nothing to attract them in the Prohibition principles or in the several socialistic parties. They reluctantly voted for that one of the candidates whose principles were less repugnant to their own, or refrained from voting altogether.

It is probable that several important events, or series of events, wholly unconnected with American politics, by diverting public attention, rendered the interest in the canvass much less acute than it otherwise would have been. Of these may be mentioned the Boxer uprising in China, the assassination of King Humbert of Italy, the terrible catastrophe at Galveston, and the closing campaigns of the Boer War. The continuance of the war with the Filipino insurgents and the protracted strikes in the anthracite coal region may have had some unascertained effect upon the political sentiments of the people, and upon the vote in November; but that effect was not only unascertained but unperceived.

Aside from the ordinary campaigning by a host of "spellbinders" of both parties, the leading feature of the canvass was the activity of Mr. Bryan on the part of the Democrats, and of Mr. Roosevelt in behalf of the Republicans. Mr. Roosevelt was credited with having made six hundred and seventy-three speeches in twenty-four States. Mr. Bryan's statistics cannot be given, but there were few days when no audiences gathered to hear him, and his travels must have been quite as extensive as those of Mr. Roosevelt.

Although anti-imperialism was announced by the Democratic convention to be the paramount issue of the canvass, and although the declaration was made at the expressed wish of Mr. Bryan, it seems not a prejudiced view of the situation to assert that he found the principle less popular than he expected. Not that he abated in the slightest degree the energy of his opposition to the colonial policy, or that he failed at any time to denounce those who preferred as he put it- an empire to a republic. But he devoted the larger part of most of his speeches on the stump to the question of the trusts, and to the evils to which organized labor was subject. The silver question, on which he usually touched, briefly but emphatically, also seemed not greatly to interest his hearers. But on the other hand it was the leading topic of Republican orators, and the most effective argument they could adduce was the danger that the gold standard would be endangered should Mr. Bryan be successful. The event proved that in the extreme and

the middle West the sentiment in favor of silver free coinage was far less strong than it was four years before; and thousands of Republicans returned to their allegiance. On the other hand, in the East where such free silver sentiment existed it was to a large degree artificial, and chiefly a product of the desire for party regularity; the "paramount" and other issues of the canvass were more emphasized, and there the Democratic vote increased.

The election took place on November 6. The result is shown in the table on the opposite page.

McKinley lost the votes of Kentucky which he had received in 1896, but he gained those of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming which were carried by Bryan four years before.

The total popular vote was 13,973,071, which was an increase of 36,020 over the vote of 1896. It was to be followed in 1904 by an actual decrease. The causes of the remarkable reversal of a tendency which had always previously been observed, are discussed in a later chapter.

The resolution of Congress preliminary to the count of the electoral votes was more carefully considered and phrased than were similar resolutions in the past. Indeed, in the form in which it was first passed by the Senate it followed closely the language of the resolution adopted by both Houses in 1896. But it was observed by some members of the House of Representatives that it did not use the phraseology of the law, and accordingly it was modified. The difference between the two forms is slight and may seem unimportant at a casual reading. As passed by the Senate, after providing for a joint meeting on the 13th of February, for the appointment of tellers on the part of the two Houses, and for the making of lists of the result by these tellers, the Senate resolution continued:

The result shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall announce the state of the vote and the persons elected, to the two Houses assembled as aforesaid, which shall be deemed a declaration of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United States.

In its modified form there was substituted, for the foregoing, these words:

The result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote,

which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice-President of the United States.

In the one case, it will be seen, the President of the Senate was to declare certain persons elected. It was thought advisable, at a time when no question was to arise as to the result, to establish the precedent that the President of the Senate was not to declare any person elected. The procedure thus enjoined was followed strictly at the count of the vote on February 13, 1901, which passed off without an incident out

side of the routine.

The inauguration took place on March 4, 1901, with the customary ceremony. But numerous organizations and a vast throng of private citizens made the occasion memorable and impressive. In the procession that accompanied Mr. McKinley from the White House to the Capitol and escorted him back to the official residence were a large number of veterans of the Civil War; the "Rough Riders," Mr. Roosevelt's regiment during the Spanish War; a battalion of Porto Rican soldiers, representing the new citizens of the United States; and the full corps of West Point cadets and Annapolis midshipmen. In the parade after the inauguration were fifteen governors of States, mounted. The number of private citizens who were attracted to Washington by simple curiosity or by a desire to testify their regard for the President and Vice-President elect, was unprecedented. The parade after the inauguration was witnessed by tens of thousands who lined Pennsylvania avenue, many deep, all the way from the Capitol to the White House.

The scene in the Senate Chamber when Mr. Roosevelt took the oath as Vice-President was brilliant in the extreme. The Supreme Court, the members of the Cabinet, and the diplomatic corps headed by Lord Pauncefote, in their court costumes, added dignity to the occasion; and the ladies of the Chinese and Japanese legations, in their gorgeous native attire, gave a quaint touch of color to the diplomatic gallery.

After the induction into office of the Vice-President the official and invited witnesses of the ceremony of administering the oath to the President elect proceeded to the east front of the Senate wing of the Capitol. Mr. McKinley took the oath, which was administered by Chief Justice Fuller, and then delivered his inaugural address. Unfortunately a light rain was falling at the time, and the President omitted, in the reading, a part of his address.

II

ROOSEVELT'S ELECTION FOR A "SECOND TERM "

MR. MCKINLEY began his second term under the happiest auspices. The momentous crisis through which the country had passed since the beginning of the war with Spain left him secure in the support of a large majority of the people. If the voters had not, in the preceding November, expressed their approval of the policy of expansion which imposed upon the government the care and control of distant possessions and made it a world power, they had certainly not condemned that policy. Congress had passed an act the act which of all the President most ardently desired reëstablishing the system of a protective tariff according to the Republican standard, and the people had not rejected the party which made the tariff, as they had done in 1884, 1890, and 1896, the last three tariffs enacted. The country was so prosperous under the act, in consequence of it or in spite of it, as one viewed it from the protective or the free-trade point of view, that there was no imminent danger of a fresh tariff campaign. Moreover, the prosperity of the country served also to reconcile all but the most irreconcilable to the act establishing the gold standard of money, and the consequent elimination of the silver question from politics, of which it had been a disturbing element for more than twenty years.

Although such was the fortunate situation in home affairs the outlook was, if not reassuring, by no means desperate, so far as the relations of the government to its new dependencies and to certain foreign powers were concerned. The Philippine revolt was not suppressed, but the clouds in that archipelago began to break before the first month of the new term expired; for Aguinaldo was captured by a stratagem in March, and thereafter the violent opposition to American rule was sporadic and futile. Congress had passed an act throwing the entire control and government of the islands upon the President, and arrangements had already been made to transfer the government from military to civil authority, a change which took place,