the years 1872 and 1873. At one time the number "329" was painted, chalked and printed everywhere, on sidewalks, doors and dead walls, and in the newspapers; that being the number of dollars he was alleged to have received as a Credit Mobilier dividend. At the very end of the canvass the famous "Morey Letter" was forged and scattered broadcast, particularly in the Pacific States. That letter, in which General Garfield's handwriting was counterfeited with some success, addressed to a mythical person named Morey, asserted principles on the Chinese question which, if they had been held by General Garfield, would have made him unpopular in California and the other States where "Chinese cheap labor" is regarded as a crying evil. It was lithographed and printed in vast numbers, and scattered among the voters in the Pacific States at a time when an effective denial of its authenticity was impossible; and it had a great effect.

Another feature of the canvass was the sudden importa tion of the tariff question into the political discussion a few weeks before the election. The Democratic platform had declared in favor of "a tariff for revenue only." Republican speakers seized upon this as an assertion of the baldest free-trade doctrine, and they denounced it with surprising vigor as assailing the interests of American industry. The Democrats could not make an effective reply, at least they did not; and they would not defend the phrase in its obvious meaning. No one really supposed that General Hancock was a free trader, but some unfortunate sentences which were written and spoken by him gave an opportunity to the Republicans to jeer at his supposed ignorance upon all tariff questions.

The canvass was also remarkable for the conspicuous absence of agitation upon Southern questions, which had less to do with the result than with that of any other

election since the Abolitionists defeated Henry Clay in 1844, and this in spite of the fact that the South was still "solid" for the Democrats. Another fact was the utter failure of the Democrats to excite the interest of the people in the "fraud issue," meaning the result of the Electoral Commission law of 1877, which issue, the Democratic platform had said, "precedes and dwarfs every other." The canvass was, finally, singular for the discord and sullenness among the Grant men in the Republican party at the outset, followed, after a reverse in Maine in September, by a restoration of harmony and an increase of vigor which immediately thereafter gave energy to the canvass, carried Ohio and Indiana in October, and made General Garfield President. Reference must also be made to the scandals connected with the contributions of funds to the Republican treasury, which brought into unpleasant prominence the contributions of certain officials who were afterwards shown to have obtained their money by corrupt or otherwise improper acts.

General Garfield had but an insignificant plurality of the popular vote over Hancock, and very much less than a majority of all; but this was largely the result of abstention, voluntary or enforced, on the part of Republican voters in the South. Thirty-eight States took part in the election; in each the appointment of electors was by popular vote; and every electoral vote was counted as it was cast. The two latter assertions can be made of no earlier election in the history of the country. The popular and electoral votes were as follows:

Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats and four Greenbackers. A"straight" Greenback ticket was also voted for..

Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular ticket received 96,912, and was successful; the "Readjusters" polled 31,674 votes. Two Republican tickets were voted for.

Hancock.

ELECTORAL
VOTE.

The count of votes took place under the resolution already noticed. The electoral votes of Georgia were counted in the alternative manner first devised in 1821, as they had been cast on the second Wednesday of December. The vote was so close in California that one of the Republican electors was chosen by "split tickets." The electoral count was entirely devoid of incident, and General Garfield was duly proclaimed elected.

XXVI.

CLEVELAND.

At no time since the administration of Mr. Monroe have party names had less meaning than they conveyed during the four years preceding the election of 1884. During all that time, there was hardly a vote passed by either House of Congress in which members ranged themselves on party lines. There were no sharply defined party issues, and political matters were in such a condition that if any question of absorbing interest had arisen, there must have been very extensive changes of party associa tion, if not complete reconstruction of both the great historical organizations. In the absence of such questions, men continued to act, each with his own party, merely as a matter of habit, and, up to the spring of 1884, there was nothing to portend the violence and fury with which the canvass of that year was to be conducted.

A brief survey of the leading events of the years 1881'84 will indicate how little occurred that had an influence upon the result in the presidential year. There was, first of all, the dissension in the Republican party caused by some of Mr. Garfield's appointments, and the formation of two factions, one of which called itself "Stalwart and stigmatized the other as "Half-breed." The assassi nation, the lingering sickness, and the death of President Garfield; the accession of Mr. Arthur, the scandal of the "Star route" mail contracts, and the still greater scandal of the trial of the assassin of the President, - these are chapters in our history which every patriotic student would gladly forget.

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