Art and Progress; H. K. Carroll, Religious Forces; H. W. Grady "The New South" in Harding, 489-500. QUERY AND DISCUSSION In what ways has the development of your city or community been due to railways? What were the local conditions before those railways were built? When were they completed? What development in transportation facilities do you anticipate in your section in the next fifty years? What industries or enterprises are affecting the development of transportation in your region? What is being done in your community to increase public health? What is the death rate from contagious diseases in your town compared with the average for the nation? The average for your state? What oversight of public health in your community falls to city authorities? State authorities? National authorities? Are you happier than your grand parer.ts were at your age? Healthier? Better citizens? Section 47. Two Decades of Republican Rule Four Republican Presidents Democratic strength in days of war With the election of General Grant to the presidency in 1868 there began a succession of four Republican Chief Executives, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur. These days are interesting from a political standpoint because of the strenuous battles which were fought at the polls between the party in power and the strong opposition which the Democratic party rallied in these years. While the "Solid South" was Democratic from reconstruction days onward, that party had by no means lost all of its old-time strength in the North. Throughout the war it showed its former conservatism on the matter of strict construction of the Constitution by opposing Lincoln's war-time powers. In the election of 1864, in the midst of the war, it showed surprising ability to rally all discontented persons under its banner. Its candidate, the popular "Little Mac" (McClellan), received half a million more Democratic votes in the North alone than Douglas had received in 1860 from both North and South combined. An opposition party is often a "party of expedients," which means that such a party adopts this or that policy more in the hope of beating the party in power than because it heartily believes such a policy is a cure-all for a national ailment. What "expedients" the Democratic party adopted we shall see. From the slough of reconstruction the Republican party rose to the new era with confidence and ability. These days of readjustment were not easy ones for a party in office. The period, as we have seen, was one of lowered moral tone; both political parties suffered from this; the Republicans, being in power, seemed to suffer the most. That party inherited, as one of its great responsibilities, a war debt on the nation of nearly three bil The basis of battles of this the political era lion dollars. In order to finance a government which was growing by leaps and bounds, and pay up what, for those days, was a giant debt, there was necessary the maintenance of a high standard of money and not only a much greater revenue than ever before but a closer relationship between the nation's officials and the money centers of the nation. Any party advocating a high tariff to raise money, especially when its officials are in alliance with the monied interests on questions of money standards, opens the way for the opposition party to shout loudly about "corruption." When, as happened now and then, public officials betrayed their party's principles and their own honor, the rival organization had strong arguments with which to secure votes. The political battles of these flush days of material growth and development were fought over such ethical questions as these. As the party of "sound money" and "protective tariffs" the Republican party was attacked as the party of "the interests" and of RUTHERFORD B. HAYES plutocracy; in turn the Democratic party was assailed as the party "of expedients," advocating whims and conceits for the sole purpose of winning political victories. Grant elected President in 1868 General Grant was desired by both parties as presidential nominee in the campaign of 1868. His close association with leaders of the "Union Party"-as the Republican party and allies called themselves in the later war years-made him the logical candidate to be nominated by the Republicans, and he was triumphant in the election, having a popular vote of 3,015,071 as against Horatio Seymour's Democratic vote of 2,709,615. That the latter carried a great north JAMES A. GARFIELD North whose battle he had fought. His soldierly bearing made him popular in the South which admired his Lincoln-like spirit, shown in his inaugural address, when he said, "Let us have peace." The West loved him because he was her worldfamous son. The East gave him its approval, politically, be cause he stood for what it called sound finance. In the 1868 campaign the Democratic party chose, as an expedient, to favor a scheme to pay the bonds of our war debt with the depreciated "Greenbacks." But our government had promised to pay this debt in gold. The West was the debtor section of the nation, the East the creditor. A debtor usually wants to pay his debts How to pay the war debt in the cheapest money he can get; a creditor always wants the best money he can get. Grant agreed with the East that, since the government had promised to pay in gold, it would go back on its word if this scheme of paying it in poor money was victorious at the polls. Even the Democratic candidate, Seymour, agreed with Grant on this point. His choices of Grant and the "spoils system" It sometimes happens that a great military leader develops weaknesses in civil life. So it was with Grant. assistants in camp had been excellent. As President, however, they were peculiarly unfortunate; "favoritism and incapacity," as Professor Paxson has said, distinguished both his choices and appointees. A marked demoralization in the public service ensued. Shifty financiers courted the President successfully, and, while involved in no personal taint himself, Grant (though successfully reëlected in 1872) laid the basis for strong opposition to Republicanism in later days. Grant was the victim of success, of the ignoring of moral values to which every nation is subject in days of great prosperity, and the country suffered. Men of high position were found guilty of (and confessed to) graft. Two members of Congress were expelled on such charges; a cabinet member resigned to escape examination, and even the Vice-President of the United States was involved. CHESTER A. ARTHUR For the most part these shady transactions were connected with the promotion of transportation companies, particularly the Crédit Mobilier previously mentioned. The public, of course, soon demanded reform, but partizan ship was a mighty handicap to reform. This showed very plainly in the selection of a President to succeed Grant in 1876. Neither of the great parties seemed to have an available candidate of first-rate caliber for the office. The feeling of reaction against the Republican administration was, however, becoming very marked. This showed plainly in the Congressional elections of 1874; our table presents at a glance the Republican losses in that year: Republicans in the House 1874 1875 The exposure of the St. Louis "Whiskey Ring" in 1875 shocked the Nation. This ring had been defrauding the govern The Hayes Tilden contest ment of a million dollars a year with the aid of government supervisors of internal revenue. "Boss" William M. Tweed was at the head of a crowd which plundered New York City of millions of dollars before he was caught and sent to jail. The proof, now published, that Grant's Secretary of War had taken bribes for appointments also made honest men shrink; these exposures contributed toward Democratic strength in 1876. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, received 4,284,885 votes in the presidential election of that year to 4,033,950 for Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican nominee. Tilden had 184 electoral votes to 165 for Hayes, but 185 electoral votes were necessary for election. Twenty electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon were in dispute. Both parties in these states were doubtless guilty of intense partizanship. A single one of these votes would have elected Tilden (map p. 401). An electoral commission of fourteen was appointed by Congress to settle justly the question in dispute. The members of this commission and their party affiliation are shown in this table: |