A map of the 1876 presidential election shows which party carried each state. Republican states are tinted red; Democratic states, yellow. Districts and territories that lacked voting rights in federal elections are indicated with blue stripes. The map’s legend notes the disputed votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, which were decided by the congressionally appointed Electoral Commission.
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
“Election of 1876,” The Presidential Elections of the United States (detail), map by Henry Clay Donnell, 1877
Congress Resolves a Disputed Presidential Election
In 1876 Congress settled the tangled presidential election between Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden. After a vicious contest, Tilden won the popular vote, but the Electoral College vote was disputed. A Democratic House and Republican Senate created an Electoral Commission of Members of Congress and Supreme Court justices to resolve these votes. The commission voted along party lines to assign all the disputed votes to Hayes, making him the nineteenth president
A dispute exists with regard to the result of the election of the Chief Magistrate of the nation. . . . The country . . . wants to be assured that the result of the election will be accepted without resistance… and that the highest officer shall not hold his place with a questionable title of right.
President Ulysses S. Grant, Message on Signing Legislation Creating the Electoral Commission, January 29, 1877
A map of the 1876 presidential election shows which party carried each state. Republican states are tinted red; Democratic states, yellow. Districts and territories that lacked voting rights in federal elections are indicated with blue stripes. The map’s legend notes the disputed votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, which were decided by the congressionally appointed Electoral Commission.
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
