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Republican Campaign
Despite discontent from farming and labor groups, Republicans
and Democrats conducted a relatively quiet and courteous
presidential campaign. This was true partly because the
nominees were a president and former president who upheld the
dignity of that office by following the tradition of not
campaigning openly for it. Another reason was the
declining health of Mrs. Harrison, who died of tuberculosis on
October 25, 1892, two weeks before the election. Although
New England, much of the Mid-Atlantic, and the Far West were
relatively safe territories for the Republicans, the Harrison
campaign faced trouble in New York and the Midwest. The
addition of the Populists to the contest gave the Republican
Party a glimmer of hope in the Democratic-dominated South.
Many Republicans were willing to jettison the party’s commitment
to federal oversight of voting rights (the Force Bill), which
aimed to protect Southern blacks, but Harrison stood firmly
behind it.
Whitelaw Reid,
the Republican vice-presidential nominee, sought the cooperation
of New York’s Boss Platt at two lengthy discussions in August,
as did the president himself at a White House meeting on
September 5. Apologies were made on both sides and,
although no explicit post-election promises were made, Platt
agreed to campaign for Harrison. Reid also needed a
presidential push to take the stump, eventually campaigning in
New York and the Midwest. Ill health and grief over the
recent deaths of two of his children kept Blaine from
campaigning, but Reid convinced him to write a public letter
endorsing Harrison. With both parties supporting
bimetallism, Republicans emphasized trade protectionism.
Labor Unrest
In July, the presidential
campaign was punctuated by strikes at silver mines in Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho, and at Andrew Carnegie’s iron and steel plant in
Homestead, Pennsylvania. Violence at the Idaho silver
mines between union strikers and the company’s armed guards
resulted in several deaths. President Harrison sent
federal troops to restore order, thereby ending the strike.
In Pennsylvania, the Iron and Steel Workers’ union had
difficulty reaching agreement with manager Henry Clay Frick on a
new contract that reduced some wages by 18%. When the
union went on strike, the company locked out all workers, who
then attacked the guards of the replacement workers. When
the company shipped in Pinkerton detectives, fighting erupted
between the strikers and Pinkertons, ending with three guards
and seven workers killed. The state’s National Guard
restored order. On July 23, Frick was shot by an anarchist
(unconnected to the strikers), but recovered. Leading
Republicans pressured Frick to settle the strike so that
Democrats could not capitalize on the incident, but he refused.
Finally in mid-November, after the election, some of the
strikers voted to return to work.
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Warning
1860
