A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

In our last installment, I started with some history of Governor Isaac Gray before digressing into a discussion of the natural gas boom. Gray was ambitious and had a history of playing hardball. He was, after all, a Democrat who had – early in his career – made a name for himself as a Republican state senator who barred the doors against Democrats attempting to leave the Senate to break a quorum in an effort to prevent ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Black Day of the General Assembly

In 1884, Governor Gray’s lieutenant governor was Mahlon Manson. Gray had aspirations to have the General Assembly elect him to the U.S. Senate. Some of Gray’s fellow Democrats had no desire to see the former Republican who had locked the doors against Democrats elected to that post. So, they were content when Manson accepted President Cleveland’s appointment to the position of revenue collector. This would leave Gray with no successor if he were elected to the Senate and, therefore, served to thwart his ambitions. Gray, however, asked the attorney general to give him an opinion that it was acceptable to have a special election for lieutenant governor in the 1886 mid-term election. The attorney general responded that this was permitted.

However, Democrat Alonzo Smith was the President pro tem of the Senate and he argued that there was no vacancy. Rather, he argued, the President pro tem was the acting lieutenant governor and would be until the term expired. Nevertheless, an election was held for lieutenant governor in 1886. The Republican nominee, Robert Robertson won the election — apparently with the support of Democratic governor Gray. He believed that, with a Republican lieutenant governor, he could get Republican support to send him to the U.S. Senate since that would get him out of the way and put a member of their party in the governor’s office. Meanwhile, Republicans also took control of the Indiana House in that election. Even though the wave was against them, Democrats held on to the Indiana Senate due to senators who had not been up for election.

When the General Assembly started its session, the minority senate Republicans caused a commotion and were ignored as the (Democratic majority) Senate re-elected (Democrat) Smith as President pro tem and acting lieutenant governor. Then, the House and Senate met in joint session and the (Republican) Speaker ignored the bitter protests of Democrats as the Speaker announced that (Republican) Robertson had won the lieutenant governor’s election. The Speaker turned the gavel over to Robertson (presiding over the Senate as the lieutenant governor). Robertson was shouted down by Democrats as he tried to speak and the joint session eventually adjourned in disorder.

The Marion County Circuit Court issued an injunction prohibiting Robertson from exercising power, reasoning that the mid-term election of a lieutenant governor was unconstitutional. However, on February 23, 1887, the Indiana Supreme Court reversed the Circuit Court saying that it did not have jurisdiction over the matter and neither did the Supreme Court. Rather, the court held, it was the General Assembly’s issue to resolve. One source (I’m not  sure of that sources’ source, but it paints a picture) described the scene the next day as follows:

On February 24, 1887, Robertson arrived at the Senate Chamber to preside over the Senate. A group of Democratic Senators attacked him and beat him to the floor. The Senate president pro tempore ordered the doormen to expel Robertson. The doormen complied. Republicans soon raised a ruckus, demanding that Robertson be allowed to take his seat. When the Democrats resisted, fights broke out all over the Senate chamber. As the fighting progressed through the floor, one Democratic Senator pulled a gun and shot a hole in the Senate Chamber’s ceiling. He then threatened the Republicans, saying he would start killing them if they did not desist in fighting. This halted the conflict in the Senate, but people outside the chamber, alerted to the happenings inside the Senate, began fighting. The fight soon spread to the House of Representatives. They overwhelmed the outnumbered Democrats and ran through the Capitol, dragging Democrats outside to beat them. Another group broke down the Senate door and began dragging Democratic Senators outside. Governor Gray was compelled to send for the police, who came and brought the conflict under control. Four hours of chaos led to a total shutdown of legislative activity for that session, as the Democrats refused to communicate with the Republicans and the Republicans refused to communicate with the Democrats.

(This will not be the last incident of physical violence I write about in this Installment 6 of our series). I read one source that said the General Assembly was deadlocked and no further business was done that session. However, I also see that the General Assembly passed a bill on March 3, 1887, to create the Indiana Soldier’s & Sailors Monument, so I’m not entirely sure what transpired after the ruckus.  

Gray was, needless to say, not elected to the U.S. Senate and he earned the nickname “Sisyphus of the Wabash” for his extensive but ultimately futile labors. This incident was raised a quarter of a century later by advocates of the 17th Amendment arguing for direct election of U.S. Senators and to end the practice of state legislatures selecting them.

