ment as his successor of D. R. Francis, of Missouri. It was understood that the cause of Mr. Smith's retirement was his final resolution, after some vacillation, to support the silver branch of the Democracy, while the president and the rest of the cabinet held to the other branch. - A number of district attorneys were removed from office during the autumn under a ruling of the attorney-general that the retention of such an office was incompatible with candidacy for an elective office, or with active participation in party politics.

CONGRESS.—The adjournment of Congress was reached, June 11, the earliest date of closing for a "long session" in thirty years. Little general legislation of importance was completed. In addition to those mentioned in the last RECORD the following acts include all that were of general interest Repeal of the provision of the tariff law under which a rebate of duty was allowed on alcohol used in the arts; imposition of a tax on the manufacture and sale of "filled cheese"; prohibition of divorce in a territory to any applicant having less than a year's residence therein; modification of the customs administrative law so as to expedite the delivery of small packages imported; restoration to the Mormon Church of the property taken from it at the dissolution of the corporation.— The total of appropriations for the session amounted to $515,759,820.49. In the principal bills the amounts were as follows: Army, $23,278,402.73; fortifications and ordnance, $7,397,888; legislative, executive and judicial, $21,518,834.71; navy, $30,562,739.95; pension, $141,328,580; post-office, $92,571,564.22; river and harbor, $12,621,800; sundry civil, $33,031,152.19. Two of the appropriation bills were vetoed by the president, - the River and Harbor Bill, May 29, on the ground that it tended to paternalism and extravagance ; and the General Deficiency Bill, June 6, through disapproval of items to satisfy the French Spoliation and other claims. The River and Harbor Bill was promptly passed over the veto, by 220 to 60 in the House and 56 to 5 in the Senate; but on the other measure the veto was sustained in the House by 170 to 39, and the objectionable items were accordingly dropped. The Navy Appropriation Bill provided for three new battleships. In the Indian Bill a provision was inserted, after a long controversy between the two houses, terminating the policy of financial assistance to sectarian Indian schools. Of measures that made only partial progress the following were of the greatest importance: A national Bankruptcy Bill and a project to establish an educational test for immigrants - passed by the House only; a bill providing for jury trial in certain kinds of contempt of court, and one prohibiting the issue of interest-bearing bonds without the consent of Congress passed by the Senate only.

THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY. -The following cases have been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. May 18, Plessy vs. Ferguson Held, that the statute of Louisiana requiring railway companies to provide separate coaches for white and for colored passengers, is a constitutional exercise of the police power of the state, and does not abridge

the equal rights of citizens of the United States. R. R. Co. vs. Illinois : Held, that a state law, when so applied as to require a fast-mail train, carrying interstate passengers, to run seven miles out of its route in order to stop at a station for which ample facilities for travel are otherwise provided, is an unconstitutional obstruction of interstate commerce. May 25, United States vs. Realty Co. and United States vs. Gay: Held, that the Sugar Bounty Act of 1895 (cf. RECORD for December, 1895, p. 737) appropriated money for the discharge of an equitable obligation, and was therefore a constitutional exercise of Congress's power to pay the debts of the United States. Sheriff vs. Race Horse: Held, that the clause of the treaty between the United States and the Bannock Indians, by which the latter were entitled to kill game on unoccupied lands, was repealed by the act admitting Wyoming as a state on an equality with the other states, and that therefore the Indians were subject to the game laws of Wyoming (see last RECORD, p. 376).

THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. The Republican National Convention was in session at St. Louis, June 16–18. Before it assembled the course of affairs in the state conventions had indicated very clearly that Mr. McKinley would be the candidate for president and that the platform would declare against the free coinage of silver. On the 18th the platform committee made its report, embodying this plank on the currency: "We are... opposed to the free coinage of silver except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved." A separate vote on this plank resulted in its adoption by 812 to 110, whereupon thirtyfour delegates, headed by Senator Teller, of Colorado, formally withdrew from the convention. The "bolters" included the entire delegations of Colorado and Idaho, with representatives of Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Nevada. A single ballot sufficed to nominate Mr. McKinley for president, the vote standing: McKinley, 661; Reed, 841; Quay, 611; Morton, 58; Allison, 35. For vice-president Garrett A. Hobart, of New Jersey, was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 533 votes, while his nearest competitor, Evans of Tennessee, received only 277. In addition to the currency plank mentioned above, the platform contained strong demands for protection and reciprocity, "twin measures of Republican policy"; declared that the United States ought to control Hawaii, to own the Nicaragua Canal, to purchase the Danish Islands in the West Indies, to protect at all hazards Americans in Turkey, to prevent European encroachments in America and to use "influence and good offices" for the peace and independence of Cuba; approved the civil service reform and the exclusion of immigrants who can neither read nor write; and condemned lynching. Mr. McKinley, who before the convention had carefully refrained from any definite public declaration of his opinions on the currency question, afterward strongly endorsed the platform on

this point, and in his formal letter of acceptance, August 26, gave to the free-coinage issue the principal place in his argument. The relatively smooth working of the Republican Party machinery was in sharp contrast with the revolutionary outcome of the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, July 7-11. The course of the state conventions during June had rendered it certain that a considerable majority of the delegates to Chicago would favor free coinage. No efforts of the Eastern gold leaders could stem the tide. On June 16 President Cleveland issued an appeal to the Democrats against free coinage, at the same time declaring that he himself wished to be only a private in the ranks of the party. But when the convention assembled, the silver men rejected all overtures looking to moderate measures, put extreme men to the front in both the temporary and the permanent organization, and through the control of the committee on credentials so decided contested elections as to insure a two-thirds majority for free coinage. The report of the platform committee embodied a currency plank demanding "the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation," and omitted any endorsement of President Cleveland's administration. A minority report favoring the maintenance of the existing gold standard until the coöperation of other nations could be secured for free coinage of silver, and endorsing the administration, was, after a sharp debate, voted down, the first part by 626 to 303 and the second by 564 to 357. After the adoption of the majority report, most of the anti-silver delegates refrained from any further active part in the proceedings, though there was no formal "bolt." The balloting for the presidential candidate, on the 10th, resulted in the choice of Mr. W. J. Bryan, of Nebraska, on the fifth ballot. Mr. Bryan had not been among those prominently mentioned as candidates, but by his speech in the debate on the platform he had won enthusiastic favor with the silver men. Mr. Bland of Missouri led in the voting at the outset, but on the final ballot the numbers stood: Bryan, 500; Bland, 106; Pattison, 95; Matthew, 31; Boies, 26; not voting, 162. For vice-president the convention, on the 11th, nominated Mr. Arthur Sewall, of Maine, on the fifth ballot. The platform, as adopted, set forth at length the leading tenets of the silver party; denounced the issue of bonds in time of peace, and the "trafficking with banking syndicates" to sustain gold monometallism; demanded that paper circulating notes be. issued only by the government; favored a tariff for revenue, and condemned changes in the existing tariff except so far as necessary to overcome the deficit; attributed this deficit to the income-tax decision of the supreme court, and criticised that decision; demanded such control of railroads "as will protect the people from robbery and oppression "; denounced “ arbitrary interference by federal authorities in local affairs" and "government by injunction"; opposed life tenure in the public service, and third terms in the presidency; endorsed the Monroe Doctrine, sympathized with the Cubans, and demanded unremitting care for, and improvement of, the Mis

