has been
stolen and used in the service of Republican protection; and who have
marked the places where the deadly blight of treason has blasted the
counsels of the brave in their hour of might."

The letter was written throughout with a fervor rare in President
Cleveland's papers, and it had a scorching effect. Senator Gorman and
some other Democratic Senators lost their seats as soon as the people
had a chance to express their will.

The circumstances of the tariff struggle greatly increased popular
discontent with the way in which the government of the country was
being conducted at Washington. It became a common belief that the actual
system of government was that the trusts paid the campaign expenses
of the politicians and in return the politicians allowed the trusts
to frame the tariff schedules. Evidence in support of this view was
furnished by testimony taken in the investigation of the sugar scandal
in the summer of 1894. Charges had been made in the newspapers that some
Senators had speculated in sugar stocks during the time when they were
engaged in legislation affecting the value of those stocks. Some of them
admitted the fact of stock purchases, but denied that their legislative
action had been guided by their investments. In the course of the
investigation, H. O. Havemeyer, the head of the Sugar Trust, admitted
that it was the practice to subsidize party management. "It is my
impression," he said, "that whenever there is a dominant party, wherever
the majority is large, that is the party that gets the contribution
because that is the party which controls the local matters." He
explained that this system was carried on because the company had large
interests which needed protection, and he declared "every individual and
corporation and firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these things
and we do them."

During the tariff struggle, a movement took place which was an evidence
of popular discontent of another sort. At first it caused great
uneasiness, but eventually the manifestation became more grotesque than
alarming. Jacob S. Coxey of Massillon, Ohio, a smart specimen of the
American type of handy business man, announced that he intended to
send a petition to Washington wearing boots so that it could not be
conveniently shelved by being stuck away in a pigeonhole. He thereupon
proceeded to lead a march of the unemployed, which started from
Massillon on March 25, 1894, with about one hundred men in th