PITTSBURG RIOTS

1877-1881

[Authorities: The same as are given in the preceding chapter.]

UTHERFORD B. HAYES succeeded Grant in the White House, March 4, 1877. Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic nominee, undoubtedly received a large majority of the popular vote. He carried New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut, and with a solid South he could not fail of election; but the returning boards of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, threw out enough Democratic districts on the ground of fraud and intimidation to make those states Republican. With these southern states, Hayes had one more vote in the Electoral College than Tilden.

Many believed that Tilden would be seated in the White House by force, if it could not be done by peaceable means. Another war between the North and the South appeared by no means impossible. Something had to be done to quiet the country, and Congress hit upon the idea of an electoral commission to canvass the votes, The commission consisted of fifteen members; five Electoral justices of the Supreme Court, five senators, and five representaCommis- tives. There were seven Democrats and seven Republicans. The fifteenth man was to be David Davis, of the Supreme Court, but he was elected to the Senate, and Justice Bradley of New Jersey became the fifteenth member. By his casting vote every item under investigation was decided in favor of the Republicans; Hayes was declared president, and William A. Wheeler of New York, vice-president.

sion

From the first, Hayes determined to do all he could to soothe the irritation between the North and the South. One of his first steps was to withdraw the Federal troops from the support of the

"reconstructed governments," the last of which disappeared within DIVISION VI two months. Since that time the "solid South" has remained practically unbroken.

Wine was banished from the White House even at state banquets, and offices were given, as far as lay within the President's power, to deserving men without regard to political services. On the whole, though Hayes never got the support of

UNITED
STATES

1877-1881

A Suc

Adminis

the Democrats on account of the fact that he was thought to hold his office by fraud, and lost many of his Republican political cessful friends because of his honest, straightforward policy, his administration tration must be looked on as highly successful, though uneventful. In April, 1877, the first practicable telephone for business purposes was installed over a three-mile line in Boston by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the Bell telephone, which has since come into such general use.

DIVISION VI

UNITED
STATES

In the summer of 1877 occurred one of the greatest strikes in the history of the world. It started on the Baltimore & Ohio 1877-1881 Railroad, July 14. A few days later sympathetic strikes followed on the Erie, Pennsylvania, and New York Central and their connections, and several lines west of the Mississippi. The strike was led by the Brotherhood of Engineers, one of the most wealthy and conservative of labor unions. In a short time practically all railway traffic, except in the extreme South, came to a standstill. immense amount of property was destroyed, and the militia was called out, but either through sympathy or inefficiency, was completely routed. Yet on July 19, three hundred regulars of the Railroad United States army easily raised the blockade at Baltimore. At Pittsburg, for two days, a wild mob of twenty thousand men ruled everything. The Union Depot and other buildings were burned. One hundred and twenty-five locomotives and twenty-five hundred loaded cars were destroyed. At last United States troops were sent by the President, and order was restored. Ten million dollars' worth of property was destroyed in Pennsylvania alone. There were also riots in Chicago and at Reading. Over a hundred thousand men were on strike. But reaction soon set in, and the men began to return to work, so that by the end of the month the great strike was over.

Strikes

and Riots

BlandAllison

Bill

In 1877 trouble with the Nez Perces Indians resulted from their refusal to move to the reservations assigned them in Idaho and Oregon. This tribe, led by Chief Joseph, was remarkable for its intelligence and humanity. The chief attempted to lead his men to Canada, but was surrounded, and at last came forward, saying, From where the sun now stands, I fight no more against the white men." Since that time this tribe has lived in perfect peace.

66

In 1878 Congress passed the Bland-Allison Bill, by which silver was remonetized.* This bill required the coinage of silver by the United States at the rate of two million dollars a month. December 18, 1878, gold and paper money had the same value for the first time in seventeen years, and when specie payment was resumed on January I only eleven million dollars was offered for redemption. We have seen that the interest on the United States debt was $140,000,000 annually shortly after the war. The restoration of

* Silver had passed so completely out of use that postage stamps and " 'shinplasters" were the only change.

the national credit by the resumption of specie payment enabled DIVISION VI the United States to call in its old bonds and issue new ones in UNITED their place at a lower rate of interest. By this means thirty millions a year in interest was saved.

In 1878 the South experienced a severe visitation of yellow fever. Fifteen thousand persons died from the disease, which appeared in its most virulent form at New Orleans and Memphis. During the administration of Hayes the government built the famous Eads jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The object of these was to narrow the bed of the river, which here spreads out over a wide country. The swifter current caused by the narrow river bed carried out into the Gulf the accumulations of mud at the mouth of the river, which had been a serious obstruction to navigation.

A treaty with China in 1880 permitted the United States to stop immigration from that country. The great influx of Chinese on the Pacific coast was threatening to drive out white labor, and seriously interfere with American institutions.

In 1877 the arbitration commission chosen as a result of the Treaty of 1872, providing for the repayment of custom dues collected by the United States on certain kinds of fish brought into American waters by British subjects, awarded the British government $5,500,000. The size of this award was a surprise to both sides, and the people of the United States were very angry; but the money was paid in the autumn of 1878.

STATES 1877-1881

Molly

The strikes in the coal regions of Pennsylvania gave rise to an organization known as the Molly Maguires. Their energies were devoted chiefly to the intimidation and murder of the bosses of the mines and the so-called "scabs," or workmen imported to take Maguires the places of the striking miners. So well organized was this society that murderers, though well known, could not be convicted. But at last a Pinkerton detective named James McParlan insinuated himself into their councils, and finally testified against them in court. Nine of the Mollies were sentenced to death, and more sent to the penitentiary. In a short time the society was broken up.

In 1878-79 General Grant made his famous tour of the world. He and his family dined with Queen Victoria, and he was received with equal cordiality and ceremony by other sovereigns. Even in Japan he was given a royal welcome.

DIVISION VI The census of 1880 showed a population of 50,155,783, an increase of 11,000,000 in ten years. The chief gain was in the South.

UNITED STATES 1877-1881

An effort was made by Roscoe Conklin to nominate Grant for a third term, and 306 delegates voted for him thirty-six times in succession in the Republican convention at Chicago, his chief rival being James G. Blaine. At last the opposition to Grant united Election upon Garfield and Arthur, and in the election in November they received 214 electoral votes to 155 for Hancock and English, the Democratic nominees.

of

Garfield