40,000 majority. In Kentucky Mr. Wm. Goebel, the Democratic candidate, was declared elected, although both parties claimed the victory. Massachusetts, Iowa, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Dakota were carried by the Republicans. The elections in Kansas were only for county officers and judges in several districts, and the returns showed Republican gains throughout the State.
The exceptionally cordial relations with Great Britain were maintained, although the Irish influence in the United States was as usual counteracting. There were Germans, too, in Chicago and elsewhere who thought that Germany ought to hold the first place in American affections. During the year there were many proofs given in the United States of the highest good feeling and the warmest friendship for the mother country. The hospital ship Maine was wholly equipped for service in the Transvaal war by American subscriptions and with an American staff of surgeons and nurses, and great sympathy for Great Britain, which was keen and almost universal, was manifested during the progress of the South African war in a variety of ways. The majority of Americans did not forget the attitude of Great Britain during the Spanish-American war.
Permission was granted in November to the Victorian Club of Boston to erect a monument in the Central Burying Ground in memory of the British troops who fell in the battle of Bunkers Hill.
Reciprocity treaties with France, with Portugal and with Great Britain relating to Jamaica, Bermuda and Trinidad were signed in July.
A modus vivendi was agreed upon with Great Britain with regard to the line of boundary between Alaska and Canada. A provisional line was to be drawn around the head of the Lynn Canal, leaving the United States in occupation of the ports of entry to the Yukon district which are situated on the shores of this inlet. It fixed the limits temporarily of the border in the three principal passes, at the summit of the White Pass, the summit of the Chilkoot and a point on the Chilkat route, about a mile and a half above the village of Klukwan, where the Klehini River runs into the Porcupine Creek. The dividing line to join these various points and to continue along the south bank of the Klehini to a point within ten marine leagues of the ocean, the Klehini River remaining within Canadian territory. Canada was not satisfied with this arrangement, and would not consent to its being permanent. Arbitration was likely to be appealed to eventually.
Vice-President Hobart died at Paterson, New Jersey, on November 21. By his death the succession to the Presidency, in case of the decease of President M'Kinley within the unexpired term of his election for four years, would devolve upon the Secretary of State, and the Vice-President's office remained vacant.
