Part 17 (1/2)
Confident alike in the history of our great party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and our candidates in the full a.s.surance that the election will bring victory to the Republican Party and prosperity to the people of the United States.
There had been a strong effort in the Committee on Resolutions by the silver men urging the adoption of a free silver plank, and Senator Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, had made an affecting appeal but without avail.
At the conclusion of the reading of the platform by Senator Foraker, one of the most dramatic incidents in any Republican convention took place, when Senator Teller arose, and in behalf of the silver men submitted the following subst.i.tute for the financial plank as read:
”The Republican Party authorizes the use of both gold and silver as equal standard money, and pledges its power to secure the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at our mints at the ratio of sixteen parts of silver to one of gold.”
After presenting this subst.i.tute Senator Teller delivered his farewell address to the Convention, at the conclusion of which Senator Foraker moved that the subst.i.tute be laid on the table, thus cutting off any debate. On a roll-call of the States the motion was carried by a vote of 818 to 105. The financial plank was then voted on separately, and the one reported was adopted by a vote of 812 to 110. The entire platform was then adopted by an overwhelming viva voce vote. The crucial moment of the Convention was at hand. Senator Cameron, of Utah, was now permitted to read a statement which had been prepared by the silvermen to be read in the event of the adoption of the gold plank. The silver manifesto was signed by Senator Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, Senator F.
T. Dubois, of Idaho, Senator Frank J. Cameron, of Utah, Representative Chas. S. Hartman, of Montana, and A. C. Cleveland, of Nevada, the members of the Committee on Resolutions for their States. Senators Cameron and Teller then shook hands with Messrs. Thurston and Foraker, descended from the stage, and, pa.s.sing slowly down the aisle, left the hall, followed by about thirty-two other silver delegates. The scene was most impressive, the remaining delegates and spectators standing on their chairs, shouting and singing national airs. After listening to explanations by the silver delegates who remained in the convention, the roll-call of States was had for the National Committeemen. Marcus A.
Hanna, of Ohio, whose brilliant management of McKinley's interests had made his name a household word, was selected unanimously as Chairman of the National Committee. Candidates for the presidential nomination were now presented. John M. Baldwin nominated Senator Wm. B. Allison, of Iowa; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge presented the name of Thomas B. Reed in a scholarly and masterful appeal; with his usual eloquence Chauncey M.
Depew nominated Levi P. Morton, of New York; then came the great enthusiasm of the Convention when Senator Joseph B. Foraker stepped to the stage and began his speech, a remarkable effort, naming William McKinley, of Ohio. After he had spoken a short time he was interrupted by fully twenty-eight minutes of the wildest enthusiasm when the name of William McKinley was first mentioned by him. John M. Thurston seconded the nomination of McKinley, as did J. Madison Vance. Senator Matthew S.
Quay was nominated by Governor Daniel H. Hastings, after which the balloting commenced. There were 924 delegates, and only one ballot was taken, with the following result:
McKinley ........ 661 Reed ............ 84 Morton .......... 58 Quay ............ 61 Allison ......... 35 Cameron ......... 1
The nomination was then made unanimous, Messrs. Depew, Platt, Lodge, Hastings and others joining in the motion. Nominations for Vice-President being now in order, Samuel Fessenden named William G.
Bulkeley, of Connecticut; J. Franklin Fort nominated Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey; Wm. M. Randolph named H. Clay Evans, of Tennessee; S. W.
K. Allen nominated Chas. W. Lippitt, of Rhode Island, and D. F. Bailey named James A. Walker, of Virginia. The nomination went to Mr. Hobart on the first ballot.
Hobart .......... 533 Walker .......... 24 Evans ........... 277 Lippitt ......... 8 Bulkeley ........ 39
A few scattering votes were also given for Thomas B. Reed, Chauncey M.
Depew, John M. Thurston, Frederick D. Grant, and Levi P. Morton. After selecting the notification committees, the Convention adjourned _sine die_.
The Republican nominee in 1896, William McKinley, was born at Niles, Ohio, in 1843, and was therefore only 18 years of age at the opening of the Civil War, for which he enlisted in the ranks of a company of volunteers. After the battle of Antietam he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, and was subsequently advanced to Major, his commission being signed by President Lincoln. The war over, Mr. McKinley studied law and was admitted to the bar and practiced with much success, and soon became prominent in Ohio politics. He was a member of the National House of Representatives from 1877 to 1891, during which time he had steadily increased in the esteem of his colleagues and the people. His framing of the tariff law of 1890 had brought him into great prominence. He was defeated for re-election in the political revolution of 1890, but was elected Governor of Ohio in 1892, and served as such until January, 1896, a few months before the Convention.
The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago, Ills., Tuesday, July 7, 1896, and the silver forces immediately took control of the Convention by unseating David B. Hill, of New York, who had been chosen by the National Committee as temporary Chairman, and subst.i.tuting John B. Daniel of Virginia. The Democratic platform of 1896, adopted on the third day of the Convention, contained the following plank, which, with the opposite declaration in the Republican platform, became the controlling issue of the campaign:
”We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any nation.”
