Election+of+1876

=Election of 1876: =  ........................................................................ 

The Presidential Candidates running in 1876 were Rutherford B. Hayes (republican) and Samuel J. Tilden (democrat). Hayes was the governor of Ohio at the time and Tilden was the Governor of New York. Earlier Republican candidates were James G. Blaine, Benjamin Bristow, Oliver P. Morton, Roscoe Conkling, John F. Hartranft, Marshall Jewell, Elihu B. Washburne, and William A. Wheeler (vice presidential candidate). Earlier Democrat candidates were Thomas A. Hendricks, Winfield Scott Hancock, William Allen, Thomas F. Bayard, and Joel Parker.Greenback Party candidates were Peter Cooper, Andrew Curtin, Alexander Campbell, and William Allen. Prohibition Party nominated Green Clay Smith for President. American National Party candidates were James B. Walker, Charles F. Adams, and Jonathan Blanchard. John G. Blaine appeared to be leading nominee with 100 votes short of the majority. Yet, many Republicans feared he could not win general ballot, so his vote began to slide. This was because he was accused of being tied to the financial scandals of the Grant administration, for he was the Speaker of the House during that time. So a group of reform Republicans met and decided on Hayes as a Candidate, the delegates who voted for Benjamin Bristow, Roscoe Conkling, John F. Hartranft, and Oliver P. Morton switched their votes to Hayes as well. Hayes won the nomination by the seventh ballot with 384 votes to Blaine's 351. The Vice presidential ballot was not so close, William A. Wheeler won it on the first ballot by a landslide, 366- 89.
 * || Samuel J. Tilden || . .................................................................................................................. ||  .................. Rutherford B. Hayes ................... ||
 * Party: || Democrat || .................................................................................................................. ||  ....................... Republican ||
 * Electoral vote: || 184 || .................................................................................................................. ||  ............................. 185 ||
 * Republican National Convention- June 14-16, 1876 **

Samuel J. Tilden no doubt was to be the nominee for President for the Democrats. On the first ballot, he received more then 400 votes, then won the next ballot by a landslide with 535 votes. The person who came in second was Thomas A. Hendricks with 85 votes. Lucky for Hendricks, he was the only man on the ballot for Vice President and thus gained the nomination. The Democrats were hoping to get their first Presidential win in 20 years. They wanted to replace the corruption of the Grant administration.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Democrat National Convention- St. Louis, June 27-29, 1876 **

