The 1887 Convention of the United Labor Party (ULP) was a battle for who would lead the rapidly growing progressive movement. The two factions sparring for the leadership were led by two equally larger-than-life men: on one side, Henry George, the bookish academic, and his clique of equally middle-class loyalists, skeptical of strikes, and principled progressive reformists who favored free trade. On the other side, the rough Samuel Gompers, a London-born jew who migrated to America fleeing poverty and who has spent much of his life working with his hands manufacturing cigars, and his AFL, are singularly focused on improving the position of the working class in all forms, and emphasize union action over electoral politics. There was a third group that had no chance of winning this particular fight, the Socialists. Most delegates had come from the Socialist Labor Party (SLP), however, this party was deeply split, with Wilhelm Rosenberg, the SLP’s National Secretary, in favor of joining the ULP and social democratic politics
[1], and another faction led by Sergei Shevitch, the editor of the Marxist newsletter “New Yorker Volkszeitung”, who opposed joining the ULP and electoralism as a whole. After many prolonged debates and arguments that scared many the party may not form at all, the Georgists and Gomperites worked out a compromise party constitution which put equal focus on the Land-Value Tax and improving working conditions and reduced work hours, and as a concession from George, a plethora of progressive reforms like municipal ownership of utilities, federal ownership of the railroads, and full employment. As well, the party decided on the simpler name of “Labor Party” instead and officially partnered with the more than 115 unions attending the convention
[2], requiring and allowing these unions to appoint 1/4 of the National Executive Committee. The NEC would otherwise be directly elected by the membership, with the NEC electing a Chairman, who was responsible for directing party activities, allocating party funds, settling internal disputes, and serving as the legal head of the organization. This constitution would be approved by all attending the convention save for the Shevitchites and the Central Labor Union, and the Greenbacks, Anti-Monopoly Party, and SLP legally dissolved and joined the Labor Party. Gompers secured a massive victory in getting Terrence Powderly to agree to merge the Knights of Labor and their industrial unions into the craft unions of Gomper’s AFL, bringing hundreds of thousands of workers into the AFL. This was in exchange for Terrence Powderly getting appointed as the first Chairman of the Labor Party. The convention ended jubilantly on October 28th with the inauguration of Terrence Powderly as Chairman, and thus the Labor Party was born.
However, in the broad scheme of American politics in 1887 and 1888, the Labor Party was a footnote that drew relatively little attention, as the drama of the two major parties dominated national politics. The current President, Grover Cleveland, faced an unresponsive split Congress unwilling to implement his agenda. His signature achievements had been mild action on civil service reform, the Department of Agriculture, and the Interstate Commerce Act, which created an independent agency to regulate the rates railroads could charge, the first independent agency and first federal regulations of private industry. Being from the Northeast, he took a firm stance in favor of keeping the Gold Standard and in lowering tariffs, much to the chagrin of both his party’s voters who spoke with a drawl and desired the coinage of silver and industrial workers and businessmen who desired high tariffs. As he was unable to implement much policy and vetoed far more bills than he signed, his party took a beating in the midterms, and Cleveland was broadly unpopular heading into the 1888 elections.
[3]
1. IOTL Wilhelm Rosenberg chaired the SLP from 1884-1889, focused the SLP on electoralism over unionism, and supported various early progressive movements, including Henry George’s 1886 Mayoral run. He left the party after being removed from leadership by Sergei Shevitch and his Marxist allies in New York City, refusing to step down for months and splitting the party before conceding and subsequently founding the “Social Democratic Federation”, which eventually merged with Deb’s SDP.
2. A similar number of unions attended the 1888 United Labor convention, which was horribly unproductive due to infighting between Georgists and Socialists, and nominated a ticket that only gathered a few thousand votes.
