HY 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Gilded Age, Radical Republican, Reconstruction Era
29 May 2018
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The Election of 1876
In 1876, the Democratic Party, having already secured a majority in the South,
made a concerted effort to win the White House as well. The party nominated
the famous Grant-era prosecutor Samuel J. Tilden as their presidential
hopeful. After briefly thinking about re-nominating Ulysses S. Grant for an
unprecedented third term, Republicans instead nominated Ohio
Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Even though Hayes was a relative unknown,
Republicans thought of him as the perfect candidate: he had been a Union
general in the Civil War, had no controversial opinions, and came from a
politically important state. In the election, Tilden received 184 electoral votes
of the 185 needed to become president. Hayes only received 165 votes and
lost the popular vote by approximately 250,000 votes.
However, the election results were disputed because of confusing ballots in
South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. Under normal procedure, disputed
votes would be recounted in front of Congress by the president of the Senate.
However, the president of the Senate was a Republican and the Speaker of
the House was a Democrat, so neither man could be trusted to count the
votes fairly.
The Compromise of 1877
Congress therefore passed the Electoral Count Act in 1877 to establish a
special committee to recount the votes in a fair and balanced way. The
committee consisted of fifteen men from the House, Senate, and Supreme
Court. The committee concluded by a margin of one vote that the Republican
Hayes had won the disputed states and therefore was the new president.
Democrats were outraged at first but quickly realized that the situation gave
them the perfect opportunity to strike a bargain with the opposition to achieve
their political goals.
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Document Summary
In 1876, the democratic party, having already secured a majority in the south, made a concerted effort to win the white house as well. The party nominated the famous grant-era prosecutor samuel j. tilden as their presidential hopeful. After briefly thinking about re-nominating ulysses s. grant for an unprecedented third term, republicans instead nominated ohio. Republicans thought of him as the perfect candidate: he had been a union general in the civil war, had no controversial opinions, and came from a politically important state. In the election, tilden received 184 electoral votes of the 185 needed to become president. Hayes only received 165 votes and lost the popular vote by approximately 250,000 votes. However, the election results were disputed because of confusing ballots in. Under normal procedure, disputed votes would be recounted in front of congress by the president of the senate.
