outnumbered Caucasians in South Carolina and Mississippi,
no longer in Louisiana. In Mississippi the black majority shot up
phenomenally. Of the total population the negroes were now only 11.6 per
cent., barely one-ninth, as against one-fifth in 1790. Between 1890 and
1900 the proportion of the colored increased both at the North and at
the far South, diminishing in the border southern States. This indicated
migration both northward and southward from the belt of States just
south of Mason and Dixon's line.
[Illustration: Large office building.]
The Census Office, Washingtonl D. C.
The foreign-born fraction of our population, which had alternately risen
and fallen since 1860, now fell again, from 14.8 per cent. to 13.7 per
cent. The South retained its distinction as the most thoroughly American
section of the land, having a foreign nativity population varying from
7.9 per cent. in Maryland to only 0.2 per cent. in North Carolina.
The foreign born, conspicuous in the Northwest and the North Atlantic
States, were mostly confined to cities. They had augmented only 12.4 per
cent. as against 38.5 per cent. from 1880 to 1890. Nearly a third of the
recorded immigration from 1890 to 1900 was missing in the enumeration,
due only in part to census errors. Many foreigners had returned to their
native lands, most numerous among these being Canadians. The
preponderance of immigrants was no longer from Ireland, Canada, Great
Britain, and Germany, but from Austria-Hungary, Bohemia, Italy, Russia,
and Poland.
In 1900 the United States proper had 89,863 Chinese against 107,488 in
1890. Of Japanese there were 24,326 against only 2,039 in 1890. In the
Hawaiian Islands alone the Chinese numbered 25,767 and the Japanese
61,111. Natives of Germany still constituted the largest body of our
foreign born, being 25.8 per cent. of the whole foreign element compared
with 30.1 percent. in 1890. The proportion was about the same in 1900 as
in 1850.
The Irish were 15.6 per cent. of the foreign born. The figures had been
20.2 per cent. in 1890, and 42.8 per cent. in 1850. The proportion of
native Scandinavians and Danes had slightly increased. Poles. Bohemians,
Austrians, Huns, and Russians comprised 13.4 per cent. of the foreign
born as against 6.9 per cent. in 1890, and less than one-third per cent.
in 1850.
The congressional apportionment act based on the twelfth census, and
approved January 16, 1902, avoided the disagreeable necessity of cutting
down the representation of laggard States by increasing the House
membership from 357 to 386, a gain of twenty-nine members. Twelve of
these (reckoning Louisiana) came from west of the Mississippi, two from
New England, three each from Illinois and New York, four from the
southern States east of the Mississippi, two each from Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, and one from Wisconsin.
The number of farms shown by the twelfth census was over five and
one-half million, four times the number reported in 1850, and more than
a million above the number reported in 1890. This wonderful increase,
greater for the last decade than for any other except that between 1870
and 1880, denoted a vast augmentation of cultivated area in the South
and in the middle West. Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and Texas alone
added over two hundred thousand to the number of their farms. The
increase in value of farm resources exceeded the total value of
agricultural investments fifty years before.
In the abundant year of 1899 our cereal crops exceeded $1,484,000,000 in
value, more than half this being in corn. The hay crop was worth over
$445,000,000, that of potatoes $98,387,000, that of tobacco $56,993,000.
Next to corn stood cotton, the crop for this year reaching a value of
$323,758,000. The total value of farm and range animals in 1900 was
$2,981,722,945.
[Illustration: Man interviewing a family on their doorstep.]
A Census-taker at work.
The census of 1850 reported 123,000 manufacturing establishments, with a
capital of $533,000,000. In 1900 there were 512,000 manufacturing
establishments, capitalized at $9,800,000,000, employing 5,321,000 wage
earners, and evolving $13,004,400,000 worth of product.
In ten years the number of manufacturing plants and the value of
products appeared to have increased some 30 per cent. The capital
invested had multiplied slightly more, about a third. The number of
hands employed had risen but a fifth, betokening the greater efficiency
of the individual laborer, and the substitution of machine work for that
of men's hands.