Isaac Gray 1885 – 1889

Isaac Gray was a Quaker who was born in Pennsylvania, moved to Ohio for some years, and settled in Randolph County, Indiana in his 20s. He was a store owner who expanded into banking and grain processing, but he studied law with an eye toward advancing his political career. Shortly after he opened his law office, however, the Civil War started, and he raised a company of volunteers. During his military career, Gray was part of the efforts to repel Morgan’s Raid in the summer of 1863.

Following the war, he unsuccessfully challenged radical Republican (and thorn in Oliver Morton’s side) George Julian for a Congressional seat in 1866. He and Julian would later follow a similar path in leaving the Republican Party for the Democrats. As the focus on slavery diminished and issues such as tariffs and corruption became more prominent, the men found their views less aligned with the Republicans and more with the Democrats.

However, in 1870, Gray was still very much a Republican and had been elected to the Indiana Senate. You may recall this passage from the discussion of Indiana’s (potentially illegal) ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment:

When the proposal was drawing near to consideration, Democrats proposed to bolt again. Republicans resolved to use some strong arm tactics. Several senators claimed to have resigned but they had not left the building. The doorkeeper was told to bring them into the chamber, the doors were locked (apparently locked by a Republican senator by the name of Isaac Gray — who would later become a Democratic governor), and they were counted for purposes of a quorum despite claiming to have resigned.

Despite that history, for the 1884 gubernatorial campaign, Democrats put aside their old resentment of Gray and nominated him to be their candidate. The platform was mostly focused on national issues, but one state issue that was raised was defense of a state law passed by the Democratic General Assembly that took appointment and control of the city police out of the hands of the mayor and placed them with a board appointed by the governor, secretary, treasurer, and auditor of state.

The Democrats that year were boosted by a Presidential ticket that included Grover Cleveland and former Indiana governor Thomas Hendricks for vice-president. The General Assembly went to the Democrats that year and Gray beat Republican nominee William Calkins by about 7,500 out of about 500,000 cast. (An estimated 92.2% of the voting age population cast a vote that year, down from 94.4% in 1880.)  Of some note, Eugene V. Debs was elected to the Indiana Senate as a Democrat. While in office, Debs tried to get a worker’s compensation bill passed that would have required corporations to compensate employees for work related injuries. The bill did not get passed and Debs (who would eventually run for President as a socialist five times) did not return to the General Assembly.

Of lesser note, it was during the Gray administration, in 1886, that the Purdue All-American Marching Band was established when the Purdue Student Army Training Corps formed a five member drum corps to play music for the cadets during their morning conditioning. According to Wikipedia, in 1887, Purdue, IU, Butler, and Notre Dame would all form football squads. (On the other hand, the Wabash football Wikipedia entry says that Wabash defeated Butler 4-0 in its first game in 1884, so that’s what I get using Wikipedia as a source.)

Natural Gas

In the mid 1880s, transportation — particularly the railroads — was changing the economy in Indiana. Manufacturing in the 1850s was typically something like flour and grist mills. Milling grain was the leading industry at the time. Other industries were related to taking advantage of the state’s natural resources: pork packing, liquor distilling, lumber production.

This sort of industry was giving way to heavier industry that took advantage of new tools and the ability to transport products beyond local markets. And, in 1886, a natural gas boom hit Indiana. Ten years earlier, in 1876, in the search for coal, W.W. Worthington and George Carter bored a test core in Delaware County.

At a depth of 606 feet they ran into “an ill-smelling gas,” that readily ignited, producing a two-foot high flame. It was a natural gas deposit, suffused with malodorous sulfur content. Disappointed that there was no coal to be found, they capped the pipe and moved on.

In 1885, Andrew Carnegie had replaced a good deal of the coal he used for steel making with natural gas. Industries looked for locations with access to natural gas. A major discovery was made in Findlay, Ohio in January of 1886 (initially so powerful a towering plume of fire burned for 4 months.) In Portland, Indiana Henry Sees followed the news out of Findlay, and convinced local investors to form the Eureka Gas & Oil Co. They struck gas in March of 1886.

Meanwhile, George Carter went to Findlay and recognized the smell of the well from the hole they’d dug in Delaware County ten years earlier. He found investors, and on September 15, 1886, his company hit natural gas in Eaton, Indiana, and produced a plume that was reportedly visible in Muncie. This was the beginning of the Trenton Gas Field, spread over 17 counties in east central Indiana.

