CHAPTER XXXIII POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT, 1877-1881 HAYES AND HIS PARTY New Political Conditions. WHEN President Hayes withdrew the troops from the South our history entered a new phase. The conflict against slavery came to a definite end and political and economic matters became paramount. Theoretical discussion became less important in congress and more time was given to propositions to reform government and to promote industry. Political leaders were now less conspicuous than formerly, parties became more machine-like, and captains of politics directed them in much the same spirit that captains of trade managed industry. The wide growth of corporations brought concentrated capital into intimate relation with lawmaking, it seemed to bring a lowering of morality of the lawmakers, and this brought an increased watchfulness by the people to see that their rights were not sacrificed through the designs of heedless industrial agents. The great reform movements since 1877 have been connected with the civil service, the protection of industry, the regulation of railways, and the restraints of trusts: they have all been phases of a greater conflict in which the American democracy has been seeking to establish its control over every force within its domain. Rutherford B. Hayes, whose administration ushered in this era of striving, was esteemed by his friends a good man who would do no harm. He was quiet in deportment, reliable, religious, President truthful, serious, and straightforward. He was one of Hayes. those public men who are put forward to save the party when probity must undo the mischief that recklessness has worked. It was on this account he became governor of Ohio, and on this account he was called upon to redeem the folly of the politicians who surrounded Grant. In office he found himself confronted by the same graceless group. It was a surprise to them and to the country that he refused to be a nonentity and tried to improve the situation before him. Hayes was a party man, but back of him were the independents. They grew out of the liberal republican organization of 1872. Defeated in that year, and without hope of setting the standards for democratic conduct, they remained a balance between the two other parties. William Cullen Bryant, Carl Schurz, and George William Curtis made excellent leaders, and the The Independents. large number of literary men in the group who aided them gave the faction an influence beyond its voting strength. It had much sympathy for Tilden because of his opposition to Tammany and the New York canal ring, but looked at him askance in the presidential contest because he would not openly declare for civil service reform. Hayes supported that measure and had their approval in his long fight against the spoilsmen in his own party. They opposed the attempt to nominate Grant for a third term in 1880, and voted for Garfield, who defeated Grant in the nominating convention. Four years later they found a favored leader in Grover Cleveland, and were the deciding factor in his election. He did not always please them, but he retained their admiration until his retirement from public service. The success of civil service reform took away their best bond of life, but they reappeared in 1900 as a weakened force in opposition to the policy of expansion. The passing of the older leaders has obscured the activity of the movement, but it survives in a growing habit of independent voting. In the make-up of the cabinet President Hayes paid due regard to the conditions before him. He avoided the factional quarrel between Conkling and Blaine and pleased New York by The Cabinet. making Evarts, of that state, secretary of state. Over the treasury he placed John Sherman, of Ohio, who since 1859 had served either on the house committee of ways and means or the senate finance committee and was acquainted with the intimate history of the finances from the beginning of the civil war. Sherman opposed McCulloch's plans for redeeming the legal tenders but favored the resumption law of 1875 and supported Hayes's sound money canvass in Ohio. This did not quite take away the nervousness of the East at the appointment. It feared lest he should favor the payment of bonds in greenbacks. On the other hand, it was an advantage to have a secretary who understood the wishes of the West and had its confidence. The other members of the cabinet were George W. McCrary, of Iowa, secretary of war; Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, secretary of the navy; Charles Devens, of Massachusetts, attorney-general; David M. Key, of Tennessee, postmaster-general; and Carl Schurz, of Missouri, secretary of the interior. Schurz was a liberal republican in 1872, and Key was an ex-confederate soldier: their choice indicated Hayes's spirit of conciliation. Hayes and the South. It also indicated the president's purpose to act for himself. Much to the disappointment of the party leaders he quickly took the Southern question into his own hands. He conferred in Washington with Chamberlain and Hampton, the rival claimants for the South Carolina governorship, and announced that he would withdraw the troops from the Columbia statehouse. He would not longer use them to protect one side in a state quarrel. THE REPUBLICANS DIVIDED 695 Chamberlain must rely on his own resources. As the whites were all for Hampton and his opponent dared not arm the negroes, the withdrawal of the troops left the democrats in power. He dealt with Louisiana in the same way. A commission he sent thither to investigate reported that the republican claimant was kept in office only by the use of troops: these were withdrawn, and Nicholls, the democrat, took the power of governor supported by a democratic legislature. Chamberlain was soon among the discontented ones, but in 1901 he said: "If the canvass of 1876 had resulted in the success of the republican party [in South Carolina] that party could not, for want of materials, even when aided by the democratic minority, have given a pure or competent administration." John Sherman expressed Hayes's view in saying: "The president is not made the judge of who is elected governor of a state, and an attempt to exercise such a power would be a plain act of usurpation." breeds Hayes's action was supported by his cabinet and by liberal-minded republicans; but it disappointed the group of politicians who dominated the party under Grant. Men like Morton, Simon Cameron, and Zach Chandler, the political heirs of Thad "HalfStevens and Benjamin Butler, were chagrined at the and abandonment of the Southern policy for which so much "Stalwarts." had been done. They expressed open contempt for the president and the independents and dubbed them "half-breeds." They themselves were called " stalwarts." The two names were freely used for the next three years, and the rivalry between