McKinlef s Administration 



Fur Seal matters having called me again to Wash- 

 ington in the spring of 1897, I was present at the 

 inauguration of McKinley, and received soon after 

 an invitation to dinner at the White House to meet 

 the new Cabinet. McKinley's associates impressed 

 me less favorably as a whole than Cleveland's Cabinet 

 Cabinet, but some of them had both character and 

 force. Secretary Long of the Navy, ex-governor of 

 Massachusetts, by whom I sat, seemed to be a man 

 of marked ability. Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of 

 the Treasury, I came later to know well and to hold 

 in high esteem. Alger of the War Department un- 

 fortunately soon had on his hands the Spanish War, 

 involving a strain for which he was quite unfitted. 



John Sherman, Secretary of State, with whom I John 

 afterward had many dealings, was always interest- Sberman 

 ing, although then very old and forgetful as to cur- 

 rent happenings. It was under his general direction 

 that our commission carried on its work, about which 

 I had frequent interviews with him; but he often 

 forgot why I was in Washington. His appointment 

 as Secretary was apparently a piece of political 

 bargaining. He had long been Senator from McKin- 

 ley's own state, and the President urged him to 

 enter the new Cabinet, "which would not be com- 

 plete unless headed by the most distinguished son 

 of Ohio." Sherman having consented, Mark Hanna, 

 McKinley's adviser and financial backer, was 

 promptly elected to the senatorship. 



Sherman's inability to deal with current details 

 (though he still held a firm grasp on principles) soon 



C573 3 



