The Republican National Convention of 1876--The Platform--The Nominees--The National Democratic Convention of 1876--The Platform--The Nominees--The Campaign and the Election--The Count and the Twenty-second Joint Rule--Views in Regard to the Power to Count the Electoral Vote--The Republicans in Advantage in the Count of the Vote--The Electoral Commission Bill--The Passage of the Bill--The Members of the Commission--The Fifth Justice--Justice David Davis--The Counting of the Electoral Vote by Congress--The Double Returns from South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon--The Counsel before the Commission--The Republican Position--The Democratic Position--The Decisions of the Commission--Mr. Hayes Declared President--The Truth in Regard to the Election--Mr. Hayes's Southern Policy--The Result of His Policy--Reconciliation between the North and the South. [Sidenote: The Republican National Convention of 1876.] [Sidenote: The platform.] When the managers of the Republican party met in National nominating convention at Cincinnati, on the 14th of June, 1876, they rightly divined the policy which alone could lead them to victory in the elections of the following autumn. They constructed their platform in such a way as to place the financial issue in the foreground, with the pledges of the party to uphold the public credit, and to place the currency of the country on a coin basis. They also declared the pacification of the South to be a sacred duty, and pledged the {281} party to a thoroughgoing reform of the civil service. Connected therewith were, of course, the usual platitudes about the civil and political liberty and equality of every American citizen and of everybody else. [Sidenote: The nominees.]