Sparks Commentary: Rutherford B. Hayes: Entering office by a margin of one electoral vote

Reconstruction had been going on for twelve years, when Mr. Hayes became president

When the Civil War ended in 1865, it was followed by another violent period of postwar reconstruction. Some historians have even described the Reconstruction Era as a sort of “Second Civil War,” and this may actually be accurate. During the early phases of Reconstruction, Rutherford B. Hayes (who was, by then, a Republican) had supported his party’s attempts to bring order to the South. But the violence was ongoing, and Republicans were starting to lose support for maintaining the presence of federal troops in the South. It was a bit like the later Vietnam War, which lost American support as the war dragged on without an end in sight. The Republican president Ulysses S. Grant had thus been forced to retreat somewhat, in his efforts to keep federal troops there. General Grant completed two full terms as president, but was not then seeking a third term of office. Thus, in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became the Republicans’ new presidential candidate. He faced Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat from New York. It would be one of the most controversial elections in American history.

Rutherford B. Hayes in Civil War uniform in 1861

Background on Rutherford B. Hayes’ early military and political career

But Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio back in 1822. Before the Civil War, he had been a lawyer, and served as the city solicitor of Cincinnati, a minor position. He was an abolitionist, and had defended refugee slaves in some Ohio court proceedings. But as Wikipedia puts it, “At the start of the American Civil War, he left a fledgling political career to join the Union Army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862 … After the war, he earned a reputation in the Republican Party as a prominent member of the ‘Half-Breed’ faction.[footnote]” (Source: Their page on “Rutherford B. Hayes”) Mr. Hayes’ reputation as a war hero was very helpful to him in his postwar political career. General Ulysses S. Grant would later praise Hayes’ military virtues in Grant’s famous 1885 memoirs. Because of Hayes’ war record, he served a brief term in the House of Representatives, and served for some years as the Governor of Ohio. Hayes temporarily took a break from being the Governor of Ohio, but returned to that office in 1876, and was still Governor of Ohio when he ran for president in 1876. Again, Hayes faced Samuel J. Tilden, who was then the Governor of New York. And it would be one of the closest (and most important) elections in American history.

Samuel J. Tilden

In the presidential elections of 1876, there were 20 disputed electoral votes

Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote in 1876. With 50.9% of the popular vote, Tilden even held a majority of the popular vote, which was a real achievement. Rutherford B. Hayes had only 47.9% of the popular vote, and the remaining segments went to various other candidates. But the electoral vote was a totally different matter. Tilden had 184 electoral votes, while Hayes initially had only 165. But there were 20 electoral votes that were then disputed. If Hayes could win all 20 of these disputed votes, he would then be the winner. As Wikipedia puts it, “To address the resulting constitutional crisis, Congress established the Electoral Commission, a majority of which were Republicans, which awarded all twenty votes (and thus the presidency) to Hayes. [But] Some Democratic Representatives filibustered the Commission's decision, hoping to prevent Hayes's inauguration, but their filibuster was ultimately ended by party leader Samuel J. Randall. The question of who should have been awarded those electoral votes is the source of the continued controversy, and historians attribute Randall's decision to drop the filibuster to the informal Compromise of 1877.” (Source: Their page on the “1876 United States presidential election”) Thus, some comments on the “Compromise of 1877” might be helpful here.

The 1877 Electoral Commission, charged with resolving the disputed 1876 presidential election

Hayes eventually became president in the now-infamous “Compromise of 1877”

