His Fraudulency: Rutherford B. Hayes and the Contested Presidential Election of 1876

The events of the 1876 fight for theWhite Houselikely strait familiar to Americans today : elector determent . The threat of ferocity . An unprecedentedly nasty Presidential campaign . Talk of a Supreme Court poised to rule in favor of the candidate that shared a company with their majority . And though it was nearly 150 years ago , the issue of thepresidential election of 1876reverberates in America even now .

Hayes vs. Tilden

The election was a showdown between New York governor Samuel Tilden , a Democrat , and Ohio governorRutherford B. Hayes , a Republican . Tilden was well - known — active in national and New York government , earlier in his career he had been a key player in helping send corrupt Tammany Hall leader Boss Tweed to prison house . Hayes , on the other hand , was a practical unknown .

The country was in turmoil : The economic system was suffer thanks to the Panic of 1873 , and racial tensions were high following theCivil War . Hayes ’s Republican Party corroborate Union power and the rights of Black citizen , while Tilden ’s Democratic Party wanted to restrain rights for formerly enslaved people and let the Dixie regularise more independently .

The campaigns quick grewcontentious — at one point , Hayes ’s backersreportedly saidTilden had rearing syph that had impaired his mental content ( he did n’t ) , while rumorscirculatedthat Hayes had charge his female parent while inebriated ( he had n’t ) . But insult - sling was just the tip of the iceberg lettuce .

Democrats urged some striking militia to make threatening appearances at company meetings and polling places , specifically need them to target Black citizens in South Carolina . Each Democrat , the partysaid , should seek to “ control the right to vote of at least one Negro , by bullying , purchase , keeping him forth or as each somebody may determine . ” Decades later , Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina proudly admit that the party had move toextreme measuresto lilt the ballot , include killing members of the foeman .

The presidential race was think to be so firmly in the Democrats ’ grip that newspapers had alreadyprinted headlinesdeclaring Tilden ’s victory . But despite their right campaign , the polls were a lot close than anyone had expected — including the nominee . On election night , Tilden won the democratic voting by more than 250,000 voting , but remained a unmarried electoral vote away from attain the 185 he require to bring home the bacon the election . Hayes was at 165 , and go to bed assuming he had lost , writingin his diary , “ We shortly fall into a refreshing sleep , and the matter seemed over . ” Of course , it was n’t .

The Battle for Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina

Three state were too snug to call : Florida , Louisiana , and South Carolina . If Hayes took all three of them , the administration would be his . However , the Republican - manipulate Louisiana election board offer to say thatthe votehad gone to Tilden for the princely nub of $ 1,000,000 . It was believed that the other two close - call country made alike offering , but Tilden ’s company refused to take the come-on — and it may have be them the election .

Election boards in Florida , Louisiana , and South Carolina voided a identification number of popular votes for a smorgasbord of reasons — including because the inspectors at one Florida precinct run low to dinner party and left the corner holding the ballots neglected — which abruptly made Hayes the clear achiever . But then other issues emerged , such as the one in Oregon , where it came out that one of the state ’s Republican electors was use as a postmaster and was thus ineffective to cast his ballot for Hayes . He stop his job and was reappointed as an elector , but the regulator demonstrate a Democratic voter instead and threw the Oregon votes into question .

week of uncertainty drag into month , and with every day that passed , the state became more profoundly divided . Many worried , quite severely , that another civil war was on the horizon . And if there was n’t a decision by March 4 , interregnum would take issue , leading to the potential for yet more chaos .

Senate Republicans wanted to permit the Republican - majority Supreme Courtdecide the outcomeof the election , but Democrats cried distasteful . Both parties finally accord to anelectoral commissionmade up offive members of the Senate ( split 3 - 2 in favor of the Republicans ) , five members of the House ( split 3 - 2 in favour of the Democrats ) , and five members of the Supreme Court . Two of the phallus Justices wereconsidered affiliatedwith Democrats , two with Republicans — and together , those four would vote on a fifth justness to round out out the commission .

It’swidely agreedthe fifth justice wasintendedto be Justice David Davis , who was known for his independence — as an 1893 article about the direction inThe Atlanticnoted , “ If the ideal were half Democrat and half Republican , how could it have been more utterly realized ” than by propose Davis . But as the Electoral Commission Act was strike through Congress , Democrats and Independents in IllinoiselectedDavis to the U.S. Senate , and Daviswithdrew his namefrom consideration for the committee . The 5th seat was ultimatelyfilledby Justice Bradley who , though respectedfor independence , was aRepublican , give the Republicans an 8 - 7 majority .

While the mission deliberated , other deal were being made behind the scenes . Republicans sought to win over southern Democrats to stop blocking the counting of electoral vote . If they second off and allowed Hayes to be elected , the Republican Party accord to a issue of concession on issues that affect the United States even today . Later known as the Compromise of 1877 , the informal concord is thought to haveincluded : the remotion of troop from the South ; the promise that a southerner would be appoint Postmaster General ( or a member of the storage locker ) ; that funds would be directed to facilitate reconstruct the South ; and that racial way out would beleft up to the statesto decide , not the federal government .

Unsurprisingly , the electoral charge split down company business — all eight Republicans say Hayes deserved the votes in all the dispute states , and all seven Democrats vote against him . The legal age won , and because of the Compromise , the Democratic Party stopped repugn the result . Rutherford B. Hayes wasprivatelysworn in as the nineteenth President of the United States on March 3 , 1877 , and publically on Monday , March 5 .

The Lasting Effects of the Compromise of 1877

The disputed election results fall over Hayes ’s head his entire presidency , with detractors referring to him as “ Rutherfraud ” and “ His Fraudulency . ” And true to the terms of the 1877 Compromise , Hayes removed troops from the South a calendar month after his startup , definitively endingReconstructionand paving the way for theJim CrowSouth .

As historiographer Eric FonerwroteinInterpretations of American History Vol . I : Patterns and Perspectives , the bankruptcy of Reconstruction , for Black people , was “ a disaster whose magnitude can not be obscured by the genuine skill that did endure . ” Foner argue that the nonstarter of Reconstruction completely altered the development of America , writing , “ Reconstruction ’s demise and the emergence of Blacks as a disenfranchised division of subordinate jack greatly facilitated racism ’s further go around , until by the other twentieth century it had become more deep embedded in the nation ’s culture and politics than at any time since the beginning of the antislavery crusade and perhaps in our entire history . ”

Hayes opt not to run for a 2nd term for president , and get out office in 1881 . As for Tilden ? Although he was considered a presidential possibility in 1880 and again in 1884 , the campaigns never came to realisation . He continued to remind people that hewasthe achiever of the popular vote , saying , “ I can retire to private life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the cite of having been elect to the high position in the gift of the people , without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office . ” He died in 1886.Inscribedon his memorial : “ I Still hope the People . ”