votes. In 1836, Mr.
Van Buren of New York received a majority of the electoral votes
for President; but no person receiving a majority for the second
office, Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, one of the two
persons eligible, was chosen by the Senate. No similar instance
has occurred in our history.

In the Presidential election of 1800, and in that of 1824, the
ultimate determination was by the House of Representatives. In
the former, Jefferson and Burr each received seventy-three electoral
votes, without specification as to whether intended for the first or
second office. The protracted struggle which followed resulted in
the choice of Jefferson for the higher office. This fortunate
termination was in large measure through the influence of Alexander
Hamilton, and was the initial step in the bitter personal strife
which eventuated in his early death at the hands of Burr. In
the light of events, we may well believe that not the least of the
public services of Hamilton was his unselfish interposition at the
critical moment mentioned. The possibility of similar complication
again arising in the election of the President was soon thereafter
obviated by the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution.

Seldom in Presidential contests has there been such an array of
great names presented as in that of 1824. The era of good feeling
which characterized the administration of Monroe found sudden
termination in the rival candidacy of two members of his cabinet, for
the succession--Mr. Adams, Secretary of State, and Mr. Crawford, of
the Treasury. The other aspirants were Clay, the brilliant Speaker
of the House of Representatives, and Jackson, with laurels yet
fresh from the battlefield of New Orleans. Mr. Clay receiving the
smallest number of electoral votes, and no candidate the
majority thereof, the selection again devolved upon the House,
resulting eventually in the choice of John Quincy Adams.

In the two Presidential contests last mentioned, the Senate had no
part in the final adjustment. An occasion, however, arose nearly a
half-century later, involving the succession to the Presidency, in
which the Senate, equally with the House, was an important factor in
the final determination. The country has known few periods of
profounder anxiety to thoughtful men, or of greater peril to stable
government, than the feverish hours immediately succeeding the
Presidential contest of 1876. The shadow cast by the Hayes-Ti