ened by the Prohibition party; for that organization successfully invited many Republicans who would not support Mr. Blaine, and who could not bring themselves to the point of voting for a Democrat, to give their votes to Mr. St. John.

It would not be true, despite all these disturbing conditions, to say that the canvass was not an enthusiastic one on both sides. The Republican defection certainly chilled and well-nigh paralyzed the party in Massachusetts, and 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 everywhere by enormous crowds of people. The Democrats, jubilant over the accession of a fresh contingent of voters, and hopeful of returning to power after many years of exclusion therefrom, made a bold and confident fight.

Yet all observers could see that the result of the contest was to be extremely close. The whole number of electoral votes was 401. 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. The 66 votes of four States 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 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.

Just on the eve of the election, an incident occurred which dashed this hope of the Republicans. A delegation 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 affected 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 electors, has been given.

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.

XXVIII

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED

THE quadrennial period which completed the first century of government under the Constitution was distinguished by the passage of two acts of constitutional importance. By one of them, 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. The amendment is unnecessary so long as parties are willing to abide by a fair settlement of a much disputed point, and it 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 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; 1 and, after the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Constitution conferred upon Congress the duty of designating what officer shall act as President in such cases. There was, from the beginning, a doubt if the President pro tempore of the Senate, or the Speaker, was an "officer," within the meaning of the Constitution. But certain considerations of personal politics at the time the act was passed caused Con1 See page 36.

gress not to take the members of the Cabinet, the natural successors of the President and Vice-President in case of vacancy, but to vest the succession in the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Fortunately, the case has never occurred which called for an application of the law of 1791. Nevertheless, on more than one occasion the country was perilously near a crisis, owing to the fact that the death of one person would cause the presidency to lapse, since no one then held the position either of President pro tempore or of Speaker.

It was this consideration, rather than the doubt if the law of 1791 was in conformity with the Constitution, that led to the enactment of the law of 1886. Another reason was that neither of the presiding officers of Congress designated for the succession is necessarily or invariably a member of the party which has been successful in electing the President; and it is universally admitted that political fair dealing demands that the party which has carried the election shall not be deprived of its victory by the death of the President and Vice-President.

It

The Presidential Succession bill was reported from the Committee on the Judiciary, of the Senate, as early as June 19, 1882. It was considered and passed January 19, 1883; but was not taken up for consideration in the House of Representatives before the expiration of the Forty-seventh Congress, March 4, 1883. A bill with identical provisions was passed by the Senate on December 17, 1885, without a division. was taken up January 12, 1886, by the House of Representatives, and, after several proposed amendments had been rejected, the bill was passed as it came from the Senate by a vote of 185 to 77. The affirmative vote was given by 146 Democrats and 39 Republicans; the negative, by 75 Republicans and 2 Democrats. The act was approved January 18, 1886, and is in the following words:

Be it enacted, etc., that in case of the removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretary of State, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of the Treasury, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Secretary of War, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Attorney-General, or if there be none, or in case of his removal, death, resignation, or inability, then the Post