Memoirs of Carl
Schurz_ (3 vols., 1907-08), the _Writings of Carl Schurz_ (7 vols.,
Frederic Bancroft, _ed._, 1912), the biographies of J.R. Lowell, E.L.
Godkin, and George William Curtis, and the files of _Harper's Weekly_,
the _Nation_, and the _North American Review_. The general narrative of
the eighties is covered by E.E. Sparks, _National Development_, and D.R.
Dewey, _National Problems_ (in _The American Nation_, vols. 23 and 24,
1907), and E.B. Andrews, _The United States in Our Own Time_. A
thoughtful economic analysis of the period is D.A. Wells, _Recent
Economic Changes_ (1890). The Report of the Tariff Commission of 1882 is
valuable for the study of tariff revision, as are also the standard
tariff histories by E. Stanwood, I.M. Tarbell, and F.W. Taussig. The
Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Labor (1884-) are fundamental for
the labor problem. Useful monographs are C.D. Wright, _An Historical
Sketch of the Knights of Labor_ (in _Quarterly Journal of Economics_,
vol. I), T.V. Powderly, _Thirty Years of Labor_ (1889), G.E. McNeill,
_The Labor Movement_ (1887), and M.A. Aldrich, _The American Federation
of Labor_ (in American Economic Association, Economic Studies, vol.
III).
CHAPTER VIII
GROVER CLEVELAND
The Administration of Chester A. Arthur proved that the President had
never been so discreditable a spoilsman as the reformers had believed,
or else that he had changed his spots. The term ended in dignity and
Arthur hoped to secure a personal vindication through renomination by
his party. His struggle precipitated a contest of leaders, and until the
nominations were made, none could say where either party stood.
The independents, chiefly of Republican antecedents, hoped to retain
what had been gained in the last Administration. They hoped to extend
the reform in the civil service and to focus attention upon the tariff.
The failure of downward revision in 1883 had strengthened their hands
and increased their hopes. They had dallied with bolting movements and
threats so long that party regularity meant little to them. Either party
could obtain their support by nominating men who could be trusted to
stick to their platform. Arthur was not acceptable to them, and Blaine
was anathema.
The candidacy of Arthur was doomed to failure. He had alienated the
Stalwarts by his independence, while he had failed to win the reformers
because he had not invariably refrained from playing the politician. I
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