Of seventy-three selected industries in 209 principal cities, the most
money, $464,000,000, was invested in foundries and machine shops; the
next most, $363,000,000, in breweries. $289,000,000 are employed in iron
and steel manufacturing.
Our foreign commerce for the fiscal year 1899-1900 reached the
astounding total of $2,244,424,266, exceeding that of the preceding year
by $320,000,000. Our imports were $849,941,184, an amount surpassed only
in 1893. Our total exports were $1,394,483,082. The favorable balance of
trade had continued for some time, amounting for three years to $
1,689,849,387, much of which meant the lessening of United States
indebtedness abroad. The chief commodities for which we now looked to
foreign lands were first of all sugar, then hides, coffee, rubber, silk,
and fine cottons. In return we parted with cotton from the South and
bread-stuffs from the North, each exceeding $260,000,000 in value. Next
in volumes exported were provisions, meat, and dairy products, worth
$184,453,055. Iron and steel exports, including $55,000,000 and more in
machinery, were valued at about $122,000,000. The live-stock shipped
abroad was appraised at about $181,820,000. About 3-1/2 per cent. of our
imports came from Cuba, about 20 per cent. from Hawaii, and about 1 per
cent. from Porto Rico, Samoa, and the Philippines.
In 1902 the tables were turned somewhat. American exports fell off and
the home market was again invaded. Imported steel billets were sold at
the very doors of the Steel Corporation factories.
So abundant were the revenues the year named, exceeding expenditures by
$79,500,000, that war taxes were shortly repealed. "A billion dollar
Congress" would now have seemed economical. Our gross expenditures the
preceding year had been $1,041,243,523. For 1900 they were $988,797,697.
Our national debt, lessened during the year by some $28,000,000 or
$30,000,000, stood at $1,07 1,214,444.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901
The time had come for North and South America to unite in a noble
enterprise illustrating their community of interests. United States
people were deplorably ignorant of their southern neighbors, this
accounting in part for the paucity of our trade with them. They knew as
little of us. Our war with Spain had caused them some doubts touching
our intentions toward the Spanish-Americans. An exposition was a hopeful
means of bringing about mutual knowledge and friendliness. But the fair
could not be ecumenical. At Chicago and Paris World's Fairs had reached
perhaps almost their final development. To compete in interest, so soon,
with such vast displays, an exposition must specialize and condense.
On May 20th, the day of opening, a grand procession marched from Buffalo
to the Exposition grounds. Inspired by the music of twenty bands
representing various nations, the parade wound through the park gate up
over the Triumphal Bridge into the Esplanade. As the doors of the Temple
of Music were thrown open, ten thousand pigeons were released, which,
wheeling round and round, soared away to carry in all directions their
messages announcing that the Exposition had begun. The Hallelujah Chorus
was rendered, when Vice-President Roosevelt delivered the dedicatory
address.
The authors of the Pan-American, architects, landscape-gardeners,
sculptors, painters, and electricians, aimed first of all to create a
beautiful spectacle. Entering by the Park Gateway you passed from the
Forecourt, attractive by its terraces and colonnades, to the Triumphal
Bridge, a noble portal, with four monumental piers surmounted by
equestrian figures, "The Standard-bearers." This dignified entrance was
in striking contrast with the gaudy and barbarous opening to the Paris
Exposition. From the gate the whole panorama spread out before the eye.
Down the long court with its fountains, gardens, and encircling
buildings, you saw the Electric Tower soaring heavenward, fit expression
of the mighty power from Niagara, which at night made it so glorious.
The central court bore the form of a cross. At either side of the gate
lay transverse courts, each adorned with a lake, fountains, and sunken
gardens, and ending in curved groups of buildings. On the east was the
Government Group; on the west that devoted to horticulture, mines, and
the graphic arts. The intersection of the two arms formed the Esplanade,
spacious enough for a quarter of a million people, and commanding a
superb view. Connected by pergolas with the building in the transverse
ends two structures, the Temple of Music and the Ethnology Building,
stood like sentinels at the entrance to the Court of Fountains. A group
of buildings enclosed this court, terminating in the Electric Tower at
the north. From the Electric Tower round to the Gateway again all the
buildings were joined by cool colonnades. Beyond the Tower was the
Plaza, a charming little court, its sunken garden and band-stand
surrounded by colonnades holding statuary.
