President then asked for powers to visit upon Canada the severest form of retaliation, by stopping the transhipment of Canadian goods in bond across the United States. A bill granting the power was passed as a party measure in the House, but the Senate by referring it to a committee virtually ended any possibility of action. A new treaty with China, prohibiting the entrance of Chinese labor into the United States for twenty years, was ratified by the Senate and rejected by China. Thereupon a new Chinese Exclusion Bill of the utmost. stringency was passed by both Houses and approved by the President. Congress adjourned October 20th, 1888.

9. The cause of Civil Service Reform was theoretically furthered by an executive order enlarging the scope of the classified service, and by the complete revision and marked improvement of the rules and regulations, but there began to be widespread distrust of the practical methods of party managers, and the unpunished partisan activity of office-holders was notorious. Labor troubles diminished in number and importance, although there was one very serious railroad strike and some dangerous agitation. The most important reform movement of the time was the initiation by Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and a few other States, of a new method of voting intended to secure secrecy and prevent bribery. This Ballot Reform makes steady headway, although there has been much op

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position. The Supreme Court decided that the law in Washington Territory extending the suffrage to women was unconstitutional. The cause of Temperance was much strengthened by political and judicial action in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, although it has since been somewhat discredited by the extreme views of some of its supporters, and has been weakened temporarily by the unexampled activity of its opponents.

Presi

10. The Democratic National Convention assembled at St. Louis, on June 5th, 1888. dent Cleveland was renominated unanimously and by acclamation, and Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, was nominated for Vice-President on the first ballot. The platform indorsed the Administration, for the inauguration of honest reform in the Civil Service and for its efficiency, emphatically approving the President's message in regard to rev. enue reform, and declared that "domestic industries should not and need not be endangered by the reduction and correction of the burdens of taxation." The Republican National Convention met in Chicago, June 19th. Once in February, and again in May, letters had been published from Mr. Blaine, who was in Europe, declaring that he could not accept a nomination to the Presidency, but in spite of that fact there were still many in the Convention who hoped that the party could unite on no other candidate. On the third day, however, and after seven ballots, Benjamin Harrison, of In

diana, and Levi P. Morton, of New York, were nominated for President and Vice-President respectively. The platform charged the party in power with suppression of the ballot in the South, inefficiency in its foreign policy, abuse of the veto power, and a desire to destroy "the general business, the labor and the farming interests of the country," by its tariff legislation. It favored protection as the American system, and "the entire repeal of internal taxes rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system." It claimed for the Republican party the inauguration of Civil Service Reform, and demanded its extension in order to avoid "the dangers to free institutions which lurk in the power of official patronage." The Prohibition National Convention was held in Indianapolis on May 31st. Its nominations were Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, for President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for Vice-President. The platform declared that "the manufacture, importation, exportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages should be made public crimes, and punished as such," and demanded the abolition of the Internal Revenue System, and the reduction of import duties. Other nominations were announced as having been made by the Equal Rights party, the United Labor party, the Union Labor party, and the American party. The campaign was less acrimonious than the preceding one, but was marked by the use of money to an unprecedented

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The result of the election was the success of the Republicans by a majority of 65 in a total electoral vote of 401. The contest again turned on the vote of New York.

II. Congress met December 3, 1888. The PresLth Congress, ident's message was an ampli2d Session. fication of his former argument for a change in the tariff. It also reviewed our foreign relations and the condition of the Departments. To the already existing Executive Departments was added a new one, that of Agriculture. An Act was also passed providing for the admission as new States of North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana. A new Tariff bill was passed by the Senate, differing from the preceding one by substituting ad valorem for specific duties. In the House a report was presented declaring this substitution for the House (Mills) Bill unconstitutional. A contest between the representatives of the two factions of the Democrats prevented further action. In December the President extended the scope of the classified Civil Service to the railway mail service, and in spite of some adverse action in various quarters, steady and sure progress was made in the reform, both State and National. Congress adjourned March 4th, 1889, and Harrison and Morton were sworn into office.1

1 Popular vote for President in 1888: Dem. 5,536,524, Rep. 5,441,923, Prohib. 246,406, Labor 144,608,

APPENDIX A.

Articles of Confederation.

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

ARTICLE I.—The style of this Confederacy shall be, "The United States of America."

ARTICLE II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

ARTICLE III.-The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.