once reached his decision. Blaine, after a college training and ten years' experience as teacher and journalist, had entered the Maine legislature and from there had gone to the national Congress, where he served fourteen years in the House of Representatives (as its Speaker from 1869 to 1875) and four years in the Senate, whence he was called by Garfield in 1881 to the first place in the cabinet. Cleveland had had absolutely no experience in national affairs, had never been a member of a legislative body of any sort, and had only the political training obtained in the executive offices of sheriff, mayor, and governor.

593. The Campaign of 1884. The campaign was perhaps the most bitter and disgraceful of all our history, conducted, as the Nation remarked, "in a spirit worthy of the stairways of a tenement house." Being unable to revive the issues of the Civil War for a generation of voters who had grown up since the surrender at Appomattox, and having no ground for criticism of Cleveland's public record in the state of New York, the Republican campaign orators attacked the private life of the Democratic candidate, ransacking every page of it for occasion of slander or traces of scandal. The Democrats in turn revived the whole miserable story of Blaine's railroad bonds and the famous Mulligan letters.1 It was clear on election night that the result hung on the state of New York, but several days of intense excitement passed before it was definitely known that Cleveland had carried the state by the slim majority of 1149 votes out of 1,167,169.2

594. The Party Revolution of 1884. Cleveland's election was the first Democratic victory since the campaign of 1856. For the

1 These were letters which Blaine had written to the railroad manipulators, and which he himself thought so damaging to his chances for nomination that he had "borrowed" them from Mulligan and refused to return them—though he later in a very dramatic scene read them to the House, "inviting the confidence of 44,000,000 of his fellow citizens." The sharptongued Conkling, being invited to take the stump for Blaine in 1884, replied, "Thank you, I don't engage in criminal practice."

2 The vote throughout the country (except in the "solid South") was very close, Cleveland receiving 4,874,986 to 4,851,981 for Blaine. Many people believe that Blaine lost New York, and consequently the election, on account of a remark made near the end of the campaign by a certain Dr. Burchard at a meeting of the ministers of New York, which had been called to congratulate Blaine and wish him success. On that occasion Dr. Burchard referred to the Democratic party as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." The insulting phrase, which implied that Roman Catholics were in a class with drunkards, and that both were in sympathy with "rebels," was taken up as a campaign cry all over the land and doubtless cost Blaine thousands of votes.

quarter of a century since the Confederate mortars had opened their fire on Fort Sumter the Republicans had held control of the executive branch of our government, with the tens of thousands of offices in its patronage. For only one term of Congress during that period had the Republicans lost control of the Senate, and they had a majority in the House in all but four terms. This long tenure of power was the reward the country paid the Republican party for its services in preserving the Union and abolishing the curse of slavery. Those services were great, but the uses to which the reward was put were unworthy. Considerations of public welfare, even of common honesty, were often set aside for party ends. Confident in their majorities, the Republican leaders defied the growing demand for reform in the conduct of the government offices. They sneered at the civil-service rules. They tried, by waving the "bloody shirt," to keep alive the savage desire to coerce the South. They hampered and hectored their "reform president," Hayes. They cynically reduced the tariff 3 per cent (by an act of 1883), when their own expert commission recommended a reduction of 20 per cent. They refused to take warning by the gathering of the reform forces in 1872. In the opinion of half the country they had "stolen" the election of 1876 and were generally accused of having "bought" the election of 1880. Consequently, in 1884, they were deposed from their long supremacy by the votes of the reformers in their own party, to whose entreaties and remonstrances they had turned a deaf ear for more than a decade.

REFERENCES

Reconstruction: W. A. DUNNING, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (American Nation Series), chaps. i-v; also Military Government during Reconstruction and The Process of Reconstruction (Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction); W. L. FLEMING, The Sequel of Appomattox (Chronicles, Vol. XXXII); Documentary History of Reconstruction, Vol. I, chaps. ii-v; J. W. BURGESS, Reconstruction and the Constitution, chaps. i-viii; J. G. BLAINE, Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II, chaps. i-xii; F. L. PAXSON, The New Nation (Riverside History), chap. iii; WILLIAM MACDONALD, Select Documents of United States History, 1861-1898, Nos. 42-44, 50-52, 56–62; A. B. HART, American History told by Contemporaries, Vol. IV, Nos. 145-153; HUGH MCCULLOCH, Men and Measures of Half a Century, chaps. xxv-xxvii; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vol. V, chap. xxx; Vol. VI, chaps. xxxi, xxxii; series of articles on Reconstruction in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXXVII, pp. 1-15, 145-157, 354-365, 473-484.

The Aftermath of War: DUNNING (Am. Nation), chaps. v-xxi; also The Impeachment and Trial of President Johnson (Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction); E. B. ANDREWS, The United States in our own Time, chaps. i-xiv; PAXSON, chaps. iv, v; RHODES, Vol. VI, chaps. xxxiii-xxxix; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 159, 174-176; MOORFIELD STOREY, Life of Charles Sumner, chaps. xixxxiv; HAMLIN GARLAND, Ulysses Grant: his Life and Character, chaps. xxxix–l; FREDERIC BANCROFT, The Life of William H. Seward, Vol. II, chaps. xl-xliii; E. L. BOGART, Economic History of the United States, chaps. xx, xxii, xxv; EDWARD STANWOOD, History of the Presidency, chaps. xxiii-xxv; P. L. HAWORTH, The Hayes-Tilden Election.

