March 2, 1877: Election of 1876 decided—finally
The presidential election of 1876 had the highest turnout in U.S. history, with 81.8% of the voting-eligible population going to the polls to choose between two governors: Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. It was also the most contested election ever, remaining undecided for 116 days.
Although the Civil War had ended more than a decade prior, the nation found new sources of discontent. The two terms of President Ulysses S. Grant were marked by corruption, economic overexpansion and a global depression triggered by the Panic of 1873.
Thus, there had been no surprise when Republicans lost heavily in midterm elections, leaving Congress divided: Republicans were still in control of the Senate, but the House of Representatives was firmly held by Democrats. And only days after votes were cast across 38 states on Nov. 7, it was clear that Tilden had won significantly more votes than Hayes.
However, then as now, the presidency is not decided by the popular vote. Under the Constitution, it is decided by a vote of electors chosen by each state, their number determined by total representation in both houses of Congress.
By Dec. 6, the statutory date for electoral voting, Tilden led 184-165 in unofficial tallies, but he remained one electoral vote shy of victory. And with 20 electoral votes under challenge—including 19 from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina—the election seemed headed toward a constitutional crisis.
In Florida, a Republican-led canvassing board declared Hayes had won by 45 votes. A court-ordered Democratic count saw Tilden the winner by 90. In Louisiana, Republican canvassers, angered by Democrat suppression of Black voting, rejected 15,500 votes, 13,000 of them for Tilden. And in South Carolina, where Black voters far outnumbered white voters, Republican canvassers awarded Hayes its presidential electors, even as Democrats dominated statewide races.
As a result, all three states submitted competing slates of electors, creating a dispute the Constitution did not anticipate. If no candidate reaches an electoral majority, the Constitution is explicit: “the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by ballot one of them for president,” with each state delegation receiving a single vote.
But under that same clause, those electors are submitted to and tallied before the president of the Senate; and with Michigan Republican Thomas Ferry holding that office—and the Constitution silent on his power to credential electors—Democrats saw no guarantee that an inconclusive electoral vote would ever reach the Democrat-dominated House.
Congress steps in
With inauguration set for March, restive voters began demanding compromise, and on Jan. 29, 1877, Congress responded by creating a 15-member Electoral Commission to resolve the elector disputes: five members from the House, five from the Senate and five from the U.S. Supreme Court. While the 10 congressional commissioners were split evenly between parties, the Supreme Court nominees included two Democrats and two Republicans with a fifth member elected by those four. They chose Justice Joseph Bradley, a Grant appointee, after the expected choice, President Abraham Lincoln appointee David Davis, declined.
Three days later, a joint session of Congress began its state-by-state count of electoral voting. Under the rules, each state’s vote was approved by acclamation unless objections were made. At that point, the Electoral Commission, meeting in private session at the Capitol, would hear any objections, deliberate their merit and render what, in effect, would be a final decision.
The first objections before the commission came when counting reached the Florida issue. After several days of argument, the commission voted 8-7, along party lines, to award the state’s four electoral votes to Hayes.
With the pattern seemingly set, the process moved slowly through February, particularly in the joint session—with interruptions for questionable objections, wrangling over attempted filibusters and the inevitable arguments over process and rules.
In the end, all 20 disputed electors, including one from Oregon, were awarded to Hayes. And just after 4 a.m. on Friday, March 2, 1877, by a vote of 185 to 184, Rutherford B. Hayes was declared president.
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