For the greater part of the time since his return to the senate in 1881, he had been chairman of the committee on foreign relations.

GAGE, LYMAN J., secretary of the treasury, was born at De Ruyter, Madison county, N. Y., June 28, 1836. His parents, Eli A. and Mary Judson Gage, had descended from English stock, and were also born in New York state. When he was ten years of age his parents removed to Rome, Oneida county. His term in the Rome Academy-four years only-practically constituted his entire scholastic education. At the age of seventeen he became office boy and general utility clerk in the Oneida Central Bank, a position which he held for two years at a salary of $100 a year. In 1855 he went to Chicago, Ill., and obtained work in a lumber yard and planing-mill, acting at times as bookkeeper, but more frequently assisting in loading and unloading lumber and teaming. The extreme business depression of 1858 compelled his employers to dispense with his services as bookkeeper. Still Mr. Gage was not above working for six weeks as night watchman of his employers' property.

It was while engaged in that humble capacity that the opportunity of Mr. Gage's life came to him in the offer of a place as bookkeeper for the Merchants' Savings, Loan, and Trust Company. He began at a salary of $500 a year. In less than twelve months he was made paying teller. In 1860 he became assistant cashier, and in 1861 cashier. Mr. Gage retained his connection with this trust company until 1868, when he accepted a position as cashier of the First National Bank. Upon the reorganization of the bank in 1882 and the increase of its capital stock to $3,000,000, Mr. Gage's abilities received further recognition in his appointment as vice-president. He held this position until July 1, 1891, when, upon the retirement of S. M. Nickerson, he became president of the institution.

Mr. Gage was a leader in the fight for the location of the World's Columbian Exposition. He was chairman of the Washington committee, one of the three who pledged $10,000,000 on behalf of the city, and first president of the Exposition Company. He was president of the Bankers' Section of the World's Congress, and there is scarcely a great success in the administration and results of the great fair with which his name is not inseparably connected.

He has been identified with many other enterprises of wide influence, a few of the more prominent positions held by him being these: Member of the clearing house committee when the Chicago Clearing House Association was first organized; an officer of the Chicago Citizens' League upon its organization in 1885; director of the Union Stockyards National Bank upon its organization in 1869; member of the executive committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago at its founding in 1885; vice-president of the Union Club in 1884; treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association in 1878 and 1879; treasurer of the Chicago Art Institute for many years; president of the American Bankers' Association for three terms; chairman of the committee on finance for the republican national convention of 1880; president of the Civic Federation of Chicago.

ALGER, RUSSELL ÅLEXANDER, secretary of war, was born in the township of Lafayette, Medina county, O., February 27, 1836. A full biographical sketch of General Alger has already appeared in CURRENT HISTORY (Vol. 1, p. 342; portrait opp. p. 292). In the last three national conventions of the republican party, General Alger's name was frequently mentioned as a candidate for presidential nomi

nation. In 1888, when General Harrison was nominated, he received 143 votes on the fifth ballot.

MCKENNA, JOSEPH, attorney-general, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., in 1843, and went to California with his parents in 1855. He was graduated at St. Augustine College, Benicia, Cal.; studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was chosen district attorney of Solano county in 1866, and served two successive terms. He was for two sessions a member of the California legislature, beginning in 1875; and was twice a candidate for congress before he achieved election in 1885. While in the California legislature he delivered a notable speech on the bill creating the state board of railway commissioners. He remained a member of the federal house of representatives until 1892, when he was appointed United States circuit court judge for the Ninth or Pacific Slope circuit, by President Harrison. At that time he was a member of the ways and means committee of the house, and the only member on it from a state west of the Rockies. He was associated with Mr. McKinley in the formulation of the tariff law of 1890.

