ELECTION OF 1876

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“He serves his party best who serves the country best.”

(Rutherford B. Hayes)

BACKGROUND

United States (1876)

• 46,000,000+ people.
• 38 states.
• Centennial Year.
• Republicans ~ Controlled the White House for 16 years.
• Two major issues~ Reconstruction and government corruption.

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RECONSTRUCTION

• Reconstruction ~ Period following the end of the Civil War.
• “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
• Bring the South back into the Union.
• Confirm the status of the Black Freedmen.

RECONSTRUCTION

• South saw the Reconstruction as punitive.
• Power slipping from whites to blacks.
• Republicans ~ Viewed as the enemy.
• Klu Klux Klan.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION

• Two terms of Ulysses Grant (1868-1876) marked by political scandals.
• Not personally involved.
• Panic of 1873 ~ Economic crisis that widen the gap between labor and management.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION

• Credit Mobilier (1872) ~ Scandal centered around the transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier, a railroad investment company.
• Implicated Vice President Schuyler Colfax and future president James A. Garfield.
• Whiskey Ring ~ Conspiracy to defraud government of millions from liquor taxes.
• Grant intervened to acquit Orville Elias Babcock, his personal secretary.

REPUBLICANS

• Rutherford B. Hayes (Ohio).
• Republican.
• Civil War general.
• House of Representatives.
• Ohio Governor.
• Religious / family man (7 children).
• VP ~ William Wheeler (New York).

DEMOCRATS

• Samuel J. Tilden (New York).
• Democrat.
• Governor.
• Reformer.
• Boss Tweed.
• Hypochondriac.
• VP ~ Thomas Hendricks (Indiana).

GREENBACK PARTY

• Greenback Party (Independent Party, National Party, Greenback-Labor Party) ~ Political party active between 1874 and 1884.
• Opposed switch from paper money (“greenbacks”) to gold or silver.
• Peter Cooper (New York).
• Greenback Party.
• VP ~ Samuel F. Cary (Ohio).

CAMPAIGN

CAMPAIGN

• Hayes and Tilden both refrained from personally campaigning.
• Parties very active.
• Democrats ~ Created the Literary Bureau.
• Accused Hayes of profiting from the scandals of the Grant administration.
• Claimed Hayes stole $400 from an executed Union soldier during the Civil War.

CAMPAIGN

• Zachariah Chandler ~ Republican National Chairman.
• Led attacks against Tilden.
• Reminded voters that Tilden did not serve during the Civil War.
• “Waving the bloody shirt.”
• “Not every Democrat was a Rebel, but every Rebel was a Democrat.”

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CAMPAIGN

• Republicans ~ Attempted to franchise as many Blacks as possible.
• Franchise ~ Right to vote.
• Democrats ~ Attempted to prevent Black voting.

ELECTION

• November 7 ~ 82% of Americans voted.
• Largest percent in the nation’s history.
• Tilden ~ Won popular vote by over 250,000.
• Tilden ~ Captured 184 of 185 needed electoral votes.
• 20 votes in doubt.
• Florida (4), Louisiana (8), South Carolina (7), and Oregon (1).
• Hayes ~ Went to bed in New York believing he lost.

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ELECTION

• Republicans ~ Claimed thousands of Blacks barred from voting in the three southern states.
• Oregon ~ One elector wrongly disqualified because he was a post master.

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ELECTION

• Daniel Sickles ~ Civil War general.
• Republican.
• 1859 ~ Acquitted in the murder of Philip Barton Key.
• “By reason of temporary insanity.”
• Lost a leg at Gettysburg.

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ELECTION

• Sickles visited Republican headquarters after attending theater on election night.
• Determined that Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in question.
• Sickles forged Zachariah Chandler’s name.
• Sent telegrams to the three states.
• “With your state sure for Hayes, he is elected. Hold your state.”

DISPUTE

• December 6 ~ Electors met in state capitals to vote.
• Disputed states cast two sets of votes.
• Hayes and Tilden both claimed victory.

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DISPUTE

• Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina ~ Flooded with political operatives.
• President Grant ~ Sent troops into the states to prevent violence.
• January 29, 1877 ~ US Congress formed a 15-member Electoral Commission.
• Electoral Commission ~ 5 Representatives, 5 Senators, 5 Supreme Court Justices.
• 8 Republicans / 7 Democrats.
• “Compromise of 1877.”

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DISPUTE

• February 1, 1877 ~ Electoral Commission began hearing arguments by lawyers from both parties.
• Each of the disputed four states examined.

DISPUTE

• March 2, 1877 ~ Electoral Commission voted 8-7 in favor of Hayes.
• Party lines.
• March 4 ~ Hayes inaugurated.
• Hayes awarded South Carolina by 889 votes.
• Second closest election in U.S. history.

DISPUTE

• Hayes ~ 4,034,311 (185 electoral votes).
• Tilden ~ 4,288,546 (184 electoral votes).
• Cooper ~ 75,973 (No electoral votes).
• Other ~ 14,271 (No electoral votes).

DISPUTE

AFTERMATH

• Hayes announced that he would only serve one term.
• Democrats dubbed Hayes ~ “Rutherfraud”, “His Fraudulency”, and “His Accidency”.
• Suspicion that Hayes promised to withdraw troops from the South and restore local government in exchange for key Democratic support.

AFTERMATH

• 1878 ~ Eleven-member committee investigated fraud in the election.
• Chaired by Clarkson Nott Potter (D-NY).
• Found no wrongdoing by the President.
• 1887 ~ Congress passed the Electoral Count Act.
• Stated that a state’s determination of electoral results was conclusive in most cases.