 Chapter 5 Part 2 of Twenty Years of the Republic, 1885-1905 by Harry Thurston Peck This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison Part 2 The news of this disaster dispelled all thoughts of war in Germany and in the United States. Prince Bismarck proposed a conference at Berlin to deal with a Samoan situation. He was confident that he could win by his strenuous diplomacy what he had failed to gain by bluster and a show of force. He felt, perhaps, that his personal presence and the greatness of his fame would overaw the untrained American commissioners, as it had invariably overawed the skilled diplomatists of Europe. He had dealt with Americans before. In 1883 a minister of the United States at Berlin, Mr. A. S. Sargent, had displeased him by one of his dispatches. Bismarck, therefore, ordered the officials of the Foreign Office to speak only German to Mr. Sargent whenever he called. As Mr. Sargent spoke nothing but English, he was placed in a very humiliating position and for a whole year was obliged to transact all his official business through a secretary of legation. During Mr. Cleveland's administration, Germans naturalized in the United States were expelled from Germany with only 24 hours' notice. Mr. Bayard had tried to resent this breach of amity and up-treaty rights, but he had proved to be no match for Bismarck. On the whole then the Chancellor felt quite easy in his mind. The conference began on April 29, 1889. The United States was represented by Mr. J. A. Cassin, Mr. William Walter Phelps, and Mr. G. H. Bates. Mr. Bates having already visited Samoa and made himself familiar with the conditions there. Prince Bismarck's object was to make a treaty which should recognize the political predominance of Germany in Samoa. After he had said forth his views, the American commissioners opposed them absolutely. They insisted that the United States, Great Britain, and Germany should share alike and that the rights of each should be recognized as equal. Bismarck was a great actor. He could assume at will a tremendous indignation and work himself into a rage which his huge bulk of body made really awe-inspiring. He now resorted to this device and frowned portentiously as he growled out sentences that seemed full of menace. The Americans were thoroughly impressed by his manner and they cabled to Secretary Blaine informing him that the Chancellor was very irritable. Mr. Blaine at once flashed back the terse reply, the extent of the Chancellor's irritability is not the measure of American rights. Note 13, page 188. This message so stiffened the backbone of the American commissioners that they held to their point with unyielding pertinacity. Their British colleagues heartened by their example, united in supporting the American position. Bismarck found that he could accomplish nothing, either by threatening or by cajolry, and at last the man of blood and iron backed down squarely and conceded every point. Melyatoa whom the Germans had seized and exiled was restored as King of Samoa. A general act was signed under which the three powers established a condominium in the islands. Note 14, page 189. This was the first diplomatic reverse which Bismarck had encountered in all his great career and he had met it at the hands of the United States. It was a signal triumph for Mr. Blaine and for the nation. The incident made a profound impression in Europe and most of all in England. The London Saturday Review, an organ usually known for its hostility to everything American, summed up the events in Samoa and then added, it has been left for the Navy's American Republic to give us a lead in the path of duty and of honor. Taken by itself, this Samoan affair was but a trifling incident and might well be chronicled in a single paragraph. But in the light of subsequent events its ultimate significance has seemed to have been very great. First of all, it revealed to the American people their need of a more powerful Navy and Congress soon after provided the sum of $25 million for the building of new ships, a sum which was presently augmented by a further appropriation of $16,500,000. By the end of the year 1890 the United States had under construction five battleships of the first class, an armored cruiser and an armored ram, besides ten steel cruisers and six vessels intended for coast defense. Another and very far reaching result was found in the growth among official Germans of an intense animosity toward the United States for having at every move of the Samoan game thwarted and humiliated Germany. This feeling grew with the lapse of time and nine years later in another island of the sea it was destined once more to drive the two nations to the very brink of war. Note 15, page 190. Even more impressive was the Samoan episode as the revelation of a new temper in the people of the United States. This has been well described by Mr. John Bassett more in the following words. The chief historical significance of the Samoan incident lies less in the disposition ultimately made of the islands than in the assertion by the United States, not merely of a willingness, but even of a right to take part in determining the fate of a remote and semi-barbarous people whose possessions lay far outside the traditional sphere of American political interests. The tendency thus exhibited though to a certain extent novel was by no means inexplicable. The intense absorption of the people of the United States in domestic affairs which resulted from the Civil War and the struggle for reconstruction had ceased. The old issues were no longer interesting. The national energy and sense of power sought employment in other fields. The desire for a vigorous foreign policy though at jarred with tradition had spread and become popular. Note 16, page 190. Mr. Blaine was less successful in his attempt to establish for the United States the claim that Bering Sea was practically a Maori clasm. The object of this claim was to secure to American sealers the sole right to take seals in Bering Sea. Seal catching was immensely profitable and was engaged in by Russians, Canadians and Americans. These sealers made their catches in so indiscriminate a manner, like the females and the males, as to make it probable that before many years all seals would be exterminated. The Cleveland administration had tried to establish American jurisdiction over Bering Sea and had seized several British sealing vessels in the open waters. These vessels were subsequently released, but the whole question still remained unsettled when Mr. Blaine began a correspondence with Lord Salisbury in support of the American claim. In this correspondence it must be said that the American secretary did not appear to the best advantage. The traditions of diplomacy require the tone of all formal communications to be ceremonious and courtly to the last degree. However, burning the question at issue may appear, the diplomatic dualists must everywhere observe the most punctilious etiquette and and never, either in word or phrase, overstep the limits of a stately self-restraint. These traditions Lord Salisbury on his side followed absolutely. His immensely able argument was couched throughout in terms of the finest courtesy, suggesting in every line the urbanity and graceful deference which marks the intercourse of high-bred gentlemen. Mr. Blaine's dispatches on the contrary however plausible were marked at times by a surgeon's swagger, a tone of lurking insolence and an offensive assumption that his opponent's argument was one of conscious duplicity and falsehood. Note 17, page 191. This perhaps was due to the fact that in his heart of hearts Mr. Blaine was quite aware of the weakness of his case. Certain it is that he accomplished nothing and at last he betook himself from diplomacy to methods based on force. Instructions were issued to American revenue cutters to capture British ceiling vessels even when found in open waters. The British minister at Washington had once informed his government and immediately Lord Salisbury dispatched a vigorous protest June 14th 1890 which ended in the following very ominous words. The undersigned is, instructed formally to protest against such interference and to declare that her Britannic Majesty's government must hold the government of the United States responsible for the consequences that may ensue from acts which are contrary to the established principles of international law What this really meant was that if American cruisers should molest British vessels in Bering Sea outside of the three-mile limit, British ships of war would forcibly resist them. The gravity of the crisis was sufficiently apparent and Mr. Blaine, though he seems to have weighed the question of war and peace, decided presently for peace. In a very characteristic private note to the President, March 6, 1891 he said, If we get up a war cry and send Navy vessels to Bering Sea it will re-elect Lord Salisbury. England has always sustained an administration with the prospect of war pending. Lord Salisbury would dissolve Parliament instantly if we made a demonstration of war. On the other side I am not sure, or rather I am sure, that war would prove of no advantage to you. New York and Massachusetts are steadily against war with England unless the last point of honor requires it. Again I think you will bitterly disappoint Lord Salisbury by keeping quiet. We should have all the fuss and there would be no war after all. Not a man in a million believes we should ultimately have war. Note 18, page 192 The whole question was subsequently referred to arbitration. A mixed tribunal met in Paris in 1893 and decided that the American case was defective and it was therefore lost upon every legal point involved. The final decision held that the United States have no right to protection of or property in the seals frequenting the islands of the United States in the Bering Sea when the same are found outside the ordinary three-mile limit. While Secretary Blaine was confronting Bismarck, President Harrison was busying himself with the much less noble task of parceling out the offices. The significant sentence in his inaugural which declared that honorable party service should not be a disqualification for appointment had been accepted by party workers as a special invitation. These now descended upon the capital and overwhelmed the president with their importunities. Questions of petty patronage occupied his entire time and they seem more over to have greatly interested him. His activities for several months were those of an office broker and the spectacle was not altogether edifying. He observed the civil service law as it stood upon the books and within the range of the classified service no changes were made from partisan motives. But elsewhere what was practically a clean sweep was carried out. It cannot be said that the results strengthened Mr. Harrison even with his own party since for every office seeker who was gratified by an appointment at least three or four expectant ones were disappointed while the majority of the people viewed this office mongering with something like contempt. It will be remembered that according to Senator Sherman, note 19, page 193, Mr. Harrison had received the Republican nomination as the result of a bargain with Mr. T. C. Platt of New York. It was reported that Mr. Platt had been promised a secretarieship of the treasury. If such a bargain had actually been made it was undoubtedly made without Mr. Harrison's consent for Platt was not appointed. Nevertheless to console him he was allowed to have a large share of federal patronage and the same concession was made to Mr. Key of Pennsylvania. President Harrison likewise looked very carefully after the interests of his own relatives. Offices were given by him to his father-in-law, to his son's father-in-law, to his daughter's brother-in-law, to his own brother and to several of his son's college chums. He also brought upon himself much criticism by bestowing important places on the editors of newspapers which had supported him in the late campaign. Mr. White-Law Reed of the New York Tribune received the mission to France. Mr. Thorndike Rice, who as editor of the North American Review, had published an outrageously personal attack upon Mr. Bayard, was made minister to Russia. Mr. Anander, a Chicago editor, became minister to Denmark. In Oshkosh editor received the Peruvian mission and an Indianapolis editor to English Consul Generalship. One J. S. Clarkson editor of the Iowa State Register was allowed to distribute the fourth-class postmaster ships. The editor of the Utica Herald became assistant United States treasurer at New York. Mr. Robert P. Porter of the New York Press was appointed head of the Census Bureau. Mr. Porter was an Englishman by birth, a free trader who had with suspicious suddenness become a convert to protectionism. One of these appointments fell through. It was that of Mr. Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette to be minister to Germany. Mr. Halstead was rejected by the Senate for an interesting reason. During the Cleveland administration, the Ohio legislature had elected as United States Senator Mr. Henry B. Payne, a warm friend of the Standard Oil Company. Subsequent investigation showed that Mr. Payne's election had been due to the most bare-faced bribery. Another Ohio legislature secured the necessary evidence of this fact and forwarded it to Washington, accompanied by a resolution asking the Senate to investigate the case of Mr. Payne with a view to unseating him. Senatorial courtesy was held to demand that Mr. Payne himself should welcome such an investigation and should ask for it as an honorable man might have been expected to do. But Mr. Payne held his tongue and though lashed by Senator Horror with indignant sarcasm, he said no word. The Senate therefore declined to investigate the matter. Note 21, page 195. Mr. Halstead in his newspaper had declared that this refusal was due to improper influences and the Senate now took its revenge by rejecting the editor's nomination. All these circumstances, the attempt to subsidize the press, the Wanamaker affair, the partisan removals and appointments, the affiliation of the President with such men as Platt and Key, and the proofs of a petty nepotism, excited throughout the country a feeling of disgust which found expression in a most unexpected place. On April 29 and the two following days, there was celebrated in New York City the 100th anniversary of the first inauguration of President Washington. The details of the old-time ceremonies were carefully reproduced. Like Washington, President Harrison was entertained by the Governor of New Jersey and then proceeded to Elizabeth Port whence he was conveyed by water to the foot of Wall Street landing at the very place where Washington had disembarked a hundred years before. A squadron of warships thundered a salute as the President came ashore. There were given two public receptions and in the evening a gala ball. On the 30th, the President was escorted as Washington had been to St. Paul's Church where in the pew which Washington had occupied he listened to a religious service conducted by the Bishop of New York, the right-reverent H.C. Potter. When the Bishop entered the pulpit in which Bishop Provost had preached before Washington, the Presidential Party settled themselves down comfortably expecting to hear a polished historical address lightened here and there by a few graceful compliments to Washington's successor. It came to them with something of a shock when the Bishop, far from pronouncing a bland discourse, replete with pleasant things, spoke out with something of the fire of an ancient prophet. In words that burned he contrasted the simplicity, integrity and honor of George Washington and of the nation's founders with the vulgar display, the self-seeking and the shamelessness of men in high places at the end of a hundred years, the growth of wealth, the prevalence of luxury, the massing of large material forces which by their very existence are a standing menace to the freedom and integrity of the individual, the infinite swagger of our American speech and manners, mistaking bigness for greatness and sadly confounding gain and godliness. All this makes it impossible to reproduce today either the temper or the conduct of our fathers. And then the Bishop spoke two sentences which struck home. The conception of the national government as a huge machine existing mainly for the purpose of rewarding partisan service, this is a conception so alien to the character and conduct of Washington and his associates that it seems grotesque even to speak of it. It would be interesting to imagine the first president of the United States confronted with someone who had ventured to approach him upon the basis of what are now commonly known as practical politics. Note 22, page 197. This sermon caused a great sensation throughout the country. Some said that the bishop was guilty of bad taste in choosing an occasion such as this for a rebuke so pointed and so personal. Others said that the whole discourse was on the very highest plain and that the bishop had shown himself a true priest of God speaking out boldly the lesson which the hour in the place demanded and undeterred from his duty by these considerations which too often influence the time serving and timid ecclesiastic. Certain it is that his words were caught up and repeated all over the land at the voice the sentiment of millions. When Congress met on December 3rd, the president's message took up the question of the surplus in the treasury. At the end of the Cleveland administration, this had amounted to very nearly 97 million dollars and as Mr. Harrison had pointed out, it was more likely in the ordinary course of events to increase rather than to diminish. He recommended therefore a revision of the tariff and the removal of the internal tax upon tobacco. Congress, however, in both houses of which the Republicans had a working majority, took a very cheerful view of the surplus holding in the naive worries of Colonel Frederick Grant that a surplus is easier to handle than a deficit. The senators and representatives felt that if the surplus in the treasury proved embarrassing, the easiest and simplest way to reduce that surplus was to spend it. Hence, Congress promptly passed the dependent pension bill which President Cleveland had vetoed. At once the number of pensioners rose from about 350,000 to nearly 550,000 and steadily increased until 10 years later it had reached 1 million while the yearly payments grew from 65 million dollars to 150 million dollars representing pretty nearly half the entire annual budget of the United States. Note 23, page 198. Heavy appropriations were made for the Navy and for an exposition in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Money was also poured out lavishly for various public works until this Congress in its two sessions had made itself responsible for an expenditure which exceeded that of any other Congress by 170 million dollars. The total amount of money voted for various purposes was roughly computed at 1 billion dollars. Hence, the 51st Congress was generally spoken of as the billion-dollar Congress. When this name was uttered in the presence of Mr. Speaker Reid he remarked casually, yes, but this is a billion-dollar country. The saying was very characteristic of the man who now began to play a somewhat spectacular part in national legislation. Mr. Thomas B. Reid was a native of Maine who had been a member of Congress for 23 years. He was a very striking figure. Fully six feet in height of huge girth and impressing the beholder with a sense of great reserve power he was both physically and mentally a giant. A keen reasoner, alert, audacious and absolutely self-possessed his party recognized in him a leader who could neither be outwitted nor outfaced. His speech was caustic, his wit keen, and he took delight in destroying shams, sometimes even those shams in which his associates pretended to believe. He had a nasal Yankee drawl and the eyes which peered out of his large round face twinkled with an irrepressible humor. He was now elected Speaker of the House and he was counted upon by the Republicans to force through some very controversial legislation against a minority which was both large and decidedly pugnacious. The measure which threatened to meet with the bitterest opposition of the federal elections bill intended to give the federal government power to supervise congressional elections and if necessary to use military force for the protection of every legal voter. This measure was directed against the south where the Negro vote had practically been suppressed. The fact was perfectly well known. The south was unanimous against any interference which would once more tend to restore the Negro to political importance. Over the proposed bill therefore was certain to be acrimonious and protracted. It was believed that the minority by making use of filibustering tactics by introducing dilatory motions and by demanding the roll call upon each of these could wear out the endurance of the majority and thus prevent the passage of the bill. By refusing to vote, the Democrats could under the existing rules prevent a quorum of the House unless practically all the Republican members should be present. Speaker Reid and his party friends decided to thwart such obstructions. They drew up and adopted a set of rules empowering the Speaker to refuse to entertain motions obviously intended to delay the business of the House and also to count a quorum meaning by this that the Speaker could direct the clerk of the House to record as present and not voting all members who were actually there and who refused to answer to their names at roll call. It required strong nerves and complete presence of mind to enforce these rules to the letter but Mr. Reid was fully equal to the task. The sessions of the House soon resembled pandemonium. Member after member on the Democratic side would rise and make a series of motions shutting out the words at the top of their lungs but the Speaker paid no more attention to them than if they had been miles away. While he counted his quorums members sought to escape from the hall but found that the doors were locked. Note 24, page 200. Then they raged up and down the aisles denouncing the Speaker in unmeasured language yelling, shrieking and pounding their desks while the Republicans added to the din by cheering and whistling with delight. Passion whacked so hot that even the correspondence in the press gallery shared in it and many of them leaned over the railings shaking their fists at the Speaker and pouring forth a torrent of profanity which was quite inaudible amid the uproar. Through it all Mr. Reid sat tranquilly in his chair serene as a summer morning unheeding the deluge of denunciation which descended on him while he would say slowly in his most exasperating drawl. When the excitable gentleman from Texas has come to order the chair will rule upon the point. These tempestuous sessions continued day after day and under the guidance of Tsar Reid as he was called the Federal Elections Bill ultimately passed the House. In the Senate however it died a peaceful death because there existed in the upper house the right of unlimited debate and an alliance was formed between the Democrats and a number of Republican Senators to prevent the passage of the bill. There was as a matter of fact a little real desire in the North for its enactment into law that the Negro vote was suppressed throughout the southern states was not denied. Yet most fair-minded men had come to feel that the enfranchisement of the Negro had been a political error and no one liked to contemplate even a partial return to the hideous scenes of the Reconstruction period when ape-like blacks had leaked themselves with the vilest whites in a repulsive and disgraceful political orgy. Under the Reid rules were passed the Dependent Pension Bill already mentioned a bill for the admission of Idaho and Wyoming as new states and bills to repeal the Bland Allison Act and to substitute in its place the so-called Sherman Silver Law. The last act provided that thereafter the government should purchase every month 4,500,000 ounces of silver and issue against this bullion up to its full value legal tender notes redeemable on demand in coin. As the genesis and the operation of this new law will be discussed more fully in a subsequent chapter note 25 page 201 it may be passed over here without a special comment. The most important legislation of this session was a tariff bill named by the Committee on Ways and Means of which the chairman was Mr. William McKinley of Ohio. The passage of this bill marked a new stage in the development of protective legislation in the United States. Prior to the Civil War the tariff system of the United States had as a whole been primarily devised to produce revenue and only secondarily to protect domestic industries against foreign competition. Thus the acts of 1824 of 1828 and of 1832 which represent the high watermark of protective sentiment in antebellum days were at the most intended to give American manufacturers of iron, cotton and woollen goods and a few other commodities some temporary assistance until they should have established themselves upon so firm a basis as to stand alone. The protectionists of those days were of the old school regarding a high tariff on imported goods only as a means to a definite end and not as an end in itself. The infant industry argument was one which writers and speakers upon the subject most often used and which most appealed to the popular intelligence. Give us help for a while until our factories are built, our machine reinstalled, our business organized and our experience acquired and then we can hold our own against the world. This was quite in accordance with the independent individualistic spirit of the Native American of the early 19th century who asked only for an opportunity to make a fair start and who after that had a sturdy confidence in the sufficiency of his own brain and his own hands. By 1842 in fact the country at large had begun to experience a reaction from even so much of protectionism as was embodied in the acts just mentioned. To be sure in 1842 a new tariff bill passed by the Whigs was professedly a protective measure but its life was short and under President Polk the duties were scaled down by the tariff of 1846 to a point where many of the articles about which protectionist writers have the most to say were subjected to an average duty of only 30%. These rates were lowered still further by the act of 1857 a purely non-political measure and when the Civil