A hundred years ago, society here was largely composed of members of the leading religious societies-Baptists, Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Moravians, Friends, etc. The denominational line was then more sharply drawn than now, for there was much sectarian zeal and not a little bigotry. Since then, new religious societies have appeared, and there are now twenty-seven distinct ones in our country. In 1870, these bodies had an aggregate of 72,459 organizations; 63,082 edifices; 21,685,082 sittings, or about one sitting for every two of the population, and property valued at $354,483,581. These churches made a rapid increase in membership and wealth in the twenty years ending in 1870. The number of organizations in 1850 was 38,062; sittings, 14,234,825; and their aggregate property was valued at $87,328,801.

With this brief outline sketch of the most important features of our National progress, material, intellectual and moral, during the century just closed, I will return to the narrative of OUR COUNTRY.

Here, on the threshold of another century of the existence of our beloved Republic, I ask you, my fellow-citizens, who have followed me in this delineation of its history, and especially the young people of our country, to be faithful to the sacred trust committed to you by the fathers. You are the guardians of the vestal fire of Liberty. Let it never grow dim in your keeping, but feed its living flame with generous self-sacrifices, that the struggling nations eager to feel its warmth may never be without a sure beacon to guide them to its altars and its temples. Young men and women, a glorious field of usefulness is before you. A white harvest calls for zealous reapers. Human progress, with all its varied labors and felicities, beckons you on. Be not unfaithful, be not idle; but work as God gives you oppor. tunity.

"Young men of every creed! up and be doing now.

The time is come to 'run and read' with thoughtful eye and brow.
Extend your grasp to catch things unattained before;

Touch the quick springs of Reason's latch, and enter at her door.

The seeds of mind are sown in every human breast;

But dormant lie, unless we own the Spirit's high behest.

Look outwardly and learn; look inwardly and think;

And Truth and Love shall brighter burn o'er Error's wasting bmk.”
Dec. 1, 1876.

AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION -ISSUE OF SILVER
A VIGOROUS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN

LAWLESSNESS

IN THE SOUTH — THREATENED TROUBLE THERE PROVIDED AGAINST — THE PRESIDENT's orders A COMMITTEE OF OBSERVATION ACTION OF CONGRESS PRELIMINARY COMMITTEES - THE HAYES AND WHEELER DECLARED ELECTED - INAU

ELECTORAL COMMISSION
GURATION OF HAYES
SOUTH

ITS ACTION

HIS POLICY AND HIS CABINET -DISPOSITION OF TROOPS IN THE IMPROVED TONE OF PUBLIC FEELING APPROPRIATIONS NEGLECTED A CALLED SESSION OF CONGRESS -THE DEFICIENCIES -THE NEZ PERCÉ INDIANS - WAR WITH THEM SITTING BULL.

FEW weeks before the opening of the Centennial Exhibition, the country was startled by the public accusation of a cabinet minister of serious malfeasance in office. That minister was General William W. Belknap, the Secretary of War. He was charged with having received a bribe from a post-trader to whom he had granted permission to sell goods to any officer and private soldiers. Articles of impeachment were formally presented to the senate, on the 4th of April (1876), and when the day fixed. for the commencement of the trial arrived, the Secretary's counsel interposed the plea of non-jurisdiction. On the 29th of May the Senate decided that it had jurisdiction of the case, and it was determined to proceed with the prosecution. The arguments of counsel closed on the 26th of July, and on the first day of August the Senate voted on the verdict. The result was an acquittal.

Soon after this the Senate acted upon a proposed Amendment of the National Constitution concerning popular education. In his annual message in December, 1875, the President had recommended such action, and early in the session Mr. Blaine, of Maine, offered a joint resolution to that effect in the House of Representatives. The proposed Amendment (making the Sixteenth) was passed by the House by an almost unanimous vote. It was as follows:

"ARTICLE XVI, Section 1.-No State shall make a law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and no money raised by taxation in any State for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, nor any public land devoted thereto,

shall ever be under the control of any religious sect or denomination; nor shall any fund so raised, or lands so used, be divided among any religious sects or denominations.

"Section 2.-This Article shall not vest, enlarge or diminish legislative power in Congress."

The proposed Amendment was carried to the Senate, where it lay undisturbed for several months. Meanwhile, certain religionists raised a clamor against it, outside of Congress, that had an effect upon one of the great political parties. The subject seemed to be passing out of the public mind when, on the 7th of August, 1876, Senator Frelinghuysen moved that the joint resolution proposing a Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution, prohibiting the appropriation of any school fund for the support of sectarian schools, etc., be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Substi tutes were submitted, and on the 10th of August the Judiciary Committee reported the following substitute:

"ARTICLE XVI, Section 1.-No State shall make any law respecting any establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office cr public trust under any State. No public property and no public revenue of, nor any loan of credit by or under the authority of the United States, or any State, Territory, and District, or municipal corporation, shall be appropriated to or made or used for the support of any school, educational or other institution under the control of any religious or anti-religious sect, organization or denomination, or wherein the particular creed or tenets shall be taught in any school or institution, supported in whole or in part by such revenue or loan of credit; and no such appropriation or loan of credit shall be made to any religious or anti-religious sect, organization, or denomination, or to promote its interests or tenets.