GARY, JAMES ALBERT, postmaster general, was born in Uncasville, Conn., October 22, 1833, of English descent, the founder of the American line of the family being John Gary, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a Lancashire farmer, who, with his brother James, came to the United States in 1712. James A. Gary attended school at Rockhill Institute, Ellicott City, Md., and was graduated at Allegheny College, Meadville, Penn. In 1861 he became a partner with his father in Baltimore in the firm of James S. Gary & Son, which owns large mills at Alberton, Md. In 1870 Mr. Gary succeeded his father as head of the firm. He owns other valuable business properties in Baltimore and Howard counties, and has been repeatedly called upon to share in the management of financial and other business corporations in Baltimore. He was president for several years of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, and is now vicepresident of the Consolidated Gas Company and vice-president of the Citizens' National Bank of Baltimore. He also holds directorships in the Savings Bank of Baltimore, the Warehouse Company, the American Insurance Company, the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Insurance Company, and the Baltimore Trust and Guarantee Company.

An ardent Unionist during the Civil War, Mr. Gary has been a republican ever since. He was defeated for election to congress in 1870, and was also unsuccessful in a contest for the governorship in 1879. He has been a delegate to every national convention of his party since 1872, and from 1880 to 1896 represented Maryland upon the republican national committee.

LONG, JOHN D., secretary of the navy, was born at Buckfield, Oxford county, Me., October 27, 1838. He was educated in the schools of his native place, at an academy in Hebron, a neighboring town, and at Harvard, where he was graduated with high honors in 1857. He composed the class ode for commencement in that year. For two years he was principal of an academy in Westford, Mass.; later took a course of law lectures at Harvard and studied law in Sidney Bartlett's office in Boston. Was admitted to the bar in 1861; went back to Maine for a short time; but returned to Boston, where he lived until 1869, when he removed to Hingham, Mass., his present home. While in Maine he was defeated for election to the state legislature. In 1871 he joined the Greeley movement, and ran for the legislature in Massachusetts on the independent ticket, but was defeated. In

1874 he was successful as a republican. He was frequently called upon to occupy the speaker's chair, and acquired an experience which led to his being made temporary presiding officer of the legislature in 1875. In 1876 he became speaker, and was re-elected in 1877 and 1878. In 1879 he was elected governor, defeating the late General B. F. Butler. He was twice unanimously renominated and re-elected. Subsequently he was elected to the 48th, 49th, and 50th congresses. Toward the end of his term in the house he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States senate. While in congress he served on the committees on commerce and appropriations. Though devoted to the practice of law, when not engaged in political duties he has found time to devote a good deal of leisure to literary work. He is the author of a delightful translation of Virgil's Æneid, and has published a volume of poems, mostly in the direction of vers de société.

BLISS, CORNELIUS N., secretary of the interior, was born in Fall River, Mass., sixty-three years ago, and has achieved eminent success as a man of business. He came to New York early in life, and identified himself with the dry goods trade, becoming finally the head of Bliss, Fabyan & Co. As a politician he has been a most pugnacious opponent of T. C. Platt and the republican machine. Mr. Bliss has frequently been a delegate to county and state conventions, and was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce committee that went to Chicago to urge the nomination of President Arthur in 1884. He is a member of the leading city clubs, art associations, and scientific societies, and in all respects a foremost man in social and business life. His appointment seems to indicate that the president holds himself entirely aloof from the influence of the New York state political machine and its senatorial representative.

WILSON, JAMES, secretary of agriculture, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 16, 1835-the only foreign-born member of the cabinet, and came to the United States in 1851. He received an academic education, and has nearly all his life been a practical as well as scientific farmer. He served in the state legislature 1867-73, being twice speaker, and represented the Fifth Iowa district in the 43d, 44th, and 48th congresses. In the national legislature he was a special champion of agricultural interests, though highly respected as a scholar of encyclopedic knowledge. An incident which made Mr. Wilson greatly honored was his magnanimity in surrendering his claim in a case of contested election, when it was necessary to clear the deck to push through the bill placing the dying Grant on the retired list of the army. After his retirement from congress he served for one term as state railroad commissioner. He is at present professor in the Ames Agricultural College, at Ames, Iowa.

A New Party.-Following the "bolt" of the silver republicans from the St. Louis convention last year (Vol. 6, pp. 259, 289), and the subsequent withdrawal of the silver senators from the senate republican caucus (Vol. 6, p. 852), it is not surprising to note that on February 22, 1897, a step was taken by silver republicans of the senate and house, looking toward a formal organization into a new party of all the silver republican elements in the country. A manifesto was issued, from which we quote as follows: