McKinley validated his claim as the "advance agent of prosperity" when the year 1897 brought a revival of business, agriculture and general prosperity. This was due in part to the end, at least for the time, of political suspense and agitation, in part to the confidence which capitalists felt in the new Administration.
On
June 16, 1897, a treaty was signed annexing the
Republic of Hawaii to the United States. The Government of Hawaii speedily ratified this, but it lacked the necessary 2/3 vote in the U.S. Senate. The solution was to annex Hawaii by joint resolution, which required only a simple majority of both houses of Congress. The resolution provided for the assumption by the United States of the Hawaiian debt up to $4,000,000. The
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 was extended to the islands, and
Chinese immigration from Hawaii to the mainland was prohibited. The joint resolution passed on
July 6, 1898, a majority of the Democrats and several Republicans, among these
Speaker Reed, opposing. Shelby M. Cullom, John T. Morgan, Robert R. Hitt,
Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F. Frear, made commissioners by its authority, drafted a
United States Territory form of government, which became law
April 30, 1900.
In
Civil Service administration, McKinley took one long and unfortunate step backward. The Republican platform, adopted after President Cleveland's extension of the merit system, emphatically endorsed this, as did McKinley himself. Against extreme pressure, particularly in the
United States Department of War, the President resisted until
May 29, 1899. His order of that date withdrew from the classified service 4,000 or more positions, removed 3,500 from the class theretofore filled through competitive examination or an orderly practice of promotion, and placed 6,416 more under a system drafted by the Secretary of War. The order declared regular a large number of temporary appointments made without examination, besides rendering eligible, as emergency appointees, without examination, thousands who had served during the Spanish War.
Republicans pointed to the deficit under the Wilson Law with much the same concern manifested by President Cleveland in 1888 over the surplus. A new tariff law must be passed, and, if possible, before a new Congressional election. An extra session of Congress was therefore summoned for
March 15, 1897. The
Ways and Means Committee, which had been at work for three months, forthwith reported through Chairman
Nelson Dingley the bill which bore his name. With equal promptness the
Committee on Rules brought in a rule, at once adopted by the House, whereby the new bill, in spite of Democratic pleas for time to examine, discuss, and propose amendments, reached the Senate the last day of March. More deliberation marked procedure in the Senate. This body passed the bill after toning up its schedules with some 870 amendments, most of which pleased the
United State Conference Committee and became law. The act was signed by the President
July 24, 1897. The Dingley Act was estimated by its author to advance the average rate from the 40 percent of the Wilson Bill to approximately 50 percent, or a shade higher than the McKinley rate. As proportioned to consumption the tax imposed by it was probably heavier than that under either of its predecessors.
Reciprocity (international relations), a feature of the McKinley Tariff Act, was suspended by the Wilson Act. The Republican platform of 1896 declared protection and reciprocity twin measures of Republican policy. Clauses graced the Dingley Act allowing reciprocity treaties to be made, "duly ratified" by the Senate and "approved" by Congress; yet, of the twins, protection proved stout and lusty, while the weaker sister languished. Under the third section of the Act some concessions were given and received, but the treaties negotiated under the fourth section, which involved lowering of strictly protective duties, met summary defeat when submitted to the Senate.
