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Democratic senators; the House had appointed three
Democratic and two Repubhcan representatives.
Congress had elected two Republican and two Demo-
cratic justices, and they were to choose a fifth. It is
perfectly clear that this member could determine the
entire question. Mr. Justice Bradley, a Republican,
was the person chosen. This made up a commission
of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. Every
important question before the Commission was de-
cided by a strict party vote. By many independent
persons it is regarded as an established fact that the
Democrats had been counted out in the election of
1876 by "carpet baggers" and the negroes, who were
under their guidance. On 2 March the election of
Hayes and ^Vheele^ was announced by the president
of the Senate. Amongst Democrats there was ex-
treme disappointment, but Mr. Tilden himself ad-
vised obedience to the law.
An early act of the new president, often referred to by orators and newspapers as a fraudulent Executive, was the withdrawal of the Federal troops from the South. The "carpet bag" governments soon came to an end, and also the wild political orgies that dis- graced them. This also was the era of strikes, Chinese agitation, and epidemics. Before the administration of President Hayes began, an important question of foreign relations was settled. In 1861 Great Britain, Spain, and France each sent an army to Mexico to collect debts due their respective subjects. When it became apparent that Napoleon III had ulterior designs. Great Britain and Spain withdrew. The French troops remained. Seeing that the United States w'as engaged in war. Napoleon overturned the Mexican Republic and made Maximihan, a brother of the Emperor of Austria, Emperor of Mexico. The United States protested against this violation of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, but nothing was done till the war was over. Then General Sheridan was sent to the Rio Grande with .50,000 veterans. The French army was promptly withdrawn in 1867, and Maximilian fell into the hands of the Mexicans, by whom he was shot. The repubUo was then restored.
Recent History. — In the election of 1880 the Repub- lican candidates, General James A. Garfield and Chester .\. .Vrthur, were successful. The new executive had scarcely entered upon the duties of his office when he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker. This event took place on 2 July, 1881, but the president lingered on till 19 Sept., 1S81, when he died at Elberon, New Jersey, where he had been taken in the hope that he might recover. The fort}'- sixth Congress had ceased to exist on 4 March, and the forty-seventh would not meet till December. Had President Arthiir died or been killed during the inter- val, there would have been no national executive. It was this condition which suggested the passage in 1886 of the Presidential Succe.ssion Act. Thereafter, in case of the occurrence of vacancies in both offices, the heads of departments would succeed to the presi- dency in the order in which those departments had been estabUshed, viz.. State, Treasury, War, Justice, Post Office, Navy, Interior. No other departments existed at that time. Of course, the secretary suc- ceeding to the presidency mu.st have the qualificat ions enumerated in the Constitution. In the adminis- tration of President Arthur there was passed a law for the suppression of polygamy in Utah; also an act to regulate appointments to the Civil Service of the United State.«. Hitherto most of those appointments had been bestowed as a reward for partisan services. The new law was designed to make appointments to public office on the ground of fitness. Since its pa.ssage in 18S3 much progres.'i has been made in the matter of making appointments, but the system is still crude.
In the presidential contest of 1884 the Republicans
nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan as
their candidates, while the Democrats selected Grover
Cleveland and Thomas .A. Hendricks. The nomina-
tion of Blaine was the signal for a secession from the
Republican ranks. Independents within the party,
then known as "Mugwumps", refused to support
the ticket, and contributed much toward its de-
feat. In the first administration of Grover Cleve-
land there were passed several important laws: an
anti-contract labour law (1885), which prohibited
the importation of aliens into the United States under
contract to perform labour or service; the Interstate
Commerce Act (1887), which placed railways under
the supervision of a commission. That body has to
see that charges for the tran.sportation of merchandise
and passengers are reasonable and just; also that no
rebates, special rates, or unjust discriminations are
made for one shipper in preference to another. A
second Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1888.
This prevented the return to the United States of any
Chinese labourer who had once left this country.
A Bureau of Labour was created in the same year.
Questions of pubhc finance also received the atten-
tion of the administration. In twenty vears the
pubhc debt had been reduced by $1,100,000,000.
Every bond that could be cancelled was called in and
paid at its face value. There were other bonds, but
they had many years to run. The Government could
indeed buy them at a high rate or allow them to run.
It did not appear sound policy to buy them at a high
rate, while if they were permitted to run, the Govern-
ment did not need its present income, for a surplus
was rapidly accumulating in the Treasury. This was
the condition which led to the proposal to enact a
new tariff law. This conclusion was reached toward
the close of President Cleveland's administration.
When, therefore, the presidential election of 1888
came round, it found the Democrats supporting the
policy of a tariff for revenue. On the other hand, the
RepubUcans desired to retain the protective taritT.
They proposed to reduce the revenue by lowering the
taxes on tobacco and on spirits used in manufactures.
They would also admit free of duty articles of foreign
manufacture, if the United States did not manufacture
a similar class of articles. Benjamin Harrison and
Levi P. Morton were chosen as Republican candi-
dates. When this party was again in control of the
government, it began at once to take measures for
the redemption of its promises. The McKinley Tariff
Act was passed in 1890, and on 27 June in the same
year a dependent pension bill. Hitherto the laws
granted pensions only to those who had sustained an
injury or contracted a disabiUtj' in the service and
in fine of duty. The new law allowed a pension to all
those who had served ninety days in the army or the
navy, and were disabled, whether they contracted that
disability in the service or not. The maximum allow-
ance under this law was $12, and the minimum $6 a
month. This law increased the names on the pension
rolls to 970,000. It was in the administration of
President Harrison that the Sherman Act became a
law. It provided that the Secretary of the Trea.sury
should buy each month 4, ,500,000 ounces of silver;
that he should pay for the bullion thus purcha.sed
with treasury notes; that on demand of the holder
the secretary must redeem these notes in gold or
silver; after a fixed date, 1 July, 1S91, the silver need
not be coined, but might be stored in the treasury,
and silver certificates issued. The Farmers' AUiance
and the People's Party belong to this era.
In 1S92 Cleveland was once more elected. This time the Democratic party had control of the two political departments of the government, its first complete triumi)h since 1856. At the lime of his inauguration, 4 March, 189.3, the business of the country appeared to be in a very prosperous state, but during the succeeding summer and autumn there
