1877 | Political Events
Political Events
Queen Victoria is proclaimed empress of India January 1 at a Great Assemblage, or Durbar, held by the viceroy Lord Lytton and his wife, Edith, on a grassy plain north of Delhi. While thousands die of hunger in famine-stricken Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai), the British raj entertains officials, rajahs, and subalterns at a fancy ball and banquets that continue for a week. The viceroy and vicereine arrive at Government House, Calcutta (Kolkata), January 13 and Edith Lady Lytton settles down to a round of visiting soldiers' wives in their barracks and nurses in their hospitals, charming local society while her husband raises eyebrows with his undignified manner and open flirtations. Resentment against the raj increases, but India will remain part of the Empire for another 70 years (see Gandhi, 1906).
The Electoral Commission Act signed into law by President Grant January 20 establishes a 15-member commission to rule on disputed electoral votes in connection with last year's disputed U.S. presidential election; appointed January 29, the commission comprises five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices—two from each party and one to be appointed by the others. The fifth justice is David Davis, who is considered an independent, but the Illinois Legislature names Davis to a U.S. Senate seat, and he is replaced by upstate New York-born justice Joseph P. Bradley, 63, a Republican who has a record of favoring government power to regulate commerce and opposing constitutional protection for the civil rights of blacks. Eight members of the commission are Republicans (whose party controls the Senate), seven Democrats (whose party controls the House), all questions are decided along partisan lines, Justice Bradley casts the deciding vote, the president of the Senate announces at 4 o'clock in the morning of March 2 that Rutherford B. Hayes has won the presidency by one electoral vote, and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden is denied his marginal victory at the polls (considerable sums of money have changed hands and few people doubt that the presidency was stolen). Hayes has gained grudging Southern support by promising to withdraw the federal troops that have been protecting the carpetbagger governments in the former Confederacy, return the Southern states to Democratic Party control, and serve only one term. He is sworn in as president March 4, having named a cabinet whose members were chosen on the basis of ability rather than cronyism; "Party leaders should have no more influence in appointments than other equally respectable citizens," Hayes declares, but many people consider the election to have been stolen and call him "Rutherford B. Fraud" or "Rutherfraud" or "Old 8 to 7." When angry Senate Democrats confront him at the White House, Hayes takes a copy of last year's Republican platform from his desk drawer, invites his visitors to read the pledges to reform the civil service, and tells them, "We must not forget that I am president of the whole country, not any party."
President Hayes withdraws federal troops from Louisiana April 27 after 12 years of occupation, ending the period of Radical Reconstruction. Legislatures of former Confederate states enact measures that solidify Democratic Party control (see Posse Comitatus law, 1878).
Polar explorer and Civil War naval commander Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, U.S. Navy (ret.), dies at Washington, D.C., February 8 at age 78; former Confederate Navy rear admiral Raphael Semmes at Point Clear on Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 30 at age 67; former Confederate Army general Nathan Bedford Forrest at Memphis October 29 at age 56.
The first elected Ottoman parliament convenes at Constantinople under terms of the constitution proclaimed last year. Scholar Ahmed Vefik, 53, presides over the parliament, whose members include Palestinian deputies elected from Jerusalem.
Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire April 24 as the government of Aleksandr II yields to pressure from Panslav elements. Greece's prime minister Aléxandros Koumoundhouros advocates sending troops to aid insurgents in Ottoman-occupied Macedonia and Thessaly. The Russians cross the Danube and lay siege July 19 to the Turkish fort of Plevna (Pleven), 100 miles northeast of Sofia; Ottoman forces under the command of Crimean War veteran Osman Nuri, 45, repulse the Turks in the first Battle of Plevna July 20, but a larger war looms as the British cabinet decides July 21 to declare war on Russia if she should occupy Constantinople and if she does not make plans for immediate withdrawal. The Russians suffer further reverses at Plevna as the tough Turkish defenders throw back repeated Russian attacks, inflicting heavy losses and allaying fears of British intervention, but Plevna's earthenwork walls fall December 10, Osman Nuri tries to break through the cordon of 110,000 Russians and Romanians with 500 guns, but his force of 40,000 men and 77 guns is overpowered, and he is forced to surrender after being wounded; Turkish casualties total about 30,000 (the Russians and Romanians lose about 40,000), Nuri is taken prisoner and carried off to Russia but becomes a national hero for his stout resistance; the Turks appeal for mediation (see 1878).
Greece's prime minister Konstantinos Kanáris dies in office at Athens September 14 at age 87.
France has a May 16 crisis that threatens her survival as a republic. Premier Jules Simon is forced to resign as Marshal MacMahon becomes irritated with his weak opposition to the anticlerical position of French Leftists, but the principle of ministerial responsibility is upheld against the personal power of the reactionary president and France remains a republic (see 1873; Boulanger, 1889).
British reformer John Frost of 1839 Chartist uprising fame dies near Bristol, Gloucestershire, July 27 at age 93; former Chartist and reformer William Lovett dies in dire poverty at London August 8 at age 77, having run an unsuccessful book store.
Former Spanish Carlist insurgent leader Ramón Cabrera dies at London May 24 at age 70, having recognized the legitimist king Alfonso XII 2 years ago; former French president Louis Thiers dies suddenly at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Seine-et-Oise) September 3 at age 80.
Japan's samurai warrior class rebels against the "evil counselors" of the Meiji emperor, who have denied the samurai their pensions and forbidden them to wear two swords (see 1869). The Satsuma Rebellion that begins January 29 alarms Tokyo as disciples of samurai leader Takamori Saigo attack the Kagoshima arsenal and navy yard; Saigo raises 40,000 men by February 15 and sets out for Tokyo with some idea of presenting a list of grievances, but his advance is blocked at Kumamoto. General Koshaku Yamagata, now 38, heads an expeditionary force sent to quell the uprising, and the government names Satsuma-born soldier Iwao Oyama, 34, to help lead a modern army of trained commoners (Oyama has learned military tactics with the Prussian Army in 1870 and his wife is a Vassar graduate). Former government official Takayoshi Kido dies at Tokyo May 26 at age 43, by which time Aritomo Yamagata, now 39, has become field commander of the government's conscript army, which is funded by a large issue of paper money and inflicts a series of defeats through the summer on Takamori Saigo, who has scarcely 200 samurai left by September. The imperial army launches a final assault September 24, Saigo is critically wounded, he is beheaded by a faithful lieutenant at his native Kagashima September 24 at age 49, and the rebellion ends after 12,000 men have died and 20,000 been wounded. Many Japanese refuse to believe that Saigo is dead, preferring to think that he will return at some time in the future when a great leader is needed (see constitution, 1889).
Britain annexes Walfish (Walvis) Bay on the coast of South-West Africa March 12, she annexes the South African Republic April 12 in violation of the 1852 Sand River Convention that recognized the independence of the Transvaal, and a new Kaffir War begins that will end with the British annexing all of Kaffraria and extending their rule toward the northeast.
Former Argentine dictator Juan de Rosas dies in exile at Southampton, England, March 14 at age 83.
Canadian statesman Sir James Douglas dies at Victoria, British Columbia, August 2 at age 73. He is mourned as "the father of British Columbia."