Video: 'Election Night 1876: Rutherford Hayes vs. Samuel Tilden | Full CNN Coverage'
(Tuesday, November 7, 1876, during the 1876 presidential campaign) — Democratic Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York won the popular vote today over Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio but failed to win a majority of the Electoral College by one vote in one of the most contentious, controversial and disputed presidential elections in American history.
Video: 'The American Presidential Election of 1876'
After a first count of votes, Tilden and his running mate, Governor Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, had defeated Hayes and his running mate, U.S. Representative
William A. Wheeler of New York, 50.92-47.92% in the national popular vote.
Video: 'The American Presidential Election of 1876'
However, Tilden was still one vote short of victory in the Electoral College (electoral votes cast Dec. 6, 1876, and tabulated by a joint session of Congress on Feb. 1, 1877), leading Hayes 184-165 with 20 votes (among four states) unresolved (185 votes were needed to be elected).
Four states (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) returned disputed slates of presidential electors with a total of 20 electoral votes at stake.
Any of the disputes being resolved in Tilden’s favor would secure him the presidency, while Hayes needed all 20 votes to be certified in his favor.
Video: 'The Election of 1876 Explained'
To resolve these disputes in the absence of a clear constitutional directive, Congress passed the Electoral Commission Act, which established a 15-member commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats to review the contested elections.
An informal deal would be struck on March 2, 1877, to resolve the dispute. The Compromise of 1877 awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. In return, Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South to end the Reconstruction Era of the United States.
The Compromise effectively ceded power in the Southern states to the Democratic Redeemers, who went on to pursue their agenda of returning the South to a political economy resembling that of its pre-war condition, including the disenfranchisement of black voters.
Because the usual inauguration day of March 4 would fall on a Sunday, Hayes would take the oath of office secretly in the Red Room of the White House on March 3, 1877, because outgoing President Ulysses S. Grant feared an insurrection by Tilden’s supporters and wanted to ensure that any Democratic attempt to hijack the public inauguration ceremony would fail.
Having been sworn in already in private, Hayes (and Wheeler) would take their oaths of office publicly on March 5, 1877 on the East Portico of the United States Capitol.