[Illustration]
The Electric Tower and Fountains.
The broad and spacious gardens with their wealth of verdure, their
lakes, fountains, and statuary, formed a picture of indescribable charm.
Nothing here suggested exhibits. Instead, spectators yielded to the
spell of the beautiful scene. Chicago was serious and classic; Buffalo
romantic, picturesque, even frivolous. The thought seemed to have been
that, life in America being so intense, a rare holiday ought to bring
diversion and amusement. No style of architecture could have contributed
better to such gayety than the Spanish-Renaissance, light, ornate, and
infinitely varied, lending itself to endless decoration in color and
relief, and no more delicate compliment could have been paid our
southern neighbors than this choice of their graceful and attractive
designs. Each building was unique and original in plan. Domes,
pinnacles, colonnades, balconies, towers, and low-tiled roofs afforded
endless variety. The Electric Tower, designed by Mr. Howard, the central
point in the scheme of architecture, its background of columns and its
airy perforated walls and circular cupola with the Goddess of Light
above, combined massiveness with lightness. Other buildings were
strikingly quaint and pleasing, especially those suggesting the old
Southern Missions. All blended into the general scheme with scarcely a
discord. This harmony was not accidental, but resulted from combined
effort, each architect working at a general plan, yet not sacrificing
his individual taste. It was an object lesson in massive architecture,
showing how easily public edifices may be made beautiful each in itself,
and to increase each other's beauty by artistic grouping.
[Illustration: Large domed building.]
The Ethnology Building and United States Government Building.
Perhaps the most novel feature of the Fair was the coloring. Charles Y.
Turner's colors-scheme, original and daring, called forth much
criticism. With the Chicago White City the Rainbow City at Buffalo was a
startling contrast. But the artist knew what he was doing when he boldly
applied the gayest and brightest colors to buildings and columns, and
added to the quaint architecture that bizarre and oriental touch in
keeping with the festal purposes of the occasion. The rich, warm tones
formed a perfect background for the white statuary, the green foliage,
and the silvery fountains. The Temple of Music was a Pompeian red,
Horticultural Hall orange, with details of blue, green, and yellow. The
whole effect was fascinating, and at night, when the electric lights
illumined and softened the tones, fairy-like.
[Illustration: Building outlined in lights and reflected in the water.]
The Temple of Music by Electric Light.
But the coloring had a deeper meaning than this. Mr. Turner tried to
depict, in his gradations of tone, the struggle of Man to overcome the
elements, and his progress from barbarism to civilization. Thus, at the
Gate, the strongest primary colors were used in barbaric warmth, yet in
their warmth suggestive of welcome. As you advanced down the court the
tones became milder and lighter, until they culminated in the soft ivory
and gold of the Electric Tower, symbol of Man's crowning achievements.
Everywhere you found the note of Niagara, green, symbolizing the great
power of the falls.
Many forgot that in all this Mr. Turner was working from Greek models.
Color was lavishly used on the Athenian temples, rich backgrounds of red
or blue serving to throw the sculptural adornments into vivid relief.
Buffalo was in this a commentary on classic art, revealing what fine
effects may be produced by out-of-door coloring when suited to
surroundings. We saw that in our timid, conventional avoidance of
exterior colors we had missed something; that cheerful colors might well
supplant on our houses the eternal sombre of gray and brown, as they so
often and so gloriously do in nature.
The power sculpture may have in exterior decoration was also taught. At
Buffalo statues were not set up in long rows as in museums. Instead you
beheld noble and beautiful groups in natural environments of bright
green foliage with temples and blue sky above, or forming pediments and
friezes upon buildings. White nymphs and goddesses bent over fountains
or peeped from beneath trees or the ornate columns of pergolas. One was
greeted at every turn by these gleaming figures, a vital and integral
part of the landscape.
