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 in 1873 caused such political reaction that in the fall of 1874 the Democrats made great gains and elected a strong majority in the House of Representatives of the Forty-fourth Congress; their first majority in that body since 1859. The Republicans, however, retained a majority in the Senate.

With the return of a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives which met in 1875, the period of Republican control of the government ended and thereafter authority and responsibility were divided between the two parties with the natural result of greatly diminished efficiency. The President continued his prudently progressive Republican policies, establishing in September, 1875 the system of fast mail trains which effected so great an improvement in the mail service; and later in the same year making a noteworthy recommendation for universal secular and compulsory education. He was, however, largely dependent upon Congress for support, and the two Houses were seldom able to agree save on the most necessary routine matters. The Republican Senate was generally able, however, to thwart the reactionary proposals of the Democratic House, and to maintain the governmental policies which had proved so beneficial to the country.

A noteworthy enterprise of the Grant administration was the giving of national patronage to the world's fair at Philadelphia with which the one hundredth