It was no fault of his that the fight was lost, save that the unpopularity of the "McKinley bill" was one of the factors which made for defeat.

In the State elections of 1894 he made a remarkable record as a campaign speaker. He not only stumped his own State, but made a tour through the West, and in a series of speeches through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan was greeted by enormous crowds. He began his speeches at dawn, and often spoke a dozen times a day from the car of his special train, from the adjacent platforms, or in the largest halls in the chief cities along his route. On undertaking the journey he had agreed to make forty-six speeches. He made, in fact, 371 speeches in 300 towns. It was estimated that he had travelled over sixteen thousand miles and addressed over two million persons. At every point visited his party achieved enormous success at the ensuing elections, the popular branch of Congress, largely through his impetus, being carried by more than two-thirds majority.

THOUGHT OF THE COUNTRY FIXED ON HIM.

On the expiration of his term as Governor he retired to his home at Canton. He was universally looked upon as the Republican banner bearer in the next Presidential campaign. As the time drew nigh for the convention to meet, State after State and district after district declared for him. The Democratic party had been torn by the rise of the free silver heresy, which demanded the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1 as the necessary condition to the return of financial prosperity in the country.

The Republican party was to a much lesser degree affected by it. Nevertheless, Mr. McKinley chose to observe the policy of silence. Though frequently importuned for his views on the silver question, it was not until the Republican National Convention, on June 18, 1896, had, on the first ballot, nominated him for the Presidency, on a gold platform, that he openly avowed himself the leader of the sound money forces.

On July 10 following the threatened split in the Democratic

party was precipitated by the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, held at Chicago, of William J. Bryan, on a platform advocating the free coinage of silver. A large number of the most prominent Democrats in the country, and especially in the Eastern States, supported by a number of the most influential Democratic papers and voters, all of whom were in favor of the gold standard, refused to accept the nomination of Bryan. A majority went over to McKinley, but an influential minority gathered together under the name of the National Democratic Party, held a convention at Indianapolis on September 2 and 3, and nominated as their standard bearers General John M. Palmer, of Illinois, and Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky.

It was generally understood that this convention and nomination were simply to enable the anti-silver Democrats who were opposed to the Chicago platform, and nevertheless could not make up their minds to vote for a Republican President, the chance to express their disapproval at the polls. The movement undoubtedly was of assistance to McKinley.

A CAMPAIGN FIERCELY FOUGHT.

The McKinley-Bryan campaign of 1896 was one of the most fiercely contested in the history of the Presidential elections. It was fought on the battleground of principle. There was none of the "mud throwing" which tarnished the record of other furious party engagements. Both candidates were acknowledged to be of unsullied personal character.

The silver question was practically the only issue before the country, but the interests it involved were so tremendous, the revolution it caused in political demarcations so unusual, that the emotions and passions of the voters were stirred to fever heat. The result proved overwelmingly in favor of McKinley. He was elected to the Presidency by an electoral majority of 95 votes and a popular plurality of 601,854.

It was Mr. McKinley's good or bad fortune to assume the helm of government at a momentous, and what seemed like a perilous crisis in the national life; it was his good fortune to

guide the Ship of State to a peaceful haven. It is toc early now, it must be left to the historian of the future, to decide accurately how far the triumph was due to the sagacity of the helmsman, how far to the enormous advantages which were inherent in the vessel he managed.

Two things are certain. First, the result of the war with Spain startled all civilized nations and announced that here in the Western hemisphere had arisen a new power with whom those nations must reckon in future. Second, the conduct of Mr. McKinley before, during and after the war, and the policies he had inaugurated toward our new possessions met with the approval of a large majority of his fellow citizens.

TRIBUTE FROM AMBASSADOR YOUNG.

When William McKinley was first named for the Presidency by the Republican National Convention in St. Louis on June 18, 1896, he was at his home in Canton, Ohio. With him was John Russell Young, our late Ambassador to China, who wrote the following story of the man who was destined to become one of the country's martyrs, and of his home life:

"It has been my privilege to take part in a ceremony that should live in history with the recent coronation of the Czar, of which so much has been written with brilliancy and color. In Moscow all the nations participated in the tendering of the crown to the monarch of an empire; the pageant is known to you all. In Canton I have this afternoon witnessed the tender of a crown even more lustrous than that of the Czar, involving, as seems to be the will of Providence, the President of the United States.

