Congress overrode his veto, but Hayes's monetary policy forged a compromise between inflationists and advocates of hard money. He used federal troops cautiously to avoid violence in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, one of the largest labor strikes in U.S. history. Hayes's strong stance against the Democratic attempts to repeal the election laws earned him the support of civil rights advocates in the North and boosted his popularity among some Republicans who had been alienated by his civil service reform efforts.Hayes tried to reconcile the social mores of the South with the civil rights laws by distributing patronage among Southern Democrats. The government accepted these notes as valid for payment of taxes and tariffs, but unlike ordinary dollars, they were not redeemable in gold. The Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875 required the treasury to redeem any outstanding greenbacks in gold, thus retiring them from circulation and restoring the gold standard. Hayes and Secretary of the Treasury Sherman both support a restoration of the gold standard, and the Hayes administration stockpiled gold in preparation for the exchange of greenbacks for gold.