The people of that time were profligate with what seemed like an unlimited supply of gas. They were spectacularly wasteful. “It became fashionable to erect arches of perforated iron pipe and let them burn brightly day and night for month after month.” There were calls for conservation that were largely ignored. (“In 1893 the State Inspector of Natural Gas wrote, ‘The waste has been criminal and the day of repentance is fast approaching, and can only be delayed by practicing the most rigid economy and unrelaxed efforts in the husbandry of this valuable resource of our State.’”)

Still, the gas boom attracted industry to the area:

“The rapid growth and industrialization that Findlay, Portland and Eaton experienced was repeated again and again in Indiana’s “Gas Belt.” Cities like Muncie, Kokomo, Anderson, and Marion competed to attract new industries with offers of free natural gas, land, railway sidings, and tax credits.”

Lured by the generous incentives, 162 factories were built, creating over 10,000 jobs by 1890. Among these new industries were tinplate mills in Anderson, Gas City, and Elwood as well as 21 new glass factories. “Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing” relocated to Muncie from Buffalo, N.Y.

By 1902, however, the wells were starting to fail and the falling pressure was allowing salt water to creep in. Companies that had re-located to take advantage of the cheap, readily available gas were forced to close. The boom ended as quickly as it started.

At the same time as the gas boom, during the 1880s and 1890s, railroads and interurbans were continuing to grow (pdf). In 1880, there were five major railroads that crossed Indiana to reach Chicago from the east. This established the pattern we would see with our major interstates later on. Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Logansport, Terre Haute, and Indianapolis formed as rail centers. The expanded urban centers also gave rise to the electric interurban railways. With these railways, pretty much all roads led to Indianapolis, showing its dominance of the area. (I’ve experienced this driving back roads with no map, trying to get from one small city to another — very frequently the roads, instead of continuing in a particular direction will start to bend toward Indianapolis. I did not experience this anywhere near as frequently when wandering Ohio back roads.)

The electric railway offered a more flexible and lighter-weight, self-propelled vehicle than the large steam locomotives that required an extensive infrastructure for fuel and water. Within cities, small streetcars could readily navigate the city street grid using electric power provided by a central generating source. Streetcars and interurban electric cars were still heavier than horse-drawn wagons, however, and necessitated increased load-bearing capacity in bridges on streetcar routes.

Indiana, like the rest of the country, was being rapidly transformed by changes in transportation and industry. It must have been very disorienting to the people of the time.

Friday: Isaac Gray’s term continued — including “The Black Day of the Indiana General Assembly.”

Albert Porter 1881 – 1885

The first governor of this period was Albert Porter. In 1880, Indiana had reached a population of almost 2 million people. It was 98% white and about 20% of the population lived in cities while 80% remained in rural locations. Despite the overwhelmingly white population, it was in 1880 that a black man, James Hinton, was first elected to the Indiana General Assembly.

At his election, the Indianapolis Leader proclaimed [of Hinton], “thirty years ago, the Indiana Legislature was engaged in concocting brutal laws to prevent the entrance of colored people into this state. Now a member of the race then proscribed, is a member of the Legislature. Time sets all things right.”

As for Governor Porter, he was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, only the second Governor to be born in Indiana. His family moved over the river to Kentucky when his mom inherited land there. He worked his father’s ferry across the Ohio for a period of time before enrolling at Hanover. He ran out of money before he finished. His uncle offered to pay for the remainder of his schooling if he went to a Methodist School. So, he finished at Asbury University (now DePauw) in 1843. (Recall the educational feud between Presbyterians and Methodists back in the days of Samuel Bigger.)

Porter became a personal secretary to Governor Whitcomb and was originally a Democrat, but he got caught up in the factional dispute of the 1850s over the Kansas-Nebraska Act and was on the wrong side of Jesse Bright’s faction when the dust cleared. He left the Democrats and became a Republican shortly thereafter. Porter was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1858 and served until 1863. He declined to run for another term, going into private practice in Indianapolis with, among others, Benjamin Harrison. One of his cases was the Ex Parte Milligan case.

