President took the helm of the National Government. And still more, the country was not destroyed. The Democratic Administration proved eminently conservative, patriotic and safe. The old political capital upon which the Republican Party had successfully banked so many years was irretrievably gone. Something desperate had to be done to regain the lost power. And it was done. In its National Convention of 1888 the Republican Party gave itself over body and soul to the money-power interested in the protective tariff, expecting from it substantial aid in the election.
I know this is a grave assertion. But if you are not yet satisfied of its truthfulness, you need only study the history of the campaign of 1888 and what followed. There was not the slightest popular demand for higher tariff duties. The Republicans had till then substantially admitted the desirability of reductions, and only asked that they, as the friends of the system, be permitted to make the alterations themselves. But in 1888 the scene changed. With the most cynical frankness, Republican leaders notified the protected manufacturers, openly recognizing them as the beneficiaries of the tariff, that unless they permitted the “fat to be fried out of them” for the benefit of the Republican Party, they need not expect any further tariff favors—in fact, the tariff might be let go by the board—but that they would be well taken care of if they paid up. The Republican National Convention took extreme protection ground. A vista of indefinite increases of duties was opened. The fat-frying process proceeded vigorously. The beneficiaries of the tariff contributed with profusion. The Republican campaign fund received unprecedented sums of money to be expended by Mr. Matt Quay. Thus the victory was won. Then the helpful beneficiaries of productive duties demanded and received their reward, and that reward was the McKinley
