CONTENTS
I. A TRANSITION PERIOD
II. POLITICAL GROPING AND PARTY FLUCTUATION
III. THE ADVENT OF CLEVELAND
IV. A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
V. PARTY POLICY IN CONGRESS
VI. PRESIDENTIAL KNIGHT-ERRANTRY
VII. THE PUBLIC DISCONTENTS
VIII. THE REPUBLICAN OPPORTUNITY
IX. THE FREE SILVER REVOLT
X. LAW AND ORDER UPHELD
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE CLEVELAND ERA
CHAPTER I. A TRANSITION PERIOD
Politicians at Washington very generally failed to realize that the
advent of President Hayes marked the dismissal of the issues of war and
reconstruction. They regarded as an episode what turned out to be the
close of an era. They saw, indeed, that public interest in the old
issues had waned, but they were confident that this lack of interest was
transient. They admitted that the emotional fervor excited by the war
and by the issues of human right involved in its results was somewhat
damped, but they believed that the settlement of those issues was still
so incomplete that public interest would surely rekindle. For many years
the ruling thought of the Republican party leaders was to be watchful
of any opportunity to ply the bellows on the embers. Besides genuine
concern over the way in which the negroes had been divested of political
privileges conferred by national legislation, the Republicans felt a
tingling sense of party injury.
