Column: ‘His Fraudulency’

This was a scarier election than today even

By Lance Allen Wang
Journal & Press

There is still a measurable percentage of Americans who still believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election. As chilling a thought as this is, the top-down tsunami of unhinged election-denying claptrap claiming that the 2020 election was stolen fueled the assault on the Capitol and its thin blue line of protectors on January 6, 2021. This, as the country watched in real-time, was to prevent the lawful transition of power to President-elect Joseph Biden.

With that in mind, I have decided to take a trip down memory lane, to the only American election that can arguably be lamented as “stolen.” Former generals and other colorful characters abound, backroom deals surround us, and integrity is as rigid as a rubber band as we return to sepia-toned memories of 1876...

BACKGROUND

New York Governor Samuel Tilden (1814-1886), or “Honest Sam” as his supporters fashioned him, has an interesting distinction. From New Lebanon, New York, he was a young protégé of local political figure Martin Van Buren, who would later serve as our nation’s eighth President. He was also the Democratic candidate for President in 1876, facing off against Republican candidate, Ohio Governor and former General Rutherford B. Hayes. “Honest” Sam, however, found himself on the wrong side of what some called a “corrupt bargain,” known as the Compromise of 1877 or Wormley Agreement. The result found Hayes as the new occupant of the Oval Office despite Tilden having received an absolute majority of the popular vote for President. While five have lost the election for President despite having won the popular vote, Tilden remains the only to lose despite an absolute majority of the popular vote.

We were a tense nation approaching its 100th birthday. There was a legitimate threat of a shooting war breaking out again in the American south. Reconstruction, the series of social, legal, and legislative gates that former Confederate states needed to pass through to fully return to the Republic, was a particularly despised policy in the south. What was seen as northern “interference” in Mississippi resulted in the election of our first African-American Senator in 1870.

President Ulysses Grant had taken a sputtering Reconstruction program, one which had been marked by unchallenged violence from the Ku Klux Klan against black citizens and their northern supporters and gave it new emphasis. He used force when necessary and had mostly subdued the Klan by 1871. Reconstruction programs were more successful after that, but as the 1876 election approached, anger from Southern Democrats was palpable. They were deeply concerned that Republicans would continue the detested programs. Or worse – President Grant would pursue a third term.

The South needn’t have worried. At the Republican Convention, Grant did not seek a third term. Democrats had made major gains in the 1874 mid-term elections, as corruption scandals and a financial downturn hurt the President. The Chief Executive no longer carried the political weight he once did.

Instead, another former General, Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio’s governor, was the Republican candidate. Another New Yorker, Representative William Wheeler from Malone in Franklin County, got the nod for Vice President.

AN UNDECIDED ELECTION

As the sun set on Election Day in 1876, there was no clear winner. Three states’ returns, those of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, were still a mess. Republican-controlled “Returning Boards” were charged with determining the official counts and had authority to throw out votes deemed fraudulent. Democratic protests led to multiple sets of electors for each of these states, each claiming their candidate had won.

In the meantime, there was some maneuvering afoot in Oregon. The Governor of Oregon, a Democrat, noted that one of the Republican electors was a postmaster – a federal officeholder. Disqualifying the Republican elector, the Governor appointed a Tilden elector, despite the state having already been won by Hayes.

How did the Returning Boards do in the three contested states?

Historian C. W. Goodyear paints a depressing picture:

“[In Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina] Republican-packed Returning Boards revised returns to favor Hayes. Their excuses for doing so raised bi-partisan eyebrows. Florida’s Board threw out votes from Democratic precincts because clerks took a dinner break while counting ballots, allowing the Board to declare Hayes the state’s winner by only 926 votes. Three of South Carolina’s election officials were Republican candidates in the elections they had been charged with policing. Even more distasteful activity occurred behind the scenes in Louisiana, when the chair of the Returning Board surreptitiously offered the state to Tilden for a million dollars.”

This made for a messy day at the various state capitals on December 6, 1876 when the electors were supposed to cast their ballots for the Electoral College. There were 20 electoral votes in dispute – the votes from the three states that required “Returning Boards,” plus the one from Oregon.

At the end of the day, Tilden had 184 electoral votes, and Hayes had 165. But there were still 20 votes up for grab and the count was at a deadlock.

A NOVEL – AND QUESTIONABLE - SOLUTION

Constitutionally, the next thing that was supposed to happen was that the entire proceedings were to be turned over to the President of the Senate, Michigan Republican Thomas W. Ferry, for resolution.

Democrats disagreed, believing that the power was in the Congress. Discussions got heated. A journalist overheard a Democratic leader say to former General and later President James Garfield that with this situation unchecked he believed “more firmly now than ever” that “people would be cutting each other’s throats within a hundred days.”

This was not just idle chatter. A slogan adopted by Tilden’s Southern supporters was simply “Tilden or Blood.” This impasse continued for weeks.

In January, 1877, a committee was formed of five Senators from the Republican-controlled Senate, five Representatives from the Democrat-controlled House, and five Supreme Court Justices. There was an even mix of Democrats, Republicans, alongside one Independent Supreme Court Justice. However, the Independent refused to serve (apparently after being offered a Senate seat) and was replaced by a Republican. The deck was now stacked.

While work was taking place within the committee, a lot of backroom discussion was taking place among party leadership as well. Southern Democrats were intrigued by General Hayes’ promises to bring self-government back to the south, along with the removal of Federal troops. Hayes appeared to be a different stripe of Republican than Grant. Hayes counted himself among those northerners more concerned about the cost of continuing to occupy southern states than getting Reconstruction completed.

The final verdict of the committee was the “Compromise of 1877” – Republicans agreed Hayes would cede control of the southern states to their state governments and recall Federal troops. In turn, Democrats agreed to not dispute Hayes’ election, and “respect the rights of black citizens.” The electoral college vote, following the deal for the 20 disputed electoral votes, was Hayes 185, and Tilden, 184.

The Reconstruction of the former confederacy, which Ulysses Grant attempted to enforce in both letter and spirit ended quietly, without fanfare, in a back room in Washington.

POSTSCRIPT

Upon ascending to the Presidency, Hayes followed through on his promises, removing troops which were protecting Republican governments in the south. He would carry a stain for the way by which he entered the White House, finding himself sniped at by opponents as “His Fraudulency” and “Rutherfraud.”

Once the Southern Democrats were back in power, the rights of black citizens were not respected. The rise of Jim Crow laws, anti-black violence, and eventually a second incarnation of the Klan followed. Legal discrimination would continue until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – 102 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

As for Governor Tilden, following his loss being made official, he would write: “I can retire to private life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position… without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office.”

President Theodore Roosevelt would say in 1901, “We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure... Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life...” His finding was 24 years too late to help “Honest Sam.”

Lance Allen Wang is an Iraq Veteran and retired Army Infantry officer who lives in Eagle Bridge, NY with his wife Hatti.