21. During the whole of Cleveland's administration, the public mind was swayed and excited by the movements of politics. The universality of partisan newspapers, the combination in their columns of all the news of the world with the invectives and misrepresentations of party leaders, kept political questions constantly uppermost to the detriment of social progress and industrial interests. Scarcely had President Cleveland entered upon his office as chief magistrate when the question of the succession to the Presidency was agitated. 22. By the last year of the administration it was seen that there would be no general break-up of the existing parties. It was also perceived that the issues between them must be _made_ rather than found in the existing state of affairs. The sentiment in the United States in favor of the Constitutional prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors had become somewhat extended and intensified since the last general election. But the discerning eye might perceive that the real issue was between the Republican and Democratic parties. [Sidenote: =The Protective Tariff.=] 23. One issue, however, had a living and practical relation to affairs, and that was the question of PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY. Since the campaign of 1884, the agitation had been gradually extended. At the opening of the session, in 1887, the President, in his annual message to Congress, devoted the whole document to the discussion of the single question of a _Reform of the Revenue System_ of the United States. The existing rates of duty on imported articles of commerce had so greatly augmented the income of the Government, that a large surplus had accumulated in the treasury of the United States. This fact was made the basis of the President's argument in favor of a new system of revenue, or at least an ample reduction in the tariff rates under the old. It was immediately charged by the Republicans, that the project in question meant the substitution of the system of Free Trade in the United States as against the system of protective duties. The question thus involved was made the bottom issue in the Presidential campaign of 1888. 24. The Democratic National Convention was held in St. Louis on the 5th day of June, 1888, and Mr. Cleveland was renominated by acclamation. For the Vice-presidential nomination the choice fell on ex-Senator Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio. The Republican National Convention was held in Chicago, on the 19th day of June. Many candidates were ardently pressed upon the body, and the contest was long and spirited. The voting was continued to the eighth ballot, when the choice fell upon Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. In the evening, Levi P. Morton, of New York, was nominated for the Vice-presidency on the first ballot. [Sidenote: =The Party Platforms.=]