ELECTION #23. 1876. The NASTY-METER skyrockets to 10.

QUOTE from Robert G. Ingersoll, who was a writer on the staff of the 1876 Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes: "Every man that tried to destroy this nation was a Democrat...The man that assassinated Lincoln was a Democrat...Soldiers, every scar you have on your bodies was given you by a Democrat."

In 1876 it was ironic that one of the nastiest and most brutal elections in 19th-century American history occurred. It is a further irony that both candidates, Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden, were so-called reform candidates whose goal was to wipe out corruption in government. This election changed America,and it was NOT for the better, over the next 90-100 years.

The CANDIDATES in 1876.

REPUBLICAN: RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.

Grant really wanted to run for a third term. But the scandals in his administration hung so heavily over him that the Republicans said, "no way." At the convention in Cincinnati they chose Hayes, the governor of Ohio. Hayes was a good guy, hard-working and sincere, a Civil War hero, the father of seven, prayed with his kids every morning and sang gospel hymns with them at night.

DEMOCRAT: SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

The Democrats were hungry for a winner so they chose Samuel Tilden, the governor of NY. Tilden had gained fame as a crusading Manhattan D.A., he had smashed New York City's Boss Tweed's powerful ring of corruption and sent him prison. After Grant's scandal-ridden administration they felt they had a good shot with Tilden. Tilden was super bright. But he was an icy, aloof bachelor whose penetrating intellect made many people uncomfortable, even his friends. His biggest disadvantage was he had taken no part in the Civil War.

The CAMPAIGN in 1876.

Tilden tried to change his image by hiring public relations experts to make him appear like a warm and loveable Samuel Tilden. He issued press releases accusing Hayes of being involved in some of Grant's scandals. They said he had stolen $400 from a Union deserter about to be executed. (He did take the money before the guy was shot but returned it to his family.) They accused Hayes of shooting and wounding his own mother "in a fit of insanity" after a night of drinking. (There was no proof that this was true and mother couldn't say yes or no as she died in 1866.)

The Hayes supporters did not sit idle. The Republicans had been in power for 16 years and most federal employees had been appointed by Republicans. Zachariah Chandler, the less than sober head of the Republican Party and Hayes campaign manager, knew how to raise money. He sent a fund-raising letter to every Republican appointee holding office and told them to donate 2% of their salary to the Hayes campaign - please remit promptly - at the close of the campaign we will post a list of those who have not paid in the hands of your department head. They said that Tilden, being a bachelor, had numerous affairs with women, some of them married. And they said he had also contracted syphilis some years earlier from an Irish whore, and the venereal disease affected his actions and made him susceptible to blackmail. (Tilden died in 1886 and there was no evidence of his having any STD.)

And both parties were guilty of more terrible tactics in the campaign. The Republicans-the party of the Great Emancipator. Abraham Lincoln - wanted freed blacks to vote and thus prodded many of them to the ballot boxes at gunpoint to vote for Hayes. Democrats in S. Carolina and elsewhere started violent race riots, in some cases shooting and killing blacks who attempted to exercise their right to vote. On both sides, men voted 10-20 times, and local party bosses stood by ballot boxes, tearing up any votes for the "wrong" candidate.

The real WINNER was SAMUEL J. TILDEN but RUTHERFORD B. HAYES became the 19th president of the U.S.

Tilden got 4,284,020 popular votes and 184 electoral.
Hayes got 4,036,572 popular and 185 electoral.

Tilden had almost 250,000 more popular votes but did not become president.

The 1876 election is the most tainted and controversial election in our history (the 2000 election between Bush and Gore is close). Tilden won the popular vote by nearly 250,000 votes and he appeared to have 203 electoral votes to Hayes's 166. Although all results showed Tilden had won, the Republican Party disputed the outcome. They claimed that blacks had been denied the right to vote in many parts of the South, especially in S. Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. The election officials refused to accredit the Democratic electors in these 3 states. The officials instead had the 3 states give their electoral votes to Hayes - now the election was tied at 184 electoral votes for each.
Not surprisingly, chaos ensued in the capital. The Democrats controlled the House, and the Republicans controlled the Senate. The Republican Party knew that if the election went to the House, they would lose. So they recommended a bipartisan commission to study the election and certify the results. The commission was composed of 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans, with 5 from the House, 5 from the Senate and 5 from the Supreme Court. The 15th and tie-breaking member was another Supreme Court justice - his name was Justice David Davis, an Independent. However, in the middle of the deliberations he was appointed as a senator from Illinois and resigned. In his place another justice was appointed, the problem for the Democrats was that he was a Republican and not an Independent. With the commissions final vote tied at 7-7 the replacement voted with the Republicans and Hayes received all the disputed electoral votes and became the 19th president of the U.S.

The Democrats were furious at the shenanigans of the commission - some historians have said we were close to another Civil War. The Democrats refused to attend the inauguration - it was held in secret because the Republicans feared for Hayes's life - someone had already fired a shot through the window of Hayes's house.

But here is the real tragedy of this election -
IT SEALED THE FATE OF THE BLACKS FOR THE NEXT 90-100 YEARS. The Southern Democrats saw an opportunity to get something they wanted. What they wanted was to get the Union troops out of the South. They offered the Republicans a deal - we will not challenge the election results of the commission if you will do 3 things:
1. When Hayes got in office he would have to withdraw all Union troops.
2. Appoint one Southerner to his cabinet.
3. Appropriate money to rebuild the South.

And Hayes came through on all three.

The results of this deal are:
1. Reconstruction ended and Afrian-Americans were largely abandoned by the federal government until the 1960s.
2. The white-controlled Democratic Party went on to control Southern politics for the next century. They set about the process of segregating blacks from society and keeping them in their place through instilling fear (the KKK and lynchings) and denying them rights.
3. The civil rights of blacks was set back until the 1960s, including the right to vote, fair treatment in the judicial system, equality in education and economic prosperity and....

(My comment - Oh,it makes me sick on how political crookedness, prejudice, bigotry and the pursuit of power can screw up a country and the lives of its minority citizens.)