McKINLEY, WILLIAM. 



and the United States had exercised joint control 

 over the islands. This position of the three pow- 

 ers, coupled with the continuous lighting among 

 the natives, seemed to promise a serious problem 

 for the President, but by perfect coolness and uni- 

 form good judgment he brought the matter to a 

 satisfactory issue. On the proposal of Germany, 

 each of the three powers appointed one member 

 of a commission to visit the islands and investi- 

 gate the entire question, beginning with the re- 

 turn of Mataafa and the election of 1898. Bart- 

 lett Tripp was appointed by the United States, 

 Baron Speck von Sternberg by Germany, and C. 

 N. E. Eliot by Great Britain. The commission 

 unanimously recommended the abolition of the 

 kingship and radical changes in the administra- 

 tion of Samoa. The three powers, recognizing the 

 inexpediency of continuing any tripartite govern- 

 ment of the islands, agreed upon an arrangement 

 by which England retired from Samoa in view 

 of compensation made by Germany in other quar- 

 ters, and both powers renounced in favor of the 

 United States all their rights and claims to the 

 islands east of 171, including Tutuila, with the 

 fine harbor of Pago-Pago. 



The President's appointments for the delegation 

 to represent the United States at the peace confer- 

 ence called by the Emperor of Russia in 1898, 

 which assembled at The Hague in May, 1899, were 

 favorably received. The delegation consisted of 

 Andrew D. White, ambassador at Berlin; Stanford 

 Newel, minister to Holland; Seth Low, president 

 of Columbia University; Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, 

 United States navy (retired) ; and Capt. William 

 Crozier, United States army. Frederick W. Holls, 

 of New York, was appointed secretary. 



Of domestic events in the first half of 1899 one 

 of the most important was the order of May 29 

 in which the President withdrew several places in 

 the civil service of the Government from the 

 operation of the system of appointment on the re- 

 sult of examinations conducted by the Civil Serv- 

 ice Commission. The President found a strong 

 supporter and defender in the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, who contended that the order was a 

 beneficial step for the reform of the civil service; 

 that only those places had been exempted that 

 experience had shown could be filled best without 

 examination, and that the change had not been 

 made in the slightest degree at the instance of the 

 spoilsmen. The President and Mrs. McKinley 

 spent the summers of 1897 and 1899 at a popular 

 resort on Lake Champlain, and in August of the 

 latter year the President made an eloquent ad- 

 dress at the Catholic Summer School, Cliff Haven, 

 N. Y., in the course of which, referring to the 

 condition of affairs in the Philippine Islands, he 

 said : " Rebellion may delay, but it can never de- 

 feat the American flag's blessed mission of liberty 

 and humanity." Later, at the Ocean Grove As- 

 sembly, New Jersey, he remarked : " There has 

 been doubt expressed in some quarters as to the 

 purpose of the Government respecting the Philip- 

 pines. I can see no harm in stating it in this 

 presence. Peace first, then, with charity for all, 

 the establishment of a government of law and 

 order, protecting life and property and occupa- 

 tion for the well-being of the people, in which they 

 will participate under the Stars and Stripe's." The 

 President's message in December, 1899, was cor- 

 dially received and very generally commended 

 throughout the country. 



During 1900 the volume of currency per capita 

 was the greatest in the history of the nation; the 

 total money of the country on Sept. 1 was more 

 than $2,096,000,000. Industrial and agricultural 

 conditions advanced in prosperity in every section 



of the United States. Under tlif-so conditions the 

 nation became a money-lending in-ti-;i<l of a 

 money-borrowing country. 



The original Philippine commission. 

 President Jacob G. Schurman, sul>mii: M : 'nil 

 report on Jan. 31, 1900. On Fob. (i, tin: 

 selected Judge William 11. Tuft to head ;i . 

 commission, which was completed by MurHi I'i, 

 and reached Manila on June 3. The laborion 

 deavors of the Taft commission began to Ix.ir 

 fruit, and on Sept. 1, under its direction, civil gov- 

 ernment was inaugurated in the archipelago. A 

 vital death-stroke was dealt to the insurgents by 

 the capture of the rebel dictator, Aguinaldo, in 

 March, 1901, by Gen. Funston and a small band 

 of men, who achieved success through stratagem 

 and disguise. 



Early in the summer of 1900 the civilized world 

 was startled by news that the foreign Legations at 

 Pekin, China, were besieged by an angry horde of 

 celestials. A secret society, commonly known as 

 " Boxers," had determined upon the extermina- 

 tion of all foreigners in the Chinese Empire. The 

 events which began with the destruction of the 

 forts at Taku and ended with the capture of Pekin 

 by the allied forces of Europe and the United 

 States in August are a matter of contemporary 

 history, in the making of which President Mc- 

 Kinley and the United States played a conspicu- 

 ous part. The President's moral influence for 

 justice and fairness to China in her difficulties, 

 resulting from the rashness of her misguided 

 rulers and people, was marked. 



Among the more important measures which Mr. 

 McKinley forwarded in 1900 and early in 1901 

 were the following: An established government 

 for Porto Rico and the Philippines; the redemp- 

 tion of the pledge of the United States to Cuba for 

 the inauguration of independent civil rule in the 

 island; reorganization of the army of the United 

 States; extension of the American merchant ma- 

 rine; construction of the Nicaragua Canal; and 

 the signing of reciprocity treaties with various 

 European powers. 



At the Republican National Convention, held in 

 Philadelphia in June, 1900, President McKinley 

 w r as unanimously renominated for a second term, 

 and Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New 

 York, was likewise nominated unanimously for 

 the vice-presidency. Their Democratic opponents 

 were, respectively, William Jennings Bryan and 

 Adlai E. Stevenson. At the election on Nov. 6 the 

 Republican candidates were elected, having car- 

 ried 28 States with 292 electoral votes. Their 

 plurality of the popular vote was nearly 250,000 

 greater than in 1896. The members of the Cabi- 

 net were all reappointed, but in March, 1901, Mr. 

 Griggs resigned, and was succeeded by Philander 

 C. Knox, of Pennsylvania, as Attorney-General. 

 On April 29, accompanied by Mrs. McKinley, his 

 Cabinet, and other officials, the President left 

 Washington on an excursion to the Pacific coast 

 via New Orleans. On the day following, speaking 

 at Memphis, Mr. McKinley said: "What a 

 mighty, resistless power for good is a united na- 

 tion of free men ! It makes for peace and prestige, 

 for progress and liberty. It conserves the rights 

 of the people and strengthens the pillars of the 

 Government, and is a fulfilment of that more 

 perfect union for which our Revolutionary fathers 

 strove, and for which the Constitution was made. 

 No citizen of the republic rejoices more than I 

 do at this happy state, and none will do more 

 within his sphere to continue and strengthen it. 

 Our past has gone into history. No brighter one 

 adorns the annals of mankind. Our task is for 

 the future. We leave the old century behind us, 



