CLEVELAND 



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CLEVELAND 



Arthur's administration several attempts were 

 made to reduce the surplus by appropriations, 

 many of which were wasteful. In a special 

 message to Congress in December, 1887, Cleve- 

 land pointed out that the increasing surplus 

 showed that the scale of taxation was excessive, 

 and recommended sweeping reductions in the 

 import tariffs. The Mills Bill, which passed 

 the House of Representatives, was a low-tariff 

 measure, estimated to reduce the revenues by 

 $50.000,000 a year. The Republican Senate 

 amended it so that it became a high protective 

 measure, which the House refused to accept. 



The failure of this tariff bill, however, placed 

 the issue squarely before the country in a 

 Presidential election year. The tariff was the 

 chief issue in the campaign. Cleveland was 

 renominated, and to oppose him the Republi- 

 cans chose Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. 

 Cleveland received a plurality of 96,000 in the 

 popular vote, but Harrison carried New York 

 and thus had a majority in the electoral col- 

 lege (233 to 168) and was elected. 



An Interval in Private Life. In 1886 Cleve- 

 land married, at the Executive Mansion, Miss 

 Frances Folsom, the daughter of a former 

 law partner in Buffalo. At the end of his 

 term he moved to New York City and there 

 practiced law. When he went out of office his 

 political career seemed ended, but by 1892 the 

 McKinley tariff law (see TARIFF) and other 

 Republican measures led to a change in public 

 feeling. In spite of the opposition of the 

 Democratic leaders of New York, his own 

 state, he was again nominated for President 

 and was reflected over Harrison by an electoral 

 college vote of 277 to 145, and a plurality of 

 364,000. At this election, for the first time 

 since the election of 1860, more than two candi- 

 dates received electoral votes. General James 

 B. Weaver of Iowa, a Populist, received 

 twenty-two votes. 



Second Administration (1893-1897). Cleve- 

 land's second administration was one of the 

 most remarkable in the history of the United 

 States. He entered office free from pledges; 

 the office had sought him. Naturally inde- 

 pendent and sometimes lacking in tact, he now 

 paid little attention to the feelings of other 

 men, and probably no other President ever did 

 things more unpopular at the time. For the 

 first time since Buchanan's administration the 

 Democratic party was in control in the White 

 House and in both houses of Congress. But 

 at the outset Cleveland antagonized a large 

 section of his party by his stand on the silver 



issue. In the summer of 1893 the country suf- 

 fered from a severe panic, and the govern- 

 ment's gold reserve fell far below the danger 

 point. The United States was actually, though 

 not knowingly, on the verge of inability to 

 redeem its notes in specie. 



Cleveland faced the issue squarely, called 

 Congress in special session, and after a bitter 

 fight forced the repeal of the Sherman Silver 



ELECTION OF 1892 



States shown in black were Democratic ; ob- 

 lique shaded. Republican ; perpendicular shaded, 

 Populist ; white, non-voting territories. 



Purchase Act of 1890. That act, by requiring 

 the government to buy a large amount of silver 

 each month, was exhausting the gold reserve. 

 Cleveland, through Secretary of the Treasury 

 Carlisle, sold for gold several bond issues to a 

 syndicate of New York bankers, in order to 

 keep the gold reserve at a point where it was 

 enough to redeem the government's paper 

 currency. He was severely criticised for allow- 

 ing the bankers a large profit, and a later bond 

 issue was sold by public subscription. The 

 effects of the panic, however, were apparent for 

 several years, until about 1897. 



One of the principal results of the business 

 depression following the panic was a series of 

 labor troubles which culminated in a great rail- 

 way strike in 1894. Everywhere there was dis- 

 content among the laboring classes, thousands 

 were out of work and strikes were frequent. 

 The closing of the Pullman Company's shops 

 at Pullman, 111., led to a general strike of the 

 railway employees on practically all of the 

 lines running east of Chicago. Chicago was 

 the center of the trouble, and rioting and de- 

 struction of property were ordinary events of 

 the day. As the governor of Illinois, John P. 

 Altgeld, refused to call out the militia to pre- 

 serve order, the President on his own initiative 

 sent Federal troops to Chicago to protect the 

 mails and incidentally to suppress rioting. 

 This action caused a sharp controversy, because 