Carl Bitter, director of sculpture, aimed to make sculpture teach while
it decorated. He sought to tell in sculpture the story of man and
nature. In the lake fronting the Government Building stood a fountain of
Man. A half-veiled form, mysterious Man, occupied a pedestal composed of
figures of the five senses. Underneath the basin the Virtues struggled
with the Vices. Minor groups depicted the different ages. The most
remarkable was Mr. Konti's Despotic Age. The grim tyrant sat in his
chariot, driven by Ambition, who goaded on the four slaves in the
traces, while Justice and Mercy cowered in chains behind. In the
opposite court was told the story of Nature. Most striking there was Mr.
Elwell's figure of Kronos, standing, with winged arms, on a turtle. From
the Fountain of Abundance on the Esplanade, Flora was represented as
tossing garlands of flowers to the chubby cherubs at her feet. The main
court, dedicated to the achievements of man, had groups representing the
Human Intellect and Emotions. The sculptures about the Electric Tower
naturally related to the Falls. There were primeval Niagara and the
Niagara of today, as well as figures symbolic of the Lakes and the
Rivers.
[Illustration: Statue of buffalo.]
Group of Buffalos--Pan-American Exposition.
Copies of the most famous marbles, like the Playful Faun and the Venus
of Melos, embellished the Plaza. Many fine modern pieces adorned the
grounds, as Roth's stirring "Chariot Race" and St. Gaudens's equestrian
statue of General Sherman. Sculpture was profusely used to beautify
buildings. Wholly original and charming were the four groups for the
Temple of Music: Heroic Music, Sacred Music, Dance Music, and Lyric
Music. Perched in every corner were figures of children playing
different instruments.
Much of the sculpture, was careless in execution--not surprising when we
consider that over 500 pieces were set up in less than five months, and
that the artists' models had to be enlarged by machinery. But in vigor
and originality of thought and as a testimony to the progress which art
had made in this country, the exhibit was truly wonderful. All the arts
were employed. To many it was mainly an Art Exhibition, the artistic
feature making a stronger impression than any other. As a work of art
the Exposition could not but effect permanent good, demonstrating what
may be done to beautify our cities and dwellings and cultivating our
love for the beautiful in art and nature.
The supreme glory of the Exposition lay in its electrical illumination.
Niagara was used to create a city of light more dazzling than any dream.
"As the moment for the illumination approached, the band hushed and a
stillness fell upon the multitude. Suddenly dull reddish threads
appeared on the globes of the near-by lamp-pillars. A murmur of
expectation ran through the crowd. For an instant the great tower seemed
to pulse with a thread of life before the eye became sensible to what
had taken place. Then its surfaces gleamed with a faint flush like the
flush which church spires catch from the dawn. This deepened slowly to
pink and then to red. . . . In a moment the architectural skeletons of
the great buildings had been picked out in lines of red light. Then the
whole effect mellowed into luminous yellow. The material exposition had
been transfigured, and its glorified ghost was in its place. . . . Every
night this modern miracle was worked by the rheostat housed in a humble
shed somewhere in the inner recesses of the exposition."
[Illustration: Lighted buildings reflected in the water.]
The Electric Tower at Night.
The centre of light was the Tower. It was suffused with the loveliest
glow of gold, ivory, and delicate green, all blending. The lights
revealed and interpreted the architecture softening the colors and
adding the subtle charm of mystery. A hundred beautiful hues were
reflected in the waters of the fountains. The floral effects made by
submerged lights in the basin were exquisite, and the witchery of the
scene was indescribable.
The chaining of Niagara for electric purposes was of course a prominent
feature of the fair. Electricity was almost, or quite, the sole motor
used on the grounds; 5,000 horsepower being directly from Niagara's
total of 50,000. Niagara circulated the salt water in the fisheries and
kept their water at the right temperature. It operated telephones,
phonographs, soda fountains, the big search-lights, the elevators, the
machines in the Machinery Building, the shows and illusions in the
Midway.
At Chicago we were ashamed of the Midway. We had since learned to play.
