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the outset of the campaign. The platform was such a radical declaration in favor of Free Trade, made to please the South and West, that it was thought necessary to hedge considerably and allay the apprehensions and alarm of Northern and Eastern manufacturers. Consequently Mr. Cleveland, on July 20,

1892, in a speech made in New York City, said:

Ours is not a destructive party. We are not at enmity with the rights of any of our citizens. All are our countrymen. We are not recklessly heedless of any American interests, nor will we abandon our regard for them.

While in his letter of acceptance, dated September 26th, he said:

Tariff reform is still our purpose. We wage no exterminating war against any American interests. We believe a readjustment can be accomplished in accordance with the principles we profess without disaster or demolition. We contemplate a fair and careful distribution of necessary Tariff burdens rather than the precipitation of Free Trade. We will rely upon the intelligence of our fellow-countrymen to reject the charge that a party comprising a majority of our people is planning the destruction or injury of American interests.

The Free-Trade plank of the Democratic platform was held up to the view of the Southern and Western members of the party, while the more conservative views of Mr. Cleveland were made prominent in the Eastern speeches and editorials of the Democratic press. It was very much like the campaign of 1844, when the cry in the North was "Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff of 1842," while in the South it was "Polk, Dallas, and Free Trade." But Democratic deception and fraud, while largely instrumental in bringing about the result of the election in November, was aided very materially by Republican mismanagement and the obstinacy and indiscretion of mill-owners in Pennsylvania.

One of the most serious strikes known in the country up to that time was that which broke out in the mills of the Carnegie Company at Homestead on July 6, 1892. An opinion upon the merits of the question which led to the disturbance is not

within the province of this work. On the announcement of the company of its intention to make repairs, the officials asked the sheriffs to appoint deputies to protect their property. Upon a small squad of men appearing at the works the strikers at once notified them to get out of town, saying that no disorder was intended and promising that no damage would be done to the property. An offer was made that the workmen themselves be sworn in as deputies and give bonds for the faithful performance of their duties as preservers of the peace. This offer was declined, upon which the advisory committee of the workmen, which up to this time had been directing their movements, was at once dissolved and all their records destroyed. It was now that the company made a movement, the result of which in itself was important enough to have changed sufficient industrial votes to elect Mr. Cleveland, had the deception of his own campaign managers not been quite sufficient in itself. The Carnegie Company secured a body of men known as "Pinkerton detectives," and the fact becoming known to the workmen, it was at once determined to resist their coming. They arrived in two barges on the Ohio River, and their attempt to land was thwarted by the strikers. The detectives were armed with Winchester rifles, while the strikers were possessed of various arms and missiles. Without doubt the firing was inaugurated by the strikers, and their attitude and action can in no way be defended, even while condemning the action of the company in hiring and attempting to bring the Pinkertons to their mills.

On the second day the fight was renewed, and after seven of the detectives had been killed and twenty or thirty wounded, they surrendered to the strikers and accepted their terms to leave their ammunition and arms behind and leave the place under guard. As they passed through the streets in charge of a squad appointed by the committee of strikers, they were clubbed and stoned and shot by the surrounding mob. The town was later placed under martial law, and order was restored by the militia sent by the Government. The matter was investigated in Congress, but it was not till after the election that the strike was declared off. Arrests were made of some

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of the leaders of the workmen on the charge of murder, while retaliatory suits were brought against the Carnegie Company and the Pinkerton Brothers on the same charge. A charge of high treason was brought afterwards against the Homestead Advisory Board, and indictments were found involving thirtyone defendants.

The causes mentioned brought about not only the election of Mr. Cleveland, but the election of almost enough Democratic Representatives of the next Congress to make a threefourths majority. It also resulted in enough Democratic State Legislatures to insure the return of sufficient Democratic Senators to control that body in the following Congress. The popular and electoral vote is shown on the next page.

It will be seen that to the solid South were added California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, while Mr. Cleveland obtained one electoral vote in Ohio, and five in Michigan. The result was certainly decisive and left no doubt that the people at large for the time being had rebuked the Republican party for what they wrongly supposed to be against their best interests. And yet, though a large majority of the people had voted for Mr. Cleveland, they were probably sorry for it within twenty-four hours after the election. There was no such rejoicing as took place in 1884, in fact as soon as it was determined without doubt that the next Congress would be Democratic in both branches, which would enable Mr. Cleveland and his party to carry out their threats to repeal the McKinley law and enact in its stead a Free-Trade measure, apprehension and alarm took possession of the industrial and financial interests of the country, and could the election have been held over again within ten days, it may be estimated that a million or more votes would have been changed from the Cleveland column to that of Harrison. The people, as it were, awoke from a dream; they saw at once how they had been deceived by the methods of the Democratic campaign managers, and how an incident which had no bearing whatever upon the issue of the campaign had influenced their vote in a time of temporary anger and resentment.

CHAPTER XI.

SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND-PANIC OF 1893REPEAL OF SHERMAN LAW-GORMAN-WILSON TARIFF.

THE

HE second session of the Fifty-second Congress convened Monday, December 5, 1892. The first part of President Harrison's annual message was devoted to "a comparison of the existing conditions with those of the most favored period in the history of the country," which, he added, “will, I believe, show that so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the comforts of life were never before enjoyed by our people." After giving a synopsis of the census figures of 1890, the President referred to the industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, up to October 22, 1892. He gave figures showing the increased employment and increased wages. He also showed that in every department of our trade and commerce, both foreign and domestic, we were up to the time of the election enjoying unprecedented prosperity. He concluded this part of the message with the following sentence:

There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life.

He then said:

I believe that the protective system, which has now for something more than thirty years continuously prevailed in our legislation, has been a mighty instrument for the development of our national