The old Whig party, after the disaster that overtook it in 1852, had been not more demoralized.

Yet in the general elections of 1874 the Democrats swept the country, carrying many Northern States and sending a great majority to the Forty-fourth Congress.
Reconstruction was breaking down of its very weight and rottenness.

The panic of 1873 reacted against the party in power.

Dissatisfaction with Grant, which had not sufficed two years before to displace him, was growing apace.

Favoritism bred corruption and corruption grew more and more flagrant.