A Brief History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

MCKINLEY ASSASSINATED.—McKinley and Roosevelt were elected, and duly inaugurated March 4, 1901. In that year a great Pan-American Exposition was held at Buffalo, and while attending it in September, McKinley was shot by an anarchist who, during a public reception, approached him as if to shake hands. Early on the morning of September 14 the President died, and Vice-President Roosevelt [10] succeeded to the presidency.

THE CHINESE.—In President Roosevelt's first message to Congress (December, 1901) lie dealt with many current issues. One of his requests was for further legislation concerning Chinese laborers. The Chinese Exclusion Act accordingly was (1902) applied to our island possessions, and no Chinese laborer is now allowed to enter one of them, nor may those already there go from one group to another, or come to any of our states.

IRRIGATION.—Another matter urged on the attention of Congress by the President was the irrigation [11] of arid public lands in the West in order that they might be made fit for settlement. Great reservoirs for the storage of water should be built, and canals to lead the water to the arid lands should be constructed at government expense, the land so reclaimed should be kept for actual settlers, and the cost repaid by the sale of the land. Congress in 1902 approved the plan, and by law set aside the money derived from the sale of public land in thirteen states and three territories as a fund for building irrigation works. The work of reclamation was begun the next year, and by 1907 eight new towns with some 10,000 people existed on lands thus watered.

ISTHMIAN CANAL ROUTES.—The project of a canal across the isthmus connecting North and South America, was more than seventy-five years old. But no serious attempt was made to cut a water way till a French company was organized in 1878, spent $260,000,000 in ten years, and then failed. Another French company then took up the work, and in turn laid it down for want of funds. So the matter stood when the war with Spain brought home to us the great importance of an isthmian canal. Then the question arose, Which was the better of two routes, that by Lake Nicaragua, or that across the isthmus of Panama? [12] Congress (1899) sent a commission to consider this, and it reported that both routes were feasible. Thereupon the French company offered to sell its rights and the unfinished canal for $40,000,000, and Congress (1902) authorized the President to buy the rights and property of the French company, and finish the Panama Canal; or, if Colombia would not grant us control of the necessary strip of land, to build one by the Nicaragua route.

[Illustration: PANAMA CANAL ZONE.]

THE PANAMA CANAL TREATY.—In the spring of 1903, accordingly, a treaty was negotiated with Colombia for the construction of the Panama Canal. Our Senate ratified, but Colombia rejected, the treaty, whereupon the province of Panama (November, 1903) seceded from Colombia and became independent republic.

Our government promptly recognized the new republic, and a treaty with it was ratified (February, 1904) by which we secured the right to dig the canal. The property of the French company was then purchased, and a commission appointed to superintend the work of construction. [13]

THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY.—By our treaty of purchase of Alaska, its boundaries depended on an old treaty between Russia and Great Britain. When gold was discovered in Canada in 1871, a dispute arose over the boundary, and it became serious when gold was discovered in the Klondike region in 1896. Our claim placed the boundary of southeastern Alaska thirty-five miles inland and parallel to the coast. Canada put it so much farther west as to give her several important ports. The matter was finally submitted to arbitration, and in 1903 the decision divided the land in dispute, but gave us all the ports. [14]

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1904.—The campaign of 1904 was opened by the nomination by the Republican party of Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks. The Democrats presented Alton B. Parker and Henry G. Davis, and in the course of the summer seven other parties—the People's, the Socialist, the Socialist Labor, the Prohibition, the United Christian, the National Liberty, and the Continental—nominated candidates. Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected. [15]

OKLAHOMA.—Among the demands of the Democratic party in 1904 was that for the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one state, and of New Mexico and Arizona as separate states. In 1906 Congress authorized the people of Oklahoma [16] and Indian Territory to frame a constitution, and if it were adopted by vote of the people, the President was empowered to proclaim the state of Oklahoma a member of the Union, which was done in 1907. The same act authorized the people of New Mexico and Arizona to vote separately on the question whether the two should form one state to be called Arizona. At the election (in November, 1906) a majority of the people of New Mexico voted for, and a majority of the people of Arizona against, joint statehood, so the two remained separate territories.