* Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats and four Greenbackers. A "straight" Greenback ticket was also voted for.

†Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular ticket received 96,912, and was successful; the "Readjusters" polled 31,674 votes. + Two Republican tickets were voted for.

Hancock.

ELECTORAL
VOTE.

The count of votes took place under the resolution already noticed. The electoral votes of Georgia were counted in the alternative manner first devised in 1821, as they had been cast on the second Wednesday of December. The vote was so close in California that one of the Republican electors was chosen by "split tickets." The electoral count was entirely devoid of incident, ad General Garfield was duly proclaimed elected.

XXVI.

CLEVELAND.

AT AT no time since the administration of Mr. Monroe have party names had less meaning than they conveyed during the four years preceding the election of 1884. During all that time, there was hardly a vote passed by either House of Congress in which members ranged themselves on party lines. There were no sharply defined party issues, and political matters were in such a condition that if any question of absorbing interest had arisen, there must have been very extensive changes of party association, if not complete reconstruction of both the great historical organizations. In the absence of such questions, men continued to act, each with his own party, merely as a matter of habit, and, up to the spring of 1884, there was nothing to portend the violence and fury with which the canvass of that year was to be conducted.

A brief survey of the leading events of the years 1881'84 will indicate how little occurred that had an influence upon the result in the presidential year. There was, first of all, the dissension in the Republican party caused by some of Mr. Garfield's appointments, and the formation of two factions, one of which called itself "Stalwart " and stigmatized the other as "Half-breed." The assassination, the lingering sickness, and the death of President Garfield; the accession of Mr. Arthur, the scandal of the "Star route" mail contracts, and the still greater scandal of the trial of the assassin of the President, - these are chapters in our history which every patriotic student would gladly forget.

375

The only important legislation during Mr. Arthur's administration consisted of laws aimed at polygamy in Utah, and at Chinese immigration; the creation of the Tariff Commission in 1882, and the passage of a new Tariff law in 1883; and the Civil Service Reform Act. While this was all, in one sense, political legislation, it was not, in the strict sense, party legislation. The Tariff act, however, divided Congress nearly on party lines. In the Senate, only one Democrat voted for the bill, and only two Republicans against it; while in the House of Representatives, fifteen Democrats and nine Republicans separated themselves from their respective parties. The Civil Service Reform Act was passed in each branch by large majorities; but in the Senate, all the five negative votes were given by Democrats, and in the House of Representatives, only seven of the forty-seven negative votes were given by Republicans. Neither of these important acts was regarded as a party measure to such an extent that any member lost standing by placing himself in opposition to the general opinion of his associates, and neither had a perceptible effect upon the election of 1884.

Events, nevertheless, were occurring which weakened. the Republicans and prepared the way for the impending defeat of the party. There was a feeling which found expression in various ways that "the machine" was becoming too prominent in the management of affairs, and that the "bosses" were defiant of the better sentiment of the party in the selection of candidates. In many States, the election of 1882 resulted in Democratic victories which were largely due to a revolt against what was, rightly or wrongly, deemed the arrogant dictation of selfconstituted leaders. Pennsylvania defeated the Republican candidate for Governor, to whom no one objected on

personal grounds; and New York gave to Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate for governor, the unprecedented majority of one hundred and ninety thousand, although the opposing candidate was Mr. Folger, the Secretary of the Treasury, who had been the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. These defeats were regarded as warnings to the Republicans that they could win the coming contest only by nominating good candidates, without the intervention of the "machine" and the "bosses."

A step in the direction of greater freedom within the party, and in curtailment of the powers sometimes exercised by leaders in disregard of the popular will, was taken at a meeting of the Republican National Committee held in 1883. An attempt was made so to change the "basis" of the National Convention, as to enlarge the influence of the States and communities giving Republican majorities, and to diminish correspondingly the relative strength of those parts of the country where the party was in a hopeless minority. Two propositions were submitted. According to the first, the National Convention would consist of delegates from each State as follows: (1) Four delegates at large; (2) One delegate for each Congress-District; (3) One delegate for each twelve thousand votes given in the State in 1880, for the Republican electoral ticket. The other plan proposed for each State: (1) Four delegates at large; (2) One delegate at large for each Republican Senator representing the State; (3) One delegate for each CongressDistrict; (4) One additional delegate for each district represented in Congress by a Republican. Each of these propositions was rejected, and the old basis of a National Convention was reädopted.

But a radical change was made in the method of choos