d in three campaigns, failed to stir
the States. Blaine, expert in the appeal, had revived it over the
proposition to extend pardon and amnesty to Jefferson Davis, but his
frantic efforts, as he waved the "bloody shirt," evoked no general
enthusiasm. The war and reconstruction were over, but the old parties
had not learned it.

There was doubt throughout the canvass as to the nature of the issue,
and when the votes were counted there was equal doubt as to which of the
candidates had been elected. Tilden had received a popular plurality
over Hayes of about 250,000 votes, but it was not certain that these
carried with them a majority of the electoral college. Of the 369
electoral votes, Tilden and Hendricks had, without question, 184; while
Hayes and Wheeler were equally secure in 166. The remaining 19 (Florida,
Louisiana, and South Carolina) were claimed by both parties, and it
appeared that both claims were founded on widespread fraud. Unless all
these 19 votes could be secured, Hayes was defeated, and to obtain them
the Republican party set to work.

For weeks between the election and the counting of the electoral votes
the United States debated angrily over the result. The Constitution
required that when Congress should meet in joint session to hear the
returns, the Vice-President should preside, and should open the
certificates from the several States; and that the votes should then be
counted. It was silent as to the body which should do the counting, or
should determine which of two doubtful returns to count. Since the
outcome of the election would turn upon the answer to this question, it
was necessary to find some solution before March 4, 1877.

Failing to find in the Constitution a rule for determining cases such as
this, Congress made its own, and created an Electoral Commission to
which the doubtful cases were to be submitted. This body, fifteen in
number, five each from Senate, House, and Supreme Court, failed, as
historians have since failed, to convince the United States that the
claims of either Republican or Democratic electors were sound. Honest
men still differ in their beliefs. The members came out of the
Commission as they went in, firm in the acceptance of their parties'
claims, and since eight of the fifteen members were Republican, the
result was a decision giving none of the nineteen contests to Tilden,
and making possible the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes.

There was bitter partisanship