THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876.

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be safeguarded, and denounced the doctrine of State sovereignty, of which there was little to be feared, since it had been effectually killed by the war.

The Greenbackers made considerable stir. They also used the shibboleth of reform, but put the currency question before all others. Although the government was committed to the redemption of the national legal-tenders and bonds. in gold, the Greenbackers insisted that this was impossible, and was also unjust to the debtor class. They claimed, further, that it was the duty of the government to provide a national paper currency, based not on specie, but on bonds bearing a low rate of interest. The Republicans and Democrats maintained that the government could not abrogate its promises of redeeming the currency and bonds in gold.

The Greenback party polled 81,740 votes, the Prohibition 9,522, and the American 2,636, none gaining an electoral vote. For several days after the November election, it was generally believed that the Democrats had been successful, though a few Re

publican papers, notably the New York Times, persistently claimed that the Republican ticket had been successful.

There was a dispute in four States. In Louisiana, the returning board threw out the returns from several parishes on the ground of intimidation and fraud, thereby placing 4,000 majority to the credit of the Republicans. The Democrats insisted that the rejected votes should be counted, and, had it been done, Tilden would have been elected.

In South Carolina, two bodies claimed to be the legal Legislature and both canvassed the returns, one giving a plurality of 800 to the Republican ticket and the other a smaller majority to the Democratic. Precisely the same wrangle occurred in Florida, where each side claimed a majority of about a hundred. Matters were still more complicated in Oregon, where a Republican elector was declared ineligible, because he held the office of postmaster at the time he was

chosen elector. The governor proposed to withhold the certificate from him and give it to a Democrat. Had everything claimed by the Republicans been conceded, they would have had 185 and the Democrats 184. It was necessary, therefore, for the Republicans to maintain every point in order to secure their President, for it was beyond dispute that Tilden had received 184 electoral votes. On the popular vote, he had 4,284,885 to 4,033,950 for Hayes. Each party charged the other with fraud, and thousands of Democrats were so incensed at what they believed was a plot to cheat them out of the presidency that they were ready to go to war. Had they done so, it would have been the most terrible peril that ever came upon the Republic, for the war would not have been one section against the other, but of neighborhood against neighborhood throughout the land.

fifteen members, five to be appointed by the House, five by the Senate, and the remaining five to consist of judges of the Supreme Court.

The Senate being Republican, its presiding officer, the Vice-President, named three Republicans and two Democrats; the House naturally appointed three Democrats and two Republicans; while of the Supreme Court, three were Republicans and two Democrats. This, it will be noted, gave to the commission eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The body by a strict party vote decided every dispute in favor of the Republicans, and on the 2d of March, 1877, two days before inauguration, Rutherford B. Hayes was decided President-elect of the United States.

THE NEW YORK TUBLIC LIBRARY.

ACTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION WHICH DECIDED UPON THE ELECTION OF PRESIDENT HAYES Composed of three Republican and two Democratic Senators, three Democratic and two Republican Representatives, three Republican and two Democratic Justices of the Supreme Court; total, eight Republicans and seven Democrats. By a strict party vote the decision was given in favor of Mr. Hayes, who, two days later, March 4, 1877, was inaugurated President of the United States.

CHAPTER XX.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF HAYES, GARFIELD, AND ARTHUR, 1877-1885.

R. B. Hayes-The Telephone-Railway Strikes-Elevated Railroads-War with the Nez Perce Indians -Remonetization of Silver-Resumption of Specie Payments-A Strange Fishery Award-The Yellow Fever Scourge-Presidential Election of 1878-James A. Garfield-Civil Service ReformAssassination of President Garfield-Chester A. Arthur-The Star Route Frauds-The Brooklyn Bridge The Chinese Question-The Mormons-Alaska Exploration-The Yorktown CentennialAttempts to Reach the North Pole by Americans-History of the Greely Expedition.

THE NINETEENTH PRESIDENT.

RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES was born in Delaware County, Ohio, October 4, 1822, and was graduated from Kenyon College at the age of twenty years. In 1845 he completed his legal studies at Harvard University, and practiced law, first at Marietta, in his native State, then at Fremont, and finally in Cincinnati. He entered the military service, at the beginning of the war, as major, and rose to the rank of brevet majorgeneral. His career as a soldier was creditable. While still in the service, in 1864, he was elected to Congress, and was governor of Ohio in 1867, 1869, and again in 1875. His popularity as chief magistrate of one of the leading States led to his nomination to the presidency, to which, however, it must be conceded, he had not a clear title. He died at Fremont, Ohio, January 17, 1893.

President Hayes proved his desire to strengthen the fraternal feeling