Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 181Irish-Americans. Harrison took 233 electoral votes to Cleveland’s 168.
But the pop ular vote proved far different: 5 , 540 , 000 for Cleveland to
5 , 440 , 000 for Harrison.
Traditionally, Republicans supported higher tariff rates
while the Democrats felt the rates needed to be lowered, especially
since the surplus was getting out of hand. With Thomas Brackett
Reed as Speaker, a man who exercised tight control on the proceedings
in the House of Representatives— in fact he introduced new rules to
force the House to attend to business and was dubbed “Czar” Reed by
Democrats—the Republicans rammed a bill through the lower cham-
ber that raised duties on virtually every import that competed with
American products. On average the rates jumped by 49. 5 percent.
William McKinley of Ohio, the chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee, introduced the mea sure. He was a staunch advocate of
protection and a man of principle who was an excellent speaker and a
congenial colleague. He was a favorite among Republicans. The bill
passed by a vote of 164 to 142 , but it ran into stiff opposition in the Sen-
ate, and western senators promised to defeat it unless a more acceptable
coinage bill, allowing for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of sixteen to one with gold, was passed. And southern senators
threatened to join their western colleagues if a House-approved Federal
Election Bill, or Force Bill, as they called it, was enacted. This measure
was intended to protect black voters in the South by providing federal
supervision of federal elections. It specifi ed that when 100 voters in any
district applied for an investigation, federal officials would inspect and
verify or question the results.
Fearful that the McKinley tariff would fail, the leadership of the
Republican Party jettisoned the Force Bill and suggested a compromise
on silver. What became the Sherman Silver Purchase Act found favor
with the western senators because it required the Treasury to purchase
4. 5 million ounces of silver each month at the market price, which was
more than double the amount bought under the Bland-Allison Act,
and pay for it with legal tender notes redeemable in specie (gold or sil-
ver). It was estimated that the amount to be purchased was approxi-
mately the total U.S. production of silver. This legislation was passed