ELECTION OF 1876
This research paper analyzes t
This is an excerpt from the paper...
This research paper analyzes the Presidential election of 1876. Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) Republican, eventually defeated Samuel B. Tilden (1814-1886) Democrat, after a protracted dispute. Hayes won despite the fact that he lost the popular vote by more than 200,000 votes and that initially Tilden led in the electoral college with 184 votes to Hayes' 166 with 19 votes in dispute. Hayes won because of a political compromise involving both political parties and among various interest groups reached more than three months after the election itself. Some historians have expressed the view that Tilden 'wuz robbed' by fraud and chicanery by his opponents. Others believe that Hayes won legitimately. Clearly, Tilden contributed to his own defeat by the relatively passive posture he assumed while these forces played themselves out. And the nation benefitted from the peaceful resolution of the dispute which came only 12 years after the end of the Civil War and like that tragedy pitted Northerners against Southerners. The Great Compromise of 1877 served as a watershed event which ended Reconstruction. And it largely perpetuated, except for Grover Cleveland's two terms as President, Republican control of Congress during the Gilded Age and until Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected President in 1912.It also exposed weaknesses in the electoral system which in different forms still exist. Before President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, he proposed a fairly lenien
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votes (277). The electoral board, which was composed of four Republicans and a fifth vacant seat, rejected over 13,000 Democratic and 2,500 Republican voters or just enough to enable Hays to win (Rehnquist 108). The chairman of the board, one Madison Wells had been removed from his post as Governor by Army General Philip Sheridan for dishonesty, was, according to Ferrell "auctioning off the presidency" (278). It is known that numerous underlings of both Hayes and Tilden offered state officials bribes to change the electoral results; however, Rehnquist said that, in the case of Wells, "it was never proved that he took any money" (108). Whatever the motivation Rehnquist said that in all three states there was "deliberate tampering with the returns" (181).
With all this corruption and influence-peddling going on, it is difficult to say who would have won in these three states if a truly free and honest election had been held. Hoogenbloom speculated that Hayes probably carried South Carolina by 600-1000 votes (277). The presence of Union troops there but Rehnquist
expressed doubt as to finally certified vote.
In Louisiana which had the largest black population in the country, a complete switch occurred. Tilden's large initiall
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Approximate Word count = 3219
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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