A New Industrial Age: CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Industrial Evolution of the United States, chaps. xiii, xiv, xxii, xxiii; BOGART, chaps. xx, xxii, xxv; N. S. SHALER (ed.), The United States, Vol. I, chap. vii; Vol. II, chaps. i, ii, xii; E. E. SPARKS, National Development (Am. Nation), chaps. i-v, xviii; D. A. WELLS, Recent Economic Changes, chap. ii; HART, Vol. IV, Nos. 162, 163, 165, 168, 169; ANDREWS, chaps. ix-xiv; JOHN SHERMAN, Recollections of Forty Years, chaps. xxii-xxvii, xxix-xxxvii; ALBERT SHAW, Political Problems of American Development, chaps. vi-viii; D. R. DEWEY, Financial History of the United States, chaps. xiv-xvii; A. D. NOYES, Forty Years of American Finance, chaps. ii, iii; JOHN MITCHELL, Organized Labor, chap. viii; JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth, Vol. II, chap. xlv; J. F. RHODES, History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley, chaps. i-x; CARL R. FISH, The Civil Service and the Patronage.

TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS

1. The Ku-Klux Klans: HART, Vol. IV, No. 156; RHODES, Vol. VI, pp. 180--191, 306–320; FLEMING, Documentary History of Reconstruction, Vol. II, pp. 327-377; W. G. BROWN, The Lower South in American History, pp. 191– 225; J. W. GARNER, Reconstruction in Mississippi, pp. 338–353; D. L. WILSON, The Ku-Klux Klans (Century Magazine, Vol. VI, pp. 398-410); MRS. M. L. AVARY, Dixie after the War, pp. 268–278.

2. The Treaty of Washington: C. F. ADAMS, Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers, pp. 31-198; RHODES, Vol. VI, pp. 335-341, 360-376; ANDREWS, pp. 87-92; W. H. SEWARD, Diplomatic History of the War for the Union, pp. 446-481; BANCROFT, Vol. II, pp. 382–399, 492-500; STOREY, pp. 340-350.

3. The Homestead Acts: J. N. LARNED, History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading, Vol. V, pp. 3463-3464; S. SATO, The Land Question in the United States (Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. IV, pp. 411-427); THOMAS DONALDSON, The Public Domain, pp. 332-356; J. B. SANBORN, Some Political Aspects of Homestead Legislation (American Historical Review, Vol. VI, pp. 19–37); A. B. HART, The Land Policy of the United States (in Essays on Practical Government).

4. The Granger Movement: ANDREWS, pp. 281-284; A. T. HADLEY, Railroad Transportation, its History and Laws, pp. 129-139; E. W. MARTIN, History of the Grange Movement; C. F. ADAMS, JR., The Granger Movement (North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-410); C. W. PREISEN, Outcome of the Granger Movement (Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XXXII, pp. 201-214).

5. Civil Service Reform: FISH, pp. 209-245; Andrews, pp. 230-235, 336342; E. BIE K. FOLTZ, The Federal Civil Service, pp. 38-82; SPARKS, pp 182-201; HART, Vol. IV, No. 199; DORMAN B. EATON (articles in J. J. LALOR'S Cyclopædia of Political Science, Vol. I, pp. 153, 472, 478; Vol. II, p. 640; Vol III, pp. 19, 139, 565, 782, 895).

6. The Movement for a Third Term for Grant: SPARKS, pp. 165–172; STANWOOD, James G. Blaine, pp. 225-231; ANDREWS, pp. 307-312; SHERMAN, pp. 766-774; A. BADEAU, Grant in Peace, pp. 319 ff.; series of articles for and against a third term, by G. S.. BOUTWELL, J. S. BLACK, E. W. SLAUGHTER, and TIMOTHY Howe (North American Review, Vol. CXXX, pp. 116, 197, 224, 370).

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CLEVELAND DEMOCRACY

A PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT

595. Cleveland's Idea of the Presidency. In a book of essays called "Presidential Problems," written in 1904, some years after his retirement from public life, Mr. Cleveland spoke of the presidency as "preeminently the people's office." His administration of that office during the two terms 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 proved the sincerity of his remark, for he acted always as the head of the nation, even when such action threatened to cost him the leadership of his party. He did not believe that the people, in choosing a president, simply designated a man to sit at his desk in the White House and sign the bills which Congress passed up to him and make the appointments to office which the managers of the party dictated to him. Cleveland's exalted view of the independence and responsibility of the president was partly a result of his directness and decision of character and partly due to the fact that his political career had been occupied solely with executive duties as sheriff, mayor, and governor.

596. His Quarrel with the Senate. It was inevitable that President Cleveland should come into conflict with Congress. The Democratic House which had been chosen in the election of 1884 expected him to sweep the Republicans out of all the offices which they had held for a quarter of a century; while the Republican Senate, whose consent was necessary for all the President's appointments, reminded him that the Mugwump vote, which had elected him, had been cast by Republicans who believed him an unpartisan reformer of the tariff and the civil service. When the President chose two cabinet members1 from states of the lower South and divided the chief foreign missions and consulships between the North and the South,

1 These were L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior, and Augustus H. Garland of Arkansas, Attorney-General.