With good King René dead and gone, Two modern bards,-bags, fountain-pens, The towers where Pons, and Montaudon, With good King René dead and gone. With good King René dead and gone, Nor viol-de-gamba nor chanson. Some pigeons claimed the tall donjon, Some faces 'gainst the bars looked through, With good King René dead and gone. With good King René dead and gone At table-d'hôte we asked Yvonne, "Whose were the faces?" "Ah, mon Dieu! Those were our convicts' faces wan; When troubadours had lost their ton, Messieurs, we did the best we knew, With good King René dead and gone." ENVOY "Quick-station-master-prithee say What train-what train for Avignon?""Messieurs, 'tis gone-the last to-day." With good King René dead and gone! Thomas Walsh. TWENTY YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC (1885-1905) BY HARRY THURSTON PECK PART XIII.-PRESIDENT MCKINLEY AND THE NEO-REPUBLICANISM Mr. Cleveland remained at the side of his successor until the formalities were all concluded. He had spent the last few hours of his presidency in a most characteristic fashion, examining and signing bills; and the marks of ink upon his ungloved hands bore witness to his diligence. His face was ruddy, and he chatted and laughed with Mr. McKinley as the two were driven slowly to the Capitol. At last, the burden was lifted from his shoulders, and he could again enjoy the tranquil life of a private citizen. Though the reins of power were passing from his hands to those of a political opponent, he probably felt no regret. It was his financial policy which the Republicans, after bitterly assailing, had been forced to make their own. The great battle of the preceding year had been fought over this one question. And so the victory which Mr. McKinley had won was, in a very real sense, a victory for Mr. Cleveland. HERE was something even in the ceremonial which marked the symbolically significant day of its beginning. in the pageant which accompanied the inauguration of President McKinley. Such displays in other years had always exhibited the haphazard easy-going lack of management with which Americans are wont to improvise their public ceremonials. But on the fourth of March in 1897, the scene in Washington was one that might have fitly graced a European capital. Every detail had been studied carefully beforehand, and was carried out with absolute precision. The great avenues were well policed. The crowds were efficiently controlled. There were no delays, no moments of embarrassment, no awkward pauses. The military review was especially effective. Instead of masses of raw militiamen, marching often awkwardly and producing a bizarre effect by the diversity of their motley uniforms, there now defiled before the President column after column of regular troops whose perfect discipline and training made the sight of them a splendid spectacle. The finest cavalry regiments in the service had been drawn upon to render this inaugural review exceptionally brilliant; while the artillery and infantry were not inferior in the precision of their evolutions. The civic part of the parade was subordinated to the military; but even the "marching clubs" swung by the presidential stand with something of the élan of veteran troops. The Republican party was coming back to power as the party of organisation, of discipline, of unquestioning obedience to leadership; and the spirit of this new régime was easily perceptible, President McKinley's inaugural address contained, as might have been expected, an earnest commendation of high protective duties. In it he also expressed an earnest desire for peace with foreign nations. He recalled his own consistent attitude as a defender of the reformed civil service; and he intimated that the currency system of the United States should be placed upon a definite and satisfactory basis. There was nothing very noteworthy in his remarks. They were received by the press with a general, if somewhat perfunctory, approval. Perhaps the comment of an English writer best expressed what most persons really thought. "It is a mild and not unpleasing effusion. Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes, he had brought about the resumption of specie payments in so masterly a manner as not to cause the slightest ripple on the financial waters. Twice -in 1880 and again in 1888-he seemed likely to be his party's chosen candidate for the Presidency. As Senator he upheld the hands of President Lincoln; and long afterwards his name was permanently associated with two highly important measures the Silver Purchase Act of 1890 and the so-called Anti-Trust Law of NELSON DINGLEY, JR. But, the same year.* He was now an old man of seventy-four, and had richly earned the right to finish his remaining years. in the dignified and useful place which he had long held in the Senate. unhappily for Mr. Sherman, his own desires clashed with the strong-willed purpose of Mark Hanna. That appetitive person now demanded his reward. He had gained the Presidency for Mr. McKinley, and in return he wished to be a Senator of the United States. He was not a man to be put off; and, therefore, Mr. Sherman was sacrificed to *See THE BOOKMAN for April, 1905. pp. 158, 159; and for May. 1905, pp. 301, 302. Hanna's urgency. The open humiliation of so conspicuous a statesman would have been too much for even Hanna to attempt; but the desired end was reached by indirection, and Senator Sherman experienced the sort of honorific elimination which an English party leader once described as being "kicked upstairs." Mr. McKinley offered to make Mr. Sherman his Secretary of State, and the aged Senator knew that he must accept. He felt no especial interest in diplomacy. Querulous and feeble and already verging upon senility, he shrank from taking up new duties for which he felt himself no longer fitted. Yet he was well aware that he had no choice. He must make way for Mr. Hanna; and hence he resigned the post of Senator to become the nominal chief of the new Cabinet-a pathetic figure, destined very soon to pass away entirely from public life. The other Ministers were men of good executive ability, although of no especial prominence. In recognition of the aid given to Mr. McKinley by the Gold Democrats, one of their number, Mr. Lyman J. Gage, a Chicago banker, was made Secretary of the Treasury.