The House of Representatives quickly decided, without debate, — 150 to 41,— that the vote of Georgia should not be counted. In the Senate there was a long and somewhat ungoverned discussion. Mr. Wade explained that the reason why he had yielded his first position in the joint meeting was that two of Mr. Butler's objections were not of the kind contemplated by the concurrent resolution directing how the votes of Georgia should be declared. A great many propositions were made, and at last the Senate voted, by 28 votes against 25, "that, under the special order of the two Houses respecting the electoral vote from the State of Georgia, the objections made to the counting of the vote of the electors for the State of Georgia are not in order." The action of each House having been communicated to the other, the Senate returned to the Representatives' Hall. Then ensued one of the most remarkable and disgraceful scenes ever enacted in Congress. Mr. Wade, on taking the chair, remarked that the objections of the gentleman from Massachusetts had been overruled by the Senate, and that the vote would be announced according to the terms of the concurrent resolution. General Butler said that the House had sustained the objections, and proposed to offer a resolution, remarking, "I do not understand that we are to be overruled by the Senate in that way.' The President of the Senate refused to entertain the resolution, and General Butler appealed from the decision of the chair. The President declined to entertain the appeal. A scene of indescribable disorder and confusion followed, several members speaking at once, Mr. Butler distinguishing himself by the violence of his language, and, as General Garfield said, in the debate which followed the joint meeting, by "a manner and bearing of unparalleled insolence." Some of his remarks

were omitted in the revision of them, which appears in the "Congressional Globe;" but they were referred to in the debate just mentioned. The last remark he made, as revised, is thus reported:

Mr. BUTLER of Massachusetts: I move that this convention now be dissolved, and that the Senate have leave to retire. [Continued cries of "Order!" "Order!"] And on that motion I demand a vote. [Cries of "Order!" "Order!" from various parts of the hall.] We certainly have the right to clear the hall of interlopers.

The presiding officer, not noticing these interruptions, proceeded to sum up the result, as directed by the concurrent resolution, and declared Grant and Colfax elected. The Senate then retired.

As soon as the House was by itself, Mr. Butler rose to a question of privilege, and offered a resolution that "the House protest that the counting of the vote of Georgia by the order of the Vice-President pro tempore was a gross act of oppression and an invasion of the rights and privileges of the House." Upon this resolution a long and most acrimonious debate took place, which lasted three days. It contributed little or nothing to the settlement of the constitutional questions that have arisen in regard to the count of votes. The position of affairs was quite novel, and the gentlemen who took part in the debate seemed, without exception, to give their hasty impressions, rather than the result of careful study. The only point which was made clear was that the constitution and the action of Congress left room for a variety of views, and that no member need be at a loss for precedents to sustain his own opinion. General Butler changed his resolution several times before a vote was taken. In one of its forms it proposed to abrogate the twenty-second joint rule, a proposition which was re

ceived with derision by many Republican members, who all declared that it was not possible for one House to rescind a joint rule. But eight years later the Senate rescinded the same rule, and refused to be bound by it, although the House was then in favor of acting under it. General Butler's resolution, greatly toned down, and providing for the reference of the subject to a select committee, was at last brought to a vote, on a motion to lay it on the table, which was carried by 130 to 55, and the matter was dropped.

XXIII.

THE "GREELEY CAMPAIGN.”

THE reconstruction of the Southern States had been sulstantially completed before the term of General Grant as President began. It only remained for three of the States to comply with the conditions already established. This they did soon afterward, and the legislation of the Forty-first Congress was accomplished, with every State in the Union fully represented. But the Southern question was not yet settled. The constitutions of the readmitted States contained guaranties of the right of the people to vote without reference to their race, color, or previous condition of servitude; but, in effect, both the political and social rights of the colored people were much restricted. A state of terrorism existed in some parts of the South, where a secret organization known as the Ku-Klux-Klan committed outrages upon the colored people, intended to intimidate them and to prevent them from voting. To defeat the schemes of those who endeavored by lawless acts to render the legislation of Congress nugatory, the act for the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, commonly known as the Ku-Klux Act, was passed. This measure, although it seemed necessary at the time, gave the Democrats an opportunity, which they were not slow to improve, to sneer at the clumsiness of a party which, with unlimited power, had not been able in five years since the war closed to finish its work with the South. Military force was constantly necessary to uphold the Southern

State governments, and the internal condition of some districts was sadly disturbed.

Beside the Southern question there were others which now began to assume political importance. The first act signed by President Grant pledged the faith of the government to the payment of the interest-bearing bonds of the United States in coin, and to an early resumption of specie payments. For the time being, the Opposition confined their attacks upon the financial system to the national banks. The annexation of San Domingo to the United States was a favorite scheme with the President, and he did all that was in his power, both publicly and privately, to accomplish it. In the course of his negotiations to that end, and by other measures, he alienated the support of Mr. Sumner and of Horace Greeley, whose standing as Republicans and as public men was almost unique, and whose adhesion to the Opposition in the ensuing canvass was deemed at the time to be most disastrous to the Republicans. There was another issue, which had its origin at this time, which has since played an important part in congressional and presidential elections. The principle tersely expressed by Mr. Marcy to justify the wholesale removals from office practised by General Jackson, that "to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy," had been adopted by every Democratic and Opposition administration which followed that of Jackson. On the accession of Mr. Lincoln, the Democratic officers were driven out and Republicans took their places, in every department of the government, from the foreign minister to the country postmaster. Mr. Johnson had been restrained from substituting Democrats for them all only by the tenure-of-office act. General Grant found few Democrats to expel from public positions; but an evil, which had grown up with that of a partisan civil