By the currency law, known as the Gold Standard Act, it is provided:—­

1.  That the gold dollar shall be the standard unit of value.

2.  That all forms of money issued or coined shall be kept “at a parity of value” with this gold standard.

3.  That United States notes and Treasury notes shall be redeemed in gold coin.  For this purpose $150,000,000 of gold coin or bullion is set apart in the Treasury.

%578%.  When the time came to prepare for the election of a President and Vice President, eleven conventions were held, as many platforms were framed, and eight pairs of candidates were nominated.  There were the Democratic and Republican parties; the People’s Party (Fusionists) and the People’s Party (Middle of the Road Anti-Fusionists); the Prohibition, United Christian, Silver Republican, Socialist Labor, Social Democratic, and National parties; and the Anti-Imperialist League.  The things opposed, approved of, or demanded by these parties were many and various; but a few should be stated as showing what the people were thinking about:  Trusts, the gold standard, the free coinage of silver, a canal across Nicaragua or the isthmus of Panama, election of United States senators by the people, repeal of the war taxes, statehood for the territories, independence for the Filipinos, aid to American shipping, irrigation of the arid lands in the West, public ownership of railways and telegraphs, desecration of the Sabbath, equality of men and women, exclusion of the Asiatics, the Monroe Doctrine.

%579.  McKinley Reelected.%—­The Populist (Fusionist) convention nominated William J. Bryan and Charles A. Towne.  But the Democrats named Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson.  Thereupon Towne withdrew, and Bryan and Stevenson were made the candidates of the Populists and the Silver party as well as of the Democrats.  The Democratic platform denounced imperialism and trusts, and reiterated the demand for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1.  The Republicans renominated President McKinley, and nominated Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President, on a platform indorsing McKinley’s administration and favoring the gold standard of money.  McKinley and Roosevelt were elected.

%580.  McKinley Assassinated.% On March 4, 1901, the President began his second term, which six months later came to a dreadful end.  In May a great fair—­the Pan-American Exposition—­was opened at Buffalo, and to this exposition the President came as a guest early in September, and was holding a public reception on the afternoon of the 6th, when an anarchist who approached as if to shake hands, suddenly shot him twice.  For several days it was thought that the wounds would not prove fatal; but early on the morning of the 14th, the President died, and that afternoon Mr. Roosevelt took the oath of office required by the Constitution and became President.

[Illustration:  Theodore Roosevelt]