se and should award a certificate entitling the one or
other of the contestants to be placed on the clerk's roll and to serve
until the House should act on the case. Mr. Hoar stated that the bill
"deeply excited the whole country," and went on to say that "some worthy
Republican senators became alarmed. They thought, with a good deal of
reason, that it was better to allow existing evils and conditions to
be cured by time, and the returning conscience and good sense of the
people, rather than have the strife, the result of which must be quite
doubtful, which the enactment and enforcement of this law, however
moderate and just, would inevitably create." The existence of this
attitude of mind made party advocacy of the bill a hopeless undertaking
and, though it was favorably reported on August 7, 1890, no further
action was taken during that session. At the December session it was
taken up for consideration, but after a few days of debate a motion to
lay it aside was carried by the Democrats with the assistance of enough
Republicans to give them a majority. This was the end of force bills,
and during President Cleveland's second term the few remaining statutes
giving authority for federal interference in such matters was repealed
under the lead of Senator Hill of New York. With the passage of this
act, the Republican party leaders for the first time abandoned all
purpose of attempting to secure by national legislation the political
privileges of the negroes. This determination was announced is the
Senate by Mr. Hoar and was assented to by Senator Chandler of New
Hampshire, who had been a zealous champion of federal action. According
to Mr. Hoar, "no Republican has dissented from it."

The facts upon which the force bill was based were so notorious and
the bill itself was so moderate in its character that the general
indifference of the public seemed to betray moral insensibility and
emotional torpor. Much could be said in favor of the bill. This latest
assertion of national authority in federal elections involved no new
principle. In legalistic complexion the proposed measure was of the same
character as previous legislation dealing with this subject, instances
of which are the Act of 1842, requiring the election of members of the
House by districts, and the Act of 1866, regulating the election of
United States Senators. Fraudulent returns in congressional elections
have always been a notorious evil, and the partisan way in