In 1880, he was the Republican nominee for President. The election was a close one. The Democrats had held the governor’s office since 1873, the Democrats had William English as a Vice-Presidential candidate, and some prominent observers of the day felt that the state was safely Democratic. Nevertheless, the Democrats lost both the governorship and the Presidential race by less than 8,000 votes out of 470,000 cast.

The Democrats’ failure usually has been placed on national factors: e.g., the supposed political ineptitude of the Democratic presidential candidate, General Winfield Scott Hancock; the unfortunate appearance of the phrase “a tariff for revenue only” in the party platform; the general disorganization and anarchy within the party following the loss of the disputed election of 1876; and the decline in both the health and political mastery of Samuel J. Tilden in New York. Some writers have credited other national causes such as the energy, money, and imported voters which were supposedly poured into Indiana in the closing weeks of the campaign by the Republican national committee under the direction of its secretary, Stephen W. Dorsey.

Isaac Gray campaigned for the Democrats as lieutenant governor even though he was a stronger nominee than Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Franklin Landers. Gray’s actions as a Republican, locking Democrats into the Senate to maintain a quorum to pass the Fifteenth Amendment, was not forgotten by his (now) fellow Democrats. Landers lost to Albert Porter by about 7,000 votes out of 470,000 cast. According to one commentator, during the period from 1880 – 1892, the Tariff Question was “the only serious issue in Indiana politics.” The economy was shifting from agricultural to industrial. Republicans generally favored the tariff as protecting developing and diversifying local industry from foreign competition. Democrats, meanwhile, generally favored low tariffs and free trade. This appealed to farmers — particularly in the south and the west — who were exporting products like tobacco, cotton, and wheat.

During the early part of the Porter administration, the Republicans held majorities in the General Assembly, They promptly passed a bill which would have a prohibition amendment in the Indiana Constitution. This backfired on them and the next session was heavily Democratic as there was apparently a strong showing by German voters opposing the temperance legislation. The Republicans of 1881 had also passed resolutions for amendments that would have provided for female suffrage and would have made all state and county offices four year terms. (In Indiana, a proposed constitutional amendment has to pass two General Assemblies before it is eligible for a statewide vote.)

The Democratic General Assembly also employed some heavy handed opposition to the Republicans, taking away much of the Governor’s legislatively granted appointment power to offices like prison board member, State Geologist, State Statistician, and State Oil Inspector. It was also during this period that the hospitals for the insane were created at Richmond, Logansport, and Evansville.

I’m not sure the best section to put this, but I feel like an under-appreciated aspect of state and local government is our system of drainage. There are a tremendous number of miles of regulated drain in Indiana. But they’re mostly invisible to citizens. When drains are working, you simply don’t notice them. It rains, the land is wet for a while, and then it dries up. There used to be a lot less productive acreage in Indiana. From the State’s inception, government dabbled at drainage laws, but a comprehensive system seems to have begun in earnest in the 1880s. The surge in drainage activity had to do with the closing of the frontier (making more difficult land in the settled areas more attractive), an increase in land prices, and the growing proof of how valuable a system of regular drainage could be — the cost of the drains were small in comparison to the increase in value of the drained land. Despite these benefits, there is some natural resistance to construction of drains. It does not fit very well with our atomistic view of property rights and a philosophical inclination to limit government power. There was no right under the common law for one land owner to construct drains over the property of another. But, water does not respect property lines, and so through the 1880s, the General Assembly enacted a variety of drainage laws that helped open up a good deal of territory in Indiana. (I believe Northern Indiana was particularly swampy.)

A focus on problems with water were probably also triggered by the fact that 1882, 1883, and 1884 saw significant flooding along the Ohio and Wabash rivers. The 1883 flood was the most significant of these and, in Peru anyway, rivaled the flood of 1847.

On Friday, February 2, 1883, there was a heavy fall of snow, which turned to rain late in the afternoon. The ground was frozen so that the water could not penetrate it, the temperature rose during the night and the snow melted, adding to the volume of water that was forced into the streams over the frozen ground. By eleven o’clock on Saturday morning the Wabash railroad tracks were under water and the channel of the river was filled with floating ice. Rain fell all day on Saturday and during the night it turned colder, the temperature on Sunday morning being only a few degrees above zero. When the people arose that morning they found the Strawtown pike under water from the bridge to the toll house, the Mississinewa pike was under water for a mile or more, and South Peru was inundated. Frank Henton and Lou Cole led a rescuing party to convey the people in boats to places of safety. The back water had extinguished the fires at the gas works and the people had to return to coal oil, and in some instances to candles, for their light. All along the river, on the high grounds, could be seen little herds of livestock and the intense cold added to the suffering of both man and beast.

