POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880
%494. New Issues before the People.%--Five years had now passed since
the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on Sumter. During these
years the North, aroused and united by the efforts put forth to crush
the Confederacy, had entered on a career of prosperity and development
greater than ever enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came
new issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some out of
the development of the country.
%495. Amnesty.%--In the first place, now that the war was over, the
people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking advantage of this,
certain political leaders began, about 1870, to demand a "general
amnesty" [1] or forgiveness for the rebels, and a stoppage of
reconstructive measures by Congress.
[Footnote 1: In 1863, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons"
except the leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again
offered amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons; and,
though in the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left
a great many men unpardoned.]
%496. The National Finances.%--A second issue resulting from the war
was the management of the national finances. January 1, 1866, the
national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, including (1) the bonded debt
of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the unbonded or floating debt of
$1,620,000,000, that part made up of "greenbacks," fractional currency,
treasury notes, and the like. Two problems were thus brought before
the people:
1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt?
2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie payment"
resumed?
As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as
possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more than $500,000,000.
As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the currency" by
gathering into the Treasury and there canceling the "greenbacks." This
was begun, and their amount was reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to
$356,000,000 in 1868.
By that time a large part of the people in the West were finding fault
with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, they held, was making
money scarce and lowering prices. Congress, therefore, in 1868 yielded
to the pressure, and ordered that further contraction should stop and
that there should not be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks.
%497. "The Ohio Idea"; the Greenback Party.%--But there was still
another idea current. To understand this, six facts must be remembered.
1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of certain 5-20 bonds; that is,
bonds that might be paid after five years, but must be paid in twenty
years. 2. The interest on these bonds was made payable "in coin." 3. But
nothing was said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the
principal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, the law
said they should be "lawful money and a legal tender for all debts,
public and private, within the United States, except duties on imports
and interest as aforesaid." 5. This made it possible to pay the
principal of the 5-20 bonds in greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing
that payment of the principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on
future loans, Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) for
borrowing money, provided that _both_ principal and interest should be
paid in coin.
At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a premium; that is,
it took more than 100 cents in paper money to buy 100 cents in gold.
Anybody who owned a bond could therefore sell the coin he received as
interest for paper and so increase the rate of interest measured in
paper money. The bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or
municipality.
Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war for two
things--taxation of the bonds and payment of the 5-20's in greenbacks.
This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 1868 that it was called the "Ohio
idea," and its supporters were called "Greenbackers."
%498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads.%--Much fault was now
found with Congress for giving away such great tracts of the public
domain. In 1862 a law known as the Homestead Act was passed. By it a
farm of 80 or 160 acres was to be given to any head of a family, or any
person twenty-one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or,
being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a citizen,
provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated it for five years.
Under this great and generous law 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres
were made between 1863 and 1870. This showed that the people wanted land
and was one reason why it should not be given to corporations.
%499. The Election of 1868.%--The questions discussed above (pp.
437-439) became the political issues of 1868.
The Republicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax and declared for the
payment of all bonds in coin; for a reduction of the national debt and
the rate of interest; and for the encouragement of immigration.
The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, and
demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; "one currency for the
government, and the people, the laborer, and the office holder"; the
taxation of government bonds; and no land grants for public
improvements.
The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college Grant had 214
votes, and Seymour 80.
%500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan.%--Grant and Colfax
began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and soon found that the
reconstruction policy of Congress had not been so successful as they
could wish, and that the work of protecting the freedman in the exercise
of his new rights was not yet completed. Three states (Virginia,
Mississippi, and Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions
imposed by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and
Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the Reconstruction Act of
1867, and given the negro the right to vote, than a swarm of Northern
politicians, generally of the worst sort, went down and, as they said,
"ran things." They began by persuading the negroes that their old
masters were about to put them back into slavery, that it was only by
electing Union men to office that they could remain free; and having by
this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were made governors
and members of Congress, and were sent to the state legislature, where,
seated beside negroes who could neither read nor write, but who voted as
ordered, these "carpetbaggers," [1] as they were called, ruled the states
in the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people.
