On December 2, 1899, the three powers named agreed to a
new treaty, by which the United States assumed full sovereignty over
Tutuila and all the other Samoan islands east of longitude 171 degrees
west from Greenwich, renouncing in favor of the other signatories all
rights and claims over the remainder of the group.

In the congressional campaign of 1890 issue was squarely joined upon the
neo-Republican policy. The billion dollars gone, the Force Bill, and,
to a less extent, the McKinley tariff, especially its sugar bounty, had
aroused popular resentment. The election, an unprecedented "landslide,"
precipitated a huge Democratic majority into the House of
Representatives. Every community east of the Pacific slope felt the
movement. Pennsylvania elected a Democratic governor.

[Illustration: Rowboat with sixteen men leaving a ship.]
President Harrison being rowed ashore at foot of Wall Street,
New York, April 29, 1889.

CHAPTER IV.

NON-POLITICAL EVENTS OF PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TERM

[1889]

President Harrison's quadrennium was a milestone between two
generations. Memorials on every hand to the heroes of the Civil War
shocked one with the sense that they and the events they molded were
already of the past. Logan, Arthur, Sheridan, and Hancock had died. In
1891 General Sherman and Admiral Porter fell within a day of each other.
General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been a pall-bearer at the funeral of
each, rejoined them in a month.

This presidential term was pivotal in another way. The centennial
anniversary of Washington's inauguration as President fell on April 30,
1889. In observance of the occasion President Harrison followed the
itinerary of one hundred years before, from the Governor's mansion in
New Jersey to the foot of Wall Street, in New York City, to old St.
Paul's Church, on Broadway, and to the site where the first Chief
Magistrate first took the oath of office. Three days devoted to the
commemorative exercises were a round of naval, military, and industrial
parades, with music, oratory, pageantry, and festivities. For this
Centennial Whittier composed an ode. The venerable Rev. S. F. Smith, who
had written "America" fifty-seven years before, was also inspired by the
occasion to pen a Century Hymn, and to add to "America" the stanza:

"Our joyful hearts to-day,
Their grateful tribute pay,
Happy and free,
After our toils and fears,
After our blood and tears,
Strong with our hundred years,