The election of 1876 was one of the most disputed elections in american history. The two candidates were Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Samuel J. Tilden was the nominee for the democrats and Rutherford B Hayes was the nominee for the republicans. Rutherford B. Hayes was born on October 4th, 1882 in Delaware, Ohio. His father died two months before Hayes was born and his mother raised both him and his sister Fanny. He was the 19th president of the United States. Before he was president he served in the military, when he was recognized he was promoted to general. After the civil war he became the governor of Ohio. When he was president he ended Reconstruction and resigned after his first term in office. Before that Hayes graduated …show more content…
He played a big role in the Democratic Party as a party chairman in New York City. Tilden ran for president as the Democratic nominee but was beaten by Rutherford B. Hayes. He died August 4th, 1886. The presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 7th, 1876. It was very clear that Tilden won the popular vote with 4,288,546 while Hayes had 4,034,311, after the first count it was obvious that Tilden won the electoral vote with 184 and Hayes with 165. Tildens vote was one short of majority and Hayes was 20 away, the remaining votes were from Oregon and the other electoral votes were from three southern states: Florida (4 votes), Louisiana (8 votes), and South Carolina (7 votes). What made the matter worse was that democrats in these states had won these elections but mostly by fraud and violence. The republicans who supported Hayes claimed that he won because the democrats used 'fraud' and 'violence', they took out enough democratic votes for Hayes to win all three states. Even though Hayes clearly won in Oregon but the democratic governor confused things and sent the elector to Tilden, the conflict got worse because the constitution didn't say anything on how to solve this …show more content…
The problem went on for a while until Congress finally came up with a way to break the tie, they appointed a Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission was made up of five senators, fives members of the House Of Representatives, and five Supreme Court Justices. Congress was hoping to have seven republican, seven democrat members and one independent but instead it turned out to be eight republicans and seven democrats. It was 8 to 7, they rejected the democrats claims and accepted all of Haye' electoral votes. Hayes ended up with 185 electoral votes and Tilden with 184. This is where the Compromise of 1877 came in. The Compromise of 1877 was the deal that finally settled the disputed presidential election of 1876. The Compromise allowed the electoral commission to happen and awarded Hayes to be president over Tilden since he won the electoral votes. In order to do so Hayes would have to end Reconstruction on the South and remove the remaining federal troops out of the Southern states. Those states were South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. Hayes took the troops out of Louisiana and South Carolina while Republican Ulysses. S. Grant took them out of