[Footnote 1: As the men were not natives of the South, had no property
there, and were mostly political adventurers, they were called
"carpetbaggers," or men who owned nothing save what they brought in
their carpetbags.]
Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern states the negro
voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, because there were more
black men than white men, and because many of the whites were still
disfranchised; that is, could not vote. When these men, who were
property owners and taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of
the negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they determined
to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive the carpetbaggers from
the legislatures. To do this, in many parts of the South they formed
secret societies, called "The Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan."
Completely disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode
at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects of their
wrath, who were either negroes who had become local political leaders,
or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the Southern whites who supported
the negro cause were called.
%501. The Fifteenth Amendment.%--To secure the negro the right to
vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, a Fifteenth
Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 1869, and, after
ratification by the necessary number of states, was put in force in
March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were violating this amendment, by preventing
the negroes from voting, Congress, in 1871, passed the "Ku Klux" or
"Force" Act. It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted
of hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from voting, or
the votes, when cast, from being counted.
[Illustration: U. S. Grant]
%502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans.%--This legislation and the
conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the old issue of
amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican party and led to the rise
of a new party, which received the name of "Liberal Republicans,"
because it was in favor of a more liberal treatment of the South. From
Missouri, the movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and
into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encourage the leaders
to call for a national convention which gathered at Cincinnati (May,
1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, universal suffrage, civil
service reform, and no more land grants to railroads, nominated Horace
Greeley, of New York, for President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal
leader of Missouri, for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley
displeased a part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nominated
W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans met at Philadelphia
in June, and nominated Grant and Henry Wilson. The Democrats pledged
their support to Greeley and Brown; but this act displeased so many of
the Democratic party, that another convention was held, and Charles
O'Conor and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field.
%503. The National Labor-Reform Party.%--From about 1829, when the
establishment of manufactures, the building of turnpikes and canals, the
growth of population, the rise of great cities, and the arrival of
emigrants from Europe led to the appearance of a great laboring class,
the workingman had been in politics. But it was not till the close of
the war that labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the
first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Kentucky. In
1866 a second met at Baltimore; a third at Chicago in 1867; and a fourth
at New York in 1868, to which came woman suffragists and labor-reform
agitators. The next met at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great
National Labor Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded
1. Lower interest on government bonds.
2. Repeal of the law establishing the national banks.
3. Withdrawal of national bank notes.
4. Issue of paper money "based on the faith and resources of the
nation," to be legal tender for all debts.
5. An eight-hour law.
6. Exclusion of the Chinese.
7. No land grants to corporations.
8. Formation of a "National Labor-Reform Party."
The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily approved,
that a national convention met at Columbus, O., in 1872, denounced
Chinese labor, demanded taxation of government bonds, and nominated
David Davis and Joel Parker. When they declined, O'Conor was nominated.
%504. Anti-Chinese Movement.%--The demand in the Labor platform for
the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to say a word concerning
"Mongolian labor."
Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of gold in
California, but received little attention till 1852, when the governor
in a message reminded the legislature that the Chinese came not as
freemen, but were sent by foreign capitalists under contract; that they
were the absolute slaves of these masters; that the gold they dug out of
our soil was sent to China; that they could not become citizens; and
that they worked for wages so low that no American could compete
with them.
The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted to stop their
immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme Court declared such taxation
illegal, whereupon, the state having gone as far as it could, an appeal
was made to Congress. That body was deaf to all entreaties; but the
President through Anson Burlingame in 1868 secured some new articles to
the old Chinese treaty of 1858. Henceforth it was to be a penal offense
to take Chinamen to the United States without their free consent. This
was not enough, and in order to force Congress to act, the question was
made a political issue.
%505. The Prohibition Party.%--The temperance cause in the United
States dates back to 1810. But it was not till Maine passed a law
forbidding the sale of liquor, in 1851, and her example was followed by
Vermont and Rhode Island in 1852, by Connecticut in 1854, and by New
York, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Iowa, in 1855, that prohibition
became an issue. The war turned the thoughts of people to other things.
