d Wheeler, upon the face of the returns, if the returns
from the State of Oregon were construed in accordance with
the Republican claim.

The Governor of Oregon gave a transcript of the record and
declared his opinion that it showed one of the lawful electors
to have voted for Mr. Tilden. That would have given one majority
for Tilden. The Republicans claimed that upon the record
the election showed that all the Republican candidates for
elector had been chosen in Oregon, and that they had all voted
for Hayes and Wheeler.

The Democrats declared that the boards authorized to ascertain
and return the result of the election for Presidential electors
in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana had corruptly and
unlawfully rejected votes that ought to be counted for them,
and counted votes for the Republicans that ought not to be
so counted; and had in that way changed the result which,
if it had been correctly ascertained and reported, would have
shown a Democratic majority in those three States.

The country was deeply excited. Threats of civil war were
heard in many quarters. When I went to Washington for the
session of December, 1876, while I did not believe there would
be a civil war, and supposed there would be some method of
escape devised, I confess I saw no such method. I now believe
that but for the bitter experience of a few years before,
with its terrible lesson, there would have been a resort to
arms. It would have been a worse civil war than that of the
Rebellion, because the country would have been divided not
by sections, but by parties.

But, as I have related elsewhere, a majority in Congress
agreed to submit the question to a Commission composed of
five Senators, five Representatives, and five Judges of the
Supreme Court, who, proceeding in accordance with an ingenious
and skilfully devised mechanism, were to determine the case.

I believe that as time goes on, the great self-restraint of
the American people in dealing with the momentous peril of
1877, and the constructive ability which created the simple
but perfect mechanism of the Electoral Commission, will receive,
as they deserve, the admiration of mankind. There was at
the time, as would be expected, some anger and disappointment
at the result. Occasionally some bigot who can find nothing
but evil in the history and life of his country, generally
some recluse who has little knowledge of affairs, charges
the Commission with having wicke