The United States has raised tariffs to…

The United States has raised tariffs to combat economic depression.

Democratic President Grover Cleveland had redefined the issue in 1887, with his stunning attack on the tariff as inherently corrupt, opposed to true republicanism, and inefficient to boot.

The election of 1888 was fought primarily over the tariff issue, and Cleveland lost.

Democrats campaigned energetically against the high McKinley tariff of 1890, and scored sweeping gains that year; they restored Cleveland to the White House in 1892.

The severe depression that started in 1893 has ripped apart the Democratic party.

Cleveland and the pro-business Bourbon Democrats insist on a much lower tariff.

His problem is that Democratic electoral successes have brought in Democratic congressmen from industrial districts who are willing to raise rates to benefit their constituents.

The Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 does lower overall rates from 50 percent to 42 percent, but contains so many concessions to protectionism that Cleveland refuses to sign it (it becomes law anyway).