But after the war, prohibition parties began to appear in several
states, and in 1869 steps were taken to unite and found a national
party. In that year, the Grand Lodges of Good Templars held a convention
at Oswego, N.Y., and by these men a call was issued for a national
convention of prohibitionists to form a political party. The delegates
thus summoned met at Chicago in September, 1869, and there founded the
"National Prohibition Reform party." The first national nominating
convention was held at Columbus, O., in 1872, when James Black of
Pennsylvania was nominated for President, and John Russell of Michigan
for Vice President.
%506. Campaign of 1872.%--At the beginning of the campaign there were
thus seven presidential candidates before the people. But some refused
to run, and others had no chance, so that the contest was really between
General Grant and Horace Greeley, who was caricatured unmercifully. The
benevolent face of the great editor, spectacled, and fringed with a
snow-white beard, appeared on fans, on posters, on showcards, where, as
a setting sun, it might be seen going down behind the western hills. "Go
west," his famous advice to young men, became the slang phrase of the
hour. He was defeated, for Grant carried thirty-one states, and
Greeley six.
In many respects this was a most interesting election. For the first
time in our history the freedmen voted for presidential electors. For
the first time since 1860 the people of all the states took part in the
election of a President of the United States, while the number of
candidates, Labor, Prohibition, Liberal Republican, Democratic, and
Republican, showed that the old issues which caused the war or were
caused by the war were dead or dying, and that new ones were
coming forward.
%507. Panic of 1873.%--Now, all these things, the immense expansion
of the railroads, and the great outlay necessary for rebuilding Chicago,
much of which had been burned in 1871, and Boston, which suffered from a
great fire in 1872, absorbed money and made it difficult to get. Just in
the midst of the stringency a quarrel arose between the farmers and the
railroads in the West, and made matters worse. It stopped the sale of
railroad bonds, and crippled the enterprises that depended on such sale
for funds. It impaired the credit of bankers concerned in railroad
building, and in September, 1873, a run on them for deposits began till
one of them, Jay Cooke & Co., failed, and at once a panic swept over the
business world. Country depositors demanded their money; the country
banks therefore withdrew their deposits with the city banks, which in
turn called in their loans, and industry of every kind stopped. In 1873
there were 5000 failures, and in 1874 there were 5800. Hours of labor
were reduced, wages were cut down, workingmen were discharged by
thousands.
%508. The Inflation Bill.%--In hope of relieving this distress by
making money easier to get, a demand was now made that Congress should
issue more greenbacks. To this Congress, in 1874, responded by passing
the "Inflation Bill," declaring that there should be $400,000,000 in
greenbacks, no more, no less. As the limit fixed in 1868 was
$356,000,000, the bill tended to "inflate" or add to the paper currency
$44,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill.
%509. Resumption of Specie Payments.%--What shall be done with the
currency? now became the question of the hour, and at the next session
of Congress (1874-75) another effort was made to answer it, and "an act
to provide for the resumption of specie payments" was passed.
1. Under this law, silver 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces were to be
exchanged through the post offices and subtreasuries for fractional
currency till it was all redeemed.
2. Surplus revenue might be used and bonds issued for the purchase of
coin.
3. That part of an act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank
notes to $354,000,000 was repealed.
4. The banks could now put out more bills; but for each $100 they put
out the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80 of greenbacks, till
but $300,000,000 of them remained.
5. After January 1,1879, he must redeem them all on demand.
%510. The Political Issues of 1876.%--The currency question, the hard
times which had continued since 1873, the rise of the Labor and
Prohibition parties, the reports of shameful corruption and dishonesty
in every branch of the public service, the dissatisfaction of a large
part of the Republican party with the way affairs were managed by the
administration, combined to make the election of 1876 very doubtful. The
general displeasure was so great that the Democratic party not only
carried state elections in the North in 1874 and 1875, but secured a
majority of the House of Representatives.