"The sun rested heavily on Canton all day. The town was in an uneasy, restless condition. The one thought was McKinley. The Major, from being an established and prosperous industry, had become a mania. The people walked about in a state of repression. There was no politics in their concern, for at Canton McKinley is not a political issue. A bright-eyed newsdealer develops a stately esteem for the Major, whose nomination among so many other things would be such a blessing to the town.

"It must be a trial to have the eyes of the world turned upon you, and this, to modest Canton, resting here upon the smiling, sheltered plains, with her all too marvelous industries and such an amount of as yet unexplained progress over which to rejoice, to suddenly become the centre of the world's eyes is a sore trial. And you went about the wholesome, contented and well shaded town, whose streets would put many an older town to blush, feeling that the air was charged with cyclonic influences and not knowing what the day might bring forth. The Major was in his pretty little home, twirling his eye-glasses and receiving friends with exquisite courtesy. Not a taciturn, but assuredly not a talkative man.

"The only change in him that I could note upon this day of his destiny was that he seemed a little better dressed than usual, a kind of wedding-day touch in his raiment. A soft breeze swept around the piazza and the sun kept watch and ward; now and then a fervent Cantonese would stop and pause and look at his home in wonder. Occasionally one more daring would approach the piazza to say that he was on the road; that he had come from Akron, Alliance or Cleveland, and that the boys were only able by medical advice to hold themselves in, but as soon as the news came Ohio would glow with carmine and fire.

THE OLD COMRADE.

"Now and then a veteran would hobble up, and if a little hazy in speech and gait, what matter? He only wanted to explain that he belonged to such a regiment, and if he did not have a bullet he had a ballot and would send it home as in the old days. This is the home to which the Governor brought his bride. Here his children came to him, and from here God took them away, for he is a childless man. Therefore it is a home with sacred memories.

One could not but recall the Moscow coronation as he stepped into the modest library. You notice that perhaps the roller desk is closed. In one corner is a long-distance telephone. A bright-eyed youth, with a flush of auburn hair, whom every one calls 'Sam,' has the telephone in charge. The person at the

other end of the wire is apparently a cousin, as Sam's outside communications have a domestic bearing. It is the room of the busy man with many books-the kind of books, as you note by their character, which a busy man cares to have near him; the library of the student who means to know what he must know in five minutes.

"It is a small company, mainly old friends, classmates, fel. low soldiers, in a state of tremor and anxiety as they come to witness this crowning honor to a comrade. Just across the hall several ladies have assembled, and you hear the soft echoes of merry talk. Mrs. McKinley has a few friends to share with her the emotions and joys of the day. About one, the venerable mother arrived, just in time for the luncheon, and as she pauses to greet friends you note the radiant, soft, almost triumphant smile which shows the compensation and peace that rests upon her soul.

CALMLY AWAITING THE NEWS.

"The cynosure of seventy millions of Americans sits in an easy chair, holding his eyeglasses, apparently the most unconcerned person in the room. The piazza is crowded with the neighbors and newspaper gentlemen. The convention is on and messages come to him over the telegraph and the telephone. Sam,' at his telephone, is anxious that the telegraph. shall not beat him, and is pleased when the secretary reads from the yellow slip what he had announced a minute before. The news reports are brought in on typewritten sheets and read aloud. Occasionally there comes a private telegram, which the Major puts on a file and goes on twirling his glasses.

"Apart from the wedding-day look of his clothes and just a little closer compression of his lips and a touch of pallor on the forehead, the Major shows no care. He looks after his guests, quick to every suggestion of hospitality. You must have a chair, or, if you care to follow the ballots, he will hand you a form, or perhaps a glass of water would be refreshing-a quick, observant eye as to the details of hospitality.

"There are pauses, not much talk, rather the eyeglass twirl,