War broke out the tariff system of the United States represented an approximation to free trade in that it was intended to produce revenue for the needs of the government and not especially to shelter or build up any industries which without protection would be unprofitable. Agitation on the subject of the tariff had at that time practically ceased. Both political parties were satisfied to leave things as they were. The country had been extraordinarily prosperous. Manufacturers flourished and the infant industries which had appeared to require assistance in 1832 were well past the period of infancy. When therefore in 1860 with a view to the coming election the Republicans introduced into Congress a new tariff bill with a higher scale of duties. Note 26, page 203 They were rebuked by one of the ablest of their own number, Mr. Sherman who declared. When Mr. Stanton says the manufacturers are urging and pressing this bill he says what he must certainly know is not correct. The manufacturers have asked over and over again to be let alone. Note 27, page 203 In fact the instinctive dread of any change whatever which in after years businessmen and producers generally to dread a lowering of the tariff operated in 1860 to make them dread an increase in the duties. The Civil War however brought with it an insistent and incessant demand for money to meet the drain upon the treasury. Every species of taxation that could be devised by the Harris Chase was legalized by Congress. When at last the expenses of the government had risen to something like 3 million dollars a day there came a climax to the financial in the passing of measures of taxation direct and indirect more sweeping than any modern people had ever known. Incomes were taxed the excise imposed grew heavier and heavier. Checks, notes, drafts, wills deeds, mortgages business agreements, insurance policies and almost every form of legal document were valid only after they had paid their tribute in the form of revenue stamps. The barest necessities of life and medicine, salt and matches yielded great sums to the tax-gatherer. Specific or ad valorem duties were heaped upon a vast number of products and manufacturers. Transportation by rail or boat was taxed and so was the business of the telegraphs and of the express companies. A multitude of ordinary callings had to pay heavy license fees. More than this not only were the manufacturers subjected to a general tax but at each stage of production a separate tax was levied on every article first while it existed only as raw material and then again when it had been turned out as a finished product. Nothing escaped the eye of the Inquisitor. Many persons roofily recall the pungent words in which Sidney Smith had depicted the miseries of tax-ridden England at the close of the Napoleonic Wars. Note 28 Pages 204 and 5 It was the manufacturers who suffered most and in order that they might not be absolutely ruined some compensatory legislation was needed in their interest. I share my sheep I do not play them said the Emperor Tiberius on one occasion and in the same spirit the financiers at Washington sought to preserve the manufacturing industry from extinction so that they might continue to be a source of revenue. If we bleed manufacturers said Mr. Morrill of Vermont in 1862 we must see to it that the proper tonic is administered at the same time. The tonic was administered in the shape of a high tariff on imported manufacturers. This largely shut out foreign competition and so gave to the American producers a monopoly of the home market as a compensation for the heavy burdens which they were bearing in time of war. The measure was understood to be distinctly a war measure. It was avowedly a temporary arrangement of part of the whole abnormal exceptional legislation which Congress enacted in order to meet an extraordinary crisis in the struggle for national existence. Its advocates never dreamed that it was to be perpetuated any more than the tax upon the telegraph or the license to carry on an ordinary business. After the war had ended nearly all these unprecedented expedients for ringing money from the people were speedily abandoned. The floating debt was funded. Stability and order brought renewed prosperity and when the need of maintaining half a million men in arms ceased to exist Congress repealed tax after tax. At last every one of the exceptional burdens from which the manufacturers had suffered was removed. Logically then the protective duties which had been imposed to enable them to bear those burdens should also have been abolished. This however was not done. Leading Republican statesmen even those who were protectionists admitted that the high duties were no longer necessary and therefore that they were no longer just. Note 29, page 206. Many attempts were made to remove or modify them as in the abortive measure of 1867 which had a majority in both houses of Congress but which failed to pass because owing to a technicality of parliamentary law a two-thirds vote was needed to bring it before the House as an amendment. Gradually the long delay in lowering the duties produced a singular effect upon the public mind. The special circumstances under which the duties had originally been levied were forgotten. They ceased to be regarded as a war tax but were rather viewed by many as an integral and normal part of our financial system. Moreover the manufacturers who were heaping up fortunes through the continuance of the war tariff exerted all the power which great wealth afforded of creating a sentiment in their behalf. Liberal gifts to the campaign fund of the Republican Party were rewarded by legislative favors. The tariff issue was not strictly a party one. There were high tariff Democrats as well as low tariff Republicans. For instance Mr. Samuel J. Randall who was long a Democratic leader in the House and who twice served as speaker was as thorough going a protectionist as Pig Iron Kelly himself and in fact in some of his canvases for reelection the Republicans in his district set up no candidate to oppose him. Protection sentiment in a word was strong in the States where protected manufacturers flourished and weakened the agricultural states which received nothing from the tariff except an increase in the cost of living. When General Hancock in 1880 said the tariff is a local issue the remark was received with a shout of derision but in the sense in which he meant it it was profoundly true. In the course of time the agricultural communities of the West began to get an inkling of the truth and to perceive how preposterous it was the countries which had without protection successfully maintained themselves against foreign competition before the war. Various popular movements such as the Farmers' Alliance Grangerism and the like Note 30 page 207 made the Republican managers uneasy. Several revisions of the tariff were undertaken ostensibly in the direction of lower duties. The act of 1872 was one of these attempts but it was so artfully framed as in fact to deceive things very much as they had been before. In 1883 a general revision of duties actually raised many of them as for example those on woolen dress goods iron ore and steel. Nevertheless, economic causes were at work which were distinctly unfavorable to a perpetuation of high protectionism as a policy. Chief among these causes as has been seen was the increasing surplus in the treasury. Every Republican president back to Arthur had called the attention of Congress to this and had specifically recommended lower rates of duty. It is likely that had the Republican party remained in power these recommendations would have been ultimately carried out. It was the election of Mr. Cleveland in 1884 and his attitude toward the tariff which solidified the Republicans not merely in support of the old war rates but of an extension of these rates to new classes of imported goods. When Mr. Cleveland made a distinct issue of lowering the tariff his opponents from sheer necessity were driven to take the other side. They ignored the whole history of protection in the United States. They put aside the utterances of their own leaders in the past. In the end they went even further than they had probably intended until at last they flatly declared that protection so far from being a temporary measure was one to be perpetuated for its own sake and that duties instead of being lowered should be made even higher than they had been under the actual stress of war. The campaign of 1888 had practically been fought out over this issue and since the Republicans were successful they felt that the country had given them a mandate to do whatever they saw fit. It was with this conviction that the act of 1890 popularly known as the McKinley bill was framed by the Republican members of the House committee and ultimately reported by the chairman Mr. McKinley. From this time dates the new protectionism which proclaimed the doctrine that high duties and high prices are a distinct advantage to the country. Its framers intended to reduce the surplus in the treasury by enacting tariff schedules that were prohibitive. The McKinley bill was a very radical measure. It raised the duties on a great number of articles and it removed from the free list a great many others. Unlike the earlier acts it laid impost upon commodities articles of clothing, carpets, table linen, thread, tools and also upon many kinds of food. The effect of this was certain to be felt at once throughout the entire country in the shape of a direct rise in prices. Some of the Republicans themselves had an uncomfortable feeling that the measure was eminently unwise. Such was emphatically the view of Mr. Blaine himself an old time protectionist and one who remained unconverted to the doctrines of Mr. McKinley. Mr. Blaine saw that the new tariff bill would not only prove unpopular with the country but that it would shut out American trade from the most desirable foreign markets. There is not a section or a line in the entire bill, he wrote to Senator Fry, that will open a market for another bushel of wheat or another barrel of pork. He even appeared before the committees of Congress to urge them with all his influence a wiser policy. Mr. Blaine was the shrewdest of politicians. He knew the value of a taking catch word. What he wanted to secure was the admission of foreign goods untaxed from such countries as would admit American products of certain classes free of duty. This was in reality a species of free trade but he artfully described it as reciprocity, a word which would not alarm the timid voter who had been taught that free trade spelled ruin. Day after day the Secretary of State labored with his party associates to introduce the principle of reciprocity into the pending bill. Every stage of its passage was watched by him with intense interest and he wrote to Mr. McKinley many pointed notes of which the following is typical. Washington, April 10th, 1890 Dear Mr. McKinley It is a great mistake to take hides from the free list where they have been for so many years. It is a slap in the face to the South Americans with whom we are trying to enlarge our trade. It will benefit the farmer by adding 0.8% to the price of his children's shoes. It will yield a profit to the butcher only, the last man that needs it. The movement is injudicious from beginning to end in every form and phase. Praise stop it before it sees light. Such movements as this for protection will protect the Republican Party into a speedy retirement. Very hastily James G. Blaine Note 31, page 210 Mr. Blaine had small success with the members of the House of Representatives. The McKinley following had gone mad over high protective duties. They acted as though whatever they did there would be no day of reckoning. They placed duties upon the sheer necessities of life. They sought artificially to stimulate the production in this country of commodities such as tin plate that had never before been produced in the United States. They were not forgetful of the fact that the protected manufacturers had furnished the great campaign fund carried Indiana for Mr. Harrison. Remembering that Mr. Cleveland like his Republican predecessors had urged the remission of duties on raw materials, Mr. McKinley removed one such duty. This, however, was the duty on raw sugar and its abolition meant millions of profit to the Great Sugar Trust which was beginning to be extremely powerful in Washington. The folly of such a course was pointed out by Mr. Blaine Note 32, page 211 who hammered away by argument exhortation and published letters in behalf of reciprocity Before the Senate committee he made a speech so energetic and so full of passion that the reports of it in an imperfect form went all over the country. In his vehemence Mr. Blaine pounded the desk on which lay a draft of the proposed bill and in doing so he smashed his tall hat under his descending fist. Note 33, page 211 This appealed to the people's sense of the picturesque. Blaine has smashed his hat on the McKinley bill was the sentence that went from mouth to mouth and this trivial incident attracted more attention to the measure than the whole columns of printed speeches. At last the Senate proved somewhat more open to reason than the House had been and an element of reciprocity in a negative form was introduced into the bill by a Senate