Modocs were then besieged and forced to surrender. Their chief, Captain Jack, and other prominent leaders were executed.

The Sioux Indians had been assigned a reservation in the Black Hill country, which comprised parts of Dakota and Wyoming. When a portion of this country was invaded by. gold seekers, Congress canceled the Indian title to that part of it. This act angered the Indians, who, under their famous chief, Sitting Bull, became hostile. United States troops were sent to subdue them. In June, 1876, a force of nearly three hundred men under General George A. Custer was massacred at Little Big Horn River by nine thousand Sioux. Sitting Bull thereupon retreated into English territory, but kept menacing the western country till the Canadian authorities commanded him to abandon all hostile plans or leave their country. He finally sued for peace and returned to the United States.

616. Destructive Fires. A great fire broke out in Chicago in October (1871). It raged for two days and laid waste many square miles, including the business portion of the city. Two hundred million dollars' worth of property was destroyed, one hundred thousand persons were rendered homeless, and two hundred and fifty lives were lost. Contributions from nearly all parts of the world, amounting to more than half a million dollars, were sent for the relief of the homeless and suffering people.

The following year the business section of Boston was also destroyed by fire and eighty million dollars' worth of property was swept away.

At about the time of the Chicago disaster, fearful forest fires, sweeping through the timber districts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, consumed entire villages and caused great loss of life and property.

617. The Centennial Exhibition-A New State. In 1876, the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was celebrated by a centennial exhibition at Philadelphia, in

which all the civilized nations of the world took part. The Centennial Exhibition revealed to the world the richness and variety of our natural productions and the superiority of the United States over all other countries in useful inventions. The most remarkable novelties exhibited were the telephone, invented by Graham Bell of Massachusetts, and the application of the electric light.

Colorado, the "Centen

nial state, entered the Union as the thirty-eighth state, in 1876.

618. The First American Cardinal. During Grant's administration occurred one of the most memorable events in the history of the Church of the United States-Pius IX, of blessed memory, gave the American Catholics their first Cardinal in the person of the Venerable John McCloskey, the successor of Archbishop Hughes in the Archiepiscopal See of New York. His solemn investiture took place in

CARDINAL MCCLOSKEY

the unfinished St. Patrick's Cathedral (April 27, 1875), which edifice His Eminence later solemnly dedicated to the service of God (May, 1877).

The last public act of Cardinal McCloskey is one for which the American Church will ever feel deeply grateful. The Italian government's act of spoliation of ecclesiastical property threatened also (1884) to expropriate the American College at Rome. The Cardinal at once laid the matter before President

Arthur, appealing for the protection of the institution as the property of American citizens. As a result, the Secretary of State, through the American minister, brought the case to the notice of the Italian government and the college was saved.

619. Death of Great Men. During Grant's administration the following public men,died: Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War under Lincoln (1869); General Robert E. Lee, Confederate leader (1870); General George H. Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga" (1870); William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln (1872); Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the electric telegraph (1872); Horace Greeley, the great journalist (1872); General Meade, of Gettysburg fame (1872); and Andrew Johnson, successor to Lincoln in the presidency.

CHAPTER XXXIV

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES'S ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLICAN-1877-1881

620. Hayes and Wheeler Are Elected. Owing to the extraordinary nature of the election of 1876, a joint high commission was appointed, for the first time in the history of the country, to determine the result of the election.

Twice in our history (1800, 1824) the electoral college failed to choose a President, but only once has there been a presidential election disputed in such a manner as the centennial election of 1876. A Democratic majority seemed to sweep the country. But in three of the southern states-Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida-where carpet-bag rule was still in existence, there were rival state governments and governors. The officers who canvassed the election returns were Republicans, and rejected the votes of certain districts on grounds. of fraud and intimidation, and declared the Hayes electors chosen. Two sets of votes were sent from these states to the president of the Senate to be counted. Oregon, too, owing to the question as to the qualification of a Republican elector, sent in double returns. The Senate, being Republican, accepted the Republican returns, while the House, being Democratic, considered the Democratic returns as the true ones. The Democrats could not hope to revoke the rule in operation since 1865, that the electoral vote of any state should not be counted if either house objected, even though the House of Representatives-the larger body-was Democratic. As it was, Tilden had one hundred and eighty-four undisputed votes, and the counting of one vote from the states in dispute would make him President. On the other hand, all the votes from the

disputed states would be required to give Hayes a majority. Since no method was provided by the Constitution to settle which of the disputed votes should be counted, Congress finally decided that each case should be referred to a joint high commission composed of five senators (three Republicans and two Democrats), five representatives (three Democrats and two Republicans), and five justices of the Supreme Court (two of each party, the fifth to be chosen by these four). The fifth justice selected was a Republican. This tribunal of eight Republicans and seven Democrats at length decided Hayes elected, only two days before the time set for his inauguration (March 4). The Democrats were naturally disappointed and dissatisfied, and claimed that the electoral commission had been partisan in its decision. The excitement and bitterness aroused by the contest, however, subsided, and Hayes was peacefully inaugurated.

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was a native of Ohio and a graduate of Kenyon College of his own state and Harvard Law School of Massachusetts. During the war he entered the Union army and rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He resigned this rank, however, upon being chosen representative of his district in Congress. He served two terms as congressman, after which he was thrice chosen governor of his state. Though not brilliant as a popular party leader, he was noted for his great moral courage, good judgment, and high integrity. Owing to the dispute over his election, he entered upon his office under very unfavorable conditions, but he soon proved himself admirably qualified to lead the nation during the time of peace and conciliation upon which it was just entering.

621. A New Era. With the administration of President Hayes the nation emerged from the dark shadows of the Civil War to enter upon an era of peace, unity, and progress. The old questions of states' rights and slavery, which had occupied the attention of the nation for more than half a century, were now replaced by the problems of currency regulation, reform