Buffalo used utmost ingenuity to provide sensations and novelties. The
Midway was made fascinating. You saw in it every variety of buildings,
representing all countries from Eskimodom to Darkest Africa. Cairo had
eight streets with 600 natives. The Hawaiian and Philippine villages
were centres of interest, revealing the every-day life of our new-won
lands. In Alt-Nurnberg you dined to the strains of a German orchestra.
[Illustration]
Triumphal Bridge and entrance to the Exposition,
showing electric display at night.
The magnificent amphitheatre, covering ten acres, a monument to American
athletics, was built after the marble Stadium of Lycurgus at Athens. An
Athletic Congress celebrated American supremacy in athletic sports. The
programme included basket-ball tournaments, automobile, bicycle, and
track and field championship races, lacrosse matches, and canoe "meets."
The exhibits at Buffalo, though less ample, naturally showed advance
over the corresponding ones at Chicago. The guns and ammunition of the
United States ordnance department excited interest, for we were now
making our own war supplies. A picturesque log building was devoted to
forestry. The Graphic Arts Building showed the great strides made in
printing and engraving. A model dairy was operated in a quaint little
cottage on the grounds. Fifty cows of the best breeds were tested and
the tests recorded.
A conservatory contained a very fine collection of food plants, alive
and growing, sent from South and Central America; also eight different
kinds of tea plants from South Carolina. A small coffee plantation and
some vanilla vines had been transplanted from Mexico. Nearly every
country in Spanish America was represented. Cuba, San Domingo, Ecuador,
Chile, Honduras, Mexico, and Canada had buildings. Sections in the
Government Building were devoted to exhibits from Porto Rico, the
Hawaiian Islands, and the Philippines.
[Illustration]
The Electricity Building.
The United States Government Building was most interesting. New
inventions made its exhibits live. In place of reading reports and
statistics, you saw scenes and heard sounds. Class-room songs and
recitations were reproduced by the graphophone. The biograph showed
naval cadets marching while at the same time you heard the band music.
Labor-saving machines were represented in full operation. Pictures by
wire, the mutoscope, and type-setting by electricity were among the
wonders shown. Every day a crew of the life-saving service gave a
demonstration, launching a life-boat and rescuing a sailor. Near by was
a field hospital, where wounded soldiers were cared for. Many of the
newest uses for electricity were displayed. Never before had lighting
been so brilliant or covered such large areas, or such speed in
telegraphy been attained, or telephoning reached such distances. The
akouphone, a blessing to the deaf, was exhibited, as were also the
powerful search-lights now a necessity at sea.
CHAPTER XIX.
MR. MCKINLEY'S END
[1901]
Upon invitation President and Mrs. McKinley visited the Pan-American
Exposition at Buffalo. September 5, 1901, the first day of his presence,
the Chief Magistrate delivered an address, memorable both as a sagacious
survey of public affairs and as indicating a modification of his
well-known tariff opinions in the direction of freer commercial
intercourse with foreign nations.
"We must not," he said, "repose in fancied security that we can forever
sell everything and buy little or nothing." ... "The period of
exclusiveness is past." "Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the
spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not." ... "If perchance
some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and
protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to
extend and promote our markets abroad?" In connection with this thought
the President expressed his conviction that we must encourage our
merchant marine and, in the same commercial interest, construct a
Pacific cable and an Isthmian canal.
The projects of Mr. McKinley's statesmanship thus announced were
approved by nearly the entire public, but they were destined to be
carried out by other hands. On his second day at Buffalo, Friday,
September 6th, about four in the afternoon, the President stood in the
beautiful Temple of Music receiving the hundreds who filed past to shake
hands with him. A sinister fellow, resembling an Italian, tarried
suspiciously, and was pushed forward by the Secret Service attendants.
Next behind him followed a boyish-looking workman, his right hand
swathed in a handkerchief. As the first made way Mr. McKinley extended
his hand to the young man's unencumbered left. The next instant the
bandaged right arm raised itself and two shots rang on the air. The
President staggered back into the arms of a bystander, while his
treacherous assailant was borne to the floor.
[Illustration]
President McKinley at Niagara
Ascending the stairs from Luna Island, to Goat Island.
