The Republicans Steal the Election!
(NOT by Al Gore)
The presidential election in the centennial year of 1876 was particularly nasty.
Incumbent President U. S. Grant had declined to run for a third term, leaving the election open to two newcomers.
The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden, the governor of New York, who had a reputation as a crime-fighter and eradicator of corruption (he also had a less flattering reputation as a prissy individual).
The Republican nominee was Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio, who was viewed as an honest though uncharismatic man who was picked as a compromise candidate.
Lies and innuendo were exchanged by both the Democrat and Republican campaigns up until the election.
Due largely to the lack of a passionate electoral following for Hayes, it was widely expected that he would lose to Tilden by a significant majority.
Sure enough, the election went to Tilden by a quarter-million votes (out of eight-and-a-half million cast), or an approximately 51% – 48% edge.
In order to actually win the presidency 185 Electoral College votes were needed.
Tilden had 184 votes, Hayes had 165.
To fairly decide the results of the election, the two houses of Congress set up the bi-partisan Electoral Commission to decide the actual winner. The commission consisted of 15 members: five from the House, five from the Senate and five from the Supreme Court. In total, the Commission consisted of 7 Democrats, 7 Republicans and Supreme Court Justice David Davis of Illinois, whom both sides considered to be independent.
In a brilliant political move, the Illinois Republican-controlled legislature then had Justice Davis appointed to the Senate, and he was replaced by Justice Joseph P. Bradley on the electoral panel.
A party-line vote followed, with Hayes winning in all of the contested 20 electoral votes by an eight-to-seven vote.
The Democrats were outraged.
As part of the compromise of 1877, the Democrats agreed to allow Hayes to assume the presidency if the Federal occupation of the south and reconstruction were ended.
Partially as a result of the end of reconstruction, Jim Crow laws existed and in some cases flourished in the south for nearly another century.
Were the Democrats so clean?
(If you’ve ever seen a broken fluorescent bulb and wondered what the powder in the tube was – now you know)