6. Anarchy in the South.--Meantime reconstruction was not working
well in the South. This was especially true of Louisiana, Arkansas, and
South Carolina. In Louisiana, and in Arkansas also, there were two sets
of governors and legislatures, and civil war on a small scale was going
on. In South Carolina the carpetbaggers and the negroes had gained
control. They stole right and left. In other Southern states there were
continued outrages on the negroes. President Grant was greatly troubled.
"Let us have peace," was his heartfelt wish. But he felt it necessary to
keep Federal soldiers in the South, although he knew that public opinion
in the North was turning against their employment. It was under these
circumstances that the election of 1876 was held.

[Sidenote: Election of 1876. _Higginson_, 331-334.]

[Sidenote: The electoral commission.]

[Sidenote: Hayes inaugurated, 1877.]

457. Election of 1876.--The Republican candidate was Rutherford B.
Hayes of Ohio. He was a gallant soldier of the Civil War, and was a man
of the highest personal character. His Democratic opponent was Samuel J.
Tilden of New York--a shrewd lawyer who had won distinction as governor
of the Empire State. When the electoral returns were brought in, there
appeared two sets of returns from each of three Southern states, and the
vote of Oregon was doubtful. The Senate was Republican, and the House
was Democratic. As the two houses could not agree as to how these
returns should be counted, they referred the whole matter to an
electoral commission. This commission was made up of five Senators, five
Representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. Eight of them
were Republicans and seven were Democrats. They decided by eight seven
that Hayes was elected, and he was inaugurated President on March
4, 1877.

[Sidenote: Southern politics _Higginson_, 334-335.]

[Sidenote: Troops withdrawn.]

458. Withdrawal of the Soldiers from the South.--The People of the
North were weary of the ceaseless political agitation in the South. The
old Southern leaders had regained control of nearly all the Southern
states. They could not be turned out except by a new civil war, and the
Northern people were not willing to go to war again. The only other
thing that could be done was to withdraw the Federal soldiers and let
the Southern people work out their own salvation as well as they could.
President Hayes recalled the troops, and all the Southern states at once