The Election of 1876

Early in the "Sinews of Democracy" chapter, it was mentioned that Rutherford B. Hayes "survived the closest election in American history," so I thought it would be worthwhile to dig in a little bit and find out some of the details of this election.

Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio was the Republican nominee in the 1876 presidential election, running with William A. Wheeler of New York. Their Democratic opponents were New York's Samuel J. Tilden and his running-mate Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana. This election was, and remains to this day, one of the most controversial, disputed elections in US history. Initially, Tilden was said to have won with 4,284,020 popular votes to Hayes' 4,036,572. However, Tilden had 184 votes in the electoral college, one vote short of the majority required to win the presidency. Hayes had 165 electoral votes, twenty votes away from the majority victory. Twenty electoral votes remained in dispute, and it was these crucial twenty votes that would decide the election. All but one of these votes were from the three Southern states who still had electoral boards controlled by the Republican Party: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina...until the state elections, in which Democrats won with the help of substantial violence, voter intimidation, and fraud. Thus, neither party had full, fair control of each of the states, and both claimed the votes for themselves. Republicans in all three states ended up with victory for Hayes because of the Democrats' fraudulent tactics in the state elections. Here we see a direct application of the governmental corruption detailed in both "Robber Barons and Rebels" and "Sinews of Democracy." In Oregon, two of the three electors voted for Hayes, but the Democratic governor claimed that the third Republican electors was ineligible and replaced him with a Democrat, attempting to give the third vote to Tilden. This act was deemed fraudulent, and the vote was ultimately awarded to Hayes, giving him a one-vote majority in the electoral college. The decision was publicly and governmentally disputed for months, until Congress passes a law creating an Electoral Commission consisting of five House Representatives, five Congressmen, and five Supreme Court judges to come to an agreement on the disputed Southern votes. This group again held a Republican majority by just one member, which proved to be the deciding factor, although it took the Commission from the January 31st to March 2nd, two days before inauguration, to come to a conclusion. Hayes ended up being sworn in on March 4th, finally bringing an end to the great dispute. What a trip!