Copyright, 1901, by C. E. Dunlap.
[Illustration: McKinley and several other men ascending steps.]
The last photograph of the late President McKinley.
Taken as he was ascending the steps of the Temple of Music,
September 6. 1901.
Grievously wounded as he was in breast and in stomach, the President's
first thoughts were for others. He requested that the news be broken
gently to Mrs. McKinley, and, it was said, expressed regret that the
occurrence would be an injury to the exposition. As cries of "Lynch him"
arose from the maddened crowd, the stricken chief urged those about him
to see that no hurt befel the assassin. The latter was speedily secured
in prison to await the result of his black deed, while President
McKinley was without delay conveyed to the Emergency Hospital, where his
wounds were dressed.
Except for continued weakness and rapid heart action, the symptoms
during the early days of the succeeding week gave strong hopes of the
patient's recovery. At the home of Mr. Milburn, President of the
exposition, whose guest he was, President McKinley received the
tenderest care and most skilful treatment. So far allayed was anxiety
that the Cabinet officers left Buffalo, while Vice President Roosevelt
betook himself to a sequestered part of the Adirondacks. The President
himself, vigorous and naturally sanguine, did not give up till Friday, a
week from the date of his injury.
[Illustration]
The Milburn Residence, where President McKinley died--Buffalo, N. Y.
Copyright, 1902, by Underwood & Underwood.
Upon that day his condition became alarming. The digestive organs
abdicated their functions, nourishment even by injection became
impossible, traces of septic poison were manifest. By night the world
knew that McKinley was a dying man. In the evening he regained
consciousness and bade farewell to those about him. "Good-by, good-by,
all; it is God's way; His will be done." The murmured words came from
his lips, "Nearer, my God, to Thee; e'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth
me."
At the early morning hour of 2.45, Saturday, September 14th, the rest
which is deeper than any sleep came to the sufferer. The autopsy showed
that death was due to gangrene of the tissues in the path of the wound,
the system having failed to repair the ravages of the bullet that had
entered the abdomen.
The next Monday morning, after a simple funeral ceremony at the Milburn
mansion, the remains were reverently borne to the Buffalo City Hall,
where, till midnight, mourning columns filed past the catafalque. The
body lay in state under the Capitol rotunda at Washington for a day, and
was borne thence, hardly a moment out of hearing of solemn bells or out
of sight of half-masted flags and dumb, mourning multitudes, to the old
home at Canton, Ohio. Here the late Chief Magistrate's fellow-townsmen,
his old army comrades, and other thousands joined the procession to the
cemetery or tearfully lined the streets as it passed.
[Illustration]
Ascending the Capitol steps at Washington, D, C.,
where the casket lay in state in the Rotunda.
On the day of the interment, September 19th, appropriate exercises,
attended by enormous concourses of people, occurred all over the
country, and even in foreign parts. In hardly an American town of size
could a single building contain the crowd, overflow meetings being
necessary, filling several churches or halls. Special commemorative
services were held in Westminster Cathedral by King Edward's orders.
No king was ever honored by obsequies so widespread or more sincere.
Messages of condolence poured in upon the widow from the four quarters
of the globe. Business was suspended. For five minutes telegraph clicks
and cable flashes ceased, and for ten minutes, upon many lines of
railway and street railway, every wheel stood still.
None but the rash undertook, at once after his lamented decease, to
assign President McKinley's name to its exact altitude on the roll of
America's illustrious men. Ardent eulogists spoke of him as beside the
nation's greatest statesman, Lincoln, while his most pronounced
opponents in life accorded him very high honor. During his career he had
been accused of opportunism, of inconsistency, of partiality to the
moneyed interests of the country. His views of great public questions
underwent change. One of his altered attitudes, much remarked upon, that
concerning silver, involved, as pointed out in the last chapter, no
change of essential principle. In regard to protection he at last swung
to Blaine's position favoring reciprocity, which, as author of the
McKinley Bill, he had been understood to oppose; but it should be
remembered that his final utterances on the subject contemplated an
industrial situation very different from that prevalent during his early
years in politics. The United States had become a mighty exporter of
manufactured products, competing effectively with England, Germany, and
France in the sale of such everywhere in the world.
