The canvass began early and was conducted with much asperity. The Democratic battle-cry was Reform--reform in the public service and in all the methods of administration. The Republicans answered back with the cry of Reform--averring their anxiety to correct public abuses of whatever sort, and to bring to punishment all who had been corrupt in the offices of the government. To this was added a declaration in favor of national sovereignty against the old doctrine of State sovereignty, which was still vital in the South. The Greenback party also cried Reform -monetary reform first and all other reforms afterwards. It was alleged by the leaders of this party that the redemption of the national legal-tenders and other obligations of the United States in gold was a project unjust to the debtor class and iniquitous from every point of view. The advocates of this theory, however, had but a slight political organization and did not succeed in securing a single electoral vote.

The canvass drew to a close; the election was held; the general result was ascertained, and both the Republican and Democratic parties claimed the victory. The electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon were claimed by both. In all those States there had been great irregularity and fraud at the election. The powers of Congress in such cases were so vaguely defined that no declaration of the result could be made. There was great confusion in the country and the premonition of civil war.

With the meeting of Congress in December, 1876, the question of the disputed Presidency came at once before that body for settlement. The situation was complicated by the political complexion of the two Houses. In the Senate the Republicans had a majority, and in the House the Democrats. Acrimonious debates began and seemed likely to be interminable. Should the electoral votes of the

several States be opened and counted by the presiding officer of the Senate in accordance with constitutional usage in such cases? Or should some additonal court be constituted to consider and pass upon the spurious returns from the States where frauds and irregularities had occurred? The necessity of doing something became imperative. The business interests of the country grew clamorous for a speedy adjustment of the difficulty. The spirit of compromise gained ground in Congress, and it was agreed that a Joint High Commission should be constituted to which all the disputed election returns should be referred for decision. The body was to consist of five members chosen from the Senate of the United States, five from the House of Representatives and five from the Supreme Court. The judg ment of the tribunal was to be final in all matters referred thereto for decision.

The commission was accordingly constituted. The counting of the electoral votes was begun as usual in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives. When any disputed or duplicate returns were reached they were referred State by State to the Joint High Commission, by which body the decision was made. On the 2d of March, 1877, only two days before the time for the inauguration, the final judgment of the court was rendered. The Republican candidates were declared elected. One hundred and eighty-five electoral votes were counted for Hayes and Wheeler and one hundred and eighty-four for Tilden and Hendricks. The most dangerous political crisis in the history of the country thus passed harmlessly by without violence or bloodshed.*

*The complete domination of party politics in the United States was never more unhappily illustrated than in the work of the Joint High Commission. This is not said in judgment of the result which was reached, but of the features and methods and principles revealed in the work of the Commission. The five members of the court from the House of Representatives—that body

being Democratic-were of course three Democrats and two Republicans; the five from the Senate-that body being Republican-were three Republicans and two Democrats; the five from the Supreme Court were two Republicans, two Democrats and Judge David Davis, an Independent. It was clear from the first that the decision was likely to rest with the probity, conscience and fearlessness of Judge Davis. But before the issue came to trial, by a sudden whirl in the politics of Illinois, the legislature of that State elected Judge Davis to the Senate of the United States, thus relieving him of the fearful responsibility under which he was about to be placed. Judge Joseph P. Bradley, who was called an Independent, but whose political antecedents and proclivities were Republican, was accordingly appointed by the Supreme Court as the fifth member from that body.

When the proceedings began it was at once manifest that every Democratic member would vote for his candidates whatever might be the proofs; that every Republican would support Hayes and Wheeler whatever might be the facts, and that Judge Bradley, who constituted the real court, would decide according to his antecedents and proclivities. In no single instance during the proceedings did any member of the court rise above his political bias. The decision, therefore, happy enough in the sequel, was simply a gigantic political intrigue-a work in which on the whole the Republican leaders were more sagacious and skillful than their antagonists.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

RUTHERFORD BURCHARD HAYES, nineteenth President of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio, on the 4th of October, 1822. His primary education was received in the public schools. After preparatory study at Norwalk Academy and Webb's Preparatory School, in Connecticut, he entered the Freshman class at Kenyon College, Ohio, and was graduated with high honors in 1842. In 1845 he completed his legal studies at Harvard College. He then began the practice of law, first at Marietta, then at Fremont, and finally in Cincinnati. Here he won a distinguished reputation. In the Civil War he rose to the rank of MajorGeneral, and in 1864, being still in the field, was elected to Congress. In 1867 he was chosen governor of Ohio, and was twice re-elected. At the Republican convention of 1876 he had the good fortune to be nominated for the Presidency over several of the most eminent men of the nation.

President Hayes was inaugurated on the 5th of March, 1877.* He delivered for his inaugural a conciliatory and patriotic address. On the 8th of the month he sent to the Senate the names of his cabinet officers, as follows: Secretary of State, William M. Evarts, of New York; Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman, of Ohio; Secretary of War, George W. McCrary, of Iowa; Secretary of the Navy,

*The fourth of March fell on Sunday. The same thing has happened in the following years: 1753, 1781, 1821 (Monroe's inauguration, second term), 1849 (Taylor's inauguration), 1877 (Hayes's inauguration); and the same will occur hereafter as follows: 1917, 1945, 1973, 2001, 2029, 2057, 2085, 2125, 2153

Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana; Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, of Missouri; Attorney-General, Charles E. Devens, of Massachusetts; Postmaster-General, David M. Kee, of Tennessee. These nominations were duly ratified by the Senate, and the new administration was ushered in under not unfavorable auspices.

The first notable event under the new administration was the great Railroad Strike of 1877. Hitherto that action of working men which has now passed into the phraseology of the times as striking had been little known, and that only in Eastern manufactories and in the mining districts of the country. At length, however, more complex conditions of industry had supervened in the United States, and capitalists and employés had come to entertain towards each other a sentiment and attitude of armed neutrality.

Early in 1877 the managers of the great railways leading from the seaboard to the West declared a reduction of ten per cent. in the wages of their workmen. The measure was to take effect on the first of July, at the precise time when the removal of the enormous grain products of the Wes'. would put upon the operatives of the railways the most excessive labors. It was the season of the year when receipts from railway freights were largest, and when, therefore, there was least rational ground for a reduction of wages. The resistance of the working men to the action of the managers was as natural as it was just.

The strike began on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad on the 16th of July. The workmen did not content themselves with ceasing to work, but gathered with such strength and spirit in Baltimore and Martinsburg, West Virginia, as to prevent the running of trains. The militia was called out by Governor Matthews, only to be dispersed by the strikers. The President ordered General French, with a body of regulars, to raise the blockade of