Part 57 (1/2)

_d_. What were the chief difficulties in the way of reconstruction?

_e_. What are the important duties of citizens? Why do you select these?

TOPICS FOR SPECIAL WORK

_a_. Impeachment of Johnson.

_b_. The Chicago fire.

_c_. Civil Service Reform.

_d_. Industrial activity in the South.

SUGGESTIONS

The importance of the topics treated in Part XIV can hardly be overestimated. The opportunities to impress the pupils with their public duties are many and important. Reconstruction should be broadly treated and not discussed in a partisan spirit. It is better to dwell on our duties to the negroes than to seek out Northern blunders and Southern mistakes. In connection with the amendments the whole question of the suffrage can be discussed in the responsibility devolving upon the voter fully set forth. Questions of munic.i.p.al organizations also arise and can be ill.u.s.trated by local experience.

XV

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1889-1900

Books for Study and Reading

References.--Scribner's _Popular History_, V, 579-659; McMaster's _School History_, chs. x.x.xiv, x.x.xv.

Home Readings.--Any short, attractive account of the Spanish War.

CHAPTER 44

CONFUSION IN POLITICS

[Sidenote: Benjamin Harrison elected President, 1888.]

464. Benjamin Harrison elected President, 1888.--In 1888 the Democrats put forward Cleveland as their candidate for President. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Like Hayes and Garfield, he had won renown in the Civil War and was a man of the highest honor and of proved ability. The prominence of the old Southern leaders in the Democratic administration, and the neglect of the business interests of the North, compelled many Northern Republicans who had voted for Cleveland to return to the Republican party. The result was the election of Harrison and of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

[Sidenote: The McKinley tariff, 1890.]

[Sidenote: Reciprocity.]

465. The McKinley Tariff, 1890.--One of the questions most discussed in the campaign of 1888 was the reform of the tariff. There seem to have been two sets of tariff reformers. One set of reformers proposed to reform the tariff by doing away with as much of it as possible. The other set of reformers proposed to readjust the tariff duties so as to make the protective system more consistent and more perfect. Led by William McKinley, the Republicans set to work to reform the tariff in this latter sense. This they did by generally raising the duties on protected goods. The McKinley Tariff Act also offered reciprocity to countries which would favor American goods. This offer was in effect to lower certain duties on goods imported from Argentina, for instance, if the Argentine government would admit certain American goods to Argentina on better terms than similar goods imported from other countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAPITOL AT WAs.h.i.+NGTON.]

[Sidenote: Gold and Silver]