Springer vs.United States, 102 U.S.586.
Public distrust of legislative procedure in the United States is so great that powers of judicial interference are valued to a degree not usual in any other country.The Democratic platform of 1896 did not venture to go farther in the way of censure than to declare that "it is the duty of Congress to use all the constitutional power which remains after that decision, or which may come from its reversal by the court as it may hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due proportion of the expenses of the government." Even this suggestion of possible future interference with the court turned out to be a heavy party load in the campaign.
With the elimination of the income tax, the revenues of the country became insufficient to meet the demands upon the Treasury, and Carlisle was obliged to report a deficit of $42,805,223 for 1895.The change of party control in Congress brought no relief.The House, under the able direction of Speaker Reed, passed a bill to augment the revenue by increasing customs duties and also a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to sell bonds or issue certificates of indebtedness bearing interest at three per cent.Both measures, however, were held up in the Senate, in which the silver faction held the balance of power.* On February 1, 1896, a free silver substitute for the House bond bill passed the Senate by a vote of forty-two to thirty-five, but the minority represented over eight million more people than the majority.The House refused, by 215 to 90, to concur in the Senate's amendment, and the whole subject was then dropped.
* The distribution of party strength in the Senate was:
Republicans, 43; Democrats, 39; Populists, 6.Republicans made concessions to the Populists which caused them to refrain from voting when the question of organisation was pending, and the Republicans were thus able to elect the officers and rearrange the committees, which they did in such a way as to put the free silver men in control of the committee on finance.The bills passed by the house were referred to this committee, which thereupon substituted bills providing for free coinage of silver.
President Cleveland had to carry on the battle to maintain the gold standard and to sustain the public credit without any aid from Congress.The one thing he did accomplish by his efforts, and it was at that moment the thing of chief importance, was to put an end to party duplicity on the silver question.On that point, at least, national party platforms abandoned their customary practice of trickery and deceit.Compelled to choose between the support of the commercial centers and that of the mining camps, the Republican convention came out squarely for the gold standard and nominated William McKinley for President.
Thirty-four members of the convention, including four United States Senators and two Representatives, bolted.It was a year of bolts, the only party convention that escaped being that of the Socialist Labor party, which ignored the monetary issue save for a vague declaration that "the United States have the exclusive right to issue money." The silver men swept the Democratic convention, which then nominated William Jennings Bryan for President.Later on, the Gold Democrats held a convention and nominated John M.Palmer of Illinois.The Populists and the National Silver party also nominated Bryan for President, but each made its own separate nomination for Vice-President.Even the Prohibitionists split on the issue, and a seceding faction organized the National party and inserted a free silver plank in their platform.
In the canvass which followed, calumny and misrepresentation were for once discarded in favor of genuine discussion.This new attitude was largely due to organizations for spreading information quite apart from regular party management.In this way, many able pamphlets were issued and widely circulated.The Republicans had ample campaign funds; but though the Democrats were poorly supplied, this deficiency did not abate the energy of Bryan's campaign.He traveled over eighteen thousand miles, speaking at nearly every stopping place to great assemblages.
McKinley, on the contrary, stayed at home, although he delivered an effective series of speeches to visiting delegations.The outcome seemed doubtful, but the intense anxiety which was prevalent was promptly dispelled when the election returns began to arrive.By going over to free silver, the Democrats wrested from the Republicans all the mining States, except California, together with Kansas and Nebraska, but the electoral votes which they thus secured were a poor compensation for losses elsewhere.
Such old Democratic strongholds as Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia gave McKinley substantial majorities, and Kentucky gave him twelve of her thirteen electoral votes.McKinley's popular plurality was over six hundred thousand, and he had a majority of ninety-five in the electoral college.
The nation approved the position which Cleveland had maintained, but the Republican party reaped the benefit by going over to that position while the Democratic party was ruined by forsaking it.
Party experience during the Cleveland era contained many lessons, but none clearer than that presidential leadership is essential both to legislative achievement and to party success.
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