CLEVELAND'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION.

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LXXV.

that always legislated so as to promote the varied inter- CHAP. ests of the people.

1896.

The people of the Territory of Utah having adopted an acceptable constitution, applied for admission to the Union. By proclamation of the President the Territory Jan. was admitted as a State January 4, 1896.

The new Republican Congress made no effort to amend measures recently enacted, which pertained to the financial affairs and industries of the Nation. Its legislation was limited to routine business, thus its various enactments were more local than national in their importance.

As the time (November, 1896) for the presidential and congressional elections drew near, an unusual interest was manifested by intelligent people as to their outcome. This anxiety was owing to the then general depression in all business relations. The latter condition affected especially the large class of wage-earners and wage-payers, as well as the farmers and those engaged in commerce, foreign and domestic. These citizens realized most clearly that the result of the coming elections must influence the future financial and industrial policy of the National Government.

4.

The Republican party was the first to meet in a representative national Convention, in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 16, 1896. Its sessions were remarkably 1896. brief, lasting only about three days. The exigencies of June the country may account for the unusual unanimity of sentiment among the members of this convention, numbering 924.

Mr. William McKinley of Ohio was nominated on the first ballot for the Presidency, and also on the first ballot was nominated Mr. Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey for the Vice-presidency.

The platform adopted was comprehensive in its general principles. It noticed the depressed condition of

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