many and the United States in a manner honorable to both nations. Again in 1897 President McKinley called upon Mr. Kasson to resume diplomatic duties. Under the Dingley tariff act, the President appointed him as special plenipotentiary to make treaties of reciprocity with various foreign nations. He negotiated a difficult and advantageous commercial treaty with France, and with ten or twelve other countries. But upon a change of policy by the senate, adverse to reciprocity, Mr. Kasson asked Mr. McKinley to accept his resignation. The president was not ready to do so, but later Mr. Kasson renewing his request said he did not wish "to draw a salary for fruitless labor," and he was allowed to withdraw "subject to recall." During this period President McKinley had also appointed him one of the five United States commissioners on the Anglo-American High Joint Commission to settle questions in dispute with Canada; and he attended the sessions of that distinguished body, both in Quebec and in Washington.
In 1870-71, Mr. Kasson visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and Greece, making a study of the social, religious and political conditions of these eastern lands. In 1890, he delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell institute, Boston, on the Historical Evolution of Diplomacy. He has given two similar courses at Johns Hopkins university at the request of that institution. His political writings are numerous. Among those which have appeared in the "North American Review" are: "History of the Monroe Doctrine" (1881); "Municipal Reform" (1883); "The Congo Conference" (1886); "Bismarck" (1886); "The Hohenzollern Kaiser" (1888). He has also written for the " Century Magazine."
He is unmarried. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. He is president of the Columbia Historical Society; was lately president of the Metropolitan club; is a member of the American Association for Advancement of Science, of the National Geographic Society, of the Washington Academy of Science, and is a trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, at Washington, District of Columbia. He is a Mason of the thirty-third degree. He has been a member of the Republican party since its incipient formation in 1848. The books and writers from which he has derived most profit, are the New Testament, Coleridge's Aids to Reflection, Kent's Commentaries; Histories of Rome, England, the Dutch Republic; and the United States; Wheaton on International