3. All as OTL.
1888 Nomination Conventions:
Republicans:
As the most notable Republican of the era, James G. Blaine, opted out of the race, a diverse array of Republicans entered the fray at the Republican Convention, namely:
John Sherman (Former Treasury Secretary and Senator; moderate)
Chauncey Depew (Businessman; liberal)
William B. Allison (Senator from Iowa; pragmatic and supports bimetallism)
Benjamin Harrison (Former one-term Senator from Indiana; moderate; grandson of William Henry Harrison)
Walter Q. Gresham (Former Treasury Secretary, Former Postmaster General, and Circuit Court Judge; well-liked by labor movement)
Russell A. Alger (Former Governor of Michigan, notable for “rags-to-riches” bio; moderate)
Of these, John Sherman had the clearest support, gaining about a 1/4 of delegates and a 100 delegate lead over the runner-up, Walter Q. Gresham, on the first ballot, however, several hundred short of a majority. This deadlock would remain on the next ballot, where Russell Alger and Benjamin Harrison began building up support. Soon after, Benjamin Harrison gave a speech describing himself as a “living and rejuvenated Republican”, which began to win attention for the Senator. It was on the fourth ballot, once the small number of Blaine delegates shifted to Harrison, that he emerged as a dark horse candidate who was gaining momentum as a compromise. On the eighth ballot, once Allison had endorsed him and the majority of Sherman’s delegates moved over, Harrison gained the Republican nomination. Soon after, Harrison chose Businessman Chauncey Depew as his running mate, and a rejuvenated GOP set off to take back the Presidency.
Benjamin Harrison, for President
Chauncey Depew, for Vice President
Democrats:
On the other hand, the Democratic Convention was incredibly predictable. The incumbent President Grover Cleveland was renominated by voice vote. As his previous Vice President had died in office, the convention selected the former Senator from the electoral-vote-rich state of Ohio Allen G. Thurman for his running mate.
Grover Cleveland, for President
Allen G. Thurman, for Vice President
Prohibition:
Clinton B. Fisk, who had run for Governor of New Jersey in 1886 and gained 19,808 votes out of 231,666 cast, was nominated unanimously. He had begun his political career as Assistant Commissioner for the Freedmen’s Bureau in Kentucky and Tennesse, and by founding the “Fisk School” in Nashville, the first free and racially integrated school in the South. After Reconstruction, he became a banker in New York and a national leader in the movement for Prohibition. For his running-mate, he chose John A. Brooks, a Methodist pastor from Missouri who had similarly performed well in a Gubernatorial election, and was a former Confederate chaplain. Their campaign was accused of potentially splitting the rural vote which favored Republicans as John St. John had for Blaine in 1884. A famous anecdote of the campaign was a Republican telling Fisk "General, if I should vote for this [prohibition] bill it would lay me in my political grave." Fisk responded "Vote for it and die, then, and I will write on your tombstone, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord'” [1]
Clinton B. Fisk, for President
John A. Brooks, for Vice President
Labor:
Similarly to the Democratic Convention, Laborites had an obvious choice they rallied around months ahead of the nomination, the most well-known member of their party and its founder, Mayor Henry George. After an incredibly unproductive term as Mayor marked by perennial fights with Tammany Hall, prolonged budget battles which failed to enact a Land-Value Tax, appointing dozens of progressives and reformists in the police, judicial, and other city government offices, and creating advisory regulatory commissions on public health, sanitation, and workers rights. It was an exhausting job that George was not enthusiastic to keep, happily taking up the presidential nomination. His campaign was not expected to win the presidency and it was expected he would mostly take votes from the urban working class and anti-corruption voters who favored Cleveland. For his running-mate, he chose George Thobe, the humble woodcarver who had defeated the Speaker of the House and become a staunch public advocate for rural interests. He was often ridiculed in the press as an eccentric and a “Luddite” who opposed modernity, however, George believed the synthesis of his personality and Thobe’s provided an opportunity to appeal to “the entire working masses of the nation”.
Henry George, for President
George Thobe, for Vice President
1. Both conventions go exactly as OTL.
1888 Presidential Election:
Tariffs were the principal issue of the campaign, with Cleveland positioning himself in favor of low tariffs (though unable to achieve this in his 4-year term), and Harrison positioning himself in favor of high tariffs, gaining him favor among industrial workers and factory owners. During his term, Cleveland had also reduced soldier’s pensions and returned Confederate Battle Standards to Southern states, and attempted to enact a Gold Standard, earning him enemies among veterans and farmers. As well, Grover Cleveland refused to campaign or assist the campaign in any form, leaving the campaigning to his running-mate, Allen G. Thurman, who was 75 years old and collapsed on stage multiple times, bringing negative press. Meanwhile, Harrison ran an energetic campaign, giving hundreds of speeches, mostly in favor of his tariff position. Henry George for his part was called the “Workers’ Mugwump”, for his adamant support of free trade and low tariffs, along with his radical industrial and political demands, with his trade position dividing industrial workers on whether to support him or not, but winning him additional support from the Northern middle-class.
