Indiana Bicentennial 6.1: The National Scene (1881 – 1888)

In this installment, we’ll hit the end of the 19th century, starting from about 1881 and going to about 1897. The Presidents were James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and Cleveland again. The governors were Albert Porter, Isaac Gray, Alvin Hovey, Ira Chase, and Claude Matthews. The 1851 Constitution limited governors to one term each.

James Garfield (1881)  

Garfield was  President for only about six months, from March 1881 to September of that year. Garfield was nominated as a dark horse candidate. President Hayes had promised not to run for re-election. Somehow, I had been unaware of this, but Ulysses S. Grant had sought his third term in office but, though he had a plurality of the delegates in the initial voting at the convention, could not gain a majority. His major rivals were James G. Blain (“continental liar from the state of Maine”) and John (brother of William Tecumseh) Sherman. After 36 ballots, Grant’s competitors settled on Garfield (who had been a campaign manager for John Sherman) as a compromise candidate. Grant conceded, and Garfield went on to narrowly defeat General Winfield Scott Hancock. (Apparently there wasn’t a great deal of policy difference between Garfield and Hancock, but the Republicans were still getting a fair amount of electoral success out of “waving the bloody shirt” — The G.O.P. argued that Democrats would  reverse the gains of the Civil War, dishonor Union veterans, and pay Confederate veterans pensions out of the federal treasury.)

During this period, the Republican Party was apparently much occupied by disputes between factions led by James G. Blaine (“the Half-Breeds”) and Roscoe Conkling (“the Stalwarts”). The main bone of contention between the factions had to do with a patronage-based civil service system versus a merit-based civil service systems. The Stalwarts preferred that political appointments go to party loyalists. The Half Breeds preferred civil service reform. (It was during this lesson in my high school history class that Mr. Johns observed that “today’s reforms are tomorrow’s corruption.” Back in Andrew Jackson’s day, the spoils system was seen as something of a democratic reform — forming the basis for the common man to participate in a government previously dominated by the more well-to-do.)

Garfield was more in the Blaine camp, and to balance the ticket, Chester A. Arthur — a Stalwart part of the Conkling machine was vice-president. But Conkling demanded his due when it came to patronage and was infuriated when Garfield nominated a Conkling enemy to the Collector of the Port of New York (a prize appointment). In addition to civil service reform, Garfield was an advocate of universal federal education, believing that this was the way to improve the circumstances of black Americans and limit the white, Democratic resurgence in the Confederate States. However, he Garfield did not live long enough to get much traction, and the North likely didn’t have the appetite for such an initiative in any event.

Charles J. Guiteau fancied himself a Stalwart but provided some low level advocacy for Garfield during the Presidential campaign. Apparently lacking a strong connection with reality (possibly a mental effect of syphilis), he fancied this justified an appointment by the Garfield administration to be consul in France. When he didn’t get the job (because he wasn’t qualified and hadn’t earned it), he speculated that it was because he was a Stalwart. So, his master plan was to kill Garfield and make Chester Arthur, the Stalwart, president. Guiteau shot Garfield — who died two months later from his wound, and Arthur became President.

Chester A. Arthur (1881 – 1885)

Chester A. Arthur assumed the Presidency at a time when the population of the U.S. had crossed 50 million people. The frontier was closing, and tales from the Wild West were capturing American imaginations: the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Billy the Kid was killed by Pat Garrett in 1881, and Jesse James was killed in 1882. Meanwhile, the Indian wars were coming to a close and a more sentimental view of Native Americans was taking hold — presumably, in part, now that most of the land had been appropriated and Native Americans could be admired from afar and in the abstract.

The Supreme Court put the nail in the coffin of Civil Rights with the  Civil Rights Cases which held that the 14th Amendment didn’t give Congress the constitutional authority to prohibit racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations. Jim Crow laws would be fully implemented. Republican efforts to preserve and protect black rights were desultory, and the Republicans were also generally unable to make headway against the resurgence of conservative white power in the South. Congress did, however, take a stand against polygamy; passing the Edmunds Act — directed at the Latter Day Saints in Utah, making polygamy a felony.