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> In 1876, the Greenback party nominated Peter Cooper, a philanthropist from New York, for president. He won with 352 votes to 119 votes for three other nominees, William Allen, Andrew Curtin, and Alexander Campbell The party also nominated anti-monopolist Senator of California Newton Booth for Vice President. But, he declined and Samuel F. Cary, congressmen a from Ohio, took his place.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Greenback Party Convention- Indianapolis, Spring 1876 **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Prohibition Party nominated Green Clay Smith for President and Gideon T. Stewart for Vice president.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Prohibition Party Convention- 2nd national convention **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The nominees for the ballot of President were James B. Walker, Charles F. Adams, and Jonathan Blanchard. Blanchard later declined to run and the vote was won unanimously by Walker. Then Donald Kirkpatrick was nominated for Vice president. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Ulysses S. Grant was finishing his second term in office at the time of the election. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Falling crop prices, rising unemployment, and corruption in high places boded ill for the Republicans. Ohio Republicans turned to Hayes, their best vote-getter, to run against the incumbent Democratic governor. Hayes had supported Radical Reconstruction legislation and championed Negro suffrage. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Sam Tilden and his Democrats in the South were certain to use violence to keep black and white Republicans from voting. Finally, the Republicans had been in power for a long time, were hurt by scandals, and hard times gripped the economy. One of the major economic scandals that corrupted the Republican's was the Black Friday Gold Panic of 1869. The price of gold had been rising steadily and two men, Jay Gould and James Fisk, were determined to make a fortune on it. Gould had bought the Tenth National Bank on September 6th 1869 and he and Fisk used it as a buying house for gold. In order to keep their scheme going, they would have to keep Grant from releasing gold from the treasury to regulate the market. Gould met with Grant and sent letters that urged him not to release gold from the treasury. Grant met with Secretary of State George Boutwell and he convinced him to release gold from the treasury if the price of gold rose. On Friday, September 24th the price of gold rose to 160 dollars an ounce and Boutwell released four million dollars worth of gold into the market. The market crashed and the economy failed due to Gould and Fisk's scheme. Another scandal had evolved under the Republican's presidency rule beginning with Abraham Lincoln. In the Midwest, the Whiskey Ring had formed. This ring consisted of <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> distillers, rectifiers, gaugers, storekeepers, revenue agents, and Treasury clerks. The distillers, rectifiers, gaugers, and storekeepers would bribe and extort revenue agents and Treasury clerks to avoid taxes. The ring stole over two million dollars from the United States government for almost nine years. The Democratic party had ruled the House of Representatives and lead the reform movements. They investigated and tried to fix the scandals surrounding the Grant administration, thus increasing the party's chance of winning the election of 1876. The Republican scandals created a <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> strong sentiment to throw the ruling party out. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> The Election of 1876 occurred on November 7th, with Tilden winning the popular vote and both Hayes and Tilden claiming to have won the electoral vote. South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, and Oregon remain disputed. On December 6th, 1876, the Electoral College meets in all the states and casts votes for President and Vice President. The results are sent to Congress and two sets are sent from South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, and Oregon. On December 21 the House calls for a committee to determine how to settle the disputed Electoral College, the next day the Senate does the same. On January 25th and 26th, the Senate and the House respectively pass the Electoral Commission bill, and by the 29th it is sworn in by President Grant. On February 9th, the Electoral Commission gives Florida’s votes to the Republicans. By February 18th, the Electoral Committee gives Louisiana's votes to Hayes/Wheeler. The Senate passes this but the House receives an objection by Michigan on one of its electors. This objection is overruled by the Senate and House and the Committee's decision stands. At the same time, lawyers are presenting their case for Oregon's votes to the Electoral Committee and on the 23rd, an 8-7 vote gives the votes to Hayes/Wheeler. This is affirmed by the House and Senate the next day. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">After Hayes won the election and was inaugurated, the Democrats still were mad about the results. They believed they had been cheated out of a presidential win. Allies of Hayes, having heard these arguments and complaints for long enough now decided to act. They decided to make a deal with the Democrats. One of the main political platforms for the Democrats was the removal of Union soldiers in the South.The Republicans made a deal that said they would agree to remove the troops if the Democrats would accept Hayes win and promise political and civil rights for blacks. The Democrats agreed on this and the deal was made. It came to be known as the Compromise of 1877. Yet, there were problems with this, especially for newly free African Americans. Since the troops left, racist white southerners were free to do to blacks as they wanted, like disallowing them to vote. Later leading to rascist actions such as beginning of the KKK and Jim Crow laws. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">[|Tilden Poster] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Hayes poster Ulysses Grant." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 June 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_Grant>.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">American National Party Convention- June 8-10, 1875, Liberty Hall, Pittsburgh **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">The Major Issues **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Election Dates and Results **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Electoral College Map **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Aftermath **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Multimedia Projects **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%;">Bibligraphy **
 * "HarpWeek | Hayes vs. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 1876-1877." //HarpWeek | Hayes vs. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 1876-1877//. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://elections.harpweek.com/09Ver2Controversy/DayByDay.htm>.
 * ""Miller Center." //American President: Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Campaigns and Elections//. University of Virginia, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://millercenter.org/president/hayes/essays/biography/3>.
 * "United States Presidential Election, 1876." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1876>.
 * "History.com." N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. <"Compromise of 1877." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. .>.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">"Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Administration Scandals." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Wikipedia //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant_presidential_administration_scandals>