A minority report was presented by Senator David B. Hill, but was rejected by a vote of 626 to 303. It was during the debate on the motion to subst.i.tute this minority report that William J. Bryan delivered his remarkable speech for free silver, an effort that created remarkable scenes of enthusiasm in the Convention and made him immediately the idol of the free silver forces. The speech concluded:
”If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing ma.s.ses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: 'You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”'
This Democratic Convention nominated William J. Bryan for President on the fifth ballot, and named Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for Vice-President on the fifth ballot.
The People's Party Convention met at St. Louis, Mo., July 22, 1896, and ratified the nomination of William J. Bryan for President, but the Middle-of-the-Road members named Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, for Vice-President, the Vice-President being named first in this Convention; the money plank in the People's Party platform in 1896 was the same in effect as that of the Democratic platform, and its other demands were in general the same as those of 1892. The Silver Party Convention met on the same day (July 22d) in St. Louis and endorsed Bryan and Sewall by acclamation. There were a large number of Democrats in 1896 who were unwilling to endorse the Chicago platform and the candidates, and at the same time they were not willing to vote for the Republican nominees, so they held a convention at Indianapolis September 2, 1896, and nominated John M. Palmer, of Illinois, for President, and Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky, for Vice-President, and adopted a sound money platform and the name of the ”National Democratic Party.” Three other conventions had been held; the Prohibition Convention at Philadelphia on May 27, 1896, which nominated Joshua Levering, of Maryland, and Hale Johnson, of Illinois, but a contest had arisen in this convention over the silver question, and it resulted in the secession of a number of delegates who met on the next day and styled themselves ”The National Party.” They nominated Rev. Chas. E. Bentley, of Nebraska, and James H. Southgate, of North Carolina, and adopted a bi-metallic platform. The Socialist-Labor Convention met at New York on July 6, 1896, and nominated Charles H.
Matchett, of New York, and Matthew Maguire of New Jersey.
The campaign of 1896 was not only remarkable in its inception, but continued throughout to be one of the most spectacular in our political history. At first there was general s.h.i.+fting of the old party lines and a ”bolting” from all of the party candidates, but the Republican Party suffered the least in this respect. Mr. Bryan conducted a remarkable personal canva.s.s of the entire country, and was greeted by large crowds to see him and hear his arguments. Mr. McKinley remained throughout the canva.s.s at his home in Canton, Ohio, receiving hundreds of visiting delegations and delivering a large number of earnest speeches which were telegraphed over the country and carefully read. Monster street parades were held in the large cities and thousands of badges and lithographs adorned the persons and homes of the enthusiastic partisans, and, as the campaign drew to a close, the people were wrought up to a high pitch of excitement. One striking feature of the canva.s.s was that the ruin and disaster of the four years of Cleveland's second term which, late in 1895, indicated an easy victory for the Republicans, was largely forgotten by the people in the new, exciting and novel issues raised and argued by Mr. Bryan, but those who carefully a.n.a.lyzed the returns of the States which voted in the elections held in August and September, and the trend of public opinion, saw that a Republican victory was almost certain, and this proved true on November 6, 1896, when the popular vote in the several States secured to McKinley and Hobart 271 electoral votes to 176 for Bryan and Sewall. The total popular vote at the election of 1896 was as follows:
McKinley ......... 7,111,607 Bryan ............ 6,509,052 Palmer ........... 134,645 Levering ......... 131,312 Matchett ......... 36,373 Bentley .......... 13,968
William McKinley was inaugurated for his first term on March 4, 1897, and immediately called a special session of Congress to take action on the tariff. The Wilson Tariff Law, as already noted, had totally failed to provide sufficient revenue to meet the expenses of the Government, and the result was a steady and growing deficit in the Treasury. On March 18, 1897, Nelson Dingley, Jr., of Maine, introduced his Tariff Bill in the House, and it became a law with the President's signature on July 24, 1897.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Second inauguration of William McKinley, March 4, 1901.]
The Cuban question now came to the front and occupied public attention more seriously than ever before. The United States had always taken a lively interest in Cuban affairs, and when the Cubans revolted in 1895 for the sixth time against the cruel domination of the Spaniards there was deep sympathy for them in this country, that continued to grow as the months went by. In 1896 the Cubans were accorded the rights of belligerents by the United States. Throughout the Summer of 1897 the country was horrified by the reports from the ”reconcentrado” camps established by General Weyler, and sent aid and relief to the suffering Cubans. The climax of hostility toward Spain came with the terrible news on February 15, 1898, that the Battles.h.i.+p ”Maine” had been blown up in Havana Harbor and 260 American sailors killed. War was declared in April, 1898, and the glorious achievements of American arms are too fresh in memory to require an extended review of them in these pages.
Peace came with the Protocol signed at Was.h.i.+ngton, August 12, 1898, and the formal Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris, December 10, 1898. Spain released her t.i.tle to Cuba, and the United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands, paying Spain the sum of $20,000,000 for the latter, and taking control of the islands for the suppression of civil war and to avoid foreign complications. While the Spanish-American war was in progress the country expanded territorially by the annexation of Hawaii, which was accomplished by joint resolution, signed by the President July 7, 1898.