amendment rather ungraciously worded which authorized the President to impose duties on certain free goods whenever the country from which they came imposed duties that were reciprocally unequal and unreasonable upon certain specified American exports. End of Chapter 5, Part 2 Chapter 5, Part 3 of 20 years of the Republic 1885 to 1905 by Harry Thurston Peck this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the presidency of Benjamin Harrison Part 3 the McKinley bill had been passed by the House of Representatives in May with the reciprocity amendment it passed the Senate in September and it became law by receiving the signature of the President on the first day of October 1890 Note 34, page 212 even before the measure had been adopted but when its passage had become a moral certainty a sharp advance in prices throughout the country was acutely perceptible merchants were unwilling to sell their goods at the old rates when the cost of importation was so soon to be increased those who did so made a virtue of the fact by advertising that certain wares would be sold at low figures for the next few weeks but that after a specified date the prices would be raised because of the McKinley bill although these announcements were only business devices they helped to imbue the public mind with the belief that the new tariff act was certain to increase the cost of living importers hastened to bring in enormous quantities of goods so as to take advantage of the more favorable rates that still prevailed ocean liners sought to break the record for speed in hurrying cargos across the Atlantic before the new act should take effect the Cunard's teamer, Itruria reaching the port of New York a few minutes before the hour set for the enforcement of the McKinley bill saved by her speed something like a million dollars for the owners of her cargo everywhere the pinch of higher prices was quickly felt and their increase in wages was perceptible for the first time since the war the nation received an object less than as to what high protection really meant hitherto the average man and especially the average woman had turned a deaf ear to tariff talk what did they care whether steel rails and iron ore cost more or less they did not clothe themselves in iron nor did they dine in breakfast upon steel rails but now every household throughout the land learned that the purchasing power of the family income had been seriously reduced the housewife who went to market and suddenly discovered that she must pay much more for supplies than she had ever paid before began at once to take a very personal interest in the cause of this phenomenon butter eggs flour dried apples lard potatoes bacon corned beef and poultry leaped up in price after a fashion which to persons of limited means was most alarming note 35 page 213 it now cost more to clothe the family to carpet the rooms to provide table linen and to keep the domestic utensils properly renewed an outcry went up from those who usually paid no attention to economic questions party hacks tried hard to create enthusiasm for bill mckinley and the mckinley bill but their efforts were met with sullen silence or open denunciation the way in which the measure had been jammed through the house of representatives under the iron rule of speaker reed was offensive to the American sense of fairness mr. reed having got a taste of arbitrary power apparently became intoxicated with it at first the country had applauded the nerve with which he dominated the body over which he presided so long as he used the new rules only to prevent filibustering and to ensure the efficient dispatch of public business the sentiment of the people was with him when he said in his epigrammatic way this house is no longer a deliberative body the remark called forth an approving laugh but in time what at first had been a wise autocracy became something very like oppression it was not permitted to members of the minority to question the accuracy of the speakers count representatives were recorded by him as present when they were actually hundreds of miles away even the privilege of an appeal from the ruling of the chair was no longer recognized mr. reed carried his tyranny so far that at last members of his own party were driven to revolt on one occasion, note 36 page 214 the speaker ordered parts of the journal of the house to be omitted in the daily reading mr. mills of texas objected and it came out that the speaker had been guilty of a misstatement and that the parts of the journal which had been omitted contained a record of proceedings which had never taken place even then the arrogant reed refused to have the necessary correction made an appeal from his ruling was taken and enough republicans united with the democrats to override the czar the congressional elections of 1890 took place at the very moment when public sentiment was most deeply stirred against the record which the republicans had made in less than two years the treasury had been emptied the odious force bill had been introduced a sort of tyranny had been established in the popular chamber the cost of living had been enormously increased and no one had received any benefit saved the multi-millionaires of the protected industries and the sugar trust the election therefore proved to be a veritable cataclysm the republican majority in the house was swept away when congress met in 1891 the democratic representatives numbered 235 and the republicans only 88 while in the senate the republican majority was reduced from 14 to 6 a significant fact was the strength which had been shown in the west by a new party which now became known as the populist who elected nine representatives and two senators note 37 page 214 in the south out of 121 members there were only three republicans even in new england the democrats secured a fair majority in Ohio mr. mckinley was defeated at the polls and retired for a time of life mr. blaine's prophecy of disaster had been strikingly fulfilled note 38 page 215 in 1890 great popular interest was aroused by a movement to overthrow the louisiana lottery company the story of this contest deserves to be repeated here because the issue presented was not unlike the issue involved in the battle against the trusts it was a contest between great wealth and selfish interest on the one hand and an enlightened moral sentiment upon the other those who feel a sense of hopelessness when they endeavor to forecast the final outcome of any struggle such as this may take courage from recalling the defeat of one of the most ably planned conspiracies against the common welfare which this country has ever witnessed the louisiana lottery had been charged in 1868 by a carpet bag legislature at a time when political conditions in that state were indescribably depraved the promoters of the lottery were three in number John A. Morris Z. E. Simmons and C. H. Murray men as unscrupulous and as able as any who engineered the later trusts at that time although most states had by law forbidden the sale of lottery tickets within their borders these laws were practically disregarded several enterprises of the sort nearly all of foreign ownership reaped a rich harvest by the sale of tickets for their monthly drawings among these were the Havana lottery the Royal Saxon lottery the Hamburg lottery and later the Kentucky lottery Morris and his associates having secured their charter in return for an annual payment of $40,000 to a charity hospital proceeded to organize their business in a very farsighted way taking every precaution to fortify themselves alike against the law and against popular prejudice they secured the services of General Early and General Beauregard to attend their monthly drawings they advertised extensively in leading newspapers throughout the United States paying for their advertisements several times the ordinary rates they even established newspapers of their own and maintained them so that if necessity arose the lottery would have staunch defenders in the press in every great city of the union the ableist lawyers were employed as counsel for the company to watch for and to avert every possible form of danger in Louisiana Morris practically controlled the state many of the judges were to all intents and purposes appointed by the lottery money was spent lavishly in charity on behalf of public enterprises and in private gifts vast sugar works were even opened and operated by the lottery owners who desired to pose as representative businessmen engaged in fostering one of the great industries of the state in 1877 when Louisiana was striving for the last vestige of the carpet bag regime the lottery company gave the money needed to bribe those legislators whose votes were necessary to oust the carpet bagger Packard from the governor's chair public sentiment in Louisiana therefore was more than cordial to the lottery its charter was renewed in 1879 and after that it seemed to be assured of a permanent lease of life its revenues were very great one third of the entire mail matter which reached New Orleans was addressed to M.A. Dolphin the nominal head of the company it was said that the postal notes and money orders which had cashed amounted to no less than 30,000 dollars a day in 1880 the attention of Mr. Alexander K. McClure editor of the Philadelphia Times was attracted by the persistency with which the Louisiana lottery sought to have advertisements inserted in his newspaper he was startled also by the lavish offers of money made to secure such advertising an investigation showed him that although the Pennsylvania law imposed a penalty for advertising lotteries not less than 50,000 dollars a year was paid to the newspapers of the state for the use of their columns Mr. McClure brought suit in the lower courts to test the law and it was found to be defective he then framed a more stringent bill and after a vigorous canvas he secured its enactment by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1883 in the course of the discussion which went on in the press Mr. McClure's own paper spoke out with Frank's severity of the lottery managers these persons angered by the loss of their Pennsylvania business and wishing to make an example of the man who had opposed them noted down his name and waited until circumstances should enable them to take revenge two years later in 1885 Mr. McClure visited the New Orleans exposition the lottery through its spies had learned that he was coming and at the very moment of his arrival he was served with a writ sworn out by Dauphin and claiming 100,000 dollars damages for libeling the lottery Mr. McClure was in a distinctly hostile community where the courts were in the hands of lottery appointees the lawyers of the city were nearly all in the lottery's pay and to defend the suit seemed to be an absolutely hopeless undertaking even one of Mr. McClure's personal friends said to him we are all in it here and I hardly know why is you so pleased was Dauphin over his successful coup that he telegraphed an account of it to every city in the land through the agency of the associated press note 39 page 218 this little burst of exultant insolence on the part of Dauphin was perhaps not unnatural but it cost the lottery company dear it stirred to active indignation a feeling which had lain dormant all over the country and even in Louisiana itself within a few hours after Dauphin's news had been made public a wealthy Philadelphia telegraphed Mr. McClure that $50,000 had been placed to his credit for use in his defense the unbought press in every state took up the case with vigor in New Orleans itself a committee of lawyers all strangers to Mr. McClure called upon him to say that the bar of that city would defend the suit without cost the governor of the state though friendly to the lottery deployed its action in this instance and gave Mr. McClure the benefit of his advice sending to him as counsel a lawyer whose fidelity and honor were above suspicion the lottery managers refused to take warning from this display of enlightened sentiment they resolved to press the case at once to trial they felt themselves to be omnipotent they regarded the judges as their creatures even the Marshall who do the names for the jury was in their pay they had millions of money at their disposal why should they not make a conspicuous example of this stranger from the north they laid their plans in such a way as to prevent so they thought all chance of an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States Mr. McClure's counsel however devised a plea which baffled them it appeared that a suit instituted against Mr. McClure by the lottery in Pennsylvania was still before United States District Court on a question of appeal the situation was therefore anomalous and that the company was prosecuting Mr. McClure upon the same charge before two federal courts at one and the same time these facts were duly set forth and a plea of justification was entered to which was appended a long series of questions which Dolphin would be forced to answer should the case be tried these questions were most ingeniously framed and Dolphin could not answer them without giving information which would expose himself and his agents to criminal prosecution in nearly every territory of the union this meant not merely fine and imprisonment for the lottery officials but the absolute