e for them to recover from the chagrin and disappointment
of Mr. Tilden's defeat. The new President, therefore, began his
administration with a bitter personal opposition from the Democracy,
and with a distrust of his own policy on the part of a large number of
those who had signally aided in his election.

The one special source of dissatisfaction was the intention of the
President to disregard the State elections in the three States upon
whose votes his own title depended. The concentration of interest was
upon the State of Louisiana, where Governor Packard was officially
declared to have received a larger popular majority than President
Hayes. By negotiation of certain Commissioners who went to Louisiana
under appointment of the President, the Democratic candidate for
Governor, Francis T. Nicholls, was installed in office and Governor
Packard was left helpless.(1) No act of President Hayes did so much to
create discontent within the ranks of the Republican party. No act of
his did so much to give color to the thousand rumors that filled the
political atmosphere, touching a bargain between the President's
friends and some Southern leaders, pending the decision of the
Electoral Commission. The election of the President and the election
of Mr. Packard rested substantially upon the same foundation, and many
Republicans felt that the President's refusal to recognize Mr. Packard
as Governor of Louisiana furnished ground to his enemies for disputing
his own election. Having been placed in the Presidency by a title as
strong as could be confirmed under the Constitution and the laws of the
country, it was, in the judgment of the majority of the Republican
party, an unwise and unwarranted act on the part of the President to
purchase peace in the South by surrendering Louisiana to the Democratic
party.

The Cabinet selected by President Hayes was regarded as one of great
ability. Mr. Evarts, Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, Secretary of
the Treasury, Mr. Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, were well known.

--The Secretary of War, George W. McCrary of Iowa, had steadily grown
in public esteem by his service in the House of Representatives, and
possessed every quality desirable for the administration of a great
public trust.

--Mr. Richard W. Thompson of Indiana, appointed Secretary of the Navy,
was in his sixty-eighth year, and had been a representative in Congress
thirty-five years before. He was known throughout t