Our

"Against both of these we stand opposed. creed embraces an honest dollar, an untarnished national credit, adequate revenue for the uses of the government, protection to labor and industry, preservation of the home market, and reciprocity which will extend our foreign markets. Upon this platform we stand and submit its declarations to the sober and considerate judgment of the American people.

"I thank you again for this call and greeting, and it will give me great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to meet you all personally."

THE WHITE HOUSE. THE PRESIDENT'S OFFICIAL RESIDENCE

After one of the most notable and stirring presidential campaigns on record Republican efforts were rewarded with decisive success. Two hundred and seventy-one Republican electors were chosen, against one hundred and seventy-six Democratic or fusion electors, and both houses of Congress were found to be Republican. William McKinley and Garrett A. Hobart had swept the country.

CHAPTER X

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

When William McKinley arrived at Washington to be inaugurated as President of the United States, on March 4, 1897, his integrity was unquestioned and his good intentions generally admitted, but partisan foes and political friends were alike in intimating that he was deficient in sturdiness of character. Throughout the country one heard assertions that the new President was sadly lacking in backbone, and for this reason there were unpleasant auguries of what might happen during the coming four years.

But the stirring events of those four years of President McKinley's first term demonstrated to the people that there was no ground for their fears, and that if there was anything lacking in the President's character it was not rigidity of the spinal column.

DINGLEY TARIFF.-When he took the oath of office Mr. McKinley was confronted with a serious commercial crisis. The country had been in business difficulties for years, and it seemed as if things were going from bad to worse. He was pledged to a new tariff policy as compared with that which had prevailed during Mr. Cleveland's administration.

Almost the first act of the new President was to call an extra session of Congress for the express purpose of revising the Wilson tariff law, which he construed to be one of the principal reasons for the business

depression of the previous four years. That law was passed through Congress rapidly and without a scandal. Even the delicate subject of the tariff on sugar was handled in a way which has left no taint on the administration.

The Dingley tariff was much higher than its predecessor, but it has proved eminently satisfactory, and the President's prediction that the Treasury would be full to overflowing as soon as labor was protected by an adequate customs tariff was fulfilled.

FIRST CABINET.-The members of President McKinley's Cabinet during his first term were:

Secretary of State-William Day, of Ohio. Secretary of the Treasury-Lyman J. Gage, of Illinois.

Secretary of War-Russell A. Alger, of Michigan. Attorney-General-John W. Griggs, of New Jersey. Postmaster-General-James A. Gary, of Maryland. Secretary of the Navy-John D. Long, of Massachu

setts.

Secretary of the Interior-Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York.

Secretary of Agriculture-James Wilson, of Iowa. Day was succeeded before the end of the term by John Hay; Alger gave place to Elihu Root, of New York; Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Missouri, succeeded Bliss as Secretary of the Interior department and Charles Emory Smith took Gary's post.

WAR WITH SPAIN.-The extra session of Congress, which had been called immediately after the inauguration, adjourned in July after the passage of the Ding

ley act and before the commencement of the next session in December the conditions growing out of the revolt of the Spanish subjects in Cuba had become such that the relations between the United States and

Spain were occupying largely the attention of the people. The delayed currency legislation was for the time losing its interest in the minds of the general public and the country watched the fight of the Cubans against the methods of warfare which Spain used, and felt more interest in that struggle than in domestic affairs. During the latter part of 1897 President McKinley and the Spanish government engaged in fruitless efforts to secure a settlement of the Cuban troubles on terms which the latter would grant and with which the people of the United States would be satisfied.

ENDEAVORS TO AVOID WAR.-President McKinley exerted every possible effort consistent with the honor of our country to avoid a war with Spain. While his heart went out in sympathy to the oppressed Cubans, he held fast to his duty of maintaining neutrality and his earnest hope was that the relief of the Cubans might be effected without war. To this end he directed his best efforts.

MESSAGE ON CUBA.-In his message to Congress in December, 1897, the President discussed the Cuban situation and rejected propositions to recognize the belligerency or the independence of the Cubans as not justified by events, but significantly referred to the possibility of "intervention "intervention upon humanitarian grounds." All the words of his message pertaining.

to this subject breathed the spirit of "peace on earth, goodwill toward men." Concerning our duty to shield the Cubans from inhuman oppression and at the same time to deal justly by Spain, he said:

"The United States has, nevertheless, a character to maintain as a nation which plainly dictates that right, and not might, should be the rule of its conduct.

"Further, though the United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity, it is in truth the most pacific of powers, and desires nothing so much as to live in amity with all the world. Its own ample and diversified domains satisfy all possible longings for territory, preclude all dreams of conquest, and prevent any casting of covetous eyes upon neighboring regions, however attractive. That our conduct toward Spain and her dominions has constituted no exception to this national disposition is made manifest by the course of our government, not only thus far during the present insurrection, but during the ten years that followed the rising at Yara in 1868. No other great power, it may safely be said, under circumstances of similar perplexity, would have manifested the same restraint and the same patient endurance.

"It may also be said that this persistent attitude of the United States toward Spain in connection with Cuba unquestionably evinces no slight respect and regard for Spain on the part of the American people. They, in truth, do not forget her connection with the discovery of the western hemisphere, nor do they underestimate the great qualities of the Spanish people, nor fail to fully recognize their splendid patriotism and their chivalrous devotion to the national honor. They view with wonder and admira