The truth in regard to the whole transaction of the election probably is that the Democrats did in some places in the South intimidate voters; that the Republican "State" canvassing officers, making this a justification, or an excuse, did throw out votes that ought to have been counted; and that the existing law of {295} elections, administered by Republicans, was capable of being so interpreted as to give legal warrant to all that was done by them. A perfectly fair election in the "States" of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, with the law of suffrage then obtaining, would probably have resulted in a popular majority for the Republican candidates for electors. Accepting the law of suffrage as then existing for the basis of our reasoning, it will have to be conceded that the Republicans were in the right both morally and legally, and that the title of Hayes and Wheeler to the offices of President and Vice-President was entirely sound and unimpeachable. They were inaugurated on the 5th day of March, 1877, without any attempt at resistance or disturbance from any quarter. [Sidenote: Mr. Hayes's Southern policy.] During the counting of the electoral vote it was suspected that the friends of Mr. Hayes were giving some assurances to the Southerners in Congress in regard to what the policy of his Administration would be concerning the "State" governments in the South. The unwillingness of the Southern Democrats to join with their party associates of the North in any revolutionary projects was attributed partly to this. While there is no evidence that Mr. Hayes ever pledged himself to the Southerners in regard to anything, still it is probably true that his views concerning the unwisdom of the employment of the military power of the United States in upholding the negro-Republican "State" governments in the South were imparted to them by his friends. At any rate, he announced in his inaugural address that he considered the re-establishment of local self-government in these "States" to be one of the prime objects of his Administration, and he speedily withdrew the support of the military power of the United States from the three {296} negro-Republican "State" governments, and left them to their own resources. [Sidenote: The result of his policy.] The result was that, although the Republican candidates for Governor and for the members of the legislature in these three "States" received about the same vote as the Republican presidential electors, and in January of 1877 actually assumed power, the Democratic candidates ousted them from the offices, and in sufficient number from the legislative seats, and established at last Democratic white rule in all the "States" of the South. In Florida the Republican, M. L. Stearns, gave way to the Democrat, George F. Drew, in the gubernatorial office; in South Carolina D. H. Chamberlain gave way to Wade Hampton, and in Louisiana, S. B. Packard gave way to Francis T. Nicholls.