During Arthur’s Presidency, taxes were still at war time levels, the result being that government had taken in more than it had spent since 1866 and was running a significant surplus. Some effort was made to reduce revenues by reducing excise taxes and restructuring tariffs. But they only picked around the edges and did not reduce revenues much. Working on balancing the budget from the other angle, by spending the money, resulted in an Arthur veto when a major internal improvement act looked to have too many local projects and not enough spent on the general welfare. Congress overrode his veto and passed the $19 million Rivers and Harbors Act.

Immigration was a major focus of the Congress. Westerners blamed the Chinese for the depression of wages during the depression of the 1870s, so Congress attempted to ban all Chinese immigration. Arthur regarded this as a violation of a treaty with China, and vetoed one measure but acquiesced to another bill that banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. Congress also passed legislation banning immigration by the mentally ill, those with a criminal history, and those likely to require public assistance.

As his term came to an end, Arthur was in questionable health (he took a two month trip to Yellowstone, helping to promote the National Park System) and neither faction of the Republican Party really supported him. The Half-Breeds supported Blaine and the Stalwarts were mixed. On the first ballot, Blaine had a plurality. (Arthur received only 9 of Indiana’s 30 votes). James G. Blaine was nominated on the fourth ballot — this was the last time a sitting President was denied re-nomination by his party.

Grover Cleveland 1885 – 1889

Grover Cleveland (the Once and Future President) was the first Democrat elected to the Presidency since Buchanan had been elected before the Civil War. His campaign against Blaine produced some memorable slogans that still stick with me almost 30 years after I learned them in high school history class. Blaine was associated with some sketchy railroad deals which he had denied but was tagged with the Democratic rallying cry, “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine.” Meanwhile, Cleveland was the anti-corruption candidate who was marketed as having impeccable moral rectitude. So, the Republicans went after him when it came to light he may have been the father of an illegitimate trial. Their slogan was, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Going to the White House, ha, ha, ha!” Cleveland won all of what were regarded to be swing states: Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. (The latter three were probably put into play by Cleveland’s being a New Yorker. Indiana was put into play because Thomas Hendricks was the vice-presidential candidate — and perhaps due to Indiana often being “the middle-finger of the South thrust up into the North.”)

During Cleveland’s presidency, a watershed moment in the labor movement took place. On May 4, 1886, a bombing took place in Chicago’s Haymarket Square during a labor demonstration. This became known as the  Haymarket Affair. The demonstration was in support of the eight hour day and in response to the killing of several workers by police the day before. Someone threw a dynamite bomb in among police as they were trying to disperse the demonstration. The blast and subsequent shooting killed seven officers, at least four civilians, and wounded many more. Seven anarchists were convicted and sentenced to death despite what appears to have been fairly thin evidence. Four were hanged. The others were pardoned. But they became martyrs for the cause. It was a temporary setback for the eight hour day but ultimately stiffened the resolve of labor advocates.

The issue of tariffs continued to be a major issue. Cleveland and the Democrats generally favored lower tariffs. The Republicans and their northern, industrial constituents felt that protective tariffs were necessary to grow and protect American business. Republicans being mostly in control, the protective tariffs remained in place, and federal government took in more money than it spent, resulting in significant surpluses. Additionally, the issue of whether U.S. currency should be backed by silver and/or gold and how much continued to be contentious. Southerners and Westerners (who tended to be poorer) favored an expansive monetary policy with currency being backed by silver (as well as gold). Northeasterners (and Cleveland) favored the gold standard and its tighter money supply (which tends to benefit creditors).

With a Republican Congress, Cleveland found himself using the veto a lot more than his predecessors. One prominent veto was with respect to a seed program. A drought in Texas caused widespread hardship. Congress attempted to help by appropriating $10,000 for purchase of seed for Texas farmers. Cleveland vetoed that, citing a philosophy of limited government and the notion that the farmers could look to private sector charity if they were in need.

During his Presidency, in 1886, Cleveland married his 21 year old ward, Frances Folsom. She was 27 years younger than Cleveland; the daughter of Cleveland’s law partner, Oscar Folsom. Oscar died when Frances was eleven, and Cleveland began taking a role in her care. That role turned romantic at some point, and they were married in the White House on June 2, 1886, when she was 21 and he was 49.

Cleveland was defeated by Hoosier Benjamin Harrison in 1888. The Republicans nominated Harrison and a New Yorker, Levi Morton. Despite winning the popular vote, Cleveland lost Indiana and New York which he had won in the prior election, causing him to lose the electoral vote.