Cutting it Close
On this day of March 2nd in 1877, 134 years ago today, Congress declared Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the disputed Presidential Election of 1876. Before there was Bush v. Gore, there was Hayes v. Tilden. Like Gore, Tilden had garnered more of the popular vote than his opponent, but three states were in dispute and the matter of who had won these states was decided not by the US Supreme Court or by hanging or dimpled chads, but by Congress.
In Florida (with 4 electoral votes), Louisiana (8) and South Carolina (7), reported returns favored Tilden, but election results in each state were marked by fraud and threats of violence against Republican voters. In Oregon, just a single elector was disputed. The statewide result clearly had favored Hayes, but the state's Democratic Governor, LaFayette Grover, claimed that that elector, former postmaster John Watts, was ineligible under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, since he was a "person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States". Grover then substituted a Democratic elector in his place.
The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the [electoral] certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." Republicans took this to mean that the power to count the votes lay with the President of the Senate (a Republican). The Democrats objected to this constructionand insisted that Congress should continue the practice followed since 1865, which was that no vote objected to should be counted except by the concurrence of both houses. The House was strongly Democratic and by throwing out the vote of one state it could elect Tilden.
On January 29, 1877, the Congress formed a 15-member Electoral Commission to settle the result. Five members came from each house of Congress, and they were joined by five members of the Supreme Court. Of the Supreme Court justices, two Republicans and two Democrats were chosen, with the fifth to be selected by these four. The justices first selected a political independent, Justice David Davis. but, the Legislature of Illinois elected Davis to the Senate. Davis promptly resigned as a Justice in order to take his Senate seat. All the remaining available justices were Republicans, so the four justices already selected chose Justice Joseph P. Bradley, who was considered the most impartial remaining member of the court. Bradley joined the other seven Republican committee members in a series of 8-7 votes that gave all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, giving Hayes a 185-184 electoral vote victory.
The returns accepted by the Commission placed Hayes's victory margin in South Carolina at 889 votes, making this the second-closest election in U.S. history, after the 2000 election, decided by 537 votes in Florida.
The tale is told in greater detail in Michael Holt's 2008 book entitled By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 which is in the cue as one of the next two books I plan to read.
In Florida (with 4 electoral votes), Louisiana (8) and South Carolina (7), reported returns favored Tilden, but election results in each state were marked by fraud and threats of violence against Republican voters. In Oregon, just a single elector was disputed. The statewide result clearly had favored Hayes, but the state's Democratic Governor, LaFayette Grover, claimed that that elector, former postmaster John Watts, was ineligible under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, since he was a "person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States". Grover then substituted a Democratic elector in his place.
The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the [electoral] certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." Republicans took this to mean that the power to count the votes lay with the President of the Senate (a Republican). The Democrats objected to this constructionand insisted that Congress should continue the practice followed since 1865, which was that no vote objected to should be counted except by the concurrence of both houses. The House was strongly Democratic and by throwing out the vote of one state it could elect Tilden.
On January 29, 1877, the Congress formed a 15-member Electoral Commission to settle the result. Five members came from each house of Congress, and they were joined by five members of the Supreme Court. Of the Supreme Court justices, two Republicans and two Democrats were chosen, with the fifth to be selected by these four. The justices first selected a political independent, Justice David Davis. but, the Legislature of Illinois elected Davis to the Senate. Davis promptly resigned as a Justice in order to take his Senate seat. All the remaining available justices were Republicans, so the four justices already selected chose Justice Joseph P. Bradley, who was considered the most impartial remaining member of the court. Bradley joined the other seven Republican committee members in a series of 8-7 votes that gave all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, giving Hayes a 185-184 electoral vote victory.
The returns accepted by the Commission placed Hayes's victory margin in South Carolina at 889 votes, making this the second-closest election in U.S. history, after the 2000 election, decided by 537 votes in Florida.
The tale is told in greater detail in Michael Holt's 2008 book entitled By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 which is in the cue as one of the next two books I plan to read.