Historian Kate Masur, also speaking with the Dallas News, says that there was not a clear cut result being delivered to Congress of what had happened at the state level, and so thats why Congress decided it was a huge crisis.. Immediately after the presidential election of 1876, it became clear that the outcome of the race hinged largely on disputed returns from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolinathe only three states in the South with Reconstruction-era Republican governments still in power. These troops had been in place since the end of the Civil War and had helped enforce the civil and legal rights of many formerly enslaved individuals. b As Reconstruction came to an end, Southern Democrats disenfranchised African Americans by b Students also viewed Sharecropping Test Why was the presidential election of 1868 significant? 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Henry Adams called Hayes "a third-rate nonentity whose only recommendations are that he is obnoxious to no one." We strive for accuracy and fairness. To aid illiterate voters, the parties would print symbols on the tickets, and in this election, many Democratic ballots were printed with the Republican symbol of Abraham Lincoln on them. Sign up to keep reading and unlock hundreds of Nat Geo articles for free. Why was the presidential election of 1824 considered a stolen presidential election? It was one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history. Southern states, meanwhile, chafed at their loss of political and social power. Source: Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held in St. Louis, Mo., June 27th, 28th and 29th, 1876 (September 3, 2012). Why didn't the South secede before the election of 1850? Southern Democrats promises to protect the civil and political rights of Black people were not kept, and the end of federal interference in southern affairs led to widespread disenfranchisement of Black voters. Congress would eventually enact the Electoral Count Act in 1887 to provide more detailed rules for the counting of electoral votes, especially in cases of multiple slates of electors being received from a single state. Because it was considered improper for a candidate to pursue the presidency actively, neither Tilden nor Hayes actively stumped as part of the campaign and left that duty to their surrogates. The Republican Party held a slim majority in the state legislature following a closely contested election on October 3, 1876. Why did Northern Republican support for Reconstruction diminish in the 1870s? After a first count of votes, Tilden had won 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165, with 20 votes from four states unresolved. What are some problems of this way of life? As Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, and Republicans dominated in the Senate, the two sides compromised by creating a bipartisan electoral commission with five representatives, five senators and five Supreme Court justices. Why was the presidential election of 1872 controversial? Log in for more information. No Republican presidential candidate until Warren G. Harding in 1920 would carry any states that seceded and joined the Confederacy. "In 1877, Congress did not. Why did Stephen Douglass lose the presidential election of 1860? After Booth declined to run, the national committee chose Samuel Fenton Cary as his replacement on the ticket.[11][12]. Why did the Democrats lose the presidential election of 1860? After the most disputed election in American history, the Compromise of 1877 put Rutherford Hayes into office as the nation's 19th president; outraged northern Democrats derided Hayes as "His Fraudulency.". Why did Democrats oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1960? A back-room deal. Though these claims are unfounded, the lawmakers cite the 1876 election as precedent for their actions. Although it is not disputed that Tilden outpolled Hayes in the popular vote, there were wide allegations of electoral fraud, election violence, and other disfranchisement of predominantly Republican Black voters. Read about the Election of 1876s significance and impact. But Grants administration and the Republicans generally had been beset by scandals and allegations of corruption, such as the Crdit Mobilier Scandal and the Whiskey Ring. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. United States presidential election of 1876. Corrections? Among the challengers to Blaine were Roscoe Conkling, a senator from New York and a prominent Republican leader in the post-Civil War period; Oliver H.P.T. About midnight on his way home from a play in New York City on Election Day in 1876, Daniel Sickles stopped by Republican national headquarters at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Why was the presidential election of 1932 a turning point? The results of the presidential election of 1876 anger many Democrats because The Republican Congress gave the presidency to the Republican candidate. The Presidential election of 1876 pitted Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat Samuel Tilden. Students also viewed The Rise Of "Jim Crow" 13 terms Ryan_Hansen519 hist 10 terms jordyn_rae_jensen With both sides accusing each other of electoral fraud, South Carolina, along with Florida and Louisiana, submitted two sets of election returns with different results. . Why was the presidential election of 1896 important? They were the party most supportive of slavery before the Civil War but amended their official positions following reunification. Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state on August 1, 1876; this was the first presidential election in which the state sent electors. ", "Flashback to 1876: History repeats itself", "Hayes v. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 18761877. The justices first selected the independent Justice David Davis. Become a member. The Republicans refused to accept defeat, however, and accused Democratic supporters of intimidating and bribing African-American voters to prevent them from voting in three southern statesFlorida, Louisiana and South Carolina. In 2000, the margin of victory in the Electoral College for George W. Bush was five votes, as opposed to Hayes' one vote. For some long COVID patients, exercise is bad medicine, Radioactive dogs? [27] Since all of the remaining available Justices were Republicans, they had already selected Justice Joseph P. Bradley, who was considered the most impartial remaining member of the court. No antebellum slave state would be carried by a Republican again until the 1896 realignment, which saw William McKinley carry Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. As Floridas Supreme Court had earlier declared a Democratic victory in the 1876 gubernatorial election, Democrats had been restored to power all across the South. The returns accepted by the Commission put Hayes's margin of victory in South Carolina at 889 votes, the second-closest popular vote margin in a decisive state in U.S. history, after the election of 2000, which was decided by 537 votes in Florida. The majority party in each house named three members and the minority party two members. Hayesdubbed His Fraudulency by a bitter Democratic presswould be publicly inaugurated just two days later. Still, the Republicans continued their strong commitment to the civil rights of emancipated slaves, their party platform stating that the permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their rights, are duties to which the Republican party is sacredly pledged. It further criticized the Democratic Party for its lack of commitment to civil rights, arguing that the party counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a united South, secured through the efforts of those who were recently arrayed against the nation and we invoke the earnest attention of the country to the grave truth, that a success thus achieved would reopen sectional strife and imperil national honor and human rights.. [13][14], Tilden, who had prosecuted machine politicians in New York and sent the legendary political boss William M. Tweed to jail, ran as a reform candidate against the background of the corruption of the Grant administration. [16][17] They saw themselves as the military wing of the Democratic Party. The Hayes-Tilden election was so controversial it spawned todays vote counting process. | READ MORE. The Greenback ticket did not have a major impact on the election's outcome by attracting slightly under one percent of the popular vote, Cooper nonetheless had the strongest performance of any third-party presidential candidate since John Bell in 1860. The Democratic platform pledged to replace the corruption of the Grant administration with honest, efficient government and to end "the rapacity of carpetbag tyrannies" in the South. Many historians argue that if votes had been counted accurately and fairly in Southern states, Hayes might have won the 1876 election outright. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Republicans held a stranglehold on the presidency, with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant winning easily in both 1868 and 1872. Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), the 19th president of the United States, won a controversial and fiercely disputed election against Samuel Tilden. [T]he affair seemed over.. A clash between black militia and armed whites in Hamburg in July ended in the death of five militiamen after their surrender, while at Camboy (near Charleston), six white men were killed when armed blacks opened fire in a political meeting. The men had been convicted of violating the 1870 Enforcement Act, which banned conspiracies to deny citizens constitutional rights and had been intended to combat violence by the Ku Klux Klan against Black people in the South. But after four months of fierce debate and negotiations, Hayes would be sworn into office as 19th president of the United States. Republicans chanted, "Not every Democrat was a rebel, but every rebel was a Democrat. Why did Lincoln win the election of 1860? Of the Supreme Court justices, two Republicans and two Democrats were chosen, with the fifth to be selected by those four. re Why did Zachary Taylor win the election of 1848? Why was the presidential election of 1828 considered dirty? Florida (with 4 electoral votes), Louisiana (with 8), and South Carolina (with 7) reported returns that favored Tilden, but the elections in each state were marked by electoral fraud and threats of violence against Republican voters. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of 1877, and on March 2, 1877, the counting of electoral votes by the House and Senate occurred, confirming Hayes as President. The little-known history of the Florida panther. Why was the presidential election of 1860 important? In the months during and preceding the election, mobs known as red shirts patrolled voting stations and threatened, bribed and murdered black voters. To date, it remains the election that yielded the highest voter turnout of the eligible voting-age population in American history, at 82.6%. The place was nearly. Three years later, in United States v. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of three white men convicted in connection with the massacre of more than 100 Black men in Colfax, Louisiana in 1873, as part of a political dispute. The Supreme Courts rulingthat the 14th Amendments promise of due process and equal protection covered violations of citizens rights by the states, but not by individualswould make prosecuting anti-Black violence increasingly difficult, even as the Klan and other white supremacist groups were helping to disenfranchise Black voters and reassert white control of the South. Cookie Policy The Democratic Party in the 19th century was a powerful force and had been the dominant party for much of the mid-century. The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the [electoral] certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." In two Southern states, the governor recognized by the United States had signed