Democratic Party during Pres. Harrison’s Term
When the 51st Congress assembled in the late fall of 1889, the Democrats were in disarray. For the first time since 1874, they did not control either branch of Congress. The now dominant Republicans embarked upon an expansion of the federal government’s obligations to erase the huge surpluses of Cleveland’s first term by doubling the pensions for Civil War veterans and dramatically increasing funding for internal improvements. By the end of 1889, the surplus was quickly disappearing. Increasing requests for federally funded projects caused Congress to pass the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised the tax on imported goods.
By the spring of 1890, the economy was spiraling downward. With prices rising and money getting tighter, interest rates were rising. Farmers in the Great Plains began organizing against the Republicans, forming nascent organizations which later coalesced to form the Populist Party. When tariff income dropped, Congress found itself with declining revenues and was unable to pay for all the programs it had passed. The government ran out of money and had to prioritize which programs to fund.
The midterm election of 11/4/1890 was one of those epic landslides which usually only happen once per generation. In U.S. House races, the Democrats defeated 58 incumbent Republicans and picked up 31 open seats to cut the Republican representation in half; the New York Times reported on 11/6/1890 that the Democrats gained far more than the most optimistic Democratic strategist had predicted. The new House would have 235 Democrats to 88 Republicans. Democrats were less successful in the Senate, where they only gained two seats to remain in the minority. They also scored a net gain of four governorships, winning key races in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Democratic Presidential Contenders
The rise of the Populist Party in 1891 gave the Democrats some pause. Many party leaders wanted to take up the cause of the Populists in order to gain the White House in the 1892 election. However, northeastern Democrats, who formed the “sound money” faction of the party, opposed measures to inflate the dollar just to satisfy western farmers.
As the year 1892 opened, there was no declared Democrat in the field for the presidency. Former President Cleveland was mentioned across the nation, as his loss in 1888 was usually attributed to his now-justified stand on the tariff. As Cleveland dallied in making his decision, Tammany Hall called a “snap” state convention (meaning called into session earlier than usual in order to make a snap decision) on 2/22/1892 to choose delegates to the National Convention, and selected a slate of anti-Cleveland delegates pledged to New York Senator David B. Hill. The “snap” convention set off a storm of protests, as anti-machine Democrats around the nation rallied around Cleveland, controlling multiple state conventions in the spring which sent solid Cleveland delegations to the convention. Other than New York, the first state convention to appoint delegates not pledged to Cleveland was Iowa on 5/12/1892, which chose delegates pledged to its own Governor Horace Boies as the champion of the agitated western farmers.
The Boies campaign established a campaign headquarters at the Palmer House in Chicago to lobby the delegates. The Hill campaign maintained that he should be nominated because Cleveland could not win New York State, and the Boies campaign countered that Hill also could not win New York State but that Boies could. The Boies campaign recruited 10,000 people to attend the convention to lobby for the Iowa Governor, a group which rivaled the decibel output of the “Tammany braves” who appeared to support Hill. [ New York Times 6/16/1892]
The National Convention
The 16th Democratic National Convention assembled in a special convention building in Chicago IL. The building was not constructed too well; when a storm moved through the city, the building swayed from the winds and then leaked rainwater onto the delegates. Furthermore, the acoustics of the building were poor, and many speakers could not be heard by the 20,000 people who were seated in the building. The number of delegates had been increased from 822 (the total in 1888) to 910 due to the new western states.
On the second day of the convention, the typical committees reported. The Credential Committee had faced a contest in New York, where “anti-Snappers” sent Cleveland delegates. Since Cleveland already had nearly two-thirds of all delegates pledged to him, the anti-Snappers dropped their contest. The only other issue of contention was the wording of the tariff plank in the platform; after a divisive debate, the proposed plank was re-worded by a vote of 342-564.
Presidential Roll Call
As soon as the roll call on the tariff plank wording was completed, the convention moved to the nomination of a candidate for President. This was the point of the convention in which the storm was moving through Chicago, and most of what was said could not be heard. The first contender placed in nomination was Cleveland; ironically, the New Jersey delegate making the speech mentioned Hill before Cleveland, which set off a demonstration on the floor for Hill. After Cleveland’s nominating speech was complete, Hill and Boies were placed in nomination.
When nominations were complete, it was 2:00 a.m. A New York delegate was granted the floor and requested a recess until the following morning. The recess not being granted, the delegate entered upon a vitriolic monologue against Cleveland in which he said that Cleveland could not be trusted to appoint Democrats.
The incredibly long session continued, as the delegates did not want to adjourn before the first roll call vote for President. With 607 needed for a decision, Cleveland won on the first ballot with 617.33; Hill had 114, Boies 103, and others 75.67. The time was 4:45 a.m. when the delegates broke for the night.
| Presidential Balloting - DNC 1892 |
| Contender | North | South | West | Total |
| Grover Cleveland NY | 338 | 127.3 | 152 | 617.3 |
| David B. Hill NY | 84 | 26 | 4 | 114 |
| Horace Boies IA | 19 | 35 | 49 | 103 |
| Arthur P. Gorman MD | 18.5 | 11 | 7 | 36.5 |
| Adlai E. Stevenson IL | 0 | 16.7 | 0 | 16.7 |
| John G. Carlisle KY | 11 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| William R. Morrison | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| James E. Campbell OH | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| William E. Russell MA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| William C. Whitney NY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Robert E. Pattison PA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Not Voting | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
| % Cleveland | 71.3 | 56.8 | 71.7 | 67.8 |
Vice Presidential Nomination
On the last day of the convention, with the weather clear, the convention moved quickly to complete its business. Adlai E. Stevenson IL was nominated for vice president on the second ballot.
The final major matter of business was a discussion of how to provide accommodations for visitors to the 1896 Democratic National Convention. During the discussion, an electric lighting fixture broke loose from the ceiling and fell towards the New York delegation, ending up hanging by a long cord. The convention granted the national committee the authority to do what it thought necessary and then adjourned sine die.
15th Democratic National Convention (1888)
17th Democratic National Convention (1896)
Popular Vote of 1892
Electoral Vote of 1892
[Less...]
618 (67.84%)
