The Controversial Election of 1876

Choosing a President by way of Congressional Compromise

May 5, 2008

Though Rutherford B. Hayes trailed in both popular and electoral votes, a congressional compromise named him President on one of the most controversial elections in Ameri

In 1876, Ohio Governor and war hero Rutherford B. Hayes found himself facing very stiff competition in the form of popular New York Governor Samuel Tilden.

The campaign itself was both personal and brutal - true to the form of nineteenth century politics - even though the common practice of the day meant that neither candidate actively campaigned for themselves, leaving the job up to others in their party.

Opponents of Tilden associated the democratic party with the rebellious confederacy (issuing the slogan, "Not all Democrats were rebels, but all rebels were Democrats!"), while the opponents of Hayes

The Election Results

The results of the 1868 election were some of the most controversial in American History, in a sense echoing the results of the 1824 election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

Just as in that previous controversy, by the time the results were tabulated, it became clear that Tilden had won a majority of the votes (like Jackson in 1824) by about 250,000 (a considerable amount). Unfortunately for him, victory in the election required 185 electoral votes - Tilden ended the day with exactly 184.

While this was twenty more than Hayes' electoral tally at the end of the day, it was not sufficient to give Tilden a victory.

The decision for the election, then, lay in the four states in which the results were disputed - Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon - with a combined total of twenty electoral votes - just one of which would give Tilden the victory (though it would take the collective votes of them all to push Hayes over the top).

The disputes in these states - three of which were chaotic southern states - ranged from electoral fraud to questions regarding the illegitimacy of electors. Despite the fact that Tilden appeared to lead in the southern states (while Oregon leaned toward Hayes), there was no simple way to decide the matter.

The Compromise Commission

Congress responded to this impasse by passing the Electoral Commission Act in January of 1877 (just three months before a new President was set to be inaugurated). This act appointed a bipartisan commission of fifteen government officials - five from the House, five from the Senate, and five from the Supreme Court - to vote on who to give the remaining electoral votes to.

Though the commission was supposedly bipartisan, consisting of seven Republicans (including future President James Garfield), seven Democrats and one "swing vote," this final member ended up being a Republican, Joseph P. Bradley, who ended up voting for his own party (despite being offered the position as the result of a supposed "independent tendency").

The final vote after frequent delays imposed by the Democrats once it became clear that they were going to lose the vote, then, was 8 to 7 in favor of giving all twenty electoral votes to Hayes, and thus the Presidency.

The Informal Compromise

With all the delays of the commission's voting, it looked as if the decision might not be made in time for the inauguration on March 4th. In order to get the process moving, then, it is sometimes said that the Republicans voting for Hayes offered the Democrats certain "concessions" if they let the vote through (which was precisely what the Democrats appeared to be after).

The validity of this "backroom deal" is uncertain, though meetings were almost certainly held. The Democrats wanted Hayes to promise certain cabinet appointments as well as a quick end to the radical reconstruction policies of President Grant.

Whether or not any such deal was actually made, the Democrat filibustering finally ended when the Speaker of the House (Samuel Randall, a Democrat) declared it out of order, forcing the vote through.

While historians can continue to debate what kind of deals were made between Democrats and Republicans, the end result remains unavoidable: Hayes, though he may or may not have deserved it, won the election.

The copyright of the article The Controversial Election of 1876 in American History is owned by Isaac M. McPhee. Permission to republish The Controversial Election of 1876 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.