The Disputed Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction

By 1876 Republicans were weakened by the depression that followed the Panic of 1873 and by scandals in the Grant administration. Democrats had regained control of most Southern states, often through intimidation and violence against Black and white Republican voters. Only Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida still had Republican governments, protected by small numbers of federal troops.

The election was the longest, closest, and most bitterly contested in the nation’s history to that time. Tilden carried the popular vote and was one electoral vote short of a majority. In Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, both parties claimed victory; Republican-controlled returning boards, citing intimidation, threw out enough Democratic votes to give Hayes the states. In Oregon, one Hayes elector was ineligible because he held federal office.

In January 1877 Congress passed the Electoral Commission Act, creating a commission of five senators, five representatives, and five Supreme Court justices to decide which returns to count. The swing member was to be Justice David Davis, an independent, but he withdrew after being elected to the Senate, and was replaced by Republican Joseph Bradley, giving Republicans an 8–7 majority. The commission awarded every disputed state to Hayes.

Furious Democrats delayed the count with filibusters, threatening to leave the country without a president on inauguration day. Southern Democrats and politicians close to Hayes negotiated. Southerners sought the removal of the troops protecting Republican governments in New Orleans and Columbia, a federal subsidy for the Texas & Pacific Railroad, and cabinet posts. Historians at the Miller Center note that negotiations almost certainly took place, but that any formal “deal” beyond what Hayes had already promised is doubtful. Hayes was declared the winner and took office in March 1877.

Hayes withdrew the federal troops, and the remaining Republican state governments collapsed. Democrats branded him “Rutherfraud” and “His Fraudulency.” With the withdrawal of federal support, the number of Black officeholders declined significantly.

Whether or not there was an explicit bargain, 1877 marked the end of federal efforts to protect Black citizenship in the South. White Democratic “Redeemer” governments consolidated power, and over the next two decades Southern states disenfranchised Black voters and built the system of Jim Crow segregation. The election remained the most disputed in American history until the contest of 2000.