The Congressional elections of 1890 were fought on the issue created by the McKinley bill. In the 52d Congress the House contained 235 Democrats and only 88 Republicans. The election of 1892 resulted in turning all branches of the government over to the Democratic Cleveland and Stevenson were elected Cleveland and Vice-President, receiving 277 electoral votes; Harrison and Reid, nominated at Minne apolis, 7-10 June 1892, received 145 votes. Both House and Senate were strongly Demo cratic in the 53d Congress. The administration had come in on a platform which denounced protection as a fraud and declared it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal government has no constitu tional power to impose and collect tariff duties except for the purposes of revenue only. The election of a Democratic President on this platform created distrust in business circles and caused a paralysis of industry which re sulted in a financial panic, hitherto unequaled, during the spring of 1893. President Cleve land, believing that the financial depression was due to the operation of the Sherman Act, which provided for the purchase of silver bullion, called a special session of Congress to repeal that act. The Republicans in the House and Senate combined with a small number of Dem ocrats to carry out the President's recommenda tion and finally after weeks of heated discus sion the law was repealed, but the financial situation was not relieved. The money strin gency continued with the dread of tariff legis lation hanging over the country. A tariff bill was• enacted after months of debate which did not go to the lengths recommended by the President, and which he accordingly denounced as an act of perfidy and dishonor, although he refrained from vetoing it. The fight over the repeal of the Sherman Act and over the Wilson Gorman Tariff Act disrupted the Democratic party and at the Congressional elections held in 1894 the Republican party came into control of both branches of Congress.
In 1896 the Republicans at Saint Louis, 16-18 June, nominated William McKinley for President and Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, for Vice-President, on a platform de claring for a protective tariff and for the maintenance of the gold standard. The Demo cratic convention at Chicago was carried away by the cry of free silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, were nominated for President and Vice-President, respectively. The campaign was fought chiefly on the finan cial planks of the two platforms.. McKinley and Hobart were elected by a decisive ma jority, both in the electoral college and of the popular vote. They received 271 electoral votes. Bryan and Sewall received 176 votes. Both Senate and House were strongly Republican in the 55th Congress. Thomas B. Reed was speaker of the House and Nelson Dingley, of Maine, was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. A special session of Congress was called to carry into effect the pledges of the Ratty with regard to the tariff. The Dingley Tariff Act became law 24 July 1897. It marked the beginning of a period of prosperity un equaled in the previous history of the United States.
The disturbed conditions in Cuba growing out of the uprising against Spanish misgovern ment were rapidly reaching a point where in tervention by the United States would have be come inevitable, when the destruction of the battleship Maine by a mine in Havana Harbor, on 15 Feb. 1898, roused the resentment of the
people and precipitated the war with Spain. The war began on 21 April 1898. The Ameri can forces gained two great victories by sea, one in Manila Bay, on 1 May, the other off Santiago Harbor on 3 July 1898. After a brief and effective campaign by land, Spain sued for peace. The treaty of peace was signed at Paris on 10 Dec. 1898. It provided for the ac quisition by the United States of the island of Porto Rico in the West Indies and of the Philippine Archipelago and the island of Guam in the Pacific. It placed the island of Cuba temporarily under the guardianship of the United States. The McKinley administration undertook the government of the newly-ac quired territory with all the serious problems involved. It quickly set up a stable American government in Porto Rico. It established order in Cuba under a military administration, pre pared the people of the island for self-govern ment and on 20 May 1901 withdrew the Ameri can military forces, permitting the Cuban people to set up an independent republic of their own. In the Philippines, after four years of armed opposition by guerrilla tribes in Luzon, a civil government was finally estab lished and the people of the island were given a degree of civil freedom such as they had not known in 400 years. Early in the McKinley ad ministration resolutions were enacted provid ing for the voluntary annexation of Hawaii on terms similar to those contemplated by Presi dent Harrison in the treaty of annexation which President Cleveland withdrew. President Mc Kinley was renominated at Philadelphia on 19-21 June 1900. Theodore Roosevelt was nominated by acclamation for Vice-President.
William J. Bryan was again nominated for President at Kansas City on 4 July with Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, for Vice-President. The Democrats reaffirmed the platform of 1896 with its declaration of free silver, but they declared the paramount issue to be the ques tion of imperialism. The Republican candi dates received 292 votes in the electoral col lege; the Democratic candidates 155 votes. The Republicans retained control of both Senate and House. On 6 Sept. 1901 President Mc Kinley was shot at Buffalo by the anarchist Czolgosz. On 14 September he died. Vice President Roosevelt succeeded to the Presi dency. He pledged himself to carry out the McKinley policies under which the country had experienced unparalleled prosperity and he re tained all members of President McKinley's Cabinet. Among the cabinet members thus re tained in office was Elihu Root As Secretary of War, Mr. Root effected a complete reorgani zation of the army on lines which made it capable of quick and effective expansion in time of need. He established the General Staff Corps. John Hay, as Secretary of State, enhanced the prestige of the United States throughout the world by his masterful handling of our foreign relations, securing the recog nition of the in China and com manding respect for American diplomacy among the European powers.