he became a lawyer; in 1871 he was elected sheriff of Erie county, New York, and in 1881 mayor of Buffalo. He made so excellent a record as reform mayor of that city, that the Democrats in 1882 made him governor of New York. In 1884 he was elected president; in 1888 the Democrats renominated him, but he was defeated by Benjamin Harrison. He then took up the practice of law in New York City. In 1892 he was again elected president.

Since his retirement Mr. Cleveland has lived in Princeton, New Jersey. Here he has delivered lectures at intervals before the students of Princeton College on national and international affairs.

Mr. Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, March 18, 1837.

648. The Return of the Democrats to Power.-Cleveland was the first Democratic president since 1861, and both parties regarded his election as a revolution. The Democrats for the most part expected that a clean sweep would be made in the offices; many Republicans vaguely looked for the breaking up of the government; some declared gloomily that slavery would be reëstablished. All these absurd expectations were happily disappointed.

649. Cleveland and the Spoils System. The keenest disappointment, however, was felt by those who had rallied around Cleveland with the expectation of securing government positions in the event of his election. Cleveland was a reformer, supported by reformers, and he set himself like granite against the spoilsmen. Gentlemen," said a southern politician sadly, "I fear there will be some difficulty about the offices." So there was. The new president would not turn out "the rascals" in anything like the desired numbers.

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650. Private Pension Bills.-Cleveland also believed that it was the part of reform to put an end to what he considered excessive pensions. He said men were every year drawing millions of money from the government without any just

claim whatever; that it was in the interests of the honest veterans that the undeserving should not receive pensions. The abuses, he thought, were largely due to the passage of private pension bills by congress, whereas congress ought to leave the decision in such matters to the pension bureau. He therefore declared war against private pension bills, and vetoed many of them. In 1887 he also vetoed the Dependent Pension Bill, which would have given pensions to all poor veterans who had served three months in the union armies. Cleveland's pension policy met with much opposition at the north, where it was felt that nothing is too good for all honest and worthy union veterans who had offered their services and their lives in the defence of their country.

651. Presidential Succession Bill-1886.-In 1886 congress passed a bill providing for the succession to the presidency, in case both the president and the vice-president should die or be unable to exercise the office. Under this law, the secretary of state succeeds the vice-president, then comes the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of war, and the other cabinet officers in the order of the creation of the departments. This arrangement makes it impossible that the office of president should ever be vacant.

652. The Interstate Commerce Act.-The great railroads of the United States possess enormous power over the trade and commerce of the country. If they combine, they can charge what prices they please for carrying freight. Again, they may carry one man's goods at a cheaper rate than they will carry those of another man, to the ruin of the person against whom they discriminate. In many instances the railroads had done these things. In 1887 an attempt was made to stop such practices by the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act. This forbids railroads to make a difference in the terms on which they will carry freight for different persons, or to combine to fix rates. The law also creates a body called the Interstate Commerce Commission to see

that the railroads obey its provisions. Though some benefit has resulted, the act has been evaded to a considerable extent, and the problem of compelling obedience to it still awaits solution.

653. Fishery Questions.-Most of our foreign difficulties have been with England, since she has always possessed large colonies on this continent. During Cleveland's first administration, serious disputes arose over the question of fishery rights. Disagreement came first over the claim of Americans to catch fish along the shores of Canada. The right to fish there had been given us by the Treaty of Washington in 1871. This treaty expired in 1885, and trouble immediately arose. Of course American' fishermen could continue their fishing on the high seas, and the dispute related to this question: What are the "high seas"? America said that any part of the sea three miles from the shore was part of the high seas. Great Britain said that this principle was not correct when applied to bays, that the Americans could not fish in the bays on the Canadian coast, no matter how far they were from land. The New England fishermen continued to fish inside the bays, and as a result, England began to seize American vessels found. within these waters. For a time it looked as if war was certain, but in 1888 the quarrel was compromised. Americans were to secure English licenses if they wished to continue fishing within the disputed waters.

Another fishery dispute was in respect to the taking of seals in Bering Sea. The United States claimed that the whole of Bering Sea belonged to her, and that therefore Englishmen had no right to catch seals anywhere in this sea. This claim, so opposed to the demands in regard to the bays of Newfoundland, was indignantly rejected by England. In 1886, however, the Americans began to seize English sealing vessels in Bering Sea. After much debate and a great deal of irritation the question was submitted to an international court of arbitration, which decided in 1893

that America was mistaken in claiming this entire sea as her private property.

654. The Tariff.-During the civil war high tariff rates were imposed upon nearly every article imported into the United States. When the other war taxes were repealed, the tariff was allowed to stand as it was. Thus the nation found itself almost unconsciously committed to a high protective tariff. The Republicans supported, the Democrats opposed this policy. Nevertheless, the issue was not clearly drawn. In 1880 the question entered into the campaign, but only in a minor degree. In 1883 some reductions were made in rates, but they were of no consequence. In 1887, however, President Cleveland made the tariff a party issue. His message of that year insisted on the lowering of the rates, and declared for a tariff for revenue. Though such a tariff might give some protection, revenue and not protection was to be its chief purpose.

655. Campaign of 1888.-The presidential election of 1888 was fought out on the tariff issue, and Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, was elected over Cleveland, who had been renominated by the Democrats. Harrison received 233 electoral votes, Cleveland 168. Levi P. Morton was elected vice-president.

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLICAN: 1889-1893

656. Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president of the United States, was a member of a distinguished American family. His great-grandfather was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a governor of the Northwest Territory; his grandfather had been president of the United States and his father had played a considerable part in Ohio politics. Harrison was a graduate of Miami university in Ohio. In 1854 he removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, and began the practice of the law. In 1862 he entered the army as second lieutenant and rose to the rank

of brigadier-general. In 1880 he was elected United States senator, and in 1888 president. In 1892 he was renominated, but defeated.

After his presidency Harrison resumed the practice of the law, securing a national reputation as a great lawyer. He still interested himself in politics and represented Venezuela before the international court of arbitration to settle the Venezuela boundary dispute.

Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833, and died in Indianapolis, March 13, 1901.

657. The McKinley Tariff.-Since the campaign of 1888 had been fought out over the tariff issue, the congress in 1890 passed the high protective tariff, known as the McKinley Act. This was the highest tariff the country had yet known.

658. Reciprocity and South America.—James G. Blaine, President Harrison's secretary of state, believed that if our commercial expansion was to go on, some means of inducing other nations to trade with us must be found. His principal plan was to lower our tariff rates when other nations agreed to lower theirs. This was reciprocity. He, therefore, secured the insertion of a clause in the McKinley Bill, which gave the president power to lower our tariff for the benefit of any nation which would lower its tariff for our benefit. The reciprocity policy has as yet made but little progress, though the late President McKinley revived the policy and in his last public speech at Buffalo made a strong appeal for its adoption by the nation.

A second part of Blaine's trade plans consisted in holding congresses of all the American nations to agree upon plans for mutual commerce. Pan-American congresses have been held in the cities of Washington and Mexico, but the results as yet have not been of much importance.

659. Samoa and the Sandwich Islands. The United States, seeking all possible outlets for the expansion of its commerce in the far east, became interested in the Samoan Islands as early as 1878. In that year the government