Third-Party Nominations
Two minor parties also
offered national tickets to the electorate. On May 17 in
Cleveland, the National Prohibition Reform party, representing
one of the oldest and most broad-based reform movements in
American history, nominated General Green Clay Smith of Kentucky
for president and G. T. Stewart of Ohio for vice-president. Also
meeting on May 17 (and 18), in Indianapolis, the National
Greenback party nominated the 85-year-old philanthropist Peter
Cooper of New York for president and Senator Newton Booth of
California for vice-president (Booth was later replaced by
Samuel Clay of Ohio). Despite its limited appeal, the
Greenbackers helped keep the money question before the public,
while its nearly 82,000 votes proved important in close states
like Indiana and allowed them to win some legislative seats in
states like Illinois.
The Campaign
Although impaired by the
inattention of national chair Zachariah Chandler, the
Republicans presented a unified front as Blaine and other
leading Republicans stumped for Hayes; only Conkling sulked. At
the behest of Hayes, issues like civil service reform took a
back-seat to "waving the bloody shirt"—reminding voters of the
alleged Democratic connection with the Confederate cause. Since
anti-black violence continued in the South, the negative
campaigning of the Republicans was not baseless. Republicans
also publicized several Tilden weaknesses: questionable income
tax returns, early association with Boss Tweed, ill health (he
had suffered a stroke the previous year), and views on monetary
policy which conflicted with those of his running-mate,
Hendricks.
Abram Hewitt, the Democratic national party chair, worked
with Manton Marble, former New York World editor, and
John Bigelow, New York’s secretary of state, in coordinating a
detailed campaign strategy focused on winning the crucial state
of New York. Tilden’s nephew, Colonel William Pelton, papered
the nation with a constant flow of campaign literature to create
a positive image of the Democratic nominee and to malign
Republican political corruption and economic policy. The
Democratic House pushed through Congress the statehood bill for
Colorado, assuming the territory was safely Democratic. It was a
tactical error that cost them the election because the new state
would cast its three electoral votes for Hayes.
The first state and congressional elections, held in Maine
and Vermont in September, went decisively in the Republican
column. On October 10, however, the Democrats won Indiana and
West Virginia, while the Republicans took Ohio. The nearly-even
distribution of the votes in the key states of Indiana and Ohio
forecast a close national election in early November, although
in the final days of the campaign most observers predicted a
Tilden victory. The Grant administration spent nearly $300,000
on deputy marshals and supervisors who were charged with
securing a fair election, with over $80,000 allocated for New
York City and most of the rest earmarked for the South.
Election Results and
Controversy
The first returns on
elections day indicated a clear Democratic victory. Both
candidates went to bed assuming that Tilden had won the
presidency, and several newspapers so reported in their morning
editions. As returns came in from the Far West, though, the tide
began to turn, and by the next evening some Republicans believed
Hayes to be the winner. When the dust settled Tilden had won the
popular vote, 51%-48%, but with 184 votes was one short of an
electoral college majority. Hayes collected 165 electoral votes,
while the remaining 20 were in dispute: one from Oregon and 19
from the three Southern states which still retained
Reconstruction governments—South Carolina, Florida, and
Louisiana. In Oregon the Democrats were disputing a Republican
elector on a technicality, but in the three Southern states both
parties were claiming victory in close elections and charging
the other party with vote fraud.
The Constitution did not provide for the unprecedented
scenario of a disputed presidential election (as distinct from
an election simply lacking a candidate with an electoral
majority, as in 1800 and 1824). The electoral college
controversy would drag on for months, not reaching resolution
until almost the eve of the scheduled inauguration on Monday,
March 5, 1877. Both camps hurled accusations, debate sometimes
reached a fever-pitch, and General William Sherman ordered four
artillery companies to the nation’s capital. The crisis sent
newspaper sales soaring, although responsible commentators tried
to quiet fears of renewed civil war. The presidential candidates
themselves remained publicly mum during the tense interval.
