vided for in the Constitution or in any laws that had been passed, and the result was that for four months after the election nobody knew who would be inaugurated as President in March, 1877. The difficulty was temporarily solved by the Electoral Commission Law, which became effective January 29, 1877. It provided that any electoral votes from any State from which but one return had been received should not be rejected except by the affirmative vote of the two Houses, but if more than one return was received from any State it should be referred to a Commission, to be composed of five members of the Senate, five members of the House and five Supreme Court Justices, and the decision of a majority of this Commission was to decide unless otherwise ordered by a concurrent vote of both Houses. Senators Oliver P. Morton, George F. Edmunds, F. T. Frelinghuysen, Republicans, and Allan G. Thurman and Thomas F. Bayard, Democrats, were chosen to represent the Senate; Josiah G. Abbott, Eppa Hunton and H. B. Payne, Democrats, and James A. Garfield and George F. Hoar, Republicans, represented the House; four Justices of the Supreme Court had been designated by the law to act, and these were Nathan Clifford and Stephen J. Field, Democrats, and William Strong and Samuel F. Miller, Republicans; they were to choose the fifth Justice, and Joseph P. Bradley, Republican, was selected. By a strict party vote the Commission decided, 8 to 7, all questions in favor of the Republicans. These decisons, as already noted, could not be set aside without the concurrent vote of both Houses, which manifestly could not be ob

tained, and at 4:10 a. m. March 2, 1877, it was declared by Mr. Ferry, President pro tem. of the Senate, that Hayes and Wheeler had been elected by 185 votes to 184 for Tilden and Hendricks. The popular vote at the November election was Tilden 4,285,992 and Hayes 4,033,768.

Before passing to the events of President Hayes' administration, it is interesting to note that when the second session of the Forty-fourth Congress met on December 4, 1876, an election was held to fill the position of Speaker, left vacant by the death of Mr. Kerr. Samuel J. Randall, Democrat, was elected by 162 votes to 82 votes for James A. Garfield, and it is therefore seen that President Hayes would enter upon his term with one branch of Congress Democratic.

Mr. Hayes was publicly inaugurated March 5, 1877, the 4th falling upon Sunday. The striking declaration of his inaugural address was the paragraph setting forth the policy that he would pursue in the Southern question, and this policy was exactly the reverse of that of his predecessor. He withdrew the military protection to the colored voter and entered upon a policy of pacification by putting the whites of the South on their honor. This was practically turning over the entire South to the Democrats, and they were not slow to seize the advantage, and they immediately began to work for a "solid South," which became an assured fact when the results of the election of 1880 were known. This policy was extremely unsatisfactory to most of the members of the Republican Party, and considerable antagonism to the President was shown.

Lapse of time, however, has vindicated President Hayes, and it is now felt that while his administration was not brilliant, still it was safe, progressive and satisfactory. The President also had his ideas on the subject of Civil Service Reform, and on June 22, 1877, he issued an order that no officer of the Government should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations or election campaigns.

The first session (extra) of the Forty-fifth Congress opened October 15, 1877. The most important business of this session, and indeed of President Hayes' administration, was the legislation on the silver question, which came up before the House suddenly on November 5, 1877, on motion of Mr. Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, that the rules be suspended so as to permit the introduction of a bill for the free coinage of the standard silver dollar. The motion was carried, and had the effect of cutting off all debate and amendment. The bill, as passed in the House, provided for the coinage of the standard silver dollar (412 grains), to be legal tender at face value for all debts public and private, and any owner of silver bullion might deposit it in any United States mint and have it coined into dollars for his own benefit. The Bland bill was thus a remonetization of silver on absolutely a free coinage basis, and if passed by the Senate and approved by the President in its original form it would unquestionably have had a serious effect upon the credit of the Government. Its introduction and passage in the House caused a flurry in the money market, and distinctly affected the refunding of