UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5990 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



since Andrew Jackson's administration the ae- 

 on of a new party to power was accom- 

 plished without wholesale changes in the pub- 

 lic service. 



Important legislation was soon passed by 

 Congress: the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, 

 dissolving the Mormon Church as a corporate 

 body and confiscating most of its property ; the 

 Interstate Commerce Act, and the act of 1888 

 absolutely forbidding further immigration from 

 China. Cleveland earned the dislike of many 

 politicians of both parties by vetoing several 

 hundred private bills, most of them relating to 

 pensions. These bills were designed to help the 

 government spend the growing surplus which 

 had already caused extravagance during Ar- 

 thur's administration. Cleveland, however, had 

 other plans for reducing the surplus ; these were 

 embodied in the Mills Bill, a tariff bill designed 

 to reduce the income from customs duties by 

 $50,000,000 a year. The House of Representa- 

 tives passed the bill, but the Senate, still Re- 

 publican, voted against it. 



The tariff became the chief issue in the cam- 

 paign of 1888, in which Cleveland was defeated 

 for reelection by Benjamin Harrison, although 

 Cleveland received a majority of the popular 

 vote. The years from 1889 to 1893 were note- 

 worthy for the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; for 

 the repeal of the Bland-Allison Act and the 

 substitution of the Sherman Silver Purchase 

 Act, a compromise between the advocates of 

 the free coinage of silver and those of the gold 

 standard; and for the McKinley Tariff Act of 

 1890, establishing a high protective tariff. This 

 law contained a provision requiring reciprocity, 

 which was strongly advocated by James G. 

 Blaine, then Secretary of State. 



Industrial Unrest. The McKinley Tariff Act 

 caused such a rapid rise in prices everywhere 

 that the autumn Congressional elections re- 

 sulted in an easy victory for the Democrats. 

 The discontent was centered in the agricultural 

 areas, but the mining and manufacturing dis- 

 tricts also had their complaints. The great 

 strike at Homestead, Pa., and the rise of the 

 Populist, or People's, party showed the drift of 

 affairs. Meanwhile, Congress was rapidly re- 

 ducing the Treasury surplus, chiefly by doubling 

 the amount paid in pensions. The harvest of 

 these acts and of an unsoundness of business 

 conditions was reaped by the new administra- 

 tion (Cleveland succeeded Harrison in 1893), 

 which faced one of the greatest financial crises 

 in the history of the United States, to be fol- 

 lowed by four years of depression. Most of the 



important events of 1893 and 1894 were con- 

 nected with this economic situation. Labor 

 troubles occurred almost everywhere, the great- 

 est of these being the Pullman and the railway 

 employees' strike, which began at Chicago, but 

 spread westward to San Francisco and eastward 

 to Cincinnati. 



The President and his Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury, John G. Carlisle, attempted to keep the 

 Treasury's gold reserve above the required 

 minimum by selling bonds, and Congress was 

 finally induced to repeal the Sherman Silver 

 Purchase Act. The President thus succeeded in 

 keeping silver and gold at their old ratio, but 

 he broke the Democratic party into two wings, 

 one favoring free coinage of silver, the other 

 favoring the gold standard and supporting 

 Cleveland. For a brief period it seemed as if 

 the threatened war with Great Britain over the 

 Venezuela Boundary dispute would become the 

 great issue of 1896, but Great Britain's calmness 

 in the face of Cleveland's now famous message 

 restored quiet, and free silver became the po- 

 litical issue. William McKinley, the Repub- 

 lican candidate for President, was elected by a 

 large vote over William J. Bryan, the Demo- 

 cratic candidate, and John M. Palmer, the Na- 

 tional (gold) Democratic candidate. 



War and Prosperity. With a Republican ma- 

 jority in both Houses, Congress promptly 

 passed the highly-protective Dingley Tariff Act 

 of 1897, which raised duties on many commodi- 

 ties higher than ever before and turned the 

 deficit in the Treasury to a surplus. Another 

 important law was the Gold Standard Act of 

 1900, which made the gold dollar the standard 

 of currency. In 1898 the Hawaiian Islands, and 

 in 1899 Tutuila and several other islands of 

 Samoa, were annexed. The most important 

 events of McKinley's administration were con- 

 nected with the Spanish-American War. The 

 President himself was reluctant to declare war 

 against Spain, but the martial spirit which had 

 seized Congress and the nation practically 

 forced him to do so. 



The causes and events of the war, as well as 

 the problems connected with the government of 

 the territory acquired as a result of it, are dis- 

 cussed In the articles on the SPANISH-AMERICAN 

 WAR ; CUBA ; PHILIPPINE ISLANDS ; PORTO Rico. 



The acquisition of these territories was op- 

 posed by the Democrats and by some Repub- 

 licans, who called themselves anti-imperialists. 

 Imperialism became an important issue in the 

 campaign of 1900, but a better rallying cry was 

 the "full dinner-pail." McKinley's administra- 



