passage of a bill on April 14, 1874, to inflate the currency $44,000,000. President Grant wisely vetoed the measure and it failed of passage over his veto. The Congressional elections in the fall of 1874 showed the influence of the disastrous industrial conditions upon politics, for the Democrats obtained control of the House for the first time in fifteen years. That a great political revulsion was in progress was apparent when Ohio in 1873 and New York in 1874 elected Democratic Governors. When the Forty-fourth Congress convened on December 6, 1875, Michael C. Kerr, Democrat, of Indiana, was chosen Speaker by 173 votes over James G. Blaine, who received 106. This practically showed the party strength in the House. The most important Act of President Grant's second term was the Resumption of specie payment, which was provided for in the bill reported to the Senate December 21, 1874, by John Sherman. By this Act there was to be a coinage of ten, twenty-five and fifty-cent silver pieces, which were to be exchanged for fractional currency until it was all redeemed. There was to be an issue of bonds, and the surplus revenue was to be used to buy coin. So much of the Act of 1870 which limited the amount of national bank notes to $350,000,000 was repealed, and these banks were now authorized to issue more bills; but for every $100.00 issued the Secretary of the Treasury must call in $80.00 of the greenbacks until but $300,000,000 of them remained. The total amount of paper currency in the United States at this time was $780,000,000, divided into $382,000,000 U. S. notes, $44,000,000 fractional currency and $354,000,000 national bank notes, and each dollar of this paper currency was worth about eighty-nine cents in coin. The Act further provided that after January 1, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury was to redeem in coin all United States legal tender notes then outstanding, on presentation. President Grant approved this bill January 14, 1875, with a special message to Congress. The spring of 1876 witnessed the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, by President Grant and Emperor Dom Pedro II, of Brazil. In this year a successor was to be chosen to President Grant, and for the first time in the history of the party since 1860 there was to be a contest over the presidential nomination. The long continuance in power of the party had its natural effect of creating factions, and this, together with the recent Democratic successes, made necessary a most careful selection of a candidate and of a platform for this campaign. CHAPTER XIV. HAYES. " ... and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the color line and the distinction between North and South, to the end that we may have, not merely a united North or a united South, but a united country." _Rutherford B. Hayes_, _Inaugural Address_, _March_ 5, 1877.