The Harrison Record
In the election of 1888, the
Republicans won control of the presidency and both houses of the
Congress for the first time in eight years. That allowed
the administration of President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
and Congressional Republicans to enact much of their agenda.
The Dependent and Disability Pensions Act (1890) expanded
pension coverage to Union veterans whose disability was not
traceable to Civil War military service and to dependent
relatives of deceased veterans. It had been vetoed by
President Grover Cleveland, Harrison’s Democratic predecessor,
but reintroduced as a gesture of gratitude to a group of the
Republican Party’s strongest backers, Union veterans. The
law inflated pension payments from $88 million in 1889 to $159
million in 1893.
In 1889-1890,
Congress recognized the statehood of Idaho, Montana, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming, whose new
senators were “silver” Republicans. Although the president
and most Republicans backed gold as the foundation of the
nation’s money, Congress enacted the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
in 1890 in order to appease silver advocates and gain support
for tariff legislation. The law obligated the federal
government to buy nearly all the nation’s silver produced every
month in return for federal notes redeemable in gold or silver
coin. Most note holders chose to redeem in gold,
drastically reducing the federal gold reserve. The
tradeoff for the Silver Purchase Act was the McKinley Tariff
(1890), sponsored by Congressman William McKinley of Ohio (the
party’s
presidential nominee
four years later). The law raised tariff rates to an
average 48%, the highest peacetime level in American history to
that date.
The Republican
Congress enacted the first federal regulation of large business
corporations, the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890), making it
illegal for businesses to combine “in restraint of trade or
commerce.” Like the Silver Purchase Act, it bore the name
of Senator John Sherman of Ohio. Other laws passed by the
51st
Congress (December 1889-March 1891) included more money for
agricultural colleges, a system of federal appeals courts, a ban
on interstate lotteries, and authority for the president to set
aside forest preserves, which Harrison applied to 13 million
acres of timberland. Republicans failed, however, to enact
federal protection of voting rights. Criticism of the
unusually activist 51st Congress—labeled the “Billion
Dollar Congress” even though it did not actually spend that
much—allowed Democrats to regain commanding control of the House
of Representatives (231-88) in the 1890 election.
President
Harrison appointed four justices to the Supreme Court:
David J. Brewer (1889-1910), Henry B. Brown (1891-1906), George
Shiras (1892-1903), and Howell E. Jackson (1893-1895). His
administration continued the modernization and expansion of the
U.S. Navy begun under its predecessors. Harrison and his
secretary of state, James G. Blaine, worked toward greater
cooperation with Latin America through the first Pan American
Conference, negotiated reciprocal trade agreements with several
nations, reached a settlement with Great Britain over seal
hunting, established Samoa as the first American overseas
protectorate, and resolved diplomatic crises with Italy (over
three Italians lynched in New Orleans) and Chile (over two
American sailors killed on shore leave). In early 1893,
the administration attempted to annex Hawaii, but the incoming
Cleveland administration (1893-1897) rejected the policy.
The Republican Nomination
Despite the legislative success of his administration, President
Harrison was not enthusiastic about accepting the burden of a
second term. Nevertheless, he decided to seek renomination
out of personal pride and partisan loyalty—to protect and
advance Republican policies. However, the party unity of
1888 had been seriously damaged under his watch. Powerful
bosses of Republican state political machines had helped
Harrison win the nomination and election in 1888, but he
provoked their anger by not rewarding them with sufficient
federal patronage. Another problem was a potential
challenge from Secretary of State James Blaine, the party’s 1884
presidential nominee. The two obstacles were related
because the bosses viewed Blaine as the candidate they could use
to unseat Harrison. In 1891, state party bosses Thomas C.
Platt of New York and Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania were joined
by three members of the Republican National Committee, Chairman
James Clarkson of Iowa, Henry Payne of Wisconsin, and Samuel
Fessenden of Connecticut, in promoting Blaine’s candidacy.
