Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/683

 1874-84] Political tendencies and methods. 651 issue but that of Reconstruction. The Tariff Acts of 1872 and 1875, the Inflation Act of 1874, the bills to restore specie payment and to repeal the restoration, and the Bland Silver Act, had shown Republicans and Democrats voting on both sides. It was almost impossible to draw from the platforms of the two parties any clear distinctions between them on most public questions ; and it was this fact which observers in this period found alarming. When, however, the tariff question came up again in the years after 1880, it became evident that, with favourable circumstances, the question of revenue reform might become an issue between parties. The Republicans were unquestionably committed to protection. They had framed the tariffs, had adjusted them to suit the demands of particular industries, and drew their chief support from the manufacturing and industrial States. Beside the tradition of past services, the party was indispensable to protectionists, as being their defence against a free-trade agricultural West and South. There were individual free-traders, or tariff reformers, among the Republicans ; but the party vote on the measures of 1883 and 1884 was practically unanimous. With the Democrats the situation was less clear. While the majority favoured tariff reduction, there was a considerable minority from the Eastern States, led by Randall of Pennsylvania, who were as fully devoted to high protection as their Republican neighbours. This was shown in the votes of 1883 and 1884, when 16 Democrats out of 138, and 41 out of 198, respectively, voted for protection. Nevertheless the situation was such as to foreshadow a direct conflict between the two parties on this issue ; for the Democrats were easily capable of being led whither their leaders wished; and these, with the exception of Randall, were all for tariff reform in 1884. The time had not yet come, but it was near at hand. In default of issues, the parties of these years relied upon organisa- tion and machinery. Perfection in the manipulation of " caucus " and convention was attained by many men at this time, who in their respec- tive cities or States stood forward as " bosses," or dictators of nominations and party programmes. This evil for as such it was regarded by many was more prominent in the Republican party than the Democratic, since the former controlled more States in the North ; but there is no reason for holding one party more guilty than the other. The hordes of foreign immigrants settling in the great cities, the rise of a labour class with the spread of factories, and the necessity of finding some way of holding parties together in default of issues, made such a development inevitable. But the years 1878-84 were also rendered noteworthy by the rise of a group of Independents in politics, mostly of Republican antecedents, who censured the abuses of party machinery, and declared their intention to vote without regard to party lines. Such utterances, it is true, impressed the average voter of 1880 as akin to blasphemy ; but the rise of inde- pendence in politics was destined to have important results. CH. XX.