 Blaine was appointed to the Senate on July 10 , 1876 , but did not begin his duties there until the Senate convened in December of that year . While in the Senate , he served on the Appropriations Committee and held the chairmanship of the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment , but he never achieved the role of leadership that he had held as a member of the House . The Senate in the 45th Congress was controlled by a narrow Republican majority , but it was a majority often divided against itself and against the Hayes administration . Blaine did not number himself among the administration 's defenders , but neither could he join the Republicans led by Conkling — later known as the Stalwarts — who opposed Hayes , because of the deep personal enmity between Blaine and Conkling . He opposed Hayes 's withdrawal of federal troops from Southern capitals , which effectively ended the Reconstruction of the South , but to no avail . Blaine continued to antagonize Southern Democrats , voting against bills passed in the Democrat @-@ controlled House that would reduce the Army 's appropriation and repeal the post @-@ war Enforcement Acts he had helped pass . By 1879 , there were only 1 @,@ 155 soldiers stationed in the former Confederacy , and Blaine believed that this small force could never guarantee the civil and political rights of black Southerners — which would mean an end to the Republican party in the South . Such bills passed Congress several times and Hayes vetoed them several times ; ultimately , the Enforcement Acts remained in place , but the funds to enforce them dwindled . 