destruction of their business so soon as Dolphin's lawyers perceived the gulf which was yawning for their employers they experienced a genuine panic when the case was called they actually opposed the motion to have the appeal advanced upon the docket by this time many leading men in Washington had become interested in the matter Senator Edmonds and Senator Holly arranged that the trial when it took place should be presided over by Mr. Justice Wood a judge of unimpeachable integrity the Attorney General of the United States appeared in the Supreme Court in opposition to the lottery company an agitation was begun in Congress which seemed full of menace to the lottery interests Dolphin and his associates therefore capitulated on their knees one of their representatives went to Mr. McClure and begged that the suit might be discontinued offering to pay all the expenses counsel fees, the cost of depositions printing and the rest Mr. McClure consented and within 24 hours the company had settled every bill and had withdrawn its suit but they had gone too far and they had thereafter to deal with the public resentment which they had evoked measures were passed in Congress excluding lottery tickets from the males and forbidding the transmission of newspapers and lottery advertisements the anti-lottery bill of 1893 even forbade the delivery of registered letters or the payment of postal orders to the company driven from the males the lottery sought to carry on its business through the express companies but as these were engaged in interstate traffic Congress again effectively interfered at last in Louisiana the question of a renewal of the company's charter came before the people a campaign against it was carried on successfully in a burst of moral indignation the company offered to pay the state a million and a quarter of dollars every year but the bribe had no effect and in 1893 this gigantic structure of lawlessness and corruption was swept out of existence forever public wrath against the lottery was only one phase of a wider agitation the 51st Congress enacted two very important legislative measures reflected a rapidly growing hostility to trust in general and to the lawlessness of railway corporations Senator Sherman of Ohio on December 4, 1889 introduced a bill which, with a few amendments, was subsequently passed and was approved by President Harrison on July 2, 1890 it is usually spoken of as the Sherman anti-trust law though its formal title was an act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies and both in its phraseology and in the intention of its framer it was a very drastic measure its purpose, as described by Senator Sherman himself, was to arm the federal courts within the limits of their constitutional power that they may cooperate with the state courts in checking, curbing and controlling the most dangerous combinations that now threaten the business property and trade of the people of the United States it aims only at unlawful combinations it does not in the least effect combinations in aid of production where there is free and fair competition it is the right of every man to work, labor and produce in any lawful vocation and to transport his products on equal terms and conditions and under like circumstances this is industrial liberty and lies at the foundation of the equality of all rights and privileges note 40, page 221 the immediate cause of the enactment of this law was an investigation which had been conducted by a committee of the senate in 1888-89 sittings were held in Washington Chicago and elsewhere and in spite of the reluctance of some witnesses and the absence of others a mass of testimony was taken which proved beyond question that many of the great corporations were crushing out competition and destroying industry by means which were in direct violation of the common law some very peculiar facts were brought to light regarding the operations of the sugar trust the standard oil company and the great dressed beef combination of which armor and company of Chicago were the head but it was not this investigation alone which made it impossible for Congress to remain quiescent any longer similar inquiries had been conducted by state legislatures and testimony taken in many civil and criminal cases in the state courts had been made public more over thousands of businessmen had felt the crushing weight of a monopoly in the destruction of their means of livelihood therefore although certain senators profess to field doubts about the constitutionality of the bill it was passed by a non-partisan vote in both houses the essential provisions of this act applied to all contracts and combinations in the form of trusts or otherwise and to conspiracies in restraint of either interstate or international commerce such contracts or combinations were made illegal and persons participating in them were declared to be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject either to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment not exceeding one year or to both these penalties at the discretion of the court furthermore all goods shipped in violation of the act were to be seized and forfeited by proceedings instituted by the Attorney General on behalf of the United States how far this act was to prove effective as a weapon against monopolies will be considered in another chapter note 41 page 222 another concession to the widespread sentiment regarding corporate abuses was an act aimed against those railroads which had practically defrauded the government and the nation in the matter of public hands the generosity of the national government to the railways of the west had been remarkable the case of the Union Pacific Railway Company after 1880 known as the Union Pacific Railroad Company is sufficiently illustrative to justify citation this company had been incorporated in 1862 it received from the government a grant of five sections of public land for each mile of rail and two years later this grant was doubled in all it received the enormous total of 6,806,497 acres note 42 page 223 16 currency bonds of the United States each of the denomination of $1,000 for every mile of road constructed through the plains and 48 similar currency bonds for each mile of road built through the region of the Rocky Mountains the total issue of such bonds for the benefit of the railway was $61 million as though all this were not enough the company was allowed to issue first mortgage bonds equal in amount to the government bonds just mentioned thus the lean of the government upon the railway dropped to the position of a second mortgage the road was actually built by the notorious credit mobiliar which took over all the resources of the original company both land and cash of course the construction of a railway uniting the Atlantic states with those of the Pacific was a work of immense national importance on the other hand it became evident in after years that the generosity of the government had been ill-requited thus under the directorship of J. Gould and later of Mr. Charles F. Adams the management diverted a good part of its earnings above operating expenses and fixed charges to the building of branch lines instead of applying a percentage of the profits toward canceling the obligation to the government as provided in the act of 1862 indeed the government received but slight consideration from any of these western roads for whose construction it had pledged its credit in the matter of the public lands the railroads were peculiarly unscrupulous in President Cleveland's first message to Congress page 224 attention was sharply caught to the whole subject by the declaration that these princely grants and subsidies had been diverted to private gains and corrupt uses our great nation does not begrudge its generosity but it appores speculation and fraud a faithful application of the grants to the construction perfecting of their roads and an honest discharge of their obligations are all the public asks and it will be contented with no less but as time went on it was plain that the railroad magnates had no conception of public duty and thought simply of their own enrichment one of them Mr. C. P. Huntington who had wrung a great fortune out of his manipulation of Pacific railways was told that if he did not fulfill his obligations the government might step in and take possession welcome to he cynically answered there is nothing left but two streaks of rust and a right of way in 1890 however this scandalous state of things came to an end the western states were swept by a feeling of anger against the railways which in impudent disregard of their own obligations were holding vast tracts of fertile land and thus barring them against intending settlers under the homestead law an act of Congress which the president approved on September 29th ordered the forfeiture of all such lands of which more than a hundred million acres were thus restored to public uses the last two years of Mr. Harrison's administration were marked by great activity in the state department this was not do so much to Mr. Blaine's fondness for a spirited foreign policy as to circumstances over which he had no initial control in March 1891 a band of Italian criminals the New Orleans reached a climax lollousness by murdering the chief of police for a long time they had been extorting money from citizens under threat of death and had committed other crimes with practical impunity because the local juries were either afraid to convict them or else had been bribed to disagree in rendering a verdict Hennessy the head of the police showed immense energy and acuteness in tracking down the members of this band they had him watched and followed and late one evening he was shot almost to pieces at a signal given boy against nine Italian strong evidence was gathered and they were promptly brought to trial to the astonishment of the judge himself the jury acquitted six of the prisoners and disagreed in the case of the other three on the following night a mob led by some of the most substantial citizens broke open the prison seized the prisoners and either hanged or shot them all within a few hours the Italian government cabled a strong protest to Mr. Blaine his prime minister the Marquis di Rudini demanded that the lyncher should be immediately punished and that an indemnity should be immediately paid Mr. Blaine answered to the effect that the United States government had no local jurisdiction in Louisiana but that to Italian residents the state courts were open precisely as to citizens he did however strongly urge Governor Nichols of Louisiana to set the legal machinery of the state in motion and he assured the Italian mayor should receive most careful consideration the Italian blood was up however and Baron Fava, Italy's minister at Washington was directed to press Mr. Blaine incessantly Baron Fava intimated that unless immediate action were taken he must withdraw from Washington to this hint he received from Mr. Blaine a very sharp reply I do not recognize the right of any government to tell the United States what it shall do orders for many foreign power and shall not begin now it is a matter of indifference what persons in Italy think of our institutions I cannot change them, still less violate them to this curt note written much in the same spirit as Webster's famous letter to the Chevalier Hulsman in 1850 the Italian minister made no answer but at once left Washington and took passage for Italy his action caused great excitement especially in New Orleans many persons expected that Italy would deliver an ultimatum which President Harrison's government would certainly reject and thus bring war within an appreciable distance rumors said that an Italian squadron was being mobilized and might soon appear off the mouth of the Mississippi to menace New Orleans the situation looked even graver when the American minister at Rome left Italy but those who were well informed felt no disquietude in view of the enormous disparity in fighting strength between Italy and the United States an English naval officer who was in New York at the time made a joking comment which contained a certain element of truth you people said he want more ships for your navy just let those Italian fellows send over a fleet then you take the fleet and there you are as a matter of fact the Italian government thought better of it before long and though many Americans were mobbed and otherwise insulted in Italy and though the Italian press breathed forth in these things amicable relations were soon restored it turned out that only three of the Italians who had been lynched were subjects of the king of Italy the rest having been naturalized in this country and so when Congress purely as an act of grace voted the sum of $25,000 to be given to the relatives of the dead men King Humbert accepted the award and diplomatic relations were resumed an embroulement between the United States and Chile which took place at this time was a much more serious affair in January 1891 a furious civil war broke out in Chile of all the Spanish American Republics Chile has been the only one to conduct its foreign and domestic affairs in such a way as to win the respect of other nations situated in the temperate zone and ribbed with mountain ranges its climatic and geographic conditions seem to have developed in its people