Congress Resolves 1876 Election: Hayes Wins Two Days Before Inauguration
The vote count wasn't even close to finished when both sides printed inaugural ball invitations. Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 and seemed headed for the White House, but three Southern states submitted two different sets of electoral votes—one for each candidate. Congress created a 15-member commission that voted 8-7 along party lines for Hayes. The backroom deal? Republicans promised to withdraw federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. Black voters in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida lost protection within months. The man who lost the popular vote won the presidency by destroying the very reforms that made his party possible.
March 2, 1877
149 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Rutherford B. Hayes
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U.S. presidential election, 1876
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Samuel J. Tilden
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November 7
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1876
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Rutherford B. Hayes
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1876 United States presidential election
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Samuel J. Tilden
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Zünglein an der Waage
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President
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United States presidential inauguration
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