Tilden’s characteristic silence, however, prevented him from
convincing the public that justice required that the winner of
the popular vote should become president. Hayes used the time to
conciliate President Grant, who had let it be known that he
believed Tilden had carried Louisiana.
Initially, most Republicans wanted the president of the
Senate—who, after the death of Vice President Henry Wilson in
1875, was Senator Thomas Ferry, a Michigan Republican—to decide
which election returns to count. A few Republicans, such as
Senators Carl Schurz of Missouri and George Edmunds of Vermont,
thought the Supreme Court should settle the matter. Democrats
wanted the Democratically-controlled House to decide jointly
with the Republican-controlled Senate. Conkling, the disgruntled
Republican also-ran, agreed with the preferred Democratic
method, and asserted that Tilden had won Louisiana and Florida.
Southern Democrats privately approached Congressman James
Garfield, a Hayes protégé, to work out a deal for Southern
acquiescence in a Republican victory in return for specific
benefits for the South. Hayes, however, would only reiterate his
vague campaign promise of a just and liberal Southern policy.
In the end, Congress adopted and the candidates grudgingly
accepted an orderly, multi-institutional, bipartisan solution.
Representative George McCrary of Iowa, a Republican, introduced
a resolution establishing a special committee of each house to
develop a process for resolving the conflict, and it passed
Congress in December. On January 10, 1877, Edmunds and McCrary,
the respective chairs of the Senate and House compromise
committees, proposed the creation of a commission independent of
Congress for final adjudication. The Electoral Commission Act,
which gained wide approval, established a 15-member commission,
consisting of five senators (three Republicans and two
Democrats), five representatives (three Democrats and two
Republicans), and five members of the Supreme Court (four chosen
based on geographic diversity, who would then select a fifth).
The commission’s decisions were to be legally regarded as final
unless overridden by both houses of Congress.
The Supreme Court participants included two Republicans, two
Democrats, and an independent, Justice David Davis. To nearly
everyone’s surprise, though, a Greenback-Democratic coalition in
Illinois’ new state legislature elected Davis to the U.S. Senate
on January 25. The Illinois Democrats considered the Senate seat
an inducement for Davis to treat Tilden favorably. Neither
Tilden nor Hewitt knew of the plan, but it had been urged by the
candidate’s shady nephew, Colonel Pelton. Contrary to
expectations, Davis resigned from the commission, and once again
a tactical error likely cost the Democrats the presidential
election. The substitute fifth justice, Joseph Bradley, was a
Grant Republican who would vote for Hayes.
The electoral commission began meeting on February 2, 1877.
Over the next several weeks the commission reviewed the evidence
with lawyers representing both sides. On February 27 the
commission voted on a partisan 8-7 vote for Hayes in each
instance of disputed electoral returns. Several
behind-the-scenes negotiations led past historians to conclude
that a deal had been agreed to by Hayes’s associates and
Southern Democrats. Recent historians have downplayed the
importance of the negotiations. A threatened Democratic
filibuster was averted, but the Democratic House did reject the
findings of the commission. The Republican Senate, though,
approved them, and under the Electoral Commission Act the
commission’s judgment had the force of law. After a long,
tempestuous session of Congress, ending at 4:10 a.m. on March 2,
1877, Rutherford B. Hayes received all 20 contested votes,
allowing him to win an electoral college majority, and thus the
presidency, by one vote, 185-184. Three days later, on Monday,
March 5, Hayes delivered his inaugural address. As anticipated,
Hayes removed the remaining federal troops in the South from
political duty (guarding the statehouses) and the era of
Reconstruction formally ended.
Sources consulted: William
DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents;
Alexander Clarence Flick, Samuel Jones Tilden: A Study in
Political Sagacity; Ari Hoogenboom, The Presidency of
Rutherford B. Hayes; David Jordon, Roscoe Conkling of New
York; Keith Ian Polakoff, The Politics of Inertia: The
Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction; Sidney I.
Pomerantz, "Election of 1876," in Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
ed., American Presidential Elections.
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