the factions became bitter. The real bone of contention was power. "The men who saved the union should govern it," said Blaine. He had raised the Southern issue in 1876 and was disappointed at the quiet manner in which the president now ignored it. But as time passed, and public opinion came to Hayes, Blaine left the "stalwarts." probably much influenced by the support which they received from Conkling, his steady enemy. COURSE OF THE DEMOCRATS Two Party The democrats benefited by Hayes's Southern policy but loved him none the more on account of it. To them he was a usurper and a republican, and withdrawing the troops was an act of necessity, not of grace. They attempted two means of strengthening themselves before the country in anticipation of 1880. The first was to investigate the election of 1876. The democratic house appointed a committee for this purpose, the majority reporting for Tilden and the minority for Hayes. The house could not unmake a president, but it hoped to uncover facts which would convince the country that Tilden was the victim of bad practices, and through this means to secure his election next time as a vindication. Their hopes were defeated by the republican senate, whose committee on I. Investigating the Election of 1876. privileges and elections investigated one of the many charges that were made in reference to the election. In this case it was that democrats offered $8000 for an electoral vote in Oregon. By a subpoena the committee got possession of 30,000 cipher telegrams sent by both parties in the contest. Before they were returned to the telegraph company the important republican dispatches were destroyed and copies were made of certain democratic dispatches, which were soon afterwards published in the New York Tribune. They contained corrupt propositions to Tilden. He showed satisfactorily that he countenanced none of them, that they were made unsought by him, and that they were not communicated to him. The calmer portion of the people were satisfied, but party prejudice was high, and the incident at least took the edge off the plan for Tilden's vindication. A more successful matter was the attempt to repeal the federal election laws. By several enactments federal authority was extended Election over elections, supervisors were appointed, federal judges 2. Repeal of and marshals took jurisdiction over cases concerning the right to vote, and troops might be used to execute their judgment. The system bore hard on the democrats in the South and in New York, where a supervisor named Davenport had arrested many persons, mostly democrats, because their naturalization papers were said to be irregular. The courts decided against Davenport, but he was not punished. The democrats could not remove him, since he was appointed by the president. They struck at the system instead, aiming first at the use of troops. If this were forbidden, the system would be crippled, since the federal court had no constabulary to give quick effect to its decrees. They did not control the senate and must do what they did in the house. In 1877, in the last short session of Grant's administration, they amended the army appropriation bill by forbidding the use of troops at elections. The senate refused to concur, the house stood for its point, and the appropriation bill failed. In Successful Filibuster. the succeeding June the army was without pay, and Hayes had to call an extra session in October to vote supplies. The democrats waived their power for the time and allowed money to be granted, but in the regular session, which came in December, they returned to their position. The army, they said, could be used constitutionally only "to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, and repel invasion"; and its use at elections was unconstitutional and dangerous to liberty. They were unquestionably in accord with the early spirit of the government. They had popular support, and rather than again imperil the army appropriation bill the senate gave way. June 18, 1878, it was enacted that troops be DEMAND FOR INFLATION 697 no longer used in elections. This success was in keeping with the president's liberal treatment of the South. It left that section still freer to manage its own affairs. It was, also, a step in check of centralization. Election In 1878 the democrats elected all but four of the 106 Southern representatives, and the senate contained thirty men formerly connected with the confederacy. In this respect they profited by the recent removal of disability imposed on ex-con- of 1878. federates. The party controlled the senate by eight votes and had 148 in the house to 130 republicans and 15 greenbackers. They felt able to demand the repeal of the last features of the federal election laws. They again resorted to "riders," placing them on the appropriation bills to forbid the use of funds paying election supervisors or marshals who were concerned in elections. Hayes vetoed the bills, and the houses could not pass them over his veto. They then passed a bill repealing the election laws outright. It was vetoed, and congress could not carry it over the veto. The democrats hoped the people would approve their position in 1880, but other forces were in play which were to take the election of that year out of their hands. THE BLAND-ALLISON SILVER COINAGE LAW Debtors u. While the republicans quarreled with Hayes over his Southern policy and received the democratic onslaught on the federal election laws, the country experienced the first of several waves of agitation for the free coinage of silver. The movement was connected with the hard times of the years after the panic of 1873, during which the prices of both grain and cotton fell to points lower than were known since the war. The West had borrowed money to develop its farming resources and the South to repair the waste of war. Both sections were against lenders in the East and opposed the redemption of the legal tenders. Accustomed to the chaotic Western and Southwestern ante-bellum bank notes and the depreciated war currency they now found a perfectly satisfactory money in the greenbacks, only slightly below par. They thought business would improve if there were more, and not less, of them. This feeling was strong in both parties in the West and South. Moderate inflationists remained in the old parties, but extreme men in 1875 began to secede, denouncing both organizations as being bound to the bondholders. They openly advocated fiat money; and in a national convention at Indianapolis in 1876 they nominated Peter Cooper of New York for presi- Party, 1876. dent, declared for the repeal of the resumption act of 1875, demanded the issue of legal tender notes bearing interest at 3.65 per cent in which the maturing bonds should be paid, and pronounced the sale of gold bonds to foreigners an enslavement of the people to The Greenback |