Refused to Sign the Bill
September 1, 1894
Summary
President Cleveland refused to sign the Tariff Bill, which has already became into law, and admonishes his own party.
Transcription
President Cleveland declined to sign the Senate Tariff Bill passed by the members of his party in the Congress of this United States, and although the measure has become a law, the ten-day limit having expired, he administered a most telling rebuke to his party.
To say that after all of these months of weary toll, and patient waiting a tariff bill should have been passed which the head of the organization could not countenance of endorse is to make more ridiculous the position of the Democratic party and to stamp indelibly upon its face the brand of incompetency.
But why is this bill so objectionable and what are the ills which come with it? It sacrifices the principle of free raw materials by allowing a low rate of duty upon coal and iron ore.
In this, it is tacitly admitted that the Republican McKinley Bill is right in principle, and the fervid oratory of the Democratic orators goes for naught. The Democratic leaders denounced the Sugar Trust, a company of men who control the sugar interest of the United States. And yet the same leaders in the Senate engrafted in this Democratic tariff bill a tax which will give to this same trust fourteen million dollars as a starter.
The Louisiana dyed-in-the wool Democratic planters are angry, for the bounty of two cents per pound of sugar which the McKinley bill allowed them to have repealed and this section is in tears.
The Democratic leaders condemned the Populists as being dreamers, the propagators of visionary schemes, and yet they adopted in the tariff bill one of the main planks in the Populist platform - the income tax against the protests not only of Senator Hill but President Cleveland as well.
This act alone the distinguished Senator from New York declared he would lose not only his state, but Connecticut, and New Jersey as well. Never has there been a more self-evident case of political suicide in the history of the government. Defeat for Democracy is already in sight and the only question is as to the size of the majority which is to hurl it from power, we hope at least for another generation.
To say that after all of these months of weary toll, and patient waiting a tariff bill should have been passed which the head of the organization could not countenance of endorse is to make more ridiculous the position of the Democratic party and to stamp indelibly upon its face the brand of incompetency.
But why is this bill so objectionable and what are the ills which come with it? It sacrifices the principle of free raw materials by allowing a low rate of duty upon coal and iron ore.
In this, it is tacitly admitted that the Republican McKinley Bill is right in principle, and the fervid oratory of the Democratic orators goes for naught. The Democratic leaders denounced the Sugar Trust, a company of men who control the sugar interest of the United States. And yet the same leaders in the Senate engrafted in this Democratic tariff bill a tax which will give to this same trust fourteen million dollars as a starter.
The Louisiana dyed-in-the wool Democratic planters are angry, for the bounty of two cents per pound of sugar which the McKinley bill allowed them to have repealed and this section is in tears.
The Democratic leaders condemned the Populists as being dreamers, the propagators of visionary schemes, and yet they adopted in the tariff bill one of the main planks in the Populist platform - the income tax against the protests not only of Senator Hill but President Cleveland as well.
This act alone the distinguished Senator from New York declared he would lose not only his state, but Connecticut, and New Jersey as well. Never has there been a more self-evident case of political suicide in the history of the government. Defeat for Democracy is already in sight and the only question is as to the size of the majority which is to hurl it from power, we hope at least for another generation.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Right Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Carlos Serrano
Citation
“Refused to Sign the Bill,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 19, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1491.