%511. Nomination of Presidential Candidates.%--When the time came to
make nominations for the presidency, the Prohibition party was first to
act. It selected Green Clay Smith of Kentucky and G.T. Stewart of Ohio
as its candidates, and demanded that in all the territories and the
District of Columbia, the importation, exportation, manufacture, and
sale of alcoholic beverages should be stopped. Two other demands--the
abolition of polygamy (which was practiced by the Mormons in Utah), and
the closing of the mails to the advertisements of gambling and lottery
schemes--have since been secured.
Next came the Greenback or Independent National party, which nominated
Peter Cooper of New York and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, and called for the
repeal of the Resumption of Specie Payment Act, and the issue of paper
notes bearing a low rate of interest.
In June, the Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated Rutherford B.
Hayes of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. They endorsed the
financial policy of the party, demanded civil service reform, protection
to American industries, no more land grants to corporations, an
investigation of the effect of Chinese immigration, and "respectful
consideration" of the woman's rights question.
The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and
called for reforms of every kind--in the civil service, in the
administration, in expenditures, in the internal revenue system, in the
currency, in the tariff, in the use of public lands, in the treatment of
the South.
%512. Result of the Election.%--While the campaign was going on,
Colorado was admitted (in August, 1876) as a state. There were then
thirty-eight states in the Union, casting 369 electoral votes. This made
185 necessary for a choice; and when the returns were all in, it
appeared that, if the Republicans could secure the electoral votes of
South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, they would have exactly
185. In these states, however, a dispute was raging as to which set of
electors, Republican or Democratic, was elected. Each claimed to be;
and, as the result depended on them, each set met and voted. It was then
for Congress to decide which should be counted.
Now, the framers of the Constitution had never thought of such a
condition of affairs, and had made no provisions to meet it. Congress
therefore provided for an
%513. "Electoral Commission,"% to decide which of the conflicting
returns should be accepted. This commission was to be composed of five
senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court.
The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats; the House, three
Democrats and two Republicans. Congress appointed two Democratic and
two Republican justices, who chose the fifth justice, who was a
Republican. The Commission thus consisted of eight Republicans and seven
Democrats. The decision as to each of the disputed states was in favor
of the Republican electors, and as it could not be reversed unless both
houses of Congress consented, and as both would not consent, Hayes was
declared elected, over Tilden, by one electoral vote; namely, Hayes,
185; Tilden, 184.
[Illustration: Rutherford B. Hayes]
%514. Financial Policy of Grant's Administration.%--The inauguration
of Hayes was followed by a special session of Congress. In the House was
a great Democratic majority, pledged to a new financial measure--a
pledge which it soon made good.
The financial policy of Grant's eight years may be summed up briefly:
1. (1869) The "Credit Strengthening Act," declaring that 5-20 bonds of
the United States should be paid "in coin."
2. (1870) The Refunding Act, by which $1,500,000,000 in bonds bearing
five and six per cent interest were ordered to be replaced by other
bonds at four, four and a half, and five per cent. In this refunding,
the 5-20's, whose principal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by
others whose principal was payable "in coin."
3. (1873) The act of 1873, by stopping the coinage of silver dollars,
and taking away the legal tender quality of those in circulation, made
the words "in coin" mean gold.
4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie on January
1, 1879.
5. To get specie, bonds might be issued.
%515. Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized.%--Against the
continuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged.
Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House. One
repealed so much of the act of 1875 as provided for the retirement of
greenbacks and the issue of bonds. The second was brought in by Mr.
Bland of Missouri, and is still known by his name. It provided
1. That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the ratio of 16
to 1; that is, that the same number of dollars should be made out of
sixteen pounds of silver as out of one pound of gold.
2. That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all debts,
public and private.
3. That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined into
dollars without cost to the bringer. This was "free coinage of silver."
The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the "free coinage"
provision and substituted the "Allison" amendment. Under this, the
Secretary of the Treasury was to _buy_ not less than $2,000,000, nor
more than $4,000,000, worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it
into dollars.
The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes vetoed the bill
Congress passed it over his veto and the "Bland-Allison Bill" became a
law in 1878.
