CONTENTS CHAP. I. II. 20 INVENTION AND DISCOVERY (1877-1885) PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORTATION (1875-1885). INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS (1875-1885) . . PRESIDENT HAYES AND THE SOUTH (1876-1877) REPUBLICAN DISSENSIONS (1877-1878). . THE FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS (1876-1881). PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1880 (1880-1881) CIVIL SERVICE REFORM (1881-1884). XIII. THE ISTHMIAN CANAL (1877-1885) XVI. THE INDIAN QUESTION (1877-1885). XVII. THE TARIFF OF 1883 (1873-1883) 420329 THE EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION HE previous volume in this series, Dunning's Reconstruction, deals with the later phases of a Civil War, the consequences of which, and the adjustments resulting from which, occupied men's thoughts for a dozen years after hostilities in the field had ceased. Then came a distinct break between those old issues and the immediate, vital question of the adaptation of American government to the industrial and social needs of the country. It is at this turningpoint, the year 1877, that Professor Sparks begins this volume. The first five chapters are devoted to a summary of the social and economic conditions of the time, including invention, transportation, and labor. This prepares the way for chapters vi.-viii., on the party struggles due to President Hayes' withdrawal of the federal troops from the South. In chapters ix.-xii., the author develops two other questions— silver coinage and the national civil service-which aroused lively discussion. Then he turns (chapters xiii., xiv.) to the two principal questions of foreign policy, the Isthmian Canal and the exclusion of the Chinese. Two chapters (xv., xvi.) bring out the effect on the nation of the rapid settling up of the West, and the consequent pressure on the Indians. In chapters xvii. to xix. are described the struggles over the tariff, the new conditions of transportation, and the election of 1884, by which Cleveland came to the White House, the first Democrat since Buchanan. To deal with a period so near the present time, to handle judiciously controversies which are still warm, is not an easy task. Professor Sparks has succeeded in bringing out the contrast between the issues and prepossessions of his period as against those of the Civil War. He has put into relief the filling up of the West, and the creation of arteries of communication, as factors in national politics and policies. He has shown how new organization of capitalists, laborers, and agencies of transportation compelled the nation to consider a new theory of the relation of government to private and corporate business. He has thus prepared the ground for the further discussion of the problem of control of industry, as it is described in the next volume of the series, Dewey's National Problems. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE HE work of reconstructing the political standing of certain southern states, impaired by attempted secession, was wellnigh completed by 1877. In the decade following, the foundations were unconsciously laid for the national edifice which is the glory of the present age. Old precedents were gone, new industrial conditions were confronted, new routes of commerce were discovered, and new political policies were worked out. Modern accumulation of wealth and modern combinations of labor here found a beginning. The national credit, impaired by depreciated paper issues, was restored by the resumption of specie payments. Increased Asiatic immigration to California caused the first barriers to be erected against the admission of a foreign people; and conditions in Utah demanded federal regulation of a social question, thus establishing a new precedent. Many of the limitations through constitutional interpretation, which had been a hinderance to congressional action, disappeared after the final arbitration of war; thenceforth expediency and the general good were to be the criteria of action. |