XXXVII.

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION.

Formation of the New Cabinet-Two Matters of Grave Domestic
Importance The Currency and the Tariff Questions-Prompt
Action on Both-Passage of
Both-Passage of the Dingley Tariff Act-The
Hawaiian Islands Annexed-Strained Relations With Spain-
The Destruction of the Maine War Breaks Out and Is Very
Speedily Terminated--Brilliant Operations in Cuba, Porto Rico
and the Philippines-Subsequent Desultory Warfare in the
Latter Islands.

President McKinley named the following members as his first

Cabinet:

Secretary of State-John Sherman, of Ohio.

Secretary of the Treasury-Lyman J. Gage, of Illinois.

Secretary of War-Russell A. Alger, of Michigan.

Secretary of the Navy-John D. Long, of Massachusetts.

Attorney General-John W. Griggs, of New Jersey.
Postmaster General-John A. Gary, of Maryland.

Secretary of the Interior-Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York.
Secretary of Agriculture-James Wilson, of Iowa.

This Cabinet, however, was not lasting, for before the Fifty-sixth Congress met in December, 1899, a number of changes had occurred: John Hay, of the District of Columbia, had succeeded John Sherman as Secretary of State; Elihu Root, of New York, was Secretary of War; Charles Emory Smith, of Pennsylvania, was Postmaster General, and Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Missouri, was Secretary of the Interior.

Vice-President Hobart, who had proved an able and impartial presiding officer and who stood high in public esteem, died November 21, 1899, and was succeeded as President of the Senate by William P. Frye, of Maine.

Two matters of grave domestic importance confronted the new Administration when it first came into power, and our relations