American material supplied in large part the Russian Trans-Siberian
Railroad. American food-stuffs and meats wakened agrarian frenzy in
Germany. The island-hive of England buzzed loudly with jealous
foreboding lest America capture her world-markets. From an average of
close to $163,000,000 annually from 1887 to 1897 United States exports
of manufactured products reached in 1898 over $290.000,000, in 1899 over
$339,000,000, in 1900 nearly $434,000,000, and in 1901, $412,000,000. As
coal-producer the United States at last led Britain, American tin-plate
reached Wales itself, American locomotives the English colonies and even
the mother-country, while boots and shoes from our factories ruled the
markets of West Australia and South Africa. For bridge and viaduct
construction in British domains American bids heavily undercut British
bids both in price and in time limit.
His progressive insight into the tariff question betrayed Mr. McKinley's
mental activity and hospitality, as his final deliverances thereupon
exhibited fearlessness. None knew better than he that what he said at
Buffalo would be challenged by many in the name of party orthodoxy. Even
greater firmness was manifest when, at an earlier date, speaking at
Savannah, he ranked Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as among
America's "great" sons. With this brave tribute should be mentioned his
commendable nomination of the ex-Confederate Generals Fitz-Hugh Lee and
Joseph Wheeler as Major-Generals in the United States Army. Such words
and deeds showed skilled leadership also. Each was fittingly timed so as
best to escape or fend criticism and so as to impress the public deeply.
[Illustration: Funeral parade.]
President McKinley's Remains Passing the United States Treasury,
Washington, D.C.
Copyright, 1901, by Underwood & Underwood.
Not a little of Mr. McKinley's apparent vacillation and of his
complaisance toward men and interests representing wealth was due to an
endowment of exquisite finesse which stooped to conquer, which led by
seeming to follow, or by yielding an inch took an ell. In him was rooted
by inheritance a quick sense of the manufacturer's point of view, for
his father and grandfather had been iron-furnace men, and a certain
conservative instinct, characteristic of his party, which deemed the
counsel of broadcloth wiser than the clamor of rags, and equally
patriotic withal. Notwithstanding this, history cannot but pronounce
McKinley's love of country, his whole Americanism, in fact, as sincere,
sturdy, and democratic as Abraham Lincoln's.
Mr. McKinley's power and breadth as a statesman were greatly augmented
by the responsibilities of the presidency. Before his accession to that
exalted office he had helped devise but one great public measure, the
McKinley Bill, and his speeches upon his chosen theme, protection, were
more earnest than varied or profound. But witness the largeness of view
marking the directions of April 7, 1900, to the Taft Philippine
Commission: "The Commission should bear in mind that the government
which they are establishing is designed not for our satisfaction or for
the expression of our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace,
and prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands, and the measures
adopted should be made to conform to their customs, their habits, and
even their prejudices, to the fullest extent consistent with the
accomplishment of the indispensable requisites of just and effective
government."
Most of President McKinley's appointments were wise; several of the most
important ones quite remarkably so. He managed discreetly in crises. He
saw the whole of a situation as few statesmen have done, penetrating to
details and obscure aspects, which others, even experts, had overlooked.
During the Spanish War his advice was always wise and helpful, and at
points vital. Courteous to all foreign powers, and falling into no
spectacular jangles with any, he was obsequious to none. No other ruler,
party to intervention in China during the Boxer rebellion in 1900, acted
there so sanely, or withdrew with so creditable a record.
What made it certain that Mr. McKinley's name would be forever
remembered with honor was not merely or mainly the fact that his
administration marked a great climacteric in our national career. His
intimates in office and in public life unanimously testified that in
shaping the nation's new destiny he played an active and not a passive
role. He dominated his cabinet, diligently attending to the advice each
member offered, but by no means always following it. Party bosses
seeking to lead him were themselves led, oftenest without being aware of
it, to accomplish his wishes.
[Illustration]
The Home of William McKinley, at Canton, Ohio.
