PEOPLE POWER
The 1876 Election Deadlock and the Compromise That Ended Reconstruction
A one-vote electoral margin put the presidency in the hands of a special commission—and left Black Southerners without the federal protection Reconstruction had promised.
Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote in 1876, but disputed returns in four states left the presidency unresolved. The settlement that installed Rutherford B. Hayes also brought Reconstruction’s final collapse closer.
At 4:10 a.m. on March 2, 1877, Congress completed an electoral count that had held the presidency in doubt for months. Rutherford B. Hayes had 185 electoral votes. Samuel J. Tilden had 184.
Tilden, the Democratic governor of New York, had won the popular vote by about 250,000 ballots. But 20 electoral votes were contested, leaving neither party willing to concede the result. The settlement that put Hayes in the White House also cleared the way for the federal government’s final retreat from Reconstruction in the South.
Four States, 20 Electoral Votes
Tilden received 4,288,191 popular votes, or 51 percent, to Hayes’s 4,033,497, or 48 percent. Before the disputed returns were resolved, Tilden held 184 electoral votes and Hayes held 165. A majority required 185. [1]
The unresolved votes came from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon: four, eight, seven, and one electoral vote, respectively. [1]
In Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, Republican-led returning boards rejected thousands of Democratic votes, citing intimidation, violence against Black voters, and fraud. Democrats charged that the boards had used their authority to overturn apparent victories. Rival electoral certificates from the disputed states reached Washington. [1]
Oregon raised a separate issue. Republican elector John W. Watts held a federal postmaster position, and Democratic Gov. La Fayette Grover argued that this made him ineligible to serve as an elector. Grover tried to replace him with a Tilden elector. [6]
The Constitution’s Twelfth Amendment described the process for counting electoral votes but did not provide a clear mechanism for resolving competing returns from a state. With a Republican Senate and a Democratic House, neither chamber was likely to accept the other’s preferred answer. [6]
Congress Creates a Commission
Congress responded with the Electoral Commission Act, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on January 29, 1877. The law created a temporary 15-member body: five senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court justices. [3][4]
The planned balance depended on Justice David Davis, who was expected to be the commission’s independent fifteenth member. But the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the U.S. Senate, and he withdrew from the arrangement. Justice Joseph P. Bradley took the remaining seat instead. [2]
The commission considered Florida first and, on February 9, voted 8–7 to award its four electoral votes to Hayes. It declined to examine the underlying election beyond the official state returns. The same 8–7 division decided the other contested cases, giving Hayes all 20 disputed electoral votes. [2][3]
Those decisions produced a constitutional answer, but not a broadly trusted one. The commission’s decisive rulings followed the same narrow partisan split every time.
The Settlement and Reconstruction’s Collapse
As Congress neared its final count, Southern Democrats could still delay the process. In late February, Republican representatives and Southern Democratic leaders negotiated an informal settlement, including meetings at Washington’s Wormley Hotel, which was owned by Black businessman James Wormley.
The understanding later known as the Compromise of 1877 was not a single signed contract. Its central terms were political: Democrats would stop blocking Hayes’s certification, while the incoming administration would withdraw federal troops protecting Republican governments in Louisiana and South Carolina. [5]
Reconstruction was already weakening. By 1876, federal troops had been withdrawn from every former Confederate state except Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. [7] But the withdrawal of the remaining forces from the statehouses in Columbia and New Orleans brought immediate change. In April 1877, Hayes ordered the troops back to their barracks, and Republican governments in Louisiana and South Carolina collapsed as Democratic “Redeemer” governments took control. [5][7]
Hayes took the presidential oath privately at the White House on March 3, then appeared for his public inauguration on March 5. The unusual arrangement reflected fears of unrest during the tense transition. [7]
The transfer of presidential power was peaceful. For Black citizens in the South, however, the end of federal protection left Reconstruction’s political gains exposed. The withdrawal of troops accelerated the collapse of Republican state governments and the growth of Jim Crow systems of racial exclusion and voter disenfranchisement. [5]
Why the Election of 1876 Matters
The election exposed a serious gap in the nation’s electoral machinery. When competing electoral returns arrived from the same state, the Constitution did not provide a clear, accepted way to settle the dispute. Congress had to create a temporary institution to decide who would become president. [4][6]
It also showed that an electoral dispute could not be separated from conditions at the polls. In the contested Southern states, the argument over electoral certificates was bound up with violence and intimidation directed at Black Republican voters. [1]
Hayes won by one electoral vote. The consequences of that result reached much further: the federal government retreated from the remaining Reconstruction governments, and Black Southerners lost a critical source of political protection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the popular vote in the 1876 presidential election?
Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, receiving 4,288,191 votes to Rutherford B. Hayes’s 4,033,497. Tilden held 184 undisputed electoral votes, one short of the majority needed to win. [1]
What was the Electoral Commission of 1877?
The Electoral Commission was a temporary 15-member body created by Congress to determine which electoral returns to accept from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon. It included five senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court justices. [3][4]
How did the Compromise of 1877 affect Reconstruction?
The informal settlement cleared the way for Hayes’s presidency and the withdrawal of federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina. Those withdrawals contributed to the fall of the last Republican state governments in the former Confederacy and accelerated the establishment of Jim Crow-era political exclusion. [5][7]
TIMELINE
Key moments
Sources
- Disputed Election of 1876 — Miller Center, University of Virginia
- Down to the Final Days — Miller Center, University of Virginia
- The Florida Case — United States Senate Historical Office
- Act Creating an Electoral Commission, January 29, 1877 — The Avalon Project, Yale Law School
- The Compromise of 1877 — Khan Academy
- Looking Back: The Electoral Commission of 1877 — National Constitution Center
- Handout A: Rutherford B. Hayes and the Disputed Election of 1876 — Bill of Rights Institute
RELATED STORIES