President M'Kinley's Cabinet at the opening of the fifty-sixth Congress was as follows: John Hay of Ohio, Secretary of State; Lyman J. Gage of Illinois, Secretary of the Treasury; Elihu Root of New York, Secretary of War; John W. Griggs of New Jersey, Attorney-General; Charles E. Smith of Pennsylvania, Postmaster-General; John D. Long of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy; Ethan A. Hitchcock of Missouri, Secretary of the Interior; and James Wilson of Iowa, Secretary of Agriculture.
The first session of the fifty-sixth Congress began on December 4. David B. Henderson, Republican, of Iowa, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. William P. Frye, Republican, of Maine, was President, pro tempore, of the Senate. Parties stood as follows: In the Senate: Republicans, 55; Democrats, 26; Populists, 5; Independent, 1; Vacancies, 3. In the House of Representatives: Republicans, 186; Democrats, 160; Populists, 7; Silver Party, 2; Vacancies, 2.
President M'Kinley's annual message was delivered to both houses on December 5. It was a very long document. It described the condition of the country as being exceptionally prosperous, especially with regard to commerce with other nations. Legislation was recommended in order to maintain parity in the value of gold and silver coin, and to support the gold standard. He urged the necessity of a canal uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He reviewed the action of the Joint High Commission created by the United States Government and that of Great Britain for the adjustment of all unsettled questions between the United States and Canada, and said that it had made much progress with the settlement of many of these questions when it became apparent that an irreconcilable difference of views was entertained respecting the delimitation of the Alaskan boundary. The American commissioners proposed that the boundary question should be laid aside and the remaining questions of difference proceeded with. The British commissioners, however, declined, and an adjournment was taken till the boundary question should be adjusted by the two Governments. A modus vivendi for the provisional demarcation of the region about the head of the Lynn Canal had now been agreed upon, and it was hoped that the negotiations would end in the delimitation of a permanent boundary. Apart from these questions, a most friendly disposition and ready agreement had marked the discussion of the numerous matters arising in the vast intercourse of the United States with Great Britain. The Government had maintained an attitude of neutrality in the unfortunate contest between Great Britain and the Boer States of South Africa. The President dwelt on the necessity for a cable to Manila, described the settlement arrived at with regard to Samoa as satisfactory, reiterated that after the full establishment of peace in Cuba the island would be held by the United States only in trust for the inhabitants,
