The Republican platform declared also for a reform of the tariff schedule, but at the same time stoutly affirmed the maintenance of the protective system, as such, as a part of the permanent policy of the United States. Both parties deferred to the patriotic sentiment of the country in favor of the soldiers, their rights and interests, and both endeavored, by the usual incidental circumstances of the hour, to gain the advantage of the other before the American people. The Prohibitionists entered the campaign on the distinct proposition that the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors should be prohibited throughout the United States by constitutional amendment. To this was added a clause in favor of extending the right of suffrage to women.

As the canvass progressed during the summer and autumn of 1888, it became evident that the result was in doubt. The contest was exceedingly close. As in 1880 and 1884, the critical States were New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Indiana. In all of the other Northern States the Republicans were almost certain to win, while the Democrats were equally certain of success in all the South. In the last weeks of the campaign, General Harrison grew in favor, and his party gained perceptibly to the close. The result showed success for the Republican candidate. He received two hundred and thirty-three electoral votes, against one hundred and sixty-eight votes for Cleveland. The latter, however, appeared to a better advantage on the popular count, having a considerable majority over General Harrison. General Fisk, the Prohibition candidate, received nearly three hundred thousand votes, but under the system of voting no electoral vote of any State was obtained for him in the so-called "College" by which the actual choice is made. As soon as the result was known the excitement attendant upon the campaign subsided and political questions gave place to other interests.

The last days of Cleveland's Administration and of the Fiftieth Congress were signalized by the admission into the Union of four new States, making the number forty-two. Since the incoming of Colorado, in 1876, no State had been added to the republic. Meanwhile the tremendous tides of population had continued to flow to the West and Northwest, rapidly filling up the great territories. Of these the greatest was Dakota, with its area of one hundred and fifty thousand nine hundred and thirty-two square miles. In 1887 the question of dividing the territory by a line running east and west was agitated, and the measure finally prevailed. Steps were taken by the people of both sections for admission into the Union. Montana, with her one hundred and forty-five thousand seven hundred and seventy-six square miles of territory, had meanwhile acquired a sufficient population; and Washington Territory, with its area of sixty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-four square miles, also knocked for admission. In the closing days of the Fiftieth Congress a bill was passed raising all these four territories-South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington--to the plane of Statehood. The Act contemplated the adoption of State constitutions and a proclamation of admission by the next President. It thus happened that the honor of bringing in this great addition to the States of the Union was divided between the outgoing and incoming administrations.

Another Act of Congress was also of national inportance. Hitherto the government had been administered through seven departments, at the head of each of which was placed a cabinet officer, the seven together constituting the advisers of the President. No provision for such an arrangement exists in the Constitution of the United States, but the statutes of the nation provide for such a system as most in accordance with the Republican form of govern

ment. Early in 1889 a measure was brought forward in Congress, and adopted, for the institution of a new department, to be called the Department of Agriculture. Practically the measure involved the elevation of what had previously been an agricultural bureau in the Department of the Interior to the rank of a cabinet office. Among foreign nations, France has been conspicuous for the patronage which the government has given to the agricultural pursuits of that country. Hitherto in the United States, though agriculture had been the greatest of all the producing interests of the people, it had been neglected for more political and less useful departments of American life and enterprise. By this Act of Congress the cabinet offices were increased in number to eight instead of seven.

CHAPTER XLV.

BENJAMIN HARRISON, twenty-third President of the United States, was born at North Bend, Ohio, on the 20th of August, 1833. He is the son of John Scott Harrison, a prominent citizen of his native State; grandson of President William Henry Harrison; great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence. In countries where attention is paid to honorable lineage, the circumstances of General Harrison's descent would be considered of much importance, but in America little attention is paid to one's ancestry and more to himself.

Harrison's early life was passed as that of other American boys, in attendance at school and at home duties on the farm. He was a student at the institution called Farmers' College for two years. Afterwards he attended Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, and was graduated therefrom in June, 1852. He took in marriage the daughter of Dr. John W. Scott, President of the Oxford Female College. After a course of study he entered the profession of law, removing to Indianapolis and establishing himself in that city. With the outbreak of the war be became a soldier of the Union, and rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers. Before the close of the war he was elected Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Indiana.

In the period following the Civil War, General Harrison rose to distinction as a civilian. In 1876 he was the unsuccessful candidate of the Republican party for governor of Indiana. In 1881 he was elected to the United States

Senate, where he won the reputation of a leader and statesman. In 1884 his name was prominently mentioned in connection with the presidential nomination of his party, but Mr. Blaine was successful. After the lapse of four years, however, it was found at Chicago that General Harrison more than any other combined in himself all the elements of a successful candidate; and the event justified the choice of the party in making him the standard-bearer in the ensuing campaign

General Harrison was, in accordance with the usages of the government, inaugurated President on the 4th of March, 1889. He had succeeded better than any of his predecessors in keeping his own counsels during the interim between his election and the inauguration. No one had discerned his purposes, and all waited with interest the expressions of his Inaugural Address. In that document he set forth the policy which he would favor as the Chief Executive, recommending the same general measures which the Republican party had advocated during the campaign.

On the day following the inaugural ceremonies, President Harrison sent in the nominations for his cabinet officers, as follows: For Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, of Maine; for Secretary of the Treasury, William Windom, of Minnesota; for Secretary of War, Redfield Proctor, of Vermont; for Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin F. Tracy, of New York; for Postmaster-General, John Wanamaker, of Pennsylvania; for Secretary of the Interior, John W. Noble, of Missouri; for Attorney-General, William H. H. Miller, of Indiana, and for Secretary of Agriculture,—the new department, Jeremiah Rusk, of Wisconsin. These appointments were immediately confirmed by the Senate, and the members of the new Administration assumed their respective official duties.

Within two months after Harrison's inauguration, an