"This Article shall not be construed to prohibit the reading of the Bible in any school cr institution, and it shall not have the effect to impair the rights of property already vested.

"Section 2.-Congress shall have power by appropriate legislation to provide for the prevention and punishment of the violation of this Article."

This proposed amendment, so important in its bearings upon the public welfare-so well calculated to secure our public schools and other methods for the intellectual training of the young from the malign influence of theological sectarianism, and to increase more and more the wholesome

CHAP. XXXII. SILVER CURRENCY-ELECTION OF A PRESIDENT.

1775

separation of Church and State, was defeated by a strict party vote-twentyeight republicans to sixteen democrats the votes of two-thirds of the members of the Senate present being necessary to carry the measure. A week later Congress adjourned. Among the more important acts of the session was one in which the Government took the initial step in the direction of the resumption of specie payments by authorizing the issue, from the Mint, of $10,000,000 of silver coin to take the place of the same amount of fractional paper currency. The bill provided that the Treasury might buy $20,000,000 of bullion at the rate of not exceeding $200,000 a month, to be issued in coin at the same rate, if required. It also contained propositions for making silver coin a legal tender, but these were stricken out, except an allowance of not more than five dollars in silver, as a legal tender, in any one payment. This bill became a law late in July, 1876. The consequence was that, within a year, nearly every vestige of the fractional paper currency disappeared from circulation, and silver coin became excessively plentiful. At the extraordinary session of Congress called in October, 1877, for the purpose of providing for the deficiency of money necessary for the public service, a bill making silver coin a legal tender equally with gold, was passed by the House of Representatives. What its fate may be in the Senate was undetermined, when this record was closed on the first of December, 1877.

We have observed that 1876 was a "Presidential year" as well as a "Centennial year." The campaign for the prize of the Presidency of the Republic was vigorously begun at the middle of June, when a Republican National Convention assembled (June 16) at Cincinnati, to make nominations for President and Vice-President. There were two prominent candidates before the Convention, James G. Blaine of Maine, and Roscoe Conkling of New York. They were both rejected, and the Convention nominated Rutherford Birchard Hayes, at that time governor of Ohio, for the Presidency, and William A Wheeler of New York, for the Vice-Presidency. On the 27th of the same month a Democratic National Convention assembled at St. Louis for the same purpose, and nominated Samuel J. Tilden (then governor) of New York, for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, for Vice-President. A most exciting canvass ensued, during which the lawlessness that disturbed portions of some of the Southern States, was reproduced with increased vehemence, and at times local civil war seemed to be inevitable.

In South Carolina bands of lawless armed men, countenanced by some of the leading politicians, patrolled the election districts in that State for the purpose of intimidating their political opponents and keeping them from the polls. They dispersed political gatherings and silenced public speakers

by their presence and threats. It became evident that the majority of the citizens of that State would be deprived of the privilege of the elective franchise at the approaching election, and on the the 17th of October (1876) President Grant issued a proclamation commanding the "rifle clubs" of South Carolina to disperse within three days. On the same day the Secretary of War issued an order to the General-in-Chief to direct all of the available forces in the Military Division of the Atlantic, to report to the commanding general at the State capital of South Carolina, to carry into effect the President's proclamation.

The result of the Presidential election was long in doubt, each party claiming a majority for its candidate. One hundred and eighty-five votes in the electoral college was necessary to the success of a candidate. It was decided, immediately after the election, that Mr. Tilden had one hundred and eighty-four. Democratic Presidential Electors had been chosen in three Northern States-New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut; in one of the Western States-Indiana; and in all the Southern States except South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The Republican Electors had been chosen in six Northern States-Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont; in eleven Wester 1 StatesCalifornia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, and Wisconsin; and in one Southern State-South Carolinagiving Hayes 173 votes.

Then ensued a long, bitter, and sometimes violent contest in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, over the official returns of the elections. Each party charged the other with fraud or intended fraud, in making up these returns. There was the wildest excitement in the Gulf region, and there was much agitation and anxiety at the North and West. To preserve order and secure fair play, President Grant issued the following orders on the 10th of November (1876) to General Sherman (the General-in-Chief) from Philadelphia, where he was temporarily sojourning:

"Instruct General Auger in Louisiana, and General Ruger in Florida, to be vigilant with the forces at their command to preserve peace and good order, and to see that the proper and legal Boards of Canvassers are unmolested in the performance of their duties. Should there be any grounds of suspicion of fraudulent count on either side, it should be reported and denounced at once. No man worthy of the office of President should be willing to hold it if counted in or placed there by fraud. Either party can afford to be disappointed in the result. The country cannot affored to have the result tainted by the suspicion of illegal or false returns."