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 lenient Reconstruction plan. Provided at least 10% of the electorate in former Confederate States (exclusive of high level rebel leaders who had to meet stricter standards, those States could elect and send representatives to Congress. His successor, Andrew Johnson who did not have regard for the 3.5 million former African-American slaves in the South after the war ended and took an expansive view of states' rights, favored a more lenient approach than even Lincoln and came into co...