certain characteristics for which one looks in vain among the other South American states of Chile has been conspicuous for its intelligence conservatism and integrity its finances have been ably administered order has been maintained through the strict enforcement of enlightened laws its political institutions are modeled upon those of the United States and throughout the greater part of its history it has been free from turbulence and mercenary insurrection its successful war with Bolivia and Peru in 1881 made it plain that henceforth it was under respectful consideration as a naval and military power a knowledge of these facts however has led the Chilean people to cultivate a self-consciousness which does not always show itself in the most attractive fashion educated Chileans are apt to forget that after all their nation is a very small one and that from the nature of things it cannot figure very conspicuously in the history of the world they are too fond of comparing it with the wretched little republics and they forget that while Chile is an important state when contrasted with Peru or Uruguay or Venezuela it is only a dwarf beside the United States or the giant nations of Europe but the typical Chilean has a dream of his own and one which he has cherished for more than 50 years he believes that ultimately his country is destined to a certain hegemony over all the Spanish speaking peoples of South America and in the end to extend its influence northward until at last having absorbed even Mexico Chile shall confront the mighty North American Republic upon the borders of the Rio Grande there are not a few Chileans who even think that by the end perhaps of another century the United States may have to do battle with its southern rival for the mastery of the western world there is a touch of Spanish vanity in this magnificent vision yet though to Americans it may seem only ludicrous and fantastic it is very strongly not merely to the Chilean imagination but to the Chilean sense of probability not unnaturally therefore the statesmen of that small Republic have always been extremely sensitive concerning the claim of the United States to concern itself with South American affairs and they resent the assumption that the Monroe doctrine has any application to their country it is necessary to remember these facts in order to understand the drift of the events which are now to be narrated in 1886 Chile elected as its president one of those extremely able but unscrupulous men who appear from time to time in South American nations and among whom Francia Farrague and Guzman Blanco of Venezuela stand out in history as interesting types this was Senor Don Jose Manuel Balmesada whose rule up to the end of 1890 was marked by the most enlightened measures he belonged to the so called progressist party and as president he did much to promote public education to foster internal improvements and generally to develop the resources of his country his political opponents however who headed a sort of oligarchy made up of leading members of the Chilean congress accused the president of plotting to perpetuate his power by securing the election of a tool of his as his successor when he dissolved congress and raised revenue without the authority of law the congressional party proclaimed a civil war page 229 and sought to overthrow Balmesada by force of arms in this struggle the united states had no direct interest but various circumstances soon led to complications of a very serious nature it had been for 30 years the policy of our government to give no encouragement to revolts in other countries Mr. Blaine therefore by president Harrison's direction continued as before to recognize Balmesada as the lawful head of the Chilean republic and to refuse to the congressionalists the belligerent rights which they claimed Balmesada had been legally elected president he held possession of the capital of the country he controlled an army which was carrying on operations in the field against the rebels therefore why should the united states sever its official relations with him and suddenly recognize his enemies the case seem plain enough yet there were circumstances which made the situation somewhat delicate ever since the events of 1882 which have already been narrated note 45 page 230 Mr. Blaine had been viewed with a certain ranker by Chileans of all classes they regarded him as an inter meddler or even worse and honestly believed him to be actuated by a feeling of hostility to Chilean interests therefore when he continued to recognize Balmesada the congressional party in Chile claimed that his action was due to an unfriendly spirit and before long they professed to see what they called his malign influence at work against them a good part of the Chilean navy had joined the revolutionists some engagements took place between these ships and the ships whose officers were Balmesadists a small American squadron under Rear Admiral Brown had been ordered to Chilean waters to protect American interests and their congressionalists asserted in very bitter language officers from American vessels had acted as spies that they had reported to Balmesada the strength and also the movements of the rebel ships and that in various other ways the naval force of the United States had violated the requirements of strict neutrality Admiral Brown indignantly denied this charge which was made in the most offensive manner there was indeed no evidence at all to justify it nevertheless it was generally believed by the congressionalists who presently got possession of the entire sea coast and the great fortified port of Alparaiso hatred of the United States became nearly universal in Chile after an incident which occurred in May end of chapter 5 part 3 chapter 5 part 4 of 20 years of the Republic 1885 to 1905 by Harry Thurston Peck this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the presidency of Benjamin Harrison part 4 early in that month a Chilean ship the Itata charged by the congressional party put in at the harbor of San Diego in California it was reported to the government at Washington that the Itata was taking on a cargo of arms and ammunition for the Chilean rebels in defiance of the neutrality laws on May 6 a United States Marshal took possession of the ship forbidding it to leave the port on the following day the Itata's commander cut her cable overpowered the United States officers and put to sea carrying them away as prisoners this high handed proceeding stirred the Washington government to instant action the cruiser Charleston was dispatched in swift pursuit with orders to take the Itata and to sink her if she resisted when the Chileans heard of this the hotheads among them sent their new steel cruiser the Esmeralda to meet the Itata and to protect her against capture the Charleston and the Esmeralda were ships of equal size and armament and the result of a fight between them was awaited with breathless expectancy it was supposed that the Itata would put in at the harbor of Acapulco on the Mexican coast and to this harbor the Charleston hastened the Esmeralda did the same and both cruisers lay there with steam up with decks cleared for action and with the crews ready at their guns it was an exciting moment but no shot was fired for the Itata failed to appear and made her way direct to her destination by the time of her arrival there the Congressionalists had thought better of their defiance of the United States and on June 4th they delivered up the Itata to rear Admiral McCann in command of the American squadron at Iquique note 46 page 231 the revolt in Chile proved to be successful on August 7th Balmaseda's forces were routed by the Congressional Army which marched upon the capital Santiago and entered in triumph Balmaseda took refuge in the Argentine legation where on September 18th he committed suicide a new government was proclaimed in Chile under the presidency of Senor Jorge Mont everywhere the revolutionists prevailed and they were now formally recognized by the United States the most serious part of the whole affair was however to come soon after becoming Secretary of State Mr. Blaine had secured the appointment as Minister to Chile of Mr. Patrick Egan Mr. Egan was one of the group where Mr. Blaine's political opponents were accustomed derisively to call Blaine Irishman he had not long been naturalized as an American citizen having come to the United States somewhat hastily in order to escape arrest and imprisonment at the hands of the British authorities in Ireland who charged him with political offenses in the Irish land league critics of the Harrison administration spoke of Mr. Egan as an escaped jailbird and even insinuated that he had been connected with the Phoenix Park murders in 1882 there was not a shadow of truth in all this Mr. Egan was a man of ability and honor who had simply made himself disliked by the castle set in Dublin at a time when the British government was trying one of its periodical experiments in repression nevertheless his appointment with the diplomatic post was properly open to criticism and in Chile especially where there were so many influential English residents it was a cause of social embarrassment Mr. Egan moreover in carrying out his early instructions to recognize the Balmasada government had perhaps aired through excess of zeal so that he was peculiarly obnoxious to the congressionalists who regarded him as a partisan of their enemy when Santiago fell and the troops of the revolution in the city intoxicated with their victory there were enacted fearful scenes of lust and wholesale murder many of the Balmasadas fearing for their lives took refuge in the American legation begging the protection of the minister by the law of nations the precincts of an embassy or of a legation are regarded as being the soil of that country whose flag flies over it but whether the immunity which such a place enjoys should be used to protect citizens of the state is a disputed point Mr. Egan however received the Balmasadas among them the late minister of foreign affairs and the late governor of Santiago together with members of their households the new Chilean foreign minister demanded the surrender of the fugitives Mr. Egan hoisted the American flag and declined to exceed to the demand the Chileans were furious yet they hesitated to violate the sanctity of the legation they tried other means however hoping Mr. Egan into compliance the neighborhood of his residence swarmed with spies drunk and soldiers reeled by yelling out vile epithets and making boisterous threats it was believed by Mr. Egan that a plot existed to set fire to the legation and thus drive out the fugitives meanwhile the Chilean state department carried on a correspondence with the American minister with regard to the rights of the question from the standpoint of international law here Mr. Egan neatly scored on his adversary in a series of very able notes in which he showed that in 1866 during a revolution in Peru the Chilean government had directed its minister in that country to insist upon two principles the right of asylum and the right of safe conduct to a neutral territory for persons taking shelter in a foreign legation in 1888 at the congress of American republics Chile had again defended the same principles Mr. Egan in fact made out so good a case as to put an end to the design of taking his guests from him by force though the right of safe conduct was still denied all this controversy following upon the charges against Admiral Brown and also the affair of the Itata intensified Chilean animosity toward the United States the newspapers contained violent attacks upon Egan, Blaine and Americans in general every sort of slanderous story was circulated and believed and day by day popular feeling grew more and more inflamed at this time the United States cruiser Baltimore commanded by Captain W.S. Schley was in the harbor of Alparaiso on October 17th Captain Schley rather unwisely gave shore leave to nearly 100 of his sailors within a few hours after they had landed they were surrounded by a mob of over 2000 Chileans who separated them into small groups and then attacked them the sailors were unarmed but defended themselves manfully until a body of 50 policemen armed with carbines and bayonets took part in the assault upon them two of the Americans were killed one of them being shot by a policeman and 18 were badly stabbed cut or bruised by stones the rest were dragged to prison through the streets some of them by the heels amid the threats, curses and uproar of the mob the news of this affair naturally caused great indignation in the United States and it led to a long and voluminous diplomatic correspondence as well as to a sharp interchange of notes between Captain Schley of the Baltimore and the Intendente of Alparaiso of course the sailors who had been dragged to prison were speedily released but the Chilean authorities were unwilling to admit that the United States had a just grievance an investigation instituted by Captain Schley showed the facts concerning the assault to have been those which have been here set forth the police of Alparaiso had taken part with the mob in shooting and otherwise assaulting unarmed blue jackets the Chileans on the other hand asserted that the Americans were drunk and that they had provoked the attack by their outrageous