Why was the presidential election of 1888 unusual? Tilden was also the last person to win a majority of the popular vote until William McKinley in 1896. [16][17] They saw themselves as the military wing of the Democratic Party. Disputed Election of 1876 | Miller Center Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. But the election process in Southern states was rife with voter fraudon the part of both partiesand marked by violent voter suppression against black Americans. No Republican presidential candidate until Warren G. Harding in 1920 would carry any states that seceded and joined the Confederacy. Create an account to read the full story and get unlimited access to hundreds of Nat Geo articles. Rutherford B. Hayes wins 1876 presidential election by one Electoral Why did the Democrats lose the presidential election of 1904? Participation in Elections for President and U.S. Why did the presidential election of 1876 anger Democrats? We thought we knew turtles. Though the commission was supposed to be comprised of seven Republicans, seven Democrats and one independent, the independentSupreme Court Justice David Davisended up dropping out when he was offered a Senate seat, and a Republican was named to replace him. The Democrats held their convention two weeks later in St. Louis, Missourithe first time a national convention was held west of the Mississippi. The results of the U.S. presidential election of 1876 were a mess. Falling crop prices and rising unemployment also worried the Republicans. Why is the presidential election of 1928 significant? Why was the presidential election of 1896 a watershed presidential election? Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. Furious Democrats refused to accept the ruling and threatened a filibuster. In Oregon, one elector was replaced after being declared illegal for having been an "elected or appointed official." He went on to serve in Congress and later as Ohios governor, where he championed African American suffrage, as Robert D. Johnson writes for the Miller Center of Public Affairs. Why was the presidential election of 1956 significant? 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. On the other side, the newspaperman John D. Defrees described Tilden as "a very nice, prim, little, withered-up, fidgety old bachelor, about one-hundred and twenty-pounds avoirdupois, who never had a genuine impulse for many nor any affection for woman."[15]. There was insufficient time or money to organize a presidential election in the new state. Advertising Notice Why was the presidential election of 1800 controversial? 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." Why did the presidential election of 1876 anger Democrats? Democrats All three of the state electors cast their votes for Hayes. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of . In 1876, a decade after the U.S. Civil War, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes competed against Democrat Samuel Tilden in a bitterly contested presidential election. Why did the number of white male voters increase between the elections of 1824 and 1828? Why was the presidential election of 1884 important? The 1876 election also has a fraught legacy: After months of bitter fighting, lawmakers made a fateful compromise that put Hayes in office by effectively ending Reconstruction, leading to a century of intensified racial segregation in the South. The Republicans held their convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, in mid-June, and the front-runner for their nomination was James G. Blaine of Maine, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Cookie Settings, one of the most bitterly contested presidential elections in history, removal of the last federal troops from Louisiana, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamondand Why the British Won't Give It Back, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog. Many historians argue that if votes had been counted accurately and fairly in Southern states, Hayes might have won the 1876 election outright. Why was the presidential election of 1868 significant? Sign up to keep reading and unlock hundreds of Nat Geo articles for free. Hayes, a lawyer, businessman and abolitionist, was a war hero who had fought in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. 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 1876 a corrupt bargain? None of the Southern states that experienced long periods of occupation by federal troops was carried by a Republican again until Herbert Hoover in 1928, when he won Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia, and that proved the last election in which the Republican candidate won Louisiana until 1956, when it was carried by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the last in which the Republican candidate won South Carolina until 1964, when Barry Goldwater did. During the wars aftermath, approximately four million enslaved people were freed, and a Republican-controlled Congress moved swiftly to protect their rights and restore the Confederacy to the Union. The United States presidential election of 1876 was one of the most disputed presidential elections in American history. 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. But Grant's administration and the Republicans generally had been beset by scandals and allegations of corruption, such as the Crdit Mobilier Scandal and the Whiskey Ring. Why did the Democrats lose the presidential election of 1860? [8] It has been claimed that the voting Democrats received Tilden's presidential nomination with more enthusiasm than any leader since Andrew Jackson.[9]. The U.S. Constitution provided no way of resolving the dispute, and now Congress would have to decide. Grant's inner circle advised him to go for a third term and he almost did so, but on December 15, 1875, the House, by a sweeping 233-18 vote, passed a resolution declaring that the two-term tradition was to prevent a dictatorship. In his acceptance of the nomination, Hayes wrote that if elected, he would bring the blessings of honest and capable local self-government to the Southin other words, restrict federal enforcement of unpopular Reconstruction-era policies. Why was the presidential election of 1860 controversial? We soon fell into a refreshing sleep, Hayes later wrote in his diary about the events of November 7, 1876. Why was the presidential election of 1888 controversial? "In 1877, Congress did not. 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. The Republican Party held a slim majority in the state legislature following a closely contested election on October 3, 1876. A disputed election, a constitutional crisis, polarisation welcome to Why was the 1968 election a turning point in U.S. political history? The results of the presidential election of 1876 anger many Democrats because The Republican Congress gave the presidency to the Republican candidate. [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. Thomas Hendricks was nominated for vice president since he was the only person to put forward for that position. As Jason Slotkin reports for NPR, a group of Senate Republicans announced that they will vote to reject electors from states they consider disputed if Congress does not form a commission to investigate their claims of voter fraud. Finally, just after 4 a.m. on March 2, 1877, the Senate president declared Hayes the president-elect of the United States. The statewide result clearly favored Hayes, but the state's Democratic governor, La Fayette Grover, claimed that one of the Republican electors, Ex-Postmaster John Watts, was ineligible under Article II, Section 1, of the United States Constitution since he had been a "person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States." [T]he affair seemed over.. Blaine led after the first ballot but without enough votes to secure the nomination. Why did the presidential election of 1876 anger democrats? The presidential election of 1876 was arguably the most contentious and disputed in American history. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Why did the Democrats win the presidential election of 1892? This action marked the effective end of the Reconstruction era, and began a period of solid Democratic control in the South. Have Any U.S. Presidents Decided Not to Run For a Second Term? In South Carolina, the election had been marred by bloodshed on both sides of the party line. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, won Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. Does eating close to bedtime make you gain weight? Nora McGreevy In the 1870s, the United States faced an economic downturn. . Why was the presidential election of 1828 considered dirty? Racism remained a pervasive force in the North as well as the South, and by the early 1870s many Northerners had begun blaming Reconstructions problems on the supposed inferiority of Black voters. For their part, white Southern Democrats did not honor their pledge to uphold the rights of Black citizens, but moved quickly to reverse as many of Reconstructions policies as possible. How & When Did Reconstruction End? - Study.com HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Add an answer or comment Log in or sign up first. The platform supported the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution, international arbitration, the reading of the scriptures in public schools, specie payments, justice for Native Americans, abolition of the Electoral College, and prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages. [24] The Republican-dominated state electoral commissions subsequently rejected enough Democratic votes to award their electoral votes to Hayes. Why did the Democrats lose the presidential election of 1896? By midnight, Tilden had 184 of the 185 electoral votes he needed to win and was leading the popular vote by 250,000. 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. Southern states, meanwhile, chafed at their loss of political and social power. A new discovery raises a mystery. [I]f you had a fair election in the south, a peaceful election, theres no question that the Republican Hayes would have won a totally legitimate and indisputable victory, Eric Foner, a preeminent historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction, told the Guardians Martin Pengelly in August. Senate control is huge for multiple reasons, not least because by pulling it off in deeply unpromising political conditions, Democrats cemented the most stunning showing for an incumbent. ", "Flashback to 1876: History repeats itself", "Hayes v. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 18761877. Why was the presidential election of 1860 a critical presidential election? Why was the presidential election of 1824 considered a stolen presidential election? [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. Ultimately, Congress. It depends. There were 369 electoral votes, of which 185 were necessary to a choice. That year, he carried Tennessee, which had never experienced a long period of occupation by federal troops and had been completely "reconstructed" well before the first presidential election of the Reconstruction period (1868). Updates? The Contentious Election of 1876 | AP US History Study Guide from The This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 07:32. Why was the presidential election of 1820 important? The question of who should have been awarded those electoral votes is the source of the continued controversy. Inside South Africas skeleton trade. On Nov. 7, 1876, Tilden received over 250,000 more votes than Hayes . . During intense closed-door meetings, Democratic leaders agreed reluctantly to accept Hayes as President in return for the withdrawal of federal troops from the last two Southern states that were still occupied: South Carolina and Louisiana. Why did the Republicans win the presidential election of 1896? - Study.com Did you know? This site is using cookies under cookie policy . United States presidential election of 1896, American presidential election held on November 3, 1896, in which Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat - Populist William Jennings Bryan. The presidential election of 1876 is better known for its controversial aftermath than for the campaign that preceded it. And its weighty consequences still resound today. The Compromise of 1877 was an off-the-record deal, struck between Republicans and Democrats, that determined the victor of the 1876 presidential election. 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. Why did the Federalists lose the presidential election of 1800? Why did Henry Clay lose the presidential election of 1844? democrats thought the electoral commission voting system was unfair. Added 8/12/2019 7:13:13 PM This answer has been confirmed as correct and helpful. Then came a presidential election that changed everything. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. In Columbus, Ohio, a shot was fired at Hayes's residence as he sat down to dinner. With a Republican-controlled Senate, a Democrat-controlled House and no clear presidential winner, Congress was thrown into chaos. Proponents of the Electoral College. What are some problems of this way of life? 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. Morton, a senator from Indiana and that states former governor; Benjamin Helm Bristow, the U.S. secretary of the Treasury (187476) and successful prosecutor of the Whiskey Ring; and Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio. Why was the presidential election of 1916 so close? Both parties backed civil service reform. Democratic Party: In the late 19th century, the Democratic Party's base was centered in the South and focused on state rights. 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. It was widely assumed during the year 1875 that incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant would run for a third term as president despite the poor economic conditions, the numerous political scandals that had developed since he assumed office in 1869, and a longstanding tradition set by George Washington not to stay in office for more than two terms. After U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant declined to seek a third term despite previously being expected to do so, U.S. Representative James G. Blaine emerged as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Republicans chanted, "Not every Democrat was a rebel, but every rebel was a Democrat. Republican reformers, however, hoped to thwart his nomination. On Election Day that November, the Democrats appeared to come out on top, winning the swing states of Connecticut, Indiana, New York and New Jersey. Explanation: The presidential election of 1876 resulted in the election of the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against the Democrat Samuel Jones Tilden, who had nevertheless obtained the absolute majority of the popular votes. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Why did Democrats oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1960? At the time, parties would print ballots or "tickets" to enable voters to support them in the open ballots. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Eminent counsel appeared for each side, and there were double sets of returns from every one of the states named. In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy. The Democratic strategy for victory in the South was highly reliant on paramilitary groups such as the Red Shirts and the White League. Why was the presidential election of 1872 significant?
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