%516. Silver Certificates.%--Now this return to the coinage of the
silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in silver would
be troublesome because of the weight. It was therefore provided that the
coins might be deposited in the Treasury, and paper "silver
certificates" issued against them.
A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government returned to specie
payment, and ever since has redeemed greenbacks in gold, on demand.
%517. Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico.%--The statement was
made that with the exception of Russia the great powers of Europe
sympathized with the South during the Civil War. Two of them, France and
Great Britain, were openly hostile. The French Emperor allowed
Confederate agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in
French ports,[1] and sent an army into Mexico to overturn that republic
and establish an empire. Mexico owed the subjects of Great Britain,
France, and Spain large sums of money, and as she would not pay, these
three powers in 1861 sent a combined army to hold her seaports till the
debts were paid. But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs
against the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew.
Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable to interfere
because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed the Mexican republic
and made Maximilian (a brother of the Emperor of Austria) Emperor of
Mexico. This was in open defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the
United States protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865. Then, the
Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran troops having
been sent to the Rio Grande, the French soldiers were withdrawn (1867),
and the Mexican republican party captured Maximilian, shot him, and
reëstablished the republic.
[Footnote 1: See Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe_.]
%518. The Alabama Claims; Geneva Award.%--The hostility of Great
Britain was more serious than that of France. As we have seen, the
cruisers (_Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida_) built in her shipyards went to
sea and inflicted great injury on our commerce. Although she was well
aware of this, she for a long time refused to make good the damage done.
But wiser counsel in the end prevailed, and in 1871, by the treaty of
Washington, all disputed questions were submitted to arbitration.
The Alabama claims, as they were called, were sent to a board of five
arbitrators who met at Geneva (1872) and awarded the United States
$15,500,000 to be distributed among our citizens whose ships and
property had been destroyed by the cruisers.
%519. Other International Disputes; the Alaska Purchase.%--To the
Emperor of Germany was submitted the question of the true water boundary
between Washington Territory and British Columbia. He decided in favor
of the United States (1872).
To a board of Fish Commissioners was referred the claim of Canada that
the citizens of the United States derived more benefit from the fishing
in Canadian waters than did the Canadians from using the coast waters of
the United States. The award made to Great Britain was $5,500,000
$5,500,000 (1877).
In 1867, we purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.
SUMMARY
_Financial History, 1868-1880_
1. When the war ended, the national debt consisted of two parts: the
bonded, and the unbonded or floating.
2. As public sentiment demanded the reduction of the debt, it was
decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, and contract the currency
by canceling the greenbacks.
3. Contraction went on till 1868, when Congress ordered it stopped.
4. The payment of the bonds brought up the question, Shall the 5-20's be
paid in coin or greenbacks?
5. The Democrats in 1868 insisted that the bonds should be redeemed in
greenbacks; the Republicans that they should be paid in coin,--and when
they won, they passed the "Credit Strengthening Act" of 1869, and in
1870 refunded the bonds at lower rates.
6. In the process of refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable
in greenbacks, were replaced by others payable "in coin." In 1873, the
coinage of the silver dollar was stopped, and the legal-tender quality
of silver was taken away. The words "in coin" therefore meant "in gold."
7. In 1875 it was ordered that all greenbacks should be redeemed in
specie after January 1, 1879 (resumption of specie payment).
8. In 1878 silver was made legal tender, and given limited coinage.
_The South and the Negro_
9. In 1869, three states still refused to comply with the Reconstruction
Act of 1867 and had no representatives in Congress.
10. Such states as had complied and given the negro the right to vote
were under "carpetbag" rule.
11. This rule became so unbearable that the Ku Klux Klan was organized
to terrify the negroes and keep them from the polls.
12. Congress in consequence sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution, and in 1871 enacted the Force Act.
13. These and other issues, as that of amnesty, split the Republican
party and led to the appearance of the Liberal Republicans in 1872.
14. In general, however, party differences turned almost entirely on
financial and industrial issues.
[Illustration: INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES]