Republican candidate for governor was a leader of the Grand Army of the
Republic. Harrison's personal character and piety were valuable assets
in a time when party leaders were under fire. Once in office he had a
cold abruptness that made it easy to lose the support of associates who
felt that their own importance was greater than his.

Blaine, the greatest of these associates, became Secretary of State,
and soon had the satisfaction of meeting the Pan-American Congress that
he had called eight years before. In his interest in larger American
affairs he lost some of his keenness as a protectionist and acquired a
zeal for foreign trade. With England he had another unsuccessful tilt,
this time over the seals of Bering Sea.

In some of the appointments Harrison paid the party debts. Windom came
back to the Treasury, although ex-Senator Platt, of New York, claimed
that he had been promised it. John Wanamaker, who had raised large sums
in Philadelphia to aid Quay in the campaign, became Postmaster-General.
The Pension Bureau, important through the alliance with the soldiers,
went to a leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, one "Corporal"
Tanner, whose most famous utterance related to his intentions: "God save
the surplus!"

The Fifty-first Congress, convening in December, 1889, took up with
enthusiasm the mandate of the election, as the Republicans saw it, to
revise the tariff in the interest of protection. It chose as Speaker
Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, and revised its rules so as to expedite
legislation. William McKinley prepared a revision of the tariff in the
House, while another Ohioan, John Sherman, took up the matter of the
trusts in the Senate.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Law was enacted in July, 1890, after nearly
ten years of general discussion. Although formulated by
Republicans--Sherman, Edmunds, and Hoar--it was not more distinctly
a party measure than the Interstate Commerce Act had been. It relied
upon the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution as its
authority to declare illegal "every contract, combination in the form
of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of commerce among
the several States, or with foreign nations," and it provided suitable
penalties for violation. The most significant debate in connection
with it occurred upon an amendment offered by Representative Richard
P. Bland, of Missouri, who desired to extend the scope of the
prohibition, specifically, to railroads. The Sen