On Christmas day we dined alone.

The outlook, on the whole, was cheering.
With John Bigelow and Manton Marble, Mr.Tilden had been busily engaged compiling the data for a constitutional battle to be fought by the Democrats in Congress, maintaining the right of the House of Representatives to concurrent jurisdiction with the Senate in the counting of the electoral vote, pursuant to an unbroken line of precedents established by that method of proceeding in every presidential election between 1793 and 1872.
There was very great perplexity in the public mind.

Both parties appeared to be at sea.

The dispute between the Democratic House and the Republican Senate made for thick weather.

Contests of the vote of three States--Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida, not to mention single votes in Oregon and Vermont--which presently began to blow a gale, had already spread menacing clouds across the political sky.