[158] Hayes stopped granting new star route contracts but let existing contracts continue to be enforced.[159] Democrats accused him of delaying proper investigation so as not to damage Republicans' chances in the 1880 elections but did not press the issue in their campaign literature, as members of both parties were implicated in the corruption.[158] Historian Hans L. Trefousse later wrote that Hayes "hardly knew the chief suspect [Brady] and certainly had no connection with the [star route] corruption."[160] Although Hayes and the Congress both investigated the contracts and found no compelling evidence of wrongdoing, Brady and others were indicted for conspiracy in 1882.[161] After two trials, the defendants were acquitted in 1883.[162]

Great Railroad Strike[edit]
Main article: Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Burning of Union Depot, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 21–22, 1877
In his first year in office, Hayes was faced with the United States' largest labor uprising to date, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.[163] To make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873, the major railroads had cut their employees' wages several times in 1877.