conduct the charge of drunkenness was doubtless true for sailors of whatever nationality are not want to ask for shore leave for motives which would commend themselves to total abstinence societies note 47 page 235 but it was perfectly evident that the attack had been made upon them because of hatred to the uniform they wore and that it was directed against them not as individuals but as Americans the conduct of the police moreover showed an official animosity which surpassed even that of the rabble under the circumstances secretary Blaine insisted upon a specific apology from the Chilean government and upon an indemnity to the wounded men and to the families of those who had been killed the Chileans put the demand aside pending a further investigation on their part this investigation was protracted interminably and on November 25th Mr. Blaine complained of the delay the Chilean minister in Washington informed him that Spanish law was slow in its processes but exact in its conclusions and with this statement Mr. Blaine was for the time forced to be content it was plain enough that the Chileans intended to postpone any definite action and to let the affair drag along until it should have been half forgotten from time to time vague hints were made looking to arbitration but nothing definite was suggested meanwhile the newspapers of Santiago and Valparaiso continued their abuse of the North Americans and especially of Mr. Egan and Mr. Blaine it looked as though the final outcome of the incident might be very grave as a precautionary measure the United States government put all its vessels of war into commission Rear Admiral Walker with a squadron was ordered to Brazil and the vessels already stationed off the Pacific coast were held in readiness for active service at this time the opposition press in the United States very intemperately accused Mr. Blaine of seeking to stir up a war with Chile reviewing all the evidence it is impossible now to hold this belief Mr. Blaine's attitude was a firm one yet it is certain that all the while he was exerting his influence to hold back the president Mr. Harrison was perhaps unconsciously influenced by the thought that a foreign war would almost certainly re-elect him but whatever his motives he seemed anxious to force matters to appoint it which war would become inevitable Mr. Blaine on the other hand displayed a commendable patience and refrained from any action which could be regarded as precipitate note 48 page 237 the Baltimore was withdrawn from Valparaiso was cruising in Chilean waters merely touched there then proceeded northward during the critical days of December although the harbor of Valparaiso was dotted with foreign ships of war the United States was represented only by the little gunboat Yorktown under the orders of commander Robly D. Evans commander Evans was a virginian who had adhered to the union throughout the civil war in which he had fought with great gallantry receiving several serious wounds he was popularly known to his comrades in the Navy as Fighting Bob a name which was always a curious puzzle to the honest commander himself for in his own estimation he was one of the most peaceful of living men he thought himself a miracle of patience and forbearance whereas in fact he was never truly happy unless he could sniff the smell of gunpowder he resembled that interesting hero of Conan Doyle's who vivaciously announced that he would slash to pieces any man who dared describe him as pugnacious the position of commander Evans at Valparaiso was a very trying one nearly the whole of the Chilean fleet was distributed about him in the harbor if he went ashore he was dogged by spies and scowled at by the rabble the foreign element especially the Germans were still more unfriendly if such a thing were possible finally the government at Washington depended upon him for frequent and detailed accounts of the state of public feeling while Mr. Egan was continually sending to him from Diego messages of the most alarming character commander Evans however kept his head and carried off the situation in admirable form he treated the Chilean officials with punctilious courtesy while at the same time resenting hotly any overt acts of enmity the Chilean torpedo boats began to engage in what they called practice drill this drill consisted for the most part in speeding their craft as near to the Yorktown as was possible without touching it within a distance of a few feet the object of this was twofold first of all it was meant to show the American commander how utterly he was at their mercy in the second place it was intended as a little diversion at the expense of the Yorktown and for the amusement of the German, French and English naval officers whose ships were in the harbor after a few days of this sort of thing commander Evans sent for the officer in charge of the torpedo drill and protested against his action as discourteous I beg to inform you said the Chilean with a veiled sneer that the water of this harbor belongs to my government and that I propose to use it in maneuvering the torpedo boats under my command very good, returned commander Evans but I beg to inform you that the Yorktown is the property of my government and that if one of your boats so much as scratches its paint I will blow her bottom out note 49, page 238 this put a speedy end to the Chilean torpedo drill on another occasion a party of roughs amused themselves by throwing stones at one of the small boats of the Yorktown and daring the men in it to come ashore commander Evans at once visited the Chilean cruiser Cochran whose captain Vile was a senior officer not only of the fleet but of the city Evans has described the interview in these words which suggests that his sobriquet of fighting Bob was not wholly misapplied I could hardly hold myself down while I told him of it but I did and then read him the riot act I demanded of him immediate and efficient protection by the police and served notice on him then and there that a repetition of the offense would be sufficient evidence that they could not control their people and that I should arm my boats and shoot any and every man who insulted me or my men or my flag in any way Vile was greatly shocked turned as white as a sheet my manner was not very mild I fancy swore and damned the discharge soldiers and said they were doing all they could to involve the country and war with the United States after a few moments captain Vile hastened on shore to jump on the police assuring me that I should have an ample apology tomorrow note 50 page 239 in the meantime the situation of the refugees in the American legation at Santiago was becoming a very serious one crowded into a comparatively small house unable to leave at shelter their lives threatened at every moment they were doubtful whether the protection accorded them by the American minister would prove effectual for very long the Chileans were now willing to let them slip away secretly to the shore but refused to grant them formally a safe conduct as the American government still refrained from pressing matters to an extremity the arrogance of the Chileans increased from day to day most of them believed in all sincerity that their navy was more than a match for that of the United States their newspapers boasted that in case of war San Francisco would be laid in ashes and that the whole pacific coast of the United States would be ravaged and laid under contribution this post although it seems preposterous now was not wholly due to the sort of pride which goes with Spanish blood there was in Valparaiso a very large German colony composed of merchants and persons engaged in shipping they together with the English had largely monopolized the foreign trade of Chile thanks to the high protective tariff of the United States the Chileans therefore knew little about Americans they did not trade with them they seldom saw them and they listened eagerly to the German talk about the helplessness and general insignificance of the United States it came at last to be an article of faith that in the event of war the German Empire would come to the support of Chile one finds it difficult to believe that any such delusion possessed the government officials in Santiago yet perhaps one member of that government may have entertained it since otherwise it is very difficult to understand his action on December 11th 1891 Senor Don Manuel Mata formerly a journalist but now the Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed a telegram to the Chilean minister in Washington relating to a message on Chilean affairs sent by President Harrison to Congress Mata's telegram language was used which was insulting not only to Mr. Egan but to Secretary Tracy and even to President Harrison Senor Mata spoke of the president's statement as erroneous or deliberately incorrect delibera de mente in exactos a note of Mr. Egan's was described as aggressive in purpose and virulent in language Mata's telegram ended with an allusion to what he called the intrigues which proceed from so lowest source and the threats which come from a source so high this dispatch was read by Mata to the Chilean Senate and was telegraphed to all the Chilean legations in Europe thus publishing the insult to the world Mr. Egan at once sent a note to Senor Mata demanding to know whether the text of the telegram as given in the newspapers was correct Mata replied that it was intimating at the same time that it did not concern anyone save the government of Chile and its officials the Chilean minister at Washington thoroughly appreciated the blazing and discretion of which his chief had been guilty and he took the responsibility of suppressing the offensive telegram so far as he could do so it was however, cable to the American press and was read by the American people with intense indignation even Mr. Blaine no longer sought to hold President Harrison in check preparations for war were openly begun the Navy yards at San Francisco overnight and day a squadron of eight cruisers was assembled in Pacific waters, blockading ships were ordered to be bought and an ultimatum was finally sent to the Chilean government containing three peremptory demands first that the Mata telegram should be withdrawn its language disowned and an explicit apology offered for it second that an indemnity should at once be paid for the outrage upon American sailors and third that the refugees American legation at Santiago should receive a safe conduct to neutral territory for a moment the scales were evenly balanced between peace and war volunteers offered their services to the war department in Washington the Chileans boggled over the terms which Mr. Blaine had laid before them they talked of arbitration they offered while refusing to withdraw the Mata telegram to declare that it was not meant to be offensive the Chilean minister argued that there was a purely domestic communication and therefore privileged Mr. Blaine and the president however stood firm and on January 23rd the Chilean government executed a complete back down the terms in which its submission was offered left nothing to be desired on the score of completeness wrote Senor Pereira to Mr. Egan the undersigned deplores that in that telegram they were employed through an error of judgment the expressions which are offensive the government in fulfillment of a high duty of courtesy and sincerity toward a friendly nation the government of Chile absolutely withdraws the set expressions a declaration which is made without reservation in order that it may receive such publicity as your government may deem suitable the sum of $75,000 was paid from the Chilean treasury to the injured sailors of the Baltimore and the refugees in the American legation received a safe conduct unmolested under the protection of the United States note 51 page 242 this was the second incident during the Harrison administration which showed that the American people were no longer unconcerned with their foreign relations as in Samoa, so in Chile a new spirit in American diplomacy had been manifested in a striking manner and had made it plain to all the world that the United States was becoming a force to be reckoned with in international affairs Mr. Blaine's enemies at home bitterly attacked his conduct of these negotiations the opposition press accused him of jingoism, of duplicity and of insincerity so violent was this opposition in the end as to find expression in the most unpatriotic sentiments at the very moment when peace and war were trembling in the balance a semi-political association in New York known as the reform club actually invited a Chilean emissary to address it and listened with lost to his feminist attacks upon the president and government of the United States note 52 page 243 such incidents as this however merely disgusted and repelled all right-thinking people and Mr. Blaine came out of the Chilean embryo with his popularity greater even than it had been before not long after the Chilean affair had reached its climax events of much interest took place in a distant island of the Pacific the little kingdom of Hawaii had for 40 years been living under a constitutional monarchy which continued the line of native kings its independence had been guaranteed by France and England in 1843 and the United States though not a party to this agreement had nevertheless