750 



UNITED STATES. 



No assessment for political purposes on officers or 

 subordinates should be allowed." This rule is ap- 

 plicable to every department of the civil service. It 

 should be understood by every officer of the General 

 Government that he is expected to conform his con- 

 duct to its requirements. Very respectfully, 



K. B. HAYES. 



The President also expressed a determination 

 that members of Congress should not dictate 

 in the matter of patronage, and adhered to it 

 firmly. In consequence thereof, the Adminis- 

 tration received very little of a direct and vig- 

 orous support from the Republicans, and its 

 recommendations to Congress were often chief- 

 ly sustained and carried through by the Demo- 

 cratic members. 



An opinion that a fraud had been committed 

 by the Returning Board of Louisiana, in count- 

 ing the votes for Presidential Electors, exten- 

 sively prevailed. Legal proceedings were com- 

 menced against the members of the board near 

 the close of the year, and the trial of one of 

 them resulted in his conviction. The proceed- 

 ings were continued in 1878. 



The failure of the appropriation for the sup- 

 port of the army at the session of Congress 

 which closed March 4, 1877, made an extra 

 session necessary. This was convened on Oc- 

 tober 15th by the following message of the 

 President : 



A PROCLAMATION. 



Whereas the final adjournment of the Forty-fourth 

 Congress without making the several appropriations 

 for the support of the army for the fiscal year ending 

 June 30, 1878, presents an extraordinary occasion 

 requiring the President to exercise the power vested 

 in him by the Constitution to convene the Houses of 

 Congress in anticipation of the day fixed by law for 

 their next meeting : now, therefore, I, Rutherford B. 

 Hayes, President of the United States, do, by virtue 

 of the power to this end in me vested oy the Consti- 

 tution, convene both Houses of Congress to assemble 

 at their respective chambers at 12 o'clock noon, on 

 Monday, the 15th day of October next, then and 

 there to consider and determine such measures as, in 

 their wisdom, their duty and the welfare of the peo- 

 ple may seem to demand. In witness whereof, I 

 nave hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of 

 the United States to be affixed. 



Done at the city of Washington this 5th day of 

 May, in the year of our Lord 1877, and of the Inde- 

 pendence of the United States or America the one 

 hundred and first. R. B. HAYES. 



By the President : 



WM. M. EVABTS, Secretary of State. 



Congress thus assembled on October 15th, and 

 the session was continued without interruption 

 until the commencement of the regular one 

 in December. It was soon manifest that the 

 Republican majority in the Senate was very 

 small, and might perhaps soon disappear ; that 

 there was a lack of harmony between the Presi- 

 dent and his party, and that he could not rely 

 upon its undivided support of his measures. 

 At this session, also, the first measure of a re- 

 actionary nature, relating to the financial affairs 

 of the country, was introduced. It was tech- 

 nically designated as the " Silver Bill." (See 

 page 291.) The results of the financial legisla- 

 tion of Congress since the close of the civil 



war had been to replace all the bonds of the 

 United States which had been issued (payable, 

 either principal or interest, in currency or 

 " greenbacks," as it was popularly called) with 

 new bonds for a longer period, in which both 

 principal and interest were to be paid in coin ; 

 also to demonetize silver, or to take from it its 

 legal-tender feature, thereby rendering bonds 

 and future specie payments payable in gold ; 

 and also the passage of an act requiring the 

 resumption of the payment of specie on all Gov- 

 ernment legal-tender notes on January 1, 1879. 

 This involved the payment of specie on nation- 

 al-bank notes and other similar obligations. 

 The commercial transactions of the country 

 have been shrinking since September, 1873, 

 and with its immense indebtedness of govern- 

 ments, corporations, and individuals, a state of 

 insolvency and extreme depression prevailed 

 throughout the year. The discussions which 

 ensued will be found set forth under the arti- 

 cle CURRENCY, in this volume. The " Silver 

 Bill " above mentioned was the first legislative 

 expression of the point of reaction to which 

 tlie public mind had at that time reached. It 

 subsequently passed Congress over the Presi- 

 dent's veto by more than the necessary two- 

 thirds majority. 



On June 15th, the Commission provided for 

 in the Treaty of Washington of 1871, which 

 should decide the sum to be paid by the Uni- 

 ted States Government to the Dominion of 

 Canada for the privilege of fishing in their 

 bays, harbors, and creeks, and for that of land- 

 ing and curing fish, convened at Halifax, in 

 Nova Scotia. The Commission consisted of 

 Ensign H. Kellogg, of Massachusetts, to rep- 

 resent the United States ; A. T. Gait, to repre- 

 sent Great Britain ; and the umpire, M. M. de 

 Fosse, the Belgian envoy. Dwight Foster ap- 

 peared in behalf of the United States, and F. 

 C. Ford in behalf of Great Britain. For the 

 results of the Commission, see DOMINION OF 

 CANADA. 



The political agitation developed by the la- 

 bor-strikes (see LABOR-STRIKES) forms the most 

 interesting chapter of the movement. This 

 agitation may be traced back to several differ 

 ent sources, and it developed into as many 

 different phases. First, there has always pre-> 

 vailed a popular sentiment in America that 

 labor deserves to be well remunerated. It has 

 been the boast in this country that the road 

 to wealth is open to all, that every industrious 

 and saving laborer can gain a comfortable com- 

 petency, that our workmen are better paid 

 and better nourished than their brothers in 

 Europe. This feeling dates from the origin of 

 productive activity here. Secondly, there was 

 a wide-spread and bitter feeling against the 

 railroad companies, and a desire that legal limi- 

 tations should be set to their powers. The 

 reckless and regardless machinations and rival- 

 ries of their controllers, their ruinous borrow- 

 ings and extravagance, had set the whole 

 country against the railroads in particular ; but 