sissippi River and other great waterways. Mr. Bryan received the formal notification of his nomination at a great public meeting held in New York city, August 12, and in accepting devoted himself almost exclusively to an extended argument in support of free coinage. His letter of acceptance, made public September 9, gave unqualified endorsement to all the planks of the platform, and announced that, if elected, he would under no circumstances be a candidate for a second term. The national convention of the People's Party, or Populists, met at St. Louis, July 22-25. In view of the prominence which the silver issue had assumed, some effort had been made to commit the Populist leaders to the support of Senator Teller, the bolting Republican; but after the Democratic convention, the proposal to endorse Mr. Bryan's nomination won much favor. The convention, however, contained a large number of delegates who were strongly opposed to coalescence with the Democrats. This fact led to a reversal of the usual order of procedure, and to the choice of a candidate for vice-president first. Through this course the "middle-of-the-road" men, as the extremists were called, succeeded in rejecting Sewall, who was distasteful to them as a "plutocrat" and a national-bank director, and in nominating for vice-president Mr. Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, an uncompromising Populist. Having gained this advantage the extremists became more conciliatory, and Mr. Bryan was chosen as candidate for the presidency on the first ballot, with no important opposition. Though Mr. Bryan had telegraphed that he would refuse the nomination if Mr. Sewall were not nominated also, he did not adhere to this resolution. The platform adopted was in its financial planks substantially the same as that of the Democrats, though demanding definitely a graduated income tax; in addition it favored government ownership of railroads, telegraphs and postal savings banks, direct legislation through the initiative and the referendum, and election of president by direct vote of the people; but it declared that the financial question was the pressing issue of the present campaign. In notifying Mr. Bryan of his nomination the Populist committee in terms absolved him from endorsing the platform as a whole; and in his letter of acceptance the candidate confined himself to a consideration of the currency issue. Owing to the difference in candidates for the vice-presidency, the Democratic and Populist managers, after failing to effect the withdrawal of either Sewall or Watson in the other's favor, arranged for fusion on the electoral tickets in most of the states, in such way that, while all the electors should vote for Bryan, about two-fifths were pledged to Watson and the rest to Sewall. — At the same time with the Populists the National Silver Party, an organization recently formed for the promotion of free coinage, met in convention at St. Louis and unanimously endorsed the nomination of Bryan and Sewall. The outcome of the Chicago convention was followed at once by very numerous defections from the Democratic Party. From all the states north of the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi came declarations of refusal by leading Democrats to support either the platform or the

candidate put up at Chicago. While some of the "bolters" declared for McKinley, others began at once a consultation as to the policy of a third ticket. On July 13 the Illinois "sound-money" Democrats took the initiative in moving for a new convention. A conference at Indianapolis, August 7, attended by representatives of thirty-five states, decided the matter definitely, and issued a call for a convention of the "National Democratic Party," to be held in that city on September 2. The convention met accordingly, with 824 delegates, representing all the states except Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada. Ex-Governor Flower of New York was temporary, and Senator Caffery of Louisiana permanent, chairman. The platform adopted denounced the Chicago platform as undemocratic, and arraigned as alike pernicious the financial doctrine enunciated therein and the tariff doctrine of the Republicans. It then declared in favor of a tariff for revenue only, the single gold standard of monetary measure, a bank currency under governmental supervision, arbitration for the settlement of international disputes, and the maintenance intact of the independence and authority of the supreme court; and it strongly endorsed the administration of President Cleveland. As nominees the convention chose, with practical unanimity, for president, Senator J. M. Palmer, of Illinois, and for vicepresident, General S. B. Buckner, of Kentucky. The proceedings of this convention received the public approval of President Cleveland and all his cabinet save Secretary Smith, of the Interior. The supporters of the ticket made, however, no pretence of expecting its election, but only aimed to draw to it enough Democratic votes in doubtful states to insure the defeat of Mr. Bryan. The Prohibition Party, May 27, nominated at Pittsburg Levering and Johnson as its candidates. A proposal to approve free coinage in the platform was voted down, and this result occasioned a "split" and the nomination of another ticket by the minority. The Socialist Labor Party, at New York, July 9, put up on its ticket Matchett and Maguire.

THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS. - The voting on November 3 resulted in the triumph of the Republicans and the election of McKinley and Hobart. The latter carried all the states north of the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi by heavy majorities. West of the Mississippi Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota went Republican by substantial majorities, and California and Oregon by closer votes. South of the Ohio West Virginia went strongly Republican, and Kentucky gave McKinley a plurality of about 250, with one elector for Bryan owing to mistakes in marking ballots. Of the states carried by Bryan, South Dakota and Wyoming were very close. Tennessee and North Carolina showed great Republican gains, and charges were freely made that the ultimate result in favor of Bryan was reached through fraud in the count. The total electoral vote, as returns stood at the end of this RECORD, would be 272 for McKinley and 175 for Bryan. Of the popular vote, McKinley's plurality was over a million. In Pennsylvania he had 295,000 over Bryan; in New York, 273,000; in