§ 757]

BRYAN AND MARK HANNA

629

to one, for the "unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the ratio of sixteen to one," and nominated Bryan for the presidency. A strong faction of the party, however, took the name of "Gold Demo

crats" and nominated a ticket of their own. The Republicans nominated William McKinley on a "sound money" platform.

The Democratic campaign was hampered by lack of money; but the most was made of Mr. Bryan's oratory. Candidates had previously taken small part in campaigning. Mr. Bryan traveled eighteen thousand miles and spoke to vast numbers of people. The Republican coffers were supplied lavishly by the moneyed interests of the country; and the campaign was managed by Mark Hanna, a typical representative of the "big business" interests, a virile and very likeable character, who honestly believed that the government ought to be "an adjunct of

1 To men of conservative tendencies and associations, the new leader seemed a demagogue. The Louisville Courier-Journal denounced him as a "dishonest dodger," a "daring adventurer," a "political faker"; and the New York Tribune reviled him as "a willing puppet in the blood-imbrued hands of revolutionists, - apt at lies and forgeries and blasphemies, the rival of Benedict Arnold and Jefferson Davis in treason to the Republic." Later, such Eastern organs tried strenuously to regard him as a jest. But a new force had come into American life. William J. Bryan, defeated three times for the Presidency, still molded public opinion during the coming years as only

business," and who, his admirers confessed, got what he went after in politics without scrupulous regard to means. Workingmen were intimidated by posted notices that the factories would close if the Democrats won; and many great business concerns placed orders with manufacturers with a provision for cancellation if Bryan were elected. This fear of business catastrophe (a fear largely manufactured) was a chief factor in the Republican success. But as Cleveland had committed the Democratic party to tariff reform, so Bryan had now committed it to the cause of the masses against the "special interests" and "privileged" capital.

At this point came an interruption to normal development, the Spanish War and the question of imperialism.

FOR FURTHER READING.- Dewey's National Problems; Paxson's New Nation; Haworth's Reconstruction and Union.

one or two Presidents have ever done, until by 1912 his principles, outside the free silver heresy, had become the common property of every political platform. Cf. § 842 ff.

CHAPTER LXIV

AMERICA A WORLD POWER

758. Our growing commercial interests inspired a more aggressive foreign policy. Three notable incidents in this line preceded the war with Spain.

a. In Harrison's administration the energetic Blaine was Secretary of State. A cardinal point in his policy was to extend the influence of the United States over Spanish America. In 1889 he brought together at Washington a notable PanAmerican Congress which furthered commercial reciprocity (§ 743) and expressed a desire for standing treaties of arbitration between all American nations.

b. For fifty years, the United States had held close relations with Hawaii. The islands had accepted Christianity from American missionaries; and American planters and merchants were the chief element in a considerable White population. American capital, too, was largely interested in sugar raising in the islands.

The native government, under the influence of English and American ideas, had been brought to the form of a constitutional monarchy. In January, 1893, a revolution deposed the native queen and set up a provisional republic. The leading spirits of the new government were Americans, and they asked for annexation to the United States. The United States minister to the old government ran up the United States flag, virtually declared a protectorate, and secured a force of marines from an American vessel in the harbor to overawe the natives. In his remaining weeks of office, President Harrison tried to hurry through a treaty of annexation; but Cleveland, on his accession, withdrew the treaty from the Senate, and sent a special commissioner to the islands to investigate. The report

revealed the revolution as a conspiracy, in which the American minister had taken a leading part to overthrow the government to which he was accredited; and the provisional republic, it was shown, was supported by only a small fraction of the population. Cleveland attempted to undo this "flagrant wrong" to a weak state. Despite the violent outcry of opposition papers, he "hauled down the American flag." Skillfully intrenched in possession by this time, however, the republican government maintained itself, unstably, against the native dynasty.

c. For half a century an obscure dispute had dragged along as to the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. In the eighties gold was discovered, and English miners began to crowd into the disputed wilderness. By 1895 the quarrel was acute. The English government made it clear to Venezuela that it intended to occupy the territory. Venezuela had already appealed to the United States for protection; and now our government insisted vigorously that England submit the matter to arbitration. Lord Salisbury, the English prime minister, declined. Then President Cleveland electrified the world by a message to Congress (December 17, 1895) recommending the creation of an American commission to determine the true boundary, and pointing out that war must follow if England should persist in refusing to accept the award.

For the first time the people in England awoke to the fact that a serious quarrel was in progress. People, press, and public men made clear a warm friendship for the United States wholly unsuspected by the mass of Americans,1 and it was immediately evident that even the irritating tone of American diplomacy could not arouse a war feeling. War with the United States on such an issue, said Lord Rosebery, the Liberal leader, "would be the greatest crime on record"; and the Conservative leader in parliament, Mr. Balfour, added that such a

1 This aspect of the affair was made more prominent by a remarkable display a few weeks later of war feeling in England against Germany.

§ 759]

THE VENEZUELA ARBITRATION

633

contest would be invested "with the unnatural horrors of civil war." The ministry now offered to accept arbitration, suggesting, however, an international commission, in place of one appointed by our government alone, and the matter was so arranged. The commission reported in 1899, favoring the English contention for the most part. This result was per fectly satisfactory to the United States.

The English ministry now proposed to the United States a standing treaty for arbitration of future disputes between the two countries. The treaty was drawn up, and was strongly urged upon the Senate by President Cleveland and later by President McKinley. But the Senate, now in a period of degradation, preferred to play politics, and refused to ratify this proposal for an advance in world peace.1

759. Then came the Spanish-American War. After 1824 (§ 504), only Cuba and Porto Rico were left to Spain of her once widelying American empire. In Cuba, revolt was chronic. Taxation was exorbitant; trade was shackled, in Spanish interests; and the natives were despised by Spanish officials. In 1895 the island was once more ablaze with revolt, — organized in great measure by a Cuban Junta in the United States and aided materially by filibustering expeditions from our shores. On both sides the war was barbarous. In particular, the cruel policy of the Spanish commander, Weyler, caused deadly suffering to women and children, gathered into reconcentrado camps without proper care or food. The "Gem of the Antilles" was rapidly turning to a desert and a graveyard.

American capitalists had large interests in the sugar industry in the island, and used powerful influences, open and secret, to secure American intervention, with a view to subsequent annexation by Congress. Such forces played skillfully upon the humanitarian sympathies of the American people, and on our habitual inclination to aid any movement on this continent for political independence. In 1897 the country was seething

1 Modern Progress, p. 571, or Modern World, § 917, for other details.