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tainly chilled and well nigh paralyzed the party in Mas sachusetts, and it caused a serious loss in other New England States and in New York. But in the rest of the country the defection was not great. In the West, the enthusiasm for Mr. Blaine was almost unprecedented. During the canvass he made a tour from his home in Maine through many of the States of the West, and was met and cheered by enormous crowds of people everywhere. The Democrats, jubilant over the accession of a fresh contingent of voters, and hopeful, for the first time in many years, of returning to power, made a bold and confident fight.

Yet all observers could see that the contest was to be a very close one. The whole number of electoral votes was to be 201. The Democrats, as usual, were sure of the "solid South" with 153 votes, and they accordingly needed to gain only 48 votes in the North. The October election in Ohio showed that in the States usually Republican there was likely to be no change; in short, the Republicans could depend upon all the Northern States except Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Indiana, - that is, upon 182 votes. It was the 66 votes of four States that would decide the result. No one could tell how these States would go. Each party hoped and feared. For although in three of them the Republicans had lost many strong supporters, Mr. Blaine was very popular among the Irish voters, and no one could guess whether from that quarter enough recruits might not be found to offset the Mugwump defection.

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Just on the eve of the election, an incident occurred which dashed this hope of the Republicans. A delega tion of clergymen met Mr. Blaine in New York, as he was returning from the tour already mentioned, and one

of their number made an address to the candidate, in the course of which he said in effect that the Republican canvass was directed against "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." The phrase was immediately used with great effect to drive back the Irish supporters of Mr. Blaine into the Democratic ranks. He had not used the phrase, indeed, it is doubtful if, in the confusion, he even heard it as it was uttered; but it was employed as though it had been an expression of his own, and there is scarcely a doubt that it changed enough votes in New York, which was most closely divided, to change the whole result, and to elect Mr. Cleveland instead of Mr. Blaine, — for the vote of New York was decisive.

The excitement of the canvass did not die out with the election, for the result was in great doubt. The early returns showed that Mr. Cleveland had carried all the Southern States, together with Connecticut, New Jersey, and Indiana. In all the other Northern States, except New York, the Republicans had been successful. The vote in New York was so close that both parties claimed its electoral vote for several days, and the corrected returns as they came in, showing differences from the first hasty returns of a score or two, first in favor of one party, then in favor of the other, were studied with intense anxiety. But the final result, a plurality of 1149 in a total vote of nearly 1,200,000, ended all doubt, and gave a President to the Democratic party for the first time since the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration.

No State had been admitted since 1876, but a new apportionment on the basis of the census of 1880 had increased the number of electors. The result of the popular vote, and of the vote by follows:

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The count of electoral votes took place on February 11, 1885, in accordance with a joint resolution adopted by both Houses of Congress without opposition. The resolution was in the identical words of the first part of the resolution of 1881, and simply provided for the opening of the certificates by two tellers on the part of each House, and a declaration of the result by the President of the Senate. The count was undisturbed by any event calling for notice.

XXVII.

TWO GREAT QUESTIONS SETTLED.

THE quadrennial period which completed the first century under the Constitution was distinguished by the passage of two acts of constitutional importance. By one of these acts the method of counting the electoral votes was settled on principles so reasonable and equitable that there seems no reason to apprehend that it will ever be changed, so long as the system of electing the President indirectly is pursued. Thus the famous casus omissus of the Constitution has been supplied so far as that can be done without a formal amendment, which is unnecessary so long as parties are willing to abide by a fair settlement of a much disputed point, and which could not be adopted were either party opposed to it. By the other act, the presidential succession has been completely changed.

The history of the adoption of these measures contains very little that is interesting. Neither was carried as a party measure, and when brought to a vote the opposition to either was little more than a symptom of that conservatism which usually resists all change.

The Presidential Succession Act was the first in order of time. The law of 1791 made the President pro tempore of the Senate the successor to the office of President in the event of the removal, death, resignation, or disability of both the President and the Vice-President; * and after the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the

* Page 19.

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