term; and at times he served on the committee on Foreign Affairs. Chairman of the committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, he drew the bill which legalized the metric system in this country. From 1868-72 he served three successive terms in the Iowa legislature. Among his notable speeches and addresses in congress are those on the Anti-Slavery Amendment, 1865; Universal Suffrage, 1866; Chinese Immigration; the Tariff, 1883; Tariff Protection, 1884. Several of his reports from committees were of marked importance, particularly the report from the Pacific Railroad Committee against endorsing the bonds of the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, January 7, 1877; the report from the committee on Foreign Affairs on the Nicaragua Canal, July 21, 1882; and the report from the committee on Reform of the Civil Service, December 12, 1882.
In 1877 President Hayes offered Mr. Kasson his choice between the missions to Madrid and Vienna. He accepted the latter, and was at that court as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary during the years 1877-81. Two terms in congress followed, but before his second term expired he was named by President Arthur for a like distinguished post at the court of the German Empire. His term of office at Berlin lasted until the change of administration under President Cleveland, and in large part through his efforts better relations between the two countries were brought about. Prince Bismarck paid him the most complimentary tribute by asking the new administration to continue him at his post in Berlin.
Mr. Kasson was appointed in 1884 special envoy to the International General conference at Berlin to establish the Congo Free State, and to regulate its relation to other powers. The historical significance of this convention of national governments is not yet fully appreciated. All the greater nations of the world, both colonial and noncolonial powers, participated. Its object was to secure future peace and international equality of rights in all the vast region of Central Africa. The diplomatist and historian of the future will find in its records ample rewards for his study. Baron von Bunsen, in the "Montags Revue," declared that the influence of the United States over its results was second only to that of Germany.
President Harrison in 1889 appointed Mr. Kasson at the head of the United States commission to meet the German and English commissions in the Samoan conference at Berlin. His diplomatic skill was heavily taxed in settling the vexatious differences between Ger-
