The silver question came np again in Congress, February 7, 1894, when the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures reported a bill directing the coinage of the silver held in the Treasury. A substitute by Congressman Bland providing for the coinage of the seigniorage was adopted, and passed in the House by a vote of 168 yeas to 129 nays, with 56 not voting, and in the Senate by 44 yeas to 31 nays, 10 not voting. This bill was vetoed by the President, and it failed of passage over the veto. In December, 1895, the Ilouse passed a bond bill prepared by the Republican members of its Committee on Ways and Means, and when it reached the Senate the Finance Committee reported a free silver coinage substitute, which the Senate passed, Feb ruary 1, 1896, by a vote of 42 yeas to 35 nays. The House refused to concur in the substitute, and rejected it by a vote of 215 yeas to 90 nays. A few days afterwards the Senate defeated the Emergency Revenue 11111, prepared by Republican members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and passed by the }louse by a vote of 205 yeas to 61 nays, the Senate vote being 22 yeas to 33 nays.
A long-standing dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain, over the boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana, was the cause of a Presidential message to Congress in December, 1895, recommending the appointment of a com mission to determine this boundary line. This message, on account of its sharp and determined tone toward Great Britain, created a great sen sation. Both Houses unanimously concurred in the recommendation, and a commission was ap pointed January I. 1S96. (See VENEZUELA.)
Among other events of President Cleveland's second administration were the World's Colum bian Exposition at Chicago, the settlement of the Bering Sea controversy (q.v.) in 1S93, the sign ing of treaties with China and Japan, in 1894, the extension by the President of civil-service reform (q.v.), the calling out of Federal troops to protect Government property and the mails against strikers at. Chicago in 1894, the admis sion of Utah into the Union, in 1896, and the arbitration by the President of disputes between Brazil and the Argentine Republic, Colombia and Italy, and Brazil and Italy.
The Presidential campaign of 1896 turned prin cipally on the Democratic demand for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to I. There were seven tickets in the field, viz. the Republi can (sound money), William McKinley, of Ohio, and Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey; the Demo cratie (free silver), William J. Bryan, of Ne braska, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine; the Na tions] (sound money), John M. Palmer, of Illinois, and Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky; the Prohibition, Joshua Levering and Hale Johnson; the Socialist Labor, Charles 1[. Matchett and Matthew Maguire; the Populist, William J. Bryan and Thomas E. Watson; and the Free Silver Prohibition, Charles E. Bentley and James H. Southgate. The total popular vote was 13,930.942, and the electoral, 447, of which the Republican candidates received 7,104,779 and 271, respectively, and the Democratic, 6,502,925 and 176. The Populist ticket received 144,928 votes; National Democratic. 134,731; Prohibi tion, 123.428; Socialist Labor, 35,306; and Free Silver Prohibition, 13,535.