Levi P. Morton, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President on the first ballot, receiving 591 votes to 119 for Wm. W. Phelps and 103 for Wm. O. Bradley, of Kentucky. Blanch K. Bruce, of Mississippi, and Walter F. Thomas, of Texas, also received votes. The campaign of 1888 was fought with earnestness and vigor on both sides. The tariff question overshadowed all others at this period and was made the great issue of the canvass. Like those of 1880 and 1884, this campaign was not without a striking incident that had its influence on the vote. On October 25, 1888, occurred the publication of the Murchison correspondence, in which the British Minister, Lord Sackville-West, in a letter dated September 13th, indiscreetly answered a letter purporting to come from one Charles F. Murchison, of Pomona, Cal., a naturalized Englishman, asking advice how to vote. Lord Sackville-West's reply, while not direct, was that a vote for the Democratic Party would be more friendly to England than one for the Republican Party, a declaration which was immediately seized upon by the Republicans and made much of to influence the votes of those who were undecided on the tariff issue. At the election on November 6th Harrison and Morton carried twenty States, with their 233 electoral votes, and Cleveland and Thurman carried eighteen States, with 123 electoral votes. The popular vote was: Harrison ............. 5,439,853 Cleveland ............ 5,540,329 Fisk ................. 249,505 Streeter ............. 146,935 The Republicans also gained control of both branches of Congress. President Harrison's term, reaching from March, 1889, to March, 1893, was one of political turmoil. The first session of the Fifty-first Congress convened on December 2, 1889, and Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, was elected Speaker of the House. The majority of the Republicans being so small, he soon announced his intention of ignoring the usual rule of not counting a member as present unless he voted, and stated a new rule, of counting those who were present as present, even though they did not vote. This and other rulings were adopted by a party vote, and Mr. Reed was called the "Czar" by the Democrats. The most important work of this Congress and the great political event of Harrison's administration was the enactment of the McKinley Tariff Bill, which was reported to the House of Representatives on April 16, 1890, by William McKinley, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. After considerable debate, it was passed by the House on May 21st, and by the Senate in September, and became a law October 1, 1890. The continued efforts of the Democrats brought the McKinley Tariff law into much public disfavor, and resulted in overwhelming Democratic victories in the Congressional elections in November, 1890, by which the Democrats regained control of the House, and their minority of 18 in the Fifty-first Congress was changed to a majority of 129 in the Fifty-second.