The shift from a rural agricultural economy to an urban industrial economy likely made Hoosiers feel the impact of the floods more deeply. A flooded field is no picnic, of course, but flooded out homes, businesses, and factories in cities built up against rivers are more expensive and recovery takes longer.

Even as the General Assembly was busy weakening the office of the governor, they did give Governor Porter some money and authority to address the damage caused by the floods. The Indiana Constitution prohibited consecutive terms at that time, so Porter did not run for office in 1884. He declined an opportunity to run in 1888. He did, however, have the opportunity to nominate his former law partner, Benjamin Harrison, to be the Republican nominee for the Presidency.

Benjamin Harrison 1889 – 1893

Harrison’s election seems to have been based on some very corrupt practices. Harrison’s campaign manager, Matthew Quay (a political boss from Pennsylvania), upon hearing that Harrison ascribed his narrow victory to “Providence,” was quoted as saying, “Think of the man! He ought to know that Providence hadn’t a damn thing to do with it.” Harrison, Quay added, would “never know how close a number of men were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president.”

In the election of 1888, Harrison’s fellow Hoosier, W.W. Dudley (hailing from Richmond, Indiana) was the Republican National Committee treasurer, buying votes wholesale in Indiana in what came to be known as the Blocks of Five scandal. Interestingly, ten years earlier, Dudley — while employed as U.S. Marshal in Indiana, had arrested numerous Democrats, accusing them of vote fraud. The special prosecutor, Benjamin Harrison, had managed only one conviction.

Intensely polarized and almost perfectly balanced in partisan strength, “venal Indiana” was notorious during this period for bitterly contested, frequently corrupt elections with miniscule margins between victory and defeat, margins often secured with the votes of nonresident or irregular floaters at two to five dollars each.

Fraudulent or not, Harrison took office in 1890.

One landmark piece of legislation during Harrison’s tenure was 1890’s, Sherman Antitrust Act named after Senator John Sherman (who had lost the nomination battle to James Garfield). The law was intended to combat monopolistic practices that were plaguing the U.S. economy at the time. In a general sense, a trust is an old legal device where one holds property for the benefit of another. For example, a trust that holds an inheritance for the benefit of a minor heir. But, the trust in question here was where several large businesses were held in trust together, getting around prohibitions where corporations were forbidden from holding stocks in other corporations. The law aimed to prohibit combinations that restrained trade while permitting monopolies that were created and maintained simply because that business provided the goods or services of higher quality or at a better price than others could. Initial efforts to use the Act against trusts were fairly anemic. And, in an ironic but somewhat predictable twist, its initial uses were mostly only successful against trade unions. Later legislation would specify that trade unions were acceptable and Teddy Roosevelt was able to make more effective use of the tools under the Act.

Also in 1890, the struggles with the Native Americans were coming to an ignominious end. The massacre at Wounded Knee took place on December 29, 1890. U.S. soldiers were ostensibly trying to disarm a band of Lakota but ended up killing at least 150 of them with at least 51 wounded. Twenty-five U.S. soldiers were killed and 39 wounded. Twenty soldiers were dubiously given the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions that day. (One was given for “conspicuous bravery in rounding up and bringing to the skirmish line a stampeded pack mule.”) This was to be the last major Indian battle of the 19th century.

Tariffs continued to be a major issue. Republicans, particularly from the northeast, tended to favor them as protective to domestic industry. Westerners and southerners tended not to favor them as they restricted agricultural exports. One by-product of the high tariffs was a major (and apparently embarrassing) government surplus. Under the Harrison administration, one way the government tried to spend down the surplus was through generous pension benefits to disabled Civil War veterans (whether the disability was war related or not). This legislation had a great deal to do with the support of the Grand Army of the Republic — a lobbyist group devoted to Civil War veterans issues. Rather than lower the tariffs, Congress — through an initiative of future President William McKinley — actually raised tariffs even higher.