the Republican certificates; the Democratic certificates from Florida were signed by the state attorney-general and the newly-elected Democratic governor. In an unprecedented move, Congress decided to create an extralegal Election Commission composed of five senators, five House members and five Supreme Court justices. The U.S. Congress subsequently created an Electoral Commission, which by early March 1877 had resolved all the disputed electoral votes in favour of Hayes, giving him a 185184 electoral college victory. Made by History About Made by History and Contact Americans worry about 2020 being another 2000, but the real worry is another 1876 An unclear outcome in deeply polarized times could be. The Prohibition Party, in its second national convention in Cleveland, nominated Green Clay Smith as its presidential candidate and Gideon T. Stewart as its vice presidential candidate. Hayes privately took the oath of office the next day and was publicly sworn into office on March 5, 1877, and Hayes was inaugurated without disturbance.[25]. The Greenbacks' best showings were in Kansas, where Cooper earned just over six percent of the vote, and in Indiana, where he earned 17,207 votes, which far exceeded Tilden's margin of victory of roughly 5,500 votes over Hayes in that state. Why did Henry Clay lose the election of 1844? Fish later confirmed that he would have declined the presidential nomination even if it had been offered to him. Why was the presidential election of 1816 a turning point? What sets the election of 1876 apart from the election of 2020 the most is that lawmakers had ample evidence of widespread voter repression against newly enfranchised African Americans in the post-Confederacy Southand therefore good reason to doubt the veracity of election results. This is the only time both major party nominees were incumbent US governors. The Democrats insisted that Congress should continue the practice followed since 1865: no vote objected to should be counted except by the concurrence of both houses. Leaders of the reform Republicans met privately and considered alternatives. All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Why did the presidential election of 1876 anger Democrats? Tilden led Hayes by more than 260,000 popular votes, and preliminary returns showed Tilden with 184 electoral votes (one shy of the majority needed to win the election) to Hayess 165, with the 19 electoral votes of three states (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina) and one elector from Oregon (originally awarded to Tilden) still in doubt. She has been a frequent contributor to History.com since 2005, and is the author of Breaking History: Vanished! Why were the issues of the presidential election of 1828 important? How this animal can survive is a mystery. On the first ballot, Blaine was just 100 votes short of a majority. Why did the Democrats lose the presidential election of 1840? Running on the Democratic ticket was Tilden, an Ivy League graduate who appealed to voters with a successful anti-corruption track record during his tenure as New Yorks governor. With this new deal, Hayes ended the Reconstruction era and ushered in a period of Southern home rule. Soon, a reactionary, unfettered white supremacist rule rose to power in many Southern states. Why was the presidential election of 1888 controversial? The presidential election of 1876 is better known for its controversial aftermath than for the campaign that preceded it. ", "What in the Word?! Why was the presidential election of 1944 significant? The election of 1876 was the last one held before the end of the Reconstruction era, which sought to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, who usually voted for Republican presidential candidates. . Election returns from three Republican-controlled Southern statesLouisiana, Florida and South Carolinawere divided, with both sides declaring victory. Nora McGreevy At the same time, key decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court struck at the protections afforded by Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments and legislation. Upon his defeat, Tilden said, "I can retire to public life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in the gift of the people, without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office.". A new discovery raises a mystery. The two Republican electors dismissed Grover's action and reported three votes for Hayes. Why was the presidential election of 1904 important? Peter Cooper was nominated for president with 352 votes to 119 for three other contenders. The Compromise of 1877 was an informal agreement between southern Democrats and allies of the Republican Rutherford Hayes to settle the result of the 1876 presidential election and marked the end of the Reconstruction era. ", How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century, National Archives and Records Administration, "1876 Presidential General Election Data National", "Corporations, Corruption, and the Modern Lobby: A Gilded Age Story of the West and the South in Washington, D.C.", United States presidential election, 1876, "You Think This Is Chaos? Why was the presidential election of 1896 a watershed presidential election? The main thing Democrats did with their new control of the House, starting in December 1875, was to investigate every department of the . Why was the presidential election of 1932 a critical election? Hayes, meanwhile, had 165. Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. The next time those two states voted against the Democrats was their support of the "Dixiecrat" candidate Strom Thurmond in 1948. Jackson's elections were the first in which all white men could vote. Why was the presidential election of 1860 controversial? The racist roots of 'bulldozer', "COUNTING THE VOTE: THE HISTORY; President Tilden? Johnson's rocky relations with Congress resulted in an impeachment trial. Why was the presidential elections of 1896 important? Why did the presidential election of 1876 anger Democrats? copyright 2003-2023 Homework.Study.com. This small political party used several different names, often with different names in different states. Samuel J. Tilden, the governor of New York, strongly appealed to delegates from Southern states, and on the first ballot he led Thomas A. Hendricks, the governor of Indiana. (Although it should be noted that, because presidents were inaugurated in March instead of January before the 1930s, the 1876 contest took five months to be decided; while the counting will. In the deal, the Democrats conceded the 20 contested electoral votes to Hayes, resulting in a 185-184 victory; in return, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, marking the end of Reconstruction. In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy. Inside South Africas skeleton trade. As the 1876 presidential election approached, the Democrats chose Governor Samuel B. Tilden of New York as their candidate, while the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio. Why did the presidential election of 1860 cause the Civil War? As Reconstruction came to an end, Southern Democrats disenfranchised African Americans by passing new voting requirements. Why did the Republicans win the presidential election of 1896? In that election, Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden of New York won 247,448 more popular votes than Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. Representatives: 1932 to 2010", "The Twice and Future President: Constitutional Interstices and the Twenty-Second Amendment", "Proceedings of the Republican national convention, held at Cincinnati, Ohio June 14, 15, and 16, 1876 . Thomas Hendricks was nominated for vice president since he was the only person to put forward for that position. There were 369 electoral votes, of which 185 were necessary to a choice. By the 1870s, support was waning for the racially egalitarian policies of Reconstruction, a series of laws put in place after the Civil War to protect the rights of African Americans, especially in the South. Create Your Free Account or Sign In to Read the Full Story. The Compromise of 1877 might be a reason for the Democrats accepting the Electoral Commission. She is also a freelance journalist based in Chicago whose work has appeared in Wired, Washingtonian, the Boston Globe, South Bend Tribune, the New York Times and more. "The election of 1876," Foner says, "would not have been disputed at all if there hadn't been massive violence in the south to prevent black people from voting and voter suppression like we. The history of book bansand their changing targetsin the U.S. Should you get tested for a BRCA gene mutation? Updates? The most extreme case was in South Carolina, where an impossible 101 percent of all eligible voters in the state had their votes counted,[22] and an estimated 150 Black Republicans were murdered. Tilden needed just one more vote in the electoral college to reach the 185 electoral votes necessary for the presidency. [19][20] This was the last election in which any state chose electors through its state legislature, rather than by popular vote.[21]. Ten years later, the debacle would also result in a long-overdue law: the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which codified electoral college procedure, as Shafer reports for the Post. Known as the Jim Crow laws (after a popular minstrel act developed in the antebellum years), these segregationist statutes governed life in the South through the middle of the next century, ending only after the hard-won successes of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. They seized the uncertainty of the moment, encouraging Republican leaders in the three states to stall, and argued that if black voters hadnt been intimidated away from the pollsand if voter fraud hadnt been as rampantHayes would have won the contested states. Proponents of the Electoral College. Many of the seats in that election had been decided by only a few hundred votes. The Compromise of 1877 was an off-the-record deal, struck between Republicans and Democrats, that determined the victor of the 1876 presidential election. Meanwhile, in Oregon, the vote of a single elector was disputed. Why was the presidential election of 1936 a watershed year? Why did the number of white male voters increase between the elections of 1824 and 1828? As a bipartisan congressional commission debated over the outcome early in 1877, allies of the Republican Party candidate Rutherford Hayes met in secret with moderate southern Democrats in order to negotiate acceptance of Hayes election. Grover substituted a Democratic elector in Watts's place. The election of 1876 was the most disputed in American history and in some ways one of the most consequential. In return, Democrats would not dispute Hayess election, and agreed to respect the civil rights of Black citizens. In 1876, the elections in three statesFlorida, Louisiana, and South Carolinawere alleged to have been conducted illegally, the senators write in a statement. As a result, wrote King for Smithsonian, the 1876 presidential election provided the foundation for Americas political landscape, as well as race relations, for the next 100 years.. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of . In the late 19th century, the Democratic Party's base was centered in the South and focused on state rights. This week, the events of the 1876 presidential race have once again come under scrutiny. The basic outline of events after Election Day, November 7, 1876, is familiar. It also called for treaty protection for naturalized United States citizens visiting their homelands, restrictions on Asian immigration, tariff reform, and opposition to land grants for railroads. Five members were selected from each house of Congress, and they were joined by five members of the United States Supreme Court, with William M. Evarts serving as counsel for the Republican Party. Why did the presidential election of 1800 lead to the Twelfth Amendment. [6] Later that year, Grant ruled himself out of running in 1876.