Results:
401 Electoral Votes, 201 needed for a majority
Benjamin Harrison/Chauncey Depew (Republican): 254 EV, 46.91% of the popular vote — 5,413,058 votes
Grover Cleveland/Allen G. Thurman (Democratic): 147 EV, 47.16% of the popular vote — 5,444,531 votes
Henry George/George Thobe (Labor): 0 EV, 2.61% of the popular vote —302,098 votes
Clinton B. Fisk/John A. Brooks (Prohibition): 0 EV, 1.97% of the popular vote — 228,745 votes
Harrison carried the electoral college by a massive margin, the largest electoral college margin since 1872, even while losing the popular vote by ~31,500 votes. Harrison narrowly carried most swing states he required, not winning any by more than 3% save for New York, with this mostly attributed to Cleveland losing his support from Republican Mugwumps, the constituency who carried him to victory in 1884. George’s campaign surpassed the Prohibition Party in vote total, and as well was blamed by Democrats for their loss, particularly in New York (Where George had gotten 104,502 votes), and otherwise mostly taking urban working class votes from Cleveland.
1888 House Election:
Coinciding with Harrison's strong campaign, the Republicans were expected to take control of the House of Representatives. As the election pivoted on tariffs, the Democrats' free trade position hurt their candidates in industrial regions, with Republicans focusing their efforts on winning these Midwestern seats. Most Labor district chapters were controlled by the local AFL, meaning the candidates they selected were almost entirely union men or workers recruited by the AFL, thus held AFL endorsed positions, especially protectionism, which contradicted George’s national pro-free-trade speeches.
Results:
325 Representatives, 163 seats needed for a majority
Republicans: 171 seats, 47.2% of the vote (+22)
Democrats: 144 seats, 48.0% of the vote (-28)
Labor: 10 seats, 2.7% of the vote (+4)
As expected, the Republicans were able to gather a majority in the House, giving the Republicans a government trifecta they had not held since Reconstruction which could attempt to pursue longtime Republican policy goals. Democratic losses were mostly in Northern industrial seats and the party was returned to an almost homogenously Southern caucus. Also benefitting, Labor managed to almost double their caucus among urban backlash to Democrats. Most of these new members were aligned to the protectionist union & farmer wing of the party loyal to Samuel Gompers. Of the new Labor MCs, only Bellamy was closely aligned to George’s ideas, and a caucus of 3 Socialists (Streeter, Matchett, & Rosenberg) within Labor now had a voice in Congress. As Henry Smith retired to run for Mayor Milwaukee (ultimately, unsuccessfully), Alson Streeter, who appealed to both the unionists and socialists, replaced him as Congressional Labor Party leader, with the caucus he led now consisting of:
- Denis Kearney from California’s 5th (NEW)
- Alson Streeter from Illinois’s 11th (NEW)
- James B. Weaver from Iowa’s 6th
- Edward Bellamy from Massachusetts’s 11th (NEW)
- Ignatius L. Donnelly from Minnesota's 4th (NEW)
- Charles H. Matchett from New York’s 11th (NEW)
- Wilhelm Rosenberg from New York’s 13th
- John Nichols from North Carolina’s 4th
- Samuel Isaac Hopkins from Virginia’s 6th
- Michael P. Walsh from Wisconsin’s 4th (NEW)
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison (Mar. 1889-Nov. 1890):
Benjamin Harrison had perhaps the most sweeping mandate to effect change since Ulysses S. Grant and was willing to take full advantage of the opportunity. His cabinet reflected this. He appointed the most prominent Republican of the day, James G. Blaine, as his Secretary of State, though did not give him the same autonomy over foreign policy as James Garfield had given Blaine. For his Treasury Secretary, he appointed William Windom, another holdover from the Garfield administration. In one of his first actions, he pursued statehood for the Western territories, a longtime Republican goal that had been blocked by Democrats who thought they would return Republicans to congress. An Enabling Act on statehood was pushed through the lame-duck congress for the territories of: Dakota (being split into the Southern state of Dakota and the Northern state of Pembina