Many
Republicans revered Blaine as the true leader of the party.
Mrs. Blaine reportedly urged her husband to seek the nomination
because Harrison had offended her by refusing to grant their
son, Walker, a high-level administration post and their
son-in-law, Colonel John Coppinger, a military promotion.
Blaine’s willingness, though, was uncertain. He suffered
from physical ailments, which caused lengthy absences from his
official duties, and was dispirited by the death of Walker and a
daughter, Alice, within a month of each other in early 1890.
On February 6, 1892, Blaine wrote Clarkson to insist that he did
not want the Republican nomination. By the spring,
however, the secretary of state seemed to be signaling openness
at least to the idea of a draft at the convention.
Blaine and
Harrison had worked together civilly during the administrative
term. Tension arose between the two, though, when Blaine
allowed rumors of his candidacy to swirl without either denying
them firmly or leaving his post to run openly. President
Harrison finally resolved the matter by sending word via
Secretary of War Stephen Elkins that Blaine should clearly and
forcefully renounce a presidential bid or resign. Blaine
resigned on June 4, 1892, three days before the Republican
National Convention began, and his supporters worked hastily to
spark a boom. The candidate, though, apathetically told a
relative, “The truth is, I do not want the office [of
president].”
Another
potential threat to Harrison’s renomination was the possible
candidacy of William McKinley, the former congressman who won
the Ohio governorship in 1891. He had received a
scattering of votes at the 1888 convention and was a popular
figure, particularly among younger Republicans. However,
Governor McKinley and his chief advisor, Mark Hanna, decided it
was politically unwise to challenge the incumbent president in
1892.
Meanwhile,
Louis T. Michener, the president’s friend and former attorney
general of Harrison’s home state of Indiana, reprised his 1888
role by serving as Harrison’s campaign manager in 1892.
Michener ran an effective operation, contacting nearly all the
delegates and alternates, distributing massive amounts of
campaign literature, and soliciting donations from the
president’s friends and cabinet members. Harrison also
took an active part by trying to repair the rift with Boss
Platt, entertaining McKinley and other notable Republicans, and
going on a speaking tour in May throughout western New York and
Pennsylvania (where the Platt and Quay machines held sway).
Due to federal patronage, the president could count on a bloc of
votes from the South as a starting base. By the time of
the convention on June 7, Harrison was virtually assured of
renomination.
At the
convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, any mention of Blaine’s
name prompted loud demonstrations of support, but it was the
spirited reaction to McKinley’s address as convention chairman
that most worried the Harrison forces. Nevertheless, on
June 10 only Harrison and Blaine’s names were placed in
nomination. The president won renomination handily on the
first ballot with 535 votes, while Blaine tied for a distant
second with McKinley (who had not been officially nominated) at
182 votes each. Still, the 364 votes against Harrison
registered significant dissatisfaction with the president within
his own party, especially from the key electoral states of New
York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. For the second spot on the
ticket, delegates replaced Vice President Levi P. Morton with
journalist Whitelaw Reid, a close ally of Blaine’s. Morton
had angered some Republicans by allegedly impeding the party’s
legislative agenda while presiding over the Senate. His
supporters, on the other hand, perceived that he was
disinterested in a second term.
The Republican
platform was relatively short. It defended trade
protectionism, assessed the Harrison administration’s
reciprocity treaties to have been successful, and supported the
current bimetal monetary system. It condemned “inhuman
outrages” perpetrated in the South “for political reasons”
(i.e., against black Republicans), and demanded the passage of
laws protecting voting rights. In a “Miscellaneous”
section, the platform endorsed worker safety legislation,
sympathized with Irish home rule, condemned Russian persecution
of Jews, and indirectly opposed state aid to parochial schools.
It judged the building of an American-controlled canal across
Nicaragua (Panama was chosen later) to be “of the highest
importance to the American people” in aiding national defense
and commerce.
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