The Electoral Commission made front-page news in 1877. After hearing arguments from both sides, the commission’s Republican majority decided to assign the disputed votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. A popular weekly newspaper depicted a Louisiana Democratic delegate protesting the result. After obstructing completion of the electoral count for a month, congressional Democrats accepted the decision after Hayes agreed to end the remaining military occupation of Southern states.
U.S. Senate
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, front page, March 10, 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
The Electoral Commission made front-page news in 1877. After hearing arguments from both sides, the commission’s Republican majority decided to assign the disputed votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. A popular weekly newspaper depicted a Louisiana Democratic delegate protesting the result. After obstructing completion of the electoral count for a month, congressional Democrats accepted the decision after Hayes agreed to end the remaining military occupation of Southern states.
U.S. Senate