[1]), Montana, and Washington, allowing for votes on statehood in 1889, with all admitted in November 1889. The Wyoming and Idaho Territories would get a separate Enabling Act in the Summer of 1889 and would be admitted in July 1890. These 6 new states would have a collective 7 House seats, all of which would be filled by Republicans in special elections. Soon after, the 51st Congress would pass the Sherman Antitrust Act, which made illegal anticompetitive business practices and monopolies and criminalized all labor union activities. The Justice Department lacked the proper resources to properly implement the Antitrust aspects of the bill, however, took full advantage of prosecuting labor unions. Senator McKinley’s Tariff Act would prove the other deeply consequential legislation of the 51st Congress, massively hiking tariff rates to 50% in an unprecedented protectionist move. Opposition to this was fierce in Congress from the Democrats and some aspects of Labor, with Henry George going on a national speaking tour against the bill. Grassroots backlash to the McKinley Tariff would fuel the growth of a group of agrarian unions, called Farmers’ Alliances, with millions of poor small farm owners and tenant farmers joining the Farmers’ Alliances, Kansas alone boasted more than 150,000 members and roughly a million African-Americans joined the “Colored Farmers Union”. Harrison sought to implement a compromise on the Currency issue by having the federal government purchase a large amount of silver each month, which failed as a compromise and only further split his party and the country over the currency debate. He also passed a bill providing pensions for Veterans of the Southern Rebellion
[2].
[3] Late into Congress, pursuing an ambitious civil rights agenda, Harrison and Depew were able to maneuver Lodge's Federal Elections Bill to narrowly pass both chambers, guaranteeing the right to vote for African-Americans to vote with federal oversight
[4]. However, despite this full agenda, the economy was stagnant, and the Panic of 1890, or Baring Crisis, where a British bank went under after defaulting due to poor investments in Argentina and sparked an acute recession across the world due to widespread financial distrust. Alongside the massive spending and tariff increases implemented by Harrison, the economic situation seriously dampened the popularity of the Republicans heading into a crucial midterm election.
1. A proposal for the name of OTL's state of North Dakota that South Dakota wanted to be adopted, no good reason why it is here, just think it's neat.
2. Name for the Civil War ITTL
3. Everything up to here is pretty much just describing it as it happened OTL.
4. Narrowly failed IOTL due to compromises on other pieces of legislation. A more pro-civil rights Vice President presiding over the Senate get it passed here.
1890 House Election:
The Panic of 1890 was the center point of the election, and with the rapid economic reforms by the Harrison administration, most blamed Harrison for failing to solve the crisis. The Democrats made pledges to cut the budget and lower tariffs in turn. As well, the Republican commitment to nativist laws that persecuted Germans and support of Prohibition lost much of their support in the Midwest. Taking advantage of this was the Farmers’ Alliance, which had rapidly grown in the past few years to more than 2 million members
[1]. In the Winter of 1889, they placed a request to both the Republicans and Democrats to compromise and have the party adopt their platform (consisting of: a more flexible currency, abolition of national banks, unlimited coinage of silver, nationalization of rail and communications, universal suffrage, and various agrarian reforms like grain elevators) with both major parties outright refusing. They reached out to the Labor Party as well, who were more willing and opened a period of negotiation between the two, however, due to disagreements on the tariff and currency issues, as well as Labor insistence on reorganizing the Farmers’ Alliances, no deal came of this. Despite no deal, Labor and the Farmers’ Alliance agreed to support some common candidates like John Nichols, James Weaver, Ignatius Donnelly, etc. and relations between the two groups were highly amicable. The Farmers’ Alliance then decided to go their own way and endorse a slate of independent candidates for various offices, along with some endorsing some major party candidates who adopted their platform. The Labor Party took advantage of the anti-Republican sentiment as well, criticizing the tariff as going too far and advocating federal regulation of the banks, as well as focusing on building support in the newly admitted Western states. As well, Henry George sought a House seat in Manhattan’s East Village (New York’s 9th), the neighborhood in which he performed best in his runs for mayor, specifically to gain influence in the Congressional Labor Party which he had become highly critical of for their protectionism.