As mentioned earlier, the Reconstruction period had been bitter and bloody. In 1877, Reconstruction had been going on for twelve years, with federal troops still maintaining a presence in the South. But the policy was starting to lose support, even among Republicans, because of a sort of “Vietnam syndrome” (if one may call it that). Thus, the Democrats offered to drop their filibuster of the Commission’s decision to support Hayes. But there was a condition involved, which was that Rutherford B. Hayes would have to promise to end Reconstruction before they could do so. That is, Hayes had to promise to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South. Samuel J. Tilden had not made Reconstruction into a major political issue for his side, but Tilden’s supporters nonetheless hoped that Tilden would end Reconstruction himself. Thus, Reconstruction was likely going to end anyway, if Samuel J. Tilden was elected instead of Hayes. Therefore, Rutherford B. Hayes made the fateful decision to agree to the “Compromise of 1877.” Hayes promised to end Reconstruction, and withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South. Thus, the Democrats ended their filibuster, and Rutherford B. Hayes won the election anyway by a margin of a single electoral vote – 185 to 184. There have been four elections where no one won a majority of the popular vote, but an opposing candidate had won what’s called a “plurality” of that vote, while still losing the election anyway. For example, in recent times, these have included Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. However, Samuel J. Tilden is the only person ever to win an actual majority of the popular vote, while still losing the election. At the time that I write this, as Wikipedia puts it, the presidential elections of 1876 still remain the election with the “highest voter turnout of the eligible voting-age population in American history.” (Source: Their page on the “1876 United States presidential election”) That is, 82.6% of the eligible population voted for someone or other in this election. This may be a testament to how badly things had gone for everyone, in the later parts of Reconstruction.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Southern Reconstruction ended almost overnight, when Mr. Hayes was elected president

By a margin of just one electoral vote, Rutherford B. Hayes had thus been elected the 19th President of the United States. But Hayes had been forced to make some fateful promises to secure that election. This is why Hayes had to be more lenient to the former Confederate states, and to withdraw federal support for voting rights and civil rights among African Americans. Nonetheless, Hayes believed in a society based on merit, which would avoid discrimination on the basis of wealth, social standing, or (most relevantly) race. As Wikipedia also puts it, “One of the defining events of his presidency was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which he resolved by calling in the US Army against the railroad workers. It remains the deadliest conflict between workers and strikebreakers in American history. As president, Hayes implemented modest civil-service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s. He vetoed the Bland–Allison Act of 1878, which put silver money into circulation and raised nominal prices, but Congress overrode his veto. His policy toward western Indians anticipated the assimilationist program of the Dawes Act of 1887.” (Source: Their page on “Rutherford B. Hayes”) Hayes had made a pledge that he would not run for re-election. Thus, at the end of his term, he kept that pledge, and returned to his home in Ohio. With his fellow Republican incumbent Hayes out of the race, Ulysses S. Grant then sought a third term as president in 1880. However, the Republican nomination instead went to James A. Garfield. Thus, as I describe here, James A. Garfield succeeded Hayes as president, only to be assassinated a few months later. After Hayes’ own presidency, Rutherford B. Hayes became an advocate of social and educational reform. In 1893, he died of complications from a heart attack at the age of 70.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Concluding thoughts on Rutherford B. Hayes, who may be better than he’s remembered

Rutherford B. Hayes is not exactly remembered as one of the best presidents in American history … but he’s not remembered as one of the worst, either. He’s usually put in the average to below-average range. Personally, I would also put him somewhere in the middle, as a mostly good president. The most remembered part of his presidency is the “Compromise of 1877” that put him into power, and the complicated presidential elections of which it was a part. The resulting end of Reconstruction would have disastrous consequences for African Americans, but those consequences were almost sure to be happening anyway, in my not-so-humble opinion. They were certainly unfortunate, but I would put most of the blame for them on the era’s Democrats, rather than on either Rutherford B. Hayes or his Republican supporters. In several ways, Hayes may be a better president than he’s usually remembered, and may deserve to be remembered with more fondness. It is understandable that Hayes then became a footnote to the story of Reconstruction, since he’s not one of the more famous presidents. But Rutherford B. Hayes nonetheless supported African Americans more than did most candidates of that time, which is a real (and truly praiseworthy) achievement.

Footnote to this blog post:

As you may know, Ulysses S. Grant had been the President of the United States; but you wouldn't know that from reading his memoir. If memory serves, there is only one mention of Grant’s presidency in the entire book. This is when discussing General Rutherford B. Hayes, Grant’s successor in the office of president. Specifically, Grant says there that “On more than one occasion in these engagements General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring.” (Source: “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” [1885], Chapter LVIII, with emphasis added)

Thus, the “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” are not about a presidency, but a record of a distinguished military career in a desperate civil war. Although this was written in 1885, after Rutherford B. Hayes had already served as president, it is clear that General Grant had respect for Hayes – both a fellow Republican, and a Northern “comrade-in-arms.”

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Part of a series about

The Presidents

1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
16. Abraham Lincoln
18. Ulysses S. Grant