Page:The Republican Party (1920).djvu/101

 Upon this platform it nominated Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for President and Levi P. Morton of New York for Vice-President.

Conventions were also held by the Prohibition, Union Labor, United Labor, American and Equal Rights parties and candidates were nominated by them. But all the interest of the campaign centered upon the tariff fight between the Republicans and Democrats. That question was paramount in the candidates' letters of acceptance, and in the speech making and the press. The result was a sweeping Republican victory. The Democrats carried the solid South, Connecticut and New Jersey with 168 electoral and 5,540,329 popular votes. The Republicans carried all the other states with 233 electoral and 5,439,853 popular votes. The Prohibitionists polled 249,506 votes, the Union Labor 146,935, the United Labor 2,418, and the American party 1,591. The Republicans retained control of the Senate and secured the House by a substantial majority. But the second House in that administration, elected in 1900, was overwhelmingly won by the Democrats.

With the accession of the Harrison administration the Republican majority in Congress, under the leadership of William McKinley, promptly proceeded to make a radical revision of the tariff and to adopt a new schedule frankly protectionist for the sake of protection. The result was the so-called McKinley tariff of 1890. This noteworthy measure placed sugar and other important articles on the free list, established a system of reciprocity in trade with various countries in South America and Europe, levied high duties on foreign goods which competed with American products, and greatly stimulated some important American