The Presidential Election of 1876

The Presidential Election of 1876

There have been plenty of controversial elections in US history, however the election of 1876 may have been the closest and most disputed. The republican party nominated the governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, while the democrats nominated the governor of New York, Samuel J. Tildon. The democrats had been out of power since 1861.

The controversy comes on the election night, when the democratic nominee, Samuel Tildon had 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win the election despite winning the majority vote by over 250,000 votes. His opponents refused to accept the result and accused the democrats of voter fraud, claiming that the votes in the four states of Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Oregon were miscounted. Further claims accused democrats of not counting or intimidating the African American votes in those states. These accusations prevented the democrats from seizing a quick victory. Instead there was an attempt to recount the votes.

However, the recount produced two different sets of electoral returns. To settle the controversy, a electoral commission composed of 2 democrats, 2 republicans, and a supposed independent was formed. Justice David Davis was the initial choice for the fifth member of the commission, but soon dropped out after an attempt by Tildon to make Davis favor the democrats. He was replaced by the republican, Justice Joseph Bradley. The numerically advantaged republicans had control of the commission and it was ruled that all votes in question would be given to the republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes. A decision clearly not supported by the democrats who threatened to filibuster the official counting of the votes and deny Hayes the presidency. However, it was decided by democratic leaders that they would allow Hayes to be president if federal troops were taken from the south.