* The war portfolio went to General Russell A. Alger of Michigan, a veteran of the Civil War, who had subsequently become known as an adroit politician and successful man of business. President McKinley's Secretary of the Navy was Mr. John D. Long of Massachusetts, a gentleman of scholarly tastes, who had had, however, no slight experience in public life, and who was soon to show himself an unusually capable administrator. The rest of the Cabinet, as originally constituted, may be dismissed with a mere mention. The Attorney-General was Mr. Joseph McKenna of California; the Postmaster-General was Mr. James A. Gary of Maryland; the Secretary of the Interior was Mr. Cornelius N. Bliss of New York; and the Secretary of Agriculture. was Mr. James Wilson of Ohio. President McKinley's first important official act was the issuance of a proclamation convening Congress in special *In 1892 President Cleveland had offered the Treasury portfolio to Mr. Gage, who declined it. session on March 15th, for the purpose of providing additional revenue for the Government, and to revise the tariff. Although the tariff question had been entirely subordinated in the late campaign, and although Mr. McKinley had secured his great majorities as a defender of the gold standard, it was plain that for the present he intended to ignore the money issue, and to use his power to restore the high protective duties of 1890. The Democratic opposition criticised this purpose, asserting that it involved an element of duplicity. It was declared that Mr. McKinley could not have been elected merely as a protectionist; yet his first concern was now a reversion to the very policy which the country had condemned in 1892. This criticism was unfair. The President fully intended to secure salutary legislation for the reform of the currency; but the time was not yet auspicious for such legislation. Although the Republican party had more than a working majority in both Houses of Congress, there were still so many Republican Senators favourable to the cause of free silver as to prevent concerted and successful action toward legalising the gold standard. The President knew that the defeat of Mr. Bryan had put an end to all anxiety in the world of finance; and so, naturally enough, he turned to the revision of the tariff-a policy with which his name had been so long associated. But when he argued that a new tariff act was necessary to augment the revenues of the Government, he was on more debatable ground. The Wilson Act of 1894, though in many respects imperfect from the point of view of the tariff reformer, was not justly chargeable with the falling off in revenue during President Cleveland's term of office. In fact, had not President Harrison's Secretary of the Treasury forced a balance, the year 1892-93 would have * *In the Senate there were 46 Republicans, 34 Democrats, 5 Populists, 2 'Silver Republicans" and 3 Independents. In the House there were 206 Republicans, 134 Democrats and 16 Populists. tIn 1893, Secretary Charles Foster. in his report, included among the Treasury's assets the bank-note redemption fund of $54,000,000, which had always been regarded by other Secretaries as a trust fund. In this way he converted an actual deficit into a nominal surplus. shown a deficiency of nearly $48,000,000 for that period. Furthermore, the heavi est deficit under President Cleveland's administration ($69,000,000 in 1893-94) occurred while the McKinley Act was still in force and before the Wilson Act had become operative. Indeed, each succeeding year had witnessed an improvement in the Treasury balances; and in the very month when Mr. McKinley called Congress together to restore the high protective tariff, the Treasury report showed an actual surplus of nearly $9,000,000, the customs receipts for that month having been exceeded only twice in a period of more than forty years. It was plain enough, then, that the Wilson. Act was in no wise responsible for the temporary loss of revenue from 1893 to 1895; and that if left alone it would now provide an ample income for the ordinary needs of the Government. But in reality the question was not one of revenue at all. The old protective interests were clamouring for the full favours which they had formerly enjoyed. Not from altruistic motives had the manufacturing concerns contributed heavily to the campaign funds of the Republican Party in the late campaign. Their gifts had, on the contrary, been a strictly business investment; and the time had now come for them to receive full payment for their claims. When Congress met in extra session, a remarkable and quite unprecedented condition of affairs was at once made known. It showed more clearly than ever the wonderful compactness and machine-like efficiency of the Republican organisation since that party had passed under the control of "business men in politics." The elections of the preceding November had determined the composition of the new Congress; and so the leaders of the Republican majority, after conferring together, agreed upon a plan of action which took slight heed of precedent or of constitutional forms. It was understood that Mr. Reed should be re-elected Speaker of the House; and Mr. Reed in his turn indicated the Republican representatives whom he would appoint to membership in the Committee of Ways and Means. These gentlemen, therefore, in advance of their actual appoint |