d
for Tilden, were strongly Republican, and would have been
counted for Hayes without a question, but for violence and
crime. The Constitution provides the time, place and manner
in which these contentions must be settled. They have been
so settled as between Hayes and Tilden, and it is only by
usurpation and revolution that a subsequent Congress can undertake
to reopen them. You know how easily party majorities persuade
themselves, or affect to persuade themselves, of the existence
of facts, which it is for their party interest to establish.

"At the end of his four years the President lays down his
office, and his successor is chosen. The people have in their
hands this frequent, easy and peaceful remedy for all evils
of administration. The usurpation by Congress of the power
to displace a President whenever they choose to determine
that the original declaration of the result of an election
was wrong, on whatever pretence it is defended, is a total
overthrow of the Constitution.

"If you would ward off this blow at the national life, you
have one perfect means of defence, the election of a Republican
majority in the next House of Representatives."

When they had all agreed to it, Mr. Conkling, a member of
the Committee who had not attended the previous meeting,
came in late. The document was read to him. He opposed the
whole plan with great earnestness and indignation, spoke with
great severity of President Hayes, and said that he hoped
it would be the last time that any man in the United States
would attempt to steal the Presidency. Mr. Conkling's influence
in the Senate and in the country was then quite powerful.
It was thought best not to issue the appeal unless it were
to have the unanimous support of the Republicans. But the
discovery of some cipher dispatches, implicating some well-
known persons, including one member of Mr. Tilden's household,
in an attempt to bribe the canvassing boards in the South
and to purchase some Republican electors in the South and
one in Oregon, tended to make the leading members of that
party sick of the whole matter. President Hayes served out
his term peacefully and handed over the executive power, not
only to a Republican successor, but to a member of the majority
of the Electoral Commission. So it seems clear that the bulk
of the American people had little sympathy with the complaints.

CHAPTER V
THE SENATE IN 1877

When I came to the Senate that body was