Samuel Tilden 1876 presidential campaign

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Samuel Tilden for President
Samuel Tilden
  • Thomas A. Hendricks
    • AffiliationDemocratic Party
    StatusLost general election

    The

    U.S. President
    in exchange for the end of Reconstruction and a withdrawal of U.S. federal troops from the South.

    The Democratic nomination fight

    Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes was Tilden's opponent in the 1876 presidential race.
    A photograph of Samuel Jones Tilden.

    After the Democrats captured control of the

    corrupt boss of the Tammany Hall political machine) and prosecuting the Canal Ring.[1][2] As the Governor of the most populous U.S. state, Tilden was an obvious choice and the front-runner for the 1876 Democratic presidential nomination.[1]

    At the

    Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes won the Republican nomination as a compromise candidate after front-runner James G. Blaine failed in his nomination bid due to his corruption scandals.[1][3]

    Campaign

    The 1876 Democratic platform demanded the repeal of the

    civil service reform.[1] Meanwhile, the Republicans "waved the bloody shirt" by associating the Democrats with the Confederacy[4] and criticized Tilden's questionable tax returns, early association with Boss Tweed, poor health, and conflicting views on the "money question" in comparison to his running mate.[5]

    A painting of the Electoral Commission with spectators.
    Justice Joseph P. Bradley, the decisive vote on the Electoral Commission.

    Tilden's campaign aggressively focused on winning the crucial

    Southern U.S. in 1876).[5] Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled House made a crucial blunder when it passed a statehood bill for Colorado in the middle of the campaign.[5][4] While the Democrats might have believed that Colorado would vote for Tilden, it ended up giving its electors to Hayes and thus provided the decisive margin for Hayes's victory in the election.[5][6]

    Results

    An 1877 Puck political cartoon which depicts the Compromise of 1877. Rutherford Hayes and the "Solid South" (depicted as a Southern belle here) are shown walking away together while Roscoe Conkling looks on.

    While both candidates went to bed on Election Night, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 1876, assuming that Tilden had won (indeed, Tilden had won the national popular vote by a 51%-48% margin), late results from the West made the election outcome unclear.[5] Tilden had won 184 electoral votes (one short of a majority) whereas 20 electoral votes (one from Oregon and 19 from the South) were disputed.[5] The dispute over the 19 electoral votes from the Southern U.S. was based on the fact that there was a dispute over who had carried the states of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina.[5] After some debate, a 15-member

    U.S. Supreme Court members (four of whom were selected by geographic diversity and who would later select the fifth one).[5] The commission's decisions were to be legally regarded as final unless both houses of Congress overrode these decisions.[5]

    Out of the five Supreme Court members of this commission, there were two Republicans, two Democrats, and one independent—U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis.[5] In an attempt to win Davis's favor, the Democratic-Greenback coalition in the new Illinois legislature appointed Davis to the U.S. Senate.[5] To their surprise, however, Davis immediately resigned from the Electoral Commission in order to take his U.S. Senate seat. Meanwhile, Davis was replaced on the Electoral Commission by Republican Joseph P. Bradley.[5]

    Ultimately, the Electoral Commission voted on a partisan 8 to 7 vote to award all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes (with Justice Bradley being the decisive vote in all of these votes), thus allowing him to defeat Tilden and win the U.S. presidency by one electoral vote (with 185 electoral votes going to Hayes while 184 electoral votes went to Tilden).

    U.S. politics.[5]

    Samuel Tilden waited until June 13, 1877, before he conceded the 1876 U.S. presidential election to Rutherford Hayes.[7]

    References

    1. ^ a b c d e f g h "HarpWeek | Elections | 1876 Overview". Elections.harpweek.com. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
    2. ^ "On This Day: February 19, 1876". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
    3. ^ "Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur". Adamcadre.ac. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
    4. ^ a b "Another Look at the 1876 Election - Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums". Rbhayes.org. 2006-02-19. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
    5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "HarpWeek | Elections | 1876 Overview". Elections.harpweek.com. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
    6. ^ "Another Look at the 1876 Election - Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums". Rbhayes.org. 2006-02-19. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
    7. ^ "1876 Presidential Concession Speech - Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums". Rbhayes.org. 2016-11-22. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
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