judicial determination of electoral contests has been adopted in
this country as it has been in England. The truth of the matter
appears to be that the public paid no attention to the merits of
the bill. It was viewed simply as a continuation of the radical
reconstruction policy, the practical results of which had become
intolerable. However great the actual evils of the situation
might be, public opinion held that it would be wiser to leave
them to be dealt with by state authority than by such incompetent
statesmanship as had been common in Washington. Moreover, the man
in the street resented the indifference of politicians to all
issues save those derived from the Civil War.

Viscount Bryce in his "American Commonwealth," the most complete
and penetrating examination of American political conditions
written during this period, gives this account of the party
situation:

"The great parties are the Republicans and the Democrats. What
are their principles, their distinctive tenets, their tendencies?
Which of them is for tariff reform, for the further extension of
civil service reform, a spirited foreign policy, for the
regulation of railroads and telegraphs by legislation, for
changes in the currency, for any other of the twenty issues which
one hears discussed in this country as seriously involving its
welfare? This is what a European is always asking of intelligent
Republicans and intelligent Democrats. He is always asking
because he never gets an answer. The replies leave him deeper in
perplexity. After some months the truth begins to dawn upon him.
Neither party has, as a party, anything definite to say on these
issues; neither party has any clean-cut principles, any