n amendment to the Bland Bill, taking away its
free-coinage character and substituting a requirement to buy a specified
amount of silver bullion each month--from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000
worth--and coin it. Thus amended, the House concurred in the act, which
Hayes vetoed in February, 1878. It became a law over his veto.

The Administration was embarrassed in its financial policy, but not
defeated. The Resumption Bill withstood attacks and, as the day for the
resumption of specie payment approached, the price of greenbacks
reflected the growing credit of the United States. It reached par two
weeks before the appointed day. When that day arrived, Wednesday,
January 1, 1879, John Sherman had the satisfaction of seeing the change
to a coin basis effected without a shock. More gold was turned into the
Treasury for exchange with greenbacks than greenbacks for redemption in
gold. It appeared that Horace Greeley had been right when he had
maintained that "the way to resume is to resume,"--that few would want
gold if they could get it.

The adherence of Hayes to the gold standard and resumption drove from
his side another body of Republicans. He had now lost the reformers and
the spoilsmen, the radical Republicans and the inflationists, and no one
hoped or believed that he would recall his pledge for a single term and
be renominated in 1880 to succeed himself. The disintegration of his
party was as complete as the collapse of its issues. On no subject,
between 1876 and 1880, was it possible to bring before the public a
distinctive party issue. The uncertainties of the campaign of 1876 were
increased during the next four years.

Both parties had ceased to represent either policies or the people. The
office-holders were in no sense the leaders of their communities.
Industry, social life, education, and religion had parted company with
politics since the decline of the Union issue, and unless a new
political alignment could be found there was a prospect of continued
rivalry for offices alone. Yet men were beginning to realize that a new
period of growth had begun during the Hayes Administration, and that
American institutions, formulated before the Civil War, had ceased to
meet industrial needs.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

J.F. Rhodes terminates his great history with the election of 1876, and
although he has promised sometime to continue it, he has as yet
published only a few scattered essays upon the later period. A.M.
Gibson,