Results:
332 Representatives, 167 needed for a majority
Democrats: 221 seats, 50.1% of the vote (+74)
Republicans: 80 seats, 41.2% of the vote (-95)
Farmers’ Alliance: 20 seats, 2.0% of the vote (+20)
Labor: 11 seats, 2.8% of the vote (+1)
The Democrats took an outstanding majority of 54 seats, which constituted a two-thirds veto-proof majority, with the Republicans brought down to a double-digit number of seats for the first time since 1856. This result was disastrous for Harrison and essentially meant he had no chance of passing any productive legislation in the next two years. Many papers would declare the new Democratic Speaker Charles F. Crisp the “most powerful man in Washington”, further adding to the humiliation for Harrison.
Of further note was the dramatic success of the Farmers’ Alliance candidates, who had swept the Plains states and made significant inroads with southern farmers, with plans to create a formal political party after the election set in motion. Their cadre of eccentrics, almost all freshmen MCs save for James Weaver, was:
- Reuben Kolb from Alabama’s 3rd (NEW)
- Milford W. Howard from Alabama's 7th (NEW)
- Lewis P. Featherstone from Arkansas’s 1st (NEW)
- John Calhoun Bell from Colorado At-Large (NEW)
- Thomas Watson from Georgia's 10th (NEW)
- Luman Hamlin Weller from Iowa’s 4th
- James B. Weaver from Iowa’s 6th (NEW)
- Benjamin Hutchinson Clover from Kansas's 3rd (NEW)
- John Grant Otis from Kansas's 4th (NEW)
- John Davis from Kansas’s 5th (NEW)
- William Baker from Kansas's 6th (NEW)
- Jerry Simpson from Kansas's 7th (NEW)
- Kittel Halvorson from Minnesota's 5th (NEW)
- Absolom M. West from Mississippi's 5th (NEW)
- Daniel Lindsay Russell from North Carolina’s 3rd (NEW)
- Alonzo Shuford from North Carolina’s 7th (NEW)
- William A. McKeighan from Nebraska's 2nd (NEW)
- Omer Madison Kem from Nebraska's 3rd (NEW)
- Thomas L. Nugent from Texas’s 11th (NEW)
The Labor Party significantly underperformed internal expectations, mostly due to infighting between Georgists and Unionists, particularly over the tariff issue, leading to less turnout for the other faction’s candidates. Henry George had gone as far as endorsing the Democratic position on trade over the Labor platform, which violated the party constitution and prompted some Socialists and Gomperites to call for his expulsion, however, this was ultimately avoided through negotiation which eliminated any mention of tariffs or trade from the Labor platform. This hurt the party all the more when the national mood turned against protectionism in 1890 due to the Panic, with the now marginalized Georgists fielding far fewer candidates and thus capturing less attention. As well, AFL-led Labor party locals developed a reputation as being supported by migrants, particularly Germans, which hurt their popularity among Anglo-Americans. This was the election in which Labor fielded the largest number of candidates so far, at 101, however they cross-endorsed several candidates with the Farmers’ Alliance.
- Denis Kearney from California’s 5th
- John Peter Altgeld from Illinois’s 4th (NEW)
- Alson Streeter from Illinois’s 11th
- Edward Bellamy from Massachusetts’s 11th
- Ignatius L. Donnelly from Minnesota's 4th
- William Kennedy from Montana At-Large (NEW)
- Henry George from New York’s 9th (NEW)
- Charles H. Matchett from New York’s 11th
- Wilhelm Rosenberg from New York’s 13th
- John Nichols from North Carolina’s 4th
- Tom L. Johnson from Ohio’s 21st (NEW)
1. This was according to the more optimistic internal estimates of potential party membership by 1890.
Presidency of Benjamin Harrison (Nov. 1890-):
The rest of Harrison’s term would be filled with bipartisan and unambitious legislative goals, such as mild reforms to the court system or introducing the National Forests. He pursued increasing American prestige abroad by building up the Navy and repeatedly intervening in diplomatic crises. However, for all intents and purposes, his first term was over and both the Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to find who they thought would best replace him in 1892. Meanwhile, rumors abound about correspondence between the leadership of the Farmers’ Alliance and Labor Party…