Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/676

 644 Governmental demoralisation. [1872-6 corporation which received the contract to construct the Union Pacific Railway, was proved on investigation to have distributed large blocks of shares among members of Congress, whose reputations were ruined. A little later, extensive corruption in the collection of the internal revenue, connected with the so-called Whiskey Ring, was discovered by Secretary Bristow, and traced close to one of Grant's confidential friends; and, while this was being aired, Grant's Secretary of War was discovered to have accepted a bribe, and only escaped impeachment by prompt resignation. Last of all, Elaine, the Republican Speaker and leader of the House, was accused of having sold his official influence in return for railway stock, and was unable to clear himself satisfactorily. These were years, also, of flagrant use of offices for spoils, especially after Congress in 1874 had refused to continue any appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. The disgust of all thinking men with this state of things reached its culmination when Congress, in 1873, raised the salaries of its own members, voting money into its own pockets with the effrontery of a "carpet-bag" legislature. In all this both parties were on the same level ; but the Democrats had the advantage of being in opposition and hence escaping responsibility. At the same time popular regard for the negro governments, at first strong in the North, had been seriously shaken by their glaring defects. Times were ripe for a political revulsion. Party lines were not, however, easily disturbed, as the Greeley episode showed. The bitter struggles of the years 1865-70 had created two organisations whose antagonisms seemed irreconcilable, and whose members were bound together by ties unrelated to reason. Nothing but some sharp shock could unsettle this tenacity, as was shown by the unvarying succession of party votes in the North. The panic of 1873 supplied the shock required, and for the moment rendered Republicans and Democrats conscious of the evils of the situation. The excesses of the spoils system, the Congressional and executive scandals, and the immorality of the "carpet-bag" governments, joined with economic distress to cause a sudden Democratic " land-slide." In 1873 the Demo- crats gained six Northern States ; in 1874 they swept the Congressional elections by a two-thirds majority; and in 1875 they continued to hold their own. The Republicans, feeling the solid earth crumbling under them, began to set their house in order, correct abuses, and advocate reform ; but the hard times continued ; and, before they could regain popular favour, the election of 1876 was upon them. It was a critical moment. The choice of a Democratic President would mean the immediate undoing of Reconstruction; and the Re- publicans used every means in their power to retain the control of affairs. In the crisis many of the Administration leaders urged the nomination of Grant for a third term; and Grant himself professed willingness to accept. Against this proposal, which not only ran counter to a precedent