Copyright, 1901, by Underwood & Underwood.
As a practical politician in the better sense of the word McKinley was a
master. Repeatedly, at critical junctures, he saved his following from
rupture, while the opposition became an impotent rout. Hardly a contrast
in American political warfare has been more striking than the pitiful
demoralization of the Democracy in the campaign of 1900 compared with
the closed ranks and solid front of the Republican array.
Anti-imperialists like Carnegie and Hoar, silver men like Senator
Stewart, and the low-tariff Republicans of the West united to hold aloft
the McKinley banner.
The result was not due, as some fancied, to Mr. Hanna. Nor did it mean
that there was no discord among Republicans, for there was much. The
discipline proceeded from the candidate's influence, from his
harmonizing personal leadership. This he exercised not through oratory,
for he had none of the tricks of speech, not even the knack of
story-telling, but by the mere force of his will and his wisdom.
Mr. McKinley's private character was pure, exemplary, and noble. His
life-long devotion to an invalid wife; his fidelity to his friends; the
charm, consideration, and tact of his demeanor toward everyone; and,
above all, the Christian sublimity of his last days created at once a
foundation and a crown for his fame.
Ex-President Cleveland said: "You will constantly hear as accounting for
Mr. McKinley's great success that he was obedient and affectionate as a
son, patriotic and faithful as a soldier, honest and upright as a
citizen, tender and devoted as a husband, and truthful, generous,
unselfish, moral, and clean in every relation of life. He never thought
of those things as too weak for his manliness."
A special grand jury forthwith indicted the assassin, who, talking
freely enough with his guards, refused all intercourse with the
attorneys assigned to defend him, and with the expert sent to test his
sanity. He was promptly placed upon trial, convicted, sentenced, and
executed, all without any of the unseemly incidents attending the trial
of Guiteau after Garfield's assassination. No heed was given to those
who, some of them from pulpits, fulminated anarchy as bad as that of the
anarchists by demanding that Czolgosz be lynched. These prompt but
perfectly orderly and dispassionate proceedings were a great credit to
the State of New York.
Leon Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley, was born in this
country, of Russian-Polish parentage, in 1875. He received some
education, was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Detroit, and later
employed in Cleveland and in Chicago. At the time of his crime he had
been working in a Cleveland wire mill. It was said that at Cleveland he
had heard Emma Goldman deliver an anarchist address, and that this
inspired his fell purpose. It was suspected that he was the tool of an
anarchist plot, and that the man preceding him in the line when he shot
the President was an accomplice, but there was no evidence that either
was true. There were indications that Czolgosz had made overtures to the
anarchists and been rejected as a spy. No accessories were found. Nor
did the dreadful act betoken that anarchism was increasing in our
country, or that any special propagandism in its favor was on. To all
appearance, it stood unrelated, so far as America was concerned.
Leon Czolgosz's heart had caught fire from the malignant passion of red
anarchy abroad, which had within seven years struck down the President
of France, the Empress of Austria, the King of Italy, and the Prime
Minister of Spain. In their fanatic diabolism its devotees impartially
hated government, whether despotic or free, and would, no doubt, gladly
have made America, the freest of the great commonwealths, for that
reason a hatching ground for their dark conspiracies.
[Illustration]
Interior of room in Wilcox House where
Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of Presidency.
They were no less hostile to one than to the other of our political
parties. The murder had no political significance, though certainly
calculated to rebuke virulent editorials and cartoons in political
papers, wont to season political debate with too hot personal condiment,
printed and pictorial. President McKinley had suffered from this and so
had his predecessor.
Upon such an occasion orderly government, both in the States and in the
nation, reasonably sought muniment against any possible new danger from
anarchy. McKinley's own State leading, States enacted statutes
denouncing penalties upon such as assailed, by either speech or act, the
life or the bodily safety of anyone in authority. The Federal Government
followed with a similar anti-anarchist law of wide scope.
Deeply as the country prized McKinley--and the sense of loss by his
death increased with the days--Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt took
over the presidency with as little jar as a military post suffers from
changing guard.
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