Introduction to From Garfield to McKinley

James A. Garfield, a Republican, was elected President in 1880. His nomination was a defeat for party leaders known as Stalwarts, who openly opposed civil service reforms begun by Hayes. However, Chester Arthur, a Stalwart, was selected for Vice President. Garfield, a few months after he took office, was shot by a disappointed Stalwart office-seeker. Garfield's death in September, 1881, elevated Arthur to the Presidency and aroused the country to the need for civil service reform by law. Unexpectedly, Arthur supported the reform movement. His cooperation made possible passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), which removed thousands of federal positions from political influence.

Beginning of "Jim Crow."

In the late 19th century, blacks were denied their political rights, including the right to vote, by various means. In the 1880's, Southern states began to enact segregation legislation, called "Jim Crow" laws. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson (1894), upheld these laws by ruling that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional.

Cleveland and Harrison

For the first time since 1856, a Democrat was elected President when Grover Cleveland defeated the Republican candidate, James G. Blaine, in 1884. Following traditional Democratic policy, Cleveland tried to bring about lower tariffs, but he failed. Cleveland's tariff policy helped cause his defeat in the 1888 election by the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison. In 1892 Cleveland was elected President again, after organized labor, farmers, and many others blamed the sharply rising cost of living on the high tariff enacted by the Republicans in 1890.

The Rise of Big Business

By the time of the Cleveland-Harrison era, business enterprise was becoming dominated by large corporations. This rise of big business was accompanied by the formation of trusts, monopolistic enterprises used by ambitious and often ruthless businessmen to gain control of whole industries. For example, by 1882 the Standard Oil Trust controlled 90 per cent of the nation's petroleum industry.

Big business helped to develop the country's economic strength, but there was much public sentiment against the trusts. They were accused of forcing the public to pay excessively high prices for goods and of taking advantage of suppliers, whose prices they were often able to dictate. Small business was aroused by harsh methods used by the trusts to destroy competition.

In 1890, at President Harrison's request, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. Not until years later, however, did the government act aggressively against the trusts. Earlier, Congress had passed the Interstate Commerce Act (1887). This step toward regulating railways was a response to complaints by businessmen and farmers that they were victims of unfair practices by the railroads in the setting of freight rates.

Labor and Farm Unrest

The period of the rise of big business was marked by many labor disturbances as trade unions grew in membership. Strikes for the eight-hour day were frequent in the 1880's. In 1894, despite protests by Governor John Peter Altgeld of Illinois, President Cleveland sent troops to Chicago to end the Pullman strike, which had halted trains in many Western states; Cleveland acted in support of a court injunction, obtained by the federal government, prohibiting interference with interstate commerce and the movement of mail. "Government by injunction" then became a political issue.

There was also great unrest among Western and Southern farmers, who were especially angered by the low prices they received for their products in contrast to the high interest rates charged them on loans. Out of this unrest emerged the People's (or Populist) party, which carried several states in the 1892 election. Free and unlimited coinage of silver was high on the list of economic and political changes championed by the Populists.

The 1896 Election

The Democratic party adopted the Populist policy on silver in the 1896 campaign. By doing so, the party disowned Grover Cleveland, who, like the Republicans, stood for a monetary system based upon gold. The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for President after he stirred the convention with a speech accusing those who favored the gold standard of trying to "crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." The Populists also nominated Bryan for President. The Republican candidate was William McKinley.

The election was a highly emotional contest. Both sides made use of the antagonisms between capital and labor, debtors and creditors, and farmers and the wealthy bankers and merchants of the large Eastern cities. McKinley won.

McKinley Administration, 1897-1901

As expected, McKinley's administration favored big business and the Eastern financial interests. Higher tariffs were set. Gold was established as the standard for currency. A policy of noninterference with trusts followed. Of more lasting significance, however, were McKinley's actions in foreign affairs, which included war with Spain in 1898 to force that nation to grant independence to Cuba. Through the Spanish-American War the United States not only forced Spain out of Cuba, but also acquired the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Further growth of the United States as a world power was marked by the annexation of Hawaii in this period. By accepting the United States' demand for equal treatment in trade with China—the "Open Door" policy—European powers in effect recognized the new status of the United States in international affairs.

In the 1900 Presidential election, the Democratic party hoped to prevent McKinley's reelection by raising an issue new to United States politics—imperialism. The argument was that failure to grant immediate independence to the Philippines meant that the United States was being committed to a colonial policy contrary to American democratic ideals. Bryan was again the Democratic candidate.

McKinley was reelected by a larger majority than in 1896. He had served only a few months of his second term when an anarchist—an opponent of all government—shot and fatally wounded him at Buffalo, New York. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's Vice President, then became President.