conservative element of both Houses, but was strongly opposed by the more ultra of both parties. It was debated at length and with great vigor. It passed the Senate on the 25th of January, 1877, by a vote of 47 yeas and 17 nays, ten senators not voting. The vote in the House was taken the next day, and stood, yeas, 191; nays, 86; fourteen representatives not voting. The vote in the Senate was divided as follows: Yeas-Republicans, 21; Democrats, 46. Nays-Republicans, 16; Democrats, 1. In the House it stood: Yeas-Democrats, 159; Republicans, 32. Nays-Democrats, 18; Republicans, 68.

"The members of the commission were promptly appointed. They were as follows: Justices Clifford, Strong, Miller, Field and Bradley, of the Supreme Court; Senators Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Thurman and Bayard; and Representatives Payne, Hunton, Abbott, Garfield and Hoar.

"The two Houses of Congress met in joint convention on the 1st of February, 1877, and began the counting of the electoral vote. When the vote of Florida was reached, three certificates were presented and referred to the Electoral Commission. This body, upon hearing the arguments of the counsel of the Democratic and Republican parties, decided that it had no power to go behind the action of the Return Board, and that the certificate of that body giving the vote of that State to Hayes must be accepted by the two Houses of Congress. The vote by which this decision was reached stood eight (all Republicans) in favor of it, and seven (all Democrats) against it. The party line appearing thus so sharply in the commission mortified and disgusted the whole country,

which had looked to the commission for a decision that should be beyond question. A similar conclusion was come to in the case of Louisiana.

"The final result was reached at ten minutes after four o'clock on the morning of the 2d of March, 1877, and, according to that infamous decision, Hayes and Wheeler received 185 votes, and Tilden and Hendricks 184 votes. The States that voted for Hayes and Wheeler were California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin; and these which voted for Tilden and Hendricks were Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

"The country had watched the proceedings of the Electoral Commission with the deepest interest, and with feelings of pain and disgust at the strong partisan bias which marked all of its decisions. For a while there was a disposition to reject its award; but the conservative sentiment of the nation prevailed, and it was finally resolved to accept the decision as the only escape from anarchy and civil war. The sentiment of the best element of the country was thus summed up by a leading journal: The Electoral Commission has completed its work, and we do not believe there is one candid and competent person outside of the heated circle of partisans of the "successful" party who will hesitate, after a careful examination of its formal judgments submitted to Congress, to say that its official record

disgraces every member of the majority of that body. The task which this majority had to perform as a partisan body was a difficult one, and the necessity of presenting reasons, as judges, for action taken simply as politicians, involved its members in a maze of contradictory opinions to justify contradictory judgments. In the Florida case it compelled them to hold that evidence to prove the ineligibility of an elector was admissible, and, in that case, the cligibility of Humphreys was decided on its merits. In the Louisiana case, on the other hand, it compelled them to declare that all evidence as to the eligibility of two of the Hayes electors was aliunde, and that their eligibility was a presumption of law. In the Oregon case, again, they were forced to take evidence touching the ineligibility of Watts, and a decision was made on the point pronounced immaterial in the Louisiana case, the court actually going so far as to show what course of election, resignation, and reappointment it was necessary for Watts. to go through with in order to make himself eligi ble! In the Florida case, the governor's false certificate, based on what the courts of the State had declared a false canvass, was pronounced final and unassailable. In the Oregon case, the certificate of the governor, based on a true canvass and on his interpretation of the laws of the State affecting it, was held to be void and of no effect. In the Louisiana case it was held that the commission could not inquire whether the Returning Board was legally constituted, or had obeyed the statute creating it, nor yet whether the persons to whom the governor gave certificates received a majority of the votes cast in the State or not. But in the Oregon case it was decided that the act of Governor Grover, "in

giving to E. A. Cronin a certificate of his election, though he received a thousand votes less than Watts, on the ground that the latter was ineligible, was without authority of law, and is therefore vacant." This establishes in effect the principleif such it can be called-that, while a governor's certificate is not good against a Republican elector in Oregon, who has one thousand votes and the equities in his favor, a governor's certificate is valid against a Democratic elector in Louisiana who has eight thousand votes and the equities in his favor. The many absurdities and inconsistencies put forward by the commission to serve as legal excuses for its partisan action come to their zenith and consummation in the South Carolina decision and the resolutions upon which it is based. Taken all in all, it is not too much to say that no such hasty and ill-digested opinions were ever before offered by a set of judges in defence of a series of dishonest decrees.'

ADMINISTRATION OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.

4th of March, 1877-4th of March, 1881.

Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth President of the United States, was inaugurated at Washington on Monday, March 5th, 1877. As the 4th of March fell on Sunday, the President-elect simply took the oath of office on that day. The inaugural ceremonies were carried out on the 5th at the