# 1878 Midterm Elections [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] administration midterm, the first held after the [[Compromise of 1877]] ended Reconstruction. Democrats consolidated control of the House and made gains in the Senate; the **Greenback Party** — an agrarian-and-labor party advocating inflationary monetary policy — won 14 House seats, the first significant third-party congressional presence since the 1854 Republicans and Know-Nothings. ## Result - **House:** Democrats held majority — gained slightly (~141 of 293 Democrats vs. ~133 Republicans in the 46th Congress; ~14 Greenback Party seats) - **Senate:** Democrats gained ~6 seats and took narrow majority (~42 of 76 Democrats vs. ~33 Republicans) - **Chambers flipped:** Senate — flipped from Republican to Democratic control - **Net change:** Democratic strengthening; first significant Greenback Party presence ## Notable - The **Greenback Party** ran on agrarian-monetary-inflation (paper currency expansion against the gold standard) and labor-rights platforms; the party's 14 House seats prefigured the broader 1890s Populist movement - Federal troop withdrawal from the South under the Compromise of 1877 was now complete; Southern state Democratic governments operated without federal Reconstruction oversight; Black voter suppression accelerated - The 46th Congress (1879-1881) was the first since 1858 with Democrats controlling both chambers — the structural shift toward Gilded-Age party balance ## Connections - [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] — Sitting president.