Harrison was the first President to have his voice preserved on a phonograph and also had electricity installed in the White House. During his administration, six new states were admitted to the Union: North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming. No states had previously been admitted in more than a decade. Congressional Democrats were reluctant to admit states that would add to Republican majorities. Their concerns were well founded. All six of those states initially sent Republican delegations.

Harrison also embraced naval technology and started the U.S. on its path to becoming a legitimate naval power. The Harrison administration, additionally, was quick to recognize the new government of Hawaii installed by Sanford Dole after a coup d’etat overthrew Queen Liliulokalani. The Harrison administration tried to move on a subsequent petition for annexation of Hawaii, but could not get it done and the second Garfield administration backed off of that initiative.  

Harrison’s re-nomination was not without trouble. A contingent of Republicans preferred James G. Blaine (continental liar from the state of Maine). Harrison did get the nomination and ended up facing a re-match with Grover Cleveland. The surplus was evaporating and the economy was declining — a precursor to the upcoming Panic of 1893. Tariffs were so high that imported goods were prohibitively expensive. Republican support in the west eroded as many former Republicans defected to the Populist Party who promised free silver, generous veterans’ pensions, and an eight hour work day.

Cleveland ended up winning the popular vote by 400,000 votes out of 10.6 million cast and an electoral vote of 277 to 145. Harrison did not win his home state of Indiana.

Grover Cleveland II: Electric Boogaloo (1893 – 1897)

Almost immediately after his election, Cleveland faced the Panic of 1893. The panic had to do with a tangle of reasons probably too complicated for me to easily explain. But it seems to have had to do with a combination of the U.S. economy’s reliance on high commodity prices, a wheat failure in Argentina, and U.S. monetary policy having to do with gold and the relative ease with which international business could obtain gold from the U.S. This triggered a panic and bank runs which left the economy in the doldrums for some time.

The McKinley Tariff Act was replaced by the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act. The sausage making nature of legislation seems to have been particularly egregious with this bill, but it lowered the tariffs from the McKinley version. The shortfall in revenue from reduction of the tariffs was made up by the first peacetime income tax — a 2% tax on incomes over $4,000 (about $100,000 today). This income tax was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and led to the passage of the 16th Amendment. Prior to the 16th Amendment, the Supreme Court held that the constitution required direct taxes to be imposed in proportion to a state’s population.

In 1894, Congress passed an enabling act permitting Utah to enter the Union as a new state. Prior to the Harrison administration, it had been a decade since a new state was admitted. While six states were admitted once the ball got rolling in the Harrison administration, Utah was not one of them. The state was thought likely to vote for Democrats, and there was still concern over polygamy (which had only been disavowed in 1890.) Those concerns were overturned and Utah joined as the 45th state in 1896.

In May and June of 1894, Cleveland faced the Pullman Strike. A strike by railroad workers over low wages and a 12 hour work day, augmented by sympathy strikes led by Eugene V. Debs and the American Railway Union ended up paralyzing national commerce. Grover Cleveland’s Attorney General had been a railroad attorney and the Cleveland administration took the side of the railroads. (“If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago”, Cleveland proclaimed, “that card will be delivered.”) The election of 1894 was disastrous for Cleveland. The economy and the hardened attitude of labor against him resulted in landslide Congressional victories for Republicans.

In 1896, Cleveland did not seek the Democratic nomination. Nationally things were not going well for his administration, and there were factions inside the Democratic Party who did not want him to run. And, while there were no term limits and he had not been elected consecutively, he had served two terms which was, by custom, the limit for Presidents. At age 36, William Jennings Bryan became the youngest major party nominee for President. He had a gift for oratory, and his Cross of Gold speech helped him secure the nomination over Richard Bland who had been the favorite going into the convention.  I should probably try to do a better job of explaining the gold/silver coinage debates, as they dominated the political discussion for a good long time. But, my understanding of the subject is limited. Basically, it had to do with whether to expand the money supply or not. The gold-standard advocates wanted to limit the money supply because it made international trade more secure and because it preserved the value of the debts owed to them. The silverites or bimetalists thought that increasing the money supply — by allowing silver to be struck into coins — would increase the nation’s prosperity. (It would also make their debts easier to pay off.) Bryan was a populist, and he was not shy about casting his message in religious terms. He concluded his speech:

Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

The speech won him acclaim, but that cross of gold fueled the election of William McKinley who outspent Bryan 5 to 1 and won the election 271 to 176 electoral votes.

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.