UNITED STATES. 



781 



party. Chauneey F. Black, of Pennsylvania, 

 was elected president ; Edward B. Whitney, of 

 New York, secretary; and Robert Grier, of 

 New York, chairman of the executive com- 

 mittee ; and headquarters were opened in New- 

 York city. State organizations were formed 

 in twelve States, and by November 3,009 clubs 

 were reported from forty-two States and Ter- 

 ritories, with an aggregate membership of 300,- 

 000. New York led the list with 430 clubs ; 

 Kentucky had bOl ; West Virginia, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and Illinois more than 200 each; and 

 seven other States more than 100 each. The 

 National Association distributed about one 

 million documents during the canvass, and the 

 State leagues many times that number. The 

 New York State League undertook a unique 

 work in chartering a canal-boat, the " Thomas 

 Jefferson,' 1 which, under the command of Presi- 

 dent Thatcher of the League, with a crew of 

 speakers and a cargo of tariff documents, made 

 a three weeks' voyage across the State, through 

 the Erie and Champlin Canals, holding meetings 

 and distributing documents. The State League 

 of Pennsylvania opened the canvass with a 

 thousand simultaneous meetings in all parts of 

 the State. 



Besides these party organizations, the tariff 

 reform clubs throughout the country were act- 

 ive in the canvass, notably the Reform Club of 

 New York, the Massachusetts Tariff Reform 

 League, the New Haven Reform Club, and the 

 American Tariff Reform League of Chicago. 



The Presidential Canfass. On August 6 the 

 candidates of the Prohibition party made pub- 

 lic their letters of acceptance. President 

 Cleveland's letter accepting the Democratic 

 nomination was published on September 10, 

 and on the following day that of ex-Senator 

 Harrison appeared. Mr. Morton's letter ac- 

 cepting the vice-presidential nomination ap- 

 peared on October 2, and ex Senator Thur- 

 man's on October 14. President Cleveland 

 reiterated in his letter the strong views in 

 favor of tariff reduction, and the danger of a 

 surplus in the national Treasury, expressed by 

 him in his message to Congress in December, 

 1887. The Republicans were not slow in 

 taking up the tariff issue thereby presented, 

 and that question became the absorbing topic 

 of discussion in the canvass. The contro- 

 versy became largely one between protection 

 and free trade, the Republicans striving to 

 show that the President's utterances and the 

 Mills Bill committed their opponents to a free- 

 trade policy, while they were themselves 

 pledged to abolish the entire internal revenue 

 system before destroying protective tariff rates. 

 Civil-service reform, the Southern problem, the 

 sonal record of the candidates, and all other 

 questions dwindled into comparative insignifi- 

 cance. 



An incident of the later days of the canvass 

 was the publication on Oct. 24 of a letter 

 purporting to be written by one Charles F. 

 Murchison, of Pomona, Cal., to the British 



minister at Washington, asking advice in re- 

 gard to the political situation, and of the reply 

 of Minister West thereto. The writer said he 

 was a naturalized citizen of the United Si 

 of English birth, but he still considered 

 land the mother-land. lie further said that 

 the information he sought was not for himself 

 alone, but to enable him to give assurances to 

 many other persons in the same situation as 

 himself, for the purpose of influencing their po- 

 litical action as citizens of the United States of 

 English birth. The letter also contained gross 

 reflections upon the conduct of the United 

 States Government in respect to questions 

 in controversy and unsettled between the 

 United States and Great Britain, and both di- 

 rectly and indirectly imputed insincerity in 

 such conduct. The British minister replied 

 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 that fact " ; and that 

 in respect to the " questions with Canada 

 which have been unfortunately reopened since 

 the rejection of the (fisheries) treaty by the 

 Republican majority in the Senate, and by the 

 President's message to which you allude, . . . 

 allowances must be made for the political situ- 

 ation as regards the presidential election." 



The President regarded this reply as an in- 

 terference of Minister West in the politics of 

 this country by giving political advice to 

 American citizens, and notified the British 

 Government of his conduct. No action being 

 taken by that Government for his recall, the 

 President, on Oct. 30, notified him that his 

 presence as the representative of Great Britain 

 was no longer agreeable to this Government, 

 and his passports were delivered to him. The 

 British Government, regarding this action as 

 unduly hasty and discourteous, refused to fill 

 the vacant mission during the remaining 

 months of the Administration. The incident 

 acquired unusual importance from the circum- 

 stance that it was a part of the Republican 

 argument throughout the campaign to show 

 that the Democratic party, in its tariff-reform 

 and free-trade views, was adopting a course 

 that would open our markets to British manu- 

 facturers, and was hostile to American inter- 

 ests. 



The efforts of both parties were directed 

 mainly to the doubtful States of Indiana, New- 

 York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Presi- 

 dent Cleveland took no active part in the can- 

 vass, and Gen. Harrison confined his efforts to 

 short addresses made to the numerous delega- 

 tions that came to pay their respects to him at 

 his home. Ex-Senator Thurman delivered a 

 series of addresses in the West, and spoke also 

 in New York city and at Newark. N. J. The 

 central figure of the canvass on the Republican 

 side, was Mr. Elaine, whose return in August 

 from his European trip was signalized by a 

 great demonstration in his honor in New York 

 dry. He took an active part in the Maine 