on more than one occasion use its armed forces to repress disorder and maintain the reign of law the white population of the island comprised a large number of persons of American ancestry and these acted in accord with the resident English the two together constituting an enlightened and highly prosperous community in 1881 the Hawaiian king Kalakaua I who had not before regarded himself as a particularly important personage made a tour of the world much to his surprise and delight he found his kingly dignity recognized by some of the greatest sovereigns of Asia and Europe who treated him with every mark of respect as a member of the royal caste the royal feats of Japan, England, France and Germany military reviews were held in his honor and he was welcomed to palaces and fated as cordially as though he were a monarch of much greater power and pretensions note 53 page 244 when he returned he brought with him not merely jewel decorations from the Tsar the Austrian Kaiser the Queen of England and the Pope but brand new crowns which he had purchased in London for himself and for his consort together with a field battery intended for a standing army which in his imagination already existed his foreign journey in fact had turned his head on a small scale he reproduced the fallies and extravagances of the Egyptian Khadib Ismail the greatest spendthrift of modern times Kalakaua began to imitate the monarchs at whose course he had been so lavishly entertained in his private life he gave himself up to the parasites and pandas who swarmed about him and suggested to him new forms of wastefulness and new refinements of vice he instituted an order with insignia and decorations he built himself a palace he had himself crowned with splendid ceremonial though he had already been a king for nine years already he saw himself at the head of a great Polynesian empire and in 1887 he tried to interfere in the affairs of Samoa with some dreamy notion of adding its islands to his own small kingdom note 54 page 244 worse than this he tried to ignore or to evade the constitution which had been established and ratified by the Hawaiian people the royal expenses were now paid by the personal order of the king out of the public funds and without the knowledge or approval of his ministers he tried to negotiate a foreign loan of ten million dollars in order to maintain a standing army for the enhancement of his royal prestige he even lent an ear to the native element who urged him so to modify the constitution as to exclude from the franchise the white residents of Hawaii these however uniting with the more intelligent of the natives not only resisted the attempt but compelled the king to keep more closely within his constitutional limitations in 1891 worn out by worry and by unrestrained excesses Calakua died and was succeeded by his sister Liliu Kelani the new Hawaiian queen was a woman of great force of character and of much personal charm her bearing was truly regal she presided over public functions with marked dignity while all who were received by her in private audience came away charmed by her grace and affability she had been highly educated and spoke both French and English with perfect purity and elegance she was however as thoroughly imbued with a sense of her royal prerogative as though she had been an Elizabeth she was in England when the constitution of 1887 was established in Hawaii and when she learned that under its provisions the white residents were to have an equal share of political power her indignation passed all bounds upon her ascension to the throne she set herself to the task of abrogating that instrument and of restoring the personal government of the Kamehamehas she had no sooner taken the coronation oath than she declared to one of the cabinet the ministry shall be responsible to me alone she dismissed the existing cabinet and chose a ministry of her own selection which was opposed by a majority in the Hawaiian legislature to provide the funds needed for her campaign against constitutionalism she leaked herself with certain interests which sought a lottery franchise and a law licensing the sale of opium by a series of intrigues which it would be tedious to detail these measures were legalized and at once a legislature was dissolved on January 14, 1893 the queen had planned to promulgate by royal decree a new constitution which should supersede the old one her ministry informed her that such an act would be revolutionary she demanded their resignations but they refused compliance and issued a proclamation January 15 setting forth these facts and declaring the throne vacant on the following day a mass meeting of the foreign residents and many of the natives formally decided that in view of the queen's arbitrary acts stringent measures were needed for the preservation of the public credit and to avert the final ruin of a financial condition already over strained a provisional government headed by Mr. Sanford B. Dole a justice of the Supreme Court was organized with an advisory council representing the best elements of the community this body in view of the intense excitement prevailing in Honolulu called upon the United States minister to announce Stevens of Maine for assistance in preserving order the United States cruiser Boston was lying in the harbor and at the request of Mr. Stevens a battalion of sailors and Marines was landed by Captain Wilts and marched through the streets of the capital and camping before the government building Mr. Stevens on his own responsibility recognized the new government and officially proclaimed Hawaii to be under the protection of the United States February 1, 1893 the Queen seeing that resistance was useless made a formal protest and then yielded as she said only to the superior forces of the United States of America the provisional government doubtful of the effect of these events upon public opinion in the United States hurriedly dispatched to commission to lay their case before President Harrison and to ask for the annexation of Hawaii to the United States the President and Mr. J. W. Foster who had succeeded Mr. Blaine and the Secretary of State strongly favored this suggestion which was in fact not a new one since as early as 1854 annexation had been considered a treaty was hurriedly negotiated between the commissioners and the Secretary of State and on February 15 a treaty of annexation was signed providing for the continuance and power of the Dole government and the retention of the existing Hawaiian laws subject however to the exercise of supreme authority by the United States the commissioner empowered to veto any or all acts of the local administration it was further provided that the United States should assume the Hawaiian debt note 55, page 247 that it should allow the deposed Queen an annual grant of $20,000 and that it should give to the Princess Kayi Ullani who was next in line of succession the sum of $150,000 in return for a renunciation of her rights this treaty after having been duly signed was immediately submitted by President Harrison to the Senate for ratification accompanied by a message in which he said the overthrow of the monarchy was not in any way promoted by this government but had its origin in what seemed to have been a reactionary and revolutionary policy in the part of Queen Lilliu Kallani which put in serious peril not only the large and preponderating interests of the United States in the islands but all foreign interests and indeed the decent administration of civil affairs and the peace of the islands the restoration of Queen Lilliu Kallani to her throne is undesirable if not impossible and unless actively supported by the United States would be accompanied by serious disaster and the disorganization of all business interests the influence and interest of the United States in the islands must be increased and not diminished it is essential that none of the great powers shall secure these islands such a possession would not consist of more safety and with the peace of the world this view of the situation is so apparent and conclusive that no protest has been heard from any government against proceedings looking to annexation every foreign representative at Honolulu promptly acknowledged the provisional government and I think there is a general concurrence in the opinion that the deposed queen ought not to be restored Note 56, page 248 President Harrison's assertion that the United States had had no part in the revolution in Hawaii was regarded by the opposition as disingenuous it was said that Mr. Dole and his associates were simply conspirators who had acted in accordance with a preconceived plan the details of which had been fully communicated to the American government the opportune presence of the Boston at Honolulu was viewed as something more than a coincidence the action of Mr. Stevens was denounced as treacherous to the government to which he had been accredited and deprived as an outrage upon a helpless people and as an attempt on the part of Mr. Harrison and his advisors to seize territory in a distant part of the world without any shadow of justification the white residents of Hawaii were styled carpetbaggers and their new government a bear faced usurpation many sneers were directed at these sons of missionaries who though aliens had deprived the natives of their political birthright reviewing this affair in the light of all that is now known two facts stand out beyond the possibility of refutation in the first place there can be no doubt that Queen Liliu Kalani had just forfeited her throne she had violated the constitution which she had solemnly sworn to maintain and was proceeding to action such as would in the case of an English sovereign have led it once to the forfeiture of the royal rights furthermore this nears aimed at the sons of missionaries as aliens were thoroughly unwarranted Mr. Dole for instance and his immediate associates were not aliens at all though a foreign ancestry they had been born in Hawaii their homes were there all their interests were there they were the ones who had transformed the island into a civilized and prosperous community it was they who maintained the system of public education who paid the greater part of the taxes and who supported the administration of the laws if revolution is ever justified and of this no Anglo-Saxon can feel any doubt the revolution in Hawaii was surely so as being the act of men defending their political liberties and personal rights on the other hand it may be regarded as absolutely certain that the American minister Mr. Stevens was not only well aware of what was going on but that he had fully informed his government and that President Harrison and his advisors sympathized with the annexation movement in February of 1892 Mr. Stevens had written to the State Department a letter in which he said there are increasing indications that the annexation sentiment is gaining among the businessmen on March 8th of the same year he had asked Mr. Blaine for special instructions in case the government here should be reorganized and overturned by an orderly and peaceful revolutionary movement I have information which I deem reliable that there is an organized revolutionary party in the islands these people are very likely to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic with the ultimate view of annexation to the United States on December 30th Admiral Scarrett who was under orders to take command of the Pacific squadron had called at the Navy department in Washington for final instructions he said to the secretary Mr. Tracy, I want to ask you about these Hawaiian affairs when I was out there 20 years ago I had frequent conversations with the then United States minister Mr. Pierce on the subject of the islands I was told then that the United States government did not wish to annex the islands of Hawaii Mr. Tracy answered the wishes of the government have changed they will be very glad to annex Hawaii as a matter of course none but the ordinary legal means can be used to persuade these people to come into the United States all right sir answered Admiral Scarrett I only wanted to know how things were going on as a cue to my action note 57, page 251 finally Mr. Stevens on the day when the American marines were landed in Honolulu had sent a dispatch to Washington saying the Hawaiian pair is now fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it from all these facts it is quite obvious that the American government was fully aware of the impending revolution and was in sympathy with it as a means of securing the annexation of the islands whether the revolution would have succeeded had not marines been landed from the Boston at the critical moment is a purely hypothetical question as to the morality of the whole proceeding opinions will always differ at the time the administration received much harsh criticism and though president Harrison in his message on February 15th urged the Senate to ratify the annexation treaty at once definite action upon it was delayed the sands of the Harrison administration were fast running out its hours were numbered and the Hawaiian question was soon to assume a new form and to pass through many different faces before it reached a final settlement a few days more and another hand had laid a firm grasp upon the helm of the state End of chapter 5