When the convention met and the balloting began, the contest along these factional lines started in earnest.
An excited controversy having arisen about the result of the balloting in the states of South Carolina, Florida, Oregon and Louisiana, the two parties in Congress in order to allay a crisis dangerous to public peace agreed to pass an act referring all contested election returns to an extraordinary commission, called the "Electoral Commission" (q.v.), which decided each contest by eight against seven votes in favour of the Republican candidates.
