Election of 1876: Honest or Dishonest

In 1876, the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden sought the office of the presidency of the United States. When the votes were counted, neither one had the majority. The nineteen electoral votes in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were in dispute.

There were accusations and denials of dishonesty. Congress created a special commission to decide the issue. Commission members were three Republicans and two Democrats from the Senate, three Democrats and two Republicans from the House, and two Democrats, two Republicans, and one independent judge from the Supreme Court. The commission studied the votes from South Carolina and Louisiana. The electoral votes went to Hays.

The commission started looking at Florida.  

The Florida election officials contacted the Tilden people and offered the state's electoral votes to Tilden for two hundred thousand dollars.

Tilden rejected the offer, as he was positive he would win and be awarded Florida's electoral votes.

However, the commission awarded Florida's votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, who became the nineteenth president.

Tilden had won the popular vote by 247,000 over Hayes. But Hayes received 185 electoral votes to Tilden's 184.

                                         Elections in the 21st Century Are Still an Issue.

From Shocking Secrets of American History, written by Bill Coate

        The White House and the Common Man

Andrew Jackson was referred to as "Old Hickory." He campaigned on representing the "common man" as president. 

As a young man, he was considered 'mischievous.' He enjoyed cockfighting and brawling. He frequently misspelled the same word twice in the same letter and had poor grammar.

He lived by the maxim, "Give no insult, and take none." He bit off his opponent's ear during one of his fights. The "common man" was pleased by this behavior in his day.

In the 1828 presidential election, he defeated New England Puritan John Quincy Adams.

His supporters flocked to Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day, and he invited the throng of shopkeepers, clerks, hobnailed artisans, and laborers to the White House. They accepted the invitation. Destruction of China and muddy boots on the furniture, and Old Hickory's ribs to almost crack were the result.

How can the White House be cleared of this mob of supporters? On the front lawn, tubs of lemonade and whiskey were provided. The "common man" swiftly made their way from the White House to the lawn. After the doors were locked, Jackson left through a side door and stayed in a hotel room for his first night as president.

Presidental Election

                       The Presidential Election of 1876

Now that our Presidential Election 2024 is over, I wanted to look back in history.

In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat, had electoral votes counted, and neither had a majority of votes as they came in.  Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida together had 19 electoral votes, but their votes were disputed as not accurate. 

Charges flew back and forth between the two parties. Congress created a special commission to decide the election.  Five members came from the Senate -three Republicans and two Democrats. Five members came from the House, three Democrats and two Republicans, five from the Supreme Court, two Democrats and two Republicans, and one independent judge.

The panel said the South Carolina and Louisiana votes would go to Hayes. Then, they began investigating Florida's votes. 

The Florida election officials went to Tilden's people and said that if they were paid two hundred thousand dollars, they could ensure that the commission would award the electoral votes to Mr. Tilden. 

What to do?

Mr. Tilden refused the offer.

All the electoral votes went to Mr. Hayes, who won the presidency.

Mr. Tilden won with 247,000 more popular votes than Hays, but now, Florida's electoral votes went to Hayes. The electoral votes ended 185 to 184. Rutherford B. Hayes became our 19th President because Tilden was honest.  It was not considered if Hayes was presented the same offer as Mr. Tilden. 

Mr. Hayes served in the Civil War, was elected to Congress, and was governor of Ohio twice.

Pages 123-124 of Shocking Secrets of American History by Bill Coate

The moral of the story is that if Tilden had agreed to pay the $200,000, history would have found out, and he would be forever remembered as a crook and usurper of the White House. He is now remembered as an honorable man. 

With the President comes a First Lady. Lucy Ware Webb Hayes was a descendant of the Puritans of New England. She graduated from Wesleyan College, the first women's college.

She worked tirelessly for women suffrage and an ardent crusader for better living conditions for the poor.

She would not allow liquor to be served at the White House, and she was known as the Lemonade Lady. The Women's Christian Temperance Union gave the White House a full-length portrait of Mrs. Hayes in ruby-colored velvet holding American Beauty Roses.

First Ladies of the White House by Gertrude Zeth Brooks Pages 56,57,58.

                                      

                                        Which President Was This?

 After serving in the Civil War, this President said, "I have seen the dead piled up, and I do not want to see another."

However, he believed in Manifest Destiny. The President sent the battleship Maine to the Havana harbor when Cuba went to war with Spain. Suddenly the ship blew up, killing more than 200 Yankee sailors. The American people were outraged and wanted to retaliate against Spain.  Remember the Maine was the battle cry. The President instead had a commission investigate. Theodore Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, said, "the President was a "White-lived cur." The Commission decided the ship hit a Spanish mine. ( Some historians think it was likely caused by a coal fire on the ship.)

In three months, America went to war and defeated Spain, and the US got Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam in the treaty with Spain. And later, the President persuaded Congress to annex Hawaii. When the Philipines revolted, he immediately sent a troop to put down the revolt, and he sent troops to put down the Boxer rebellion in China as it was in the best business concerns of America.  

The idea of the Press Room for journalists started with this  President, and the journalist loved the idea and accepted the carefully chosen "news" he handed out. 

When he turned men down for an office, he made them think he was doing them a favor and presented them with a flower from his lapel. The Secretary of War said about the President, "He had a way of handling men so that they thought his ideas were their own."

Some Republican businessmen said they would fire employees who did not vote for their candidate. He won by a landslide.

His inaugural address was the first to be filmed.

He was devoted to his wife, Ida, who unfortunately had epilepsy. If her seizures hit at a state dinner, a public gathering, or a speech, the President would drape his handkerchief over her face. The darkness helped to calm her, and when the seizure passed, the couple acted as if nothing had happened.

The President's wife, Ida. 

They had two children; Katherine (Katie) died at age 3 from typhoid fever, and little Ida was born in 1873 and died four months later.

He was elected to a second term as President. In September 1901, he attended The Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Leon Czolgosz walked up to the President with a handkerchief wrapped around his hand. He had a gun concealed, and he fired two bullets. The President was hit in the breastbone and the abdomen. As the President fell to the floor, he said, "My wife, be careful how you tell her-oh, be careful,"

Eight days later, the President died. And Forty-five days later, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, was electrocuted. 

                           William McKinley  

                                        President 1897 -1901