of universal negro suffrage and military support of the governments thus
constituted had failed. One by one in various ways the Southern states
had recovered home rule until, on the inauguration of Hayes, carpet-bag
negro governments existed in only two states, South Carolina and
Louisiana. In both of these the Democrats maintained that their
candidates for governor had been lawfully elected. The case of South
Carolina presented no serious difficulty. Hayes electors had been
rightfully chosen, and so had the Democratic governor, Hampton. But
Chamberlain, the Republican candidate, had a claim based on the
exclusion of the votes of two counties by the board of state canvassers.
After conferences between each of the claimants and the President, the
question was settled in favor of the Democrat, which was the meaning of
the withdrawal of the United States troops from the State House in
Columbia.

The case of Louisiana was much more troublesome. Packard, the Republican
candidate for governor, had received as many votes as Hayes, and logic
seemed to require that, if Hayes be President, Packard should be
governor. While the question was pending, Blaine said in the Senate:
"You discredit Packard, and you discredit Hayes. You hold that Packard
is not the legal governor of Louisiana, and President Hayes has no
title." And the other leaders of the Republican party, for the most
part, held this view. To these and their followers Blaine applied the
name "Stalwarts," stiff partisans, who did not believe in surrendering
the hold of the Republicans on the Southern states.

Between the policies of a continuance of the support of the Republican
party in Louisiana or its withdrawal, a weak man would have allowed
things to drift, while a strong man of the Conkling and Chandler type
would have sustained the Packard government with the whole force at his
command. Hayes acted slowly and cautiously, asked for and received much
good counsel, and in the end determined to withdraw the United States
troops from the immediate vicinity of the State House in Louisiana. The
Packard government fell, and the Democrats took possession. The lawyers
could furnish cogent reasons why Packard was not entitled to the
governorship, although the electoral vote of Louisiana had been counted
for Hayes; but the Stalwarts maintained that no legal quibble could
varnish over so glaring an inconsistency. Indeed, it was one of those
illogical acts, so numerous in Eng