s a
small surplus in 1879. In 1880 it was $68,000,000; in 1881,
$101,000,000; in 1882, $145,000,000; in 1883, $132,000,000. The surplus
was a constant incentive to extravagance and deranged the currency. If
it was allowed to remain in the Treasury, its millions were withheld
from circulation, and contraction was the result; if it was applied to
the purchase or redemption of bonds, the national bank currency was
contracted, for this was founded upon bonds owned by the banks; and it
could not be spent without the invention of new channels. The temptation
to increase pension payments was strengthened, while public works
multiplied without reason.

The waste of money on public works induced Arthur to advertise the need
for a reduction of the revenue. The annual River and Harbor Bill had
consumed $3,900,000 in 1870, and $8,900,000 in 1880. In 1882 the bill
was swollen to over $18,000,000 by greed and log-rolling. Arthur vetoed
it as unreasonable and unconstitutional in August, 1882. It passed over
his veto, but the defeat of his party in the following November was
construed as a vindication of the President. The Republicans lost
control of the House of Representatives, Democratic governors were
elected in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, in New York, Connecticut, New
Jersey, and Indiana, and critics began to ask if this was the beginning
of the end of the party. The certainty that party bills could not be
passed in the next Congress, with the control divided, stimulated the
Republicans to act while they could. The Civil Service Act was passed
early in 1883, and on the same day the House took up the consideration
of a new tariff.

Arthur, in 1881, had urged that the revenues be reduced and the tariff
be revised, and Congress had created a commission to investigate the
needed changes, in May, 1882. This committee was in session throughout
the following summer, sitting in manufacturing centers all over the East
and hearing testimony from all varieties of manufacturers. It had been
organized on a conservative basis, containing members familiar with the
needs of sheep-raisers and wool manufacturers, and iron and sugar, as
well as experts on administration. Its enemies thought that it was
pledged to protection at the start. The commission expressed a belief
that the country desired to adhere to the general idea of protection,
but it early learned the